Hi Everyone,

Click here to turn your second essays in (by 11:59pm on Friday the 29th).

And click here to add your name to the sign-up sheet for conferences, which will be held on April 3rd and 8th. I’ll explain the conference process in more detail on Monday.

Finally, for our meeting this Monday (April 1st), bring to class one claim that you think would work well for the “Believing and Doubting” game we played in class today. My claim was “My truth is the only truth.” I’m sure you all can come up with a better one!

See you on Monday. And good luck finishing your essays!

Hi Everyone,

For our next meeting, we’ll devote the majority of the meeting to “studio time.” Bring your laptops. Bring a printed version of your essay. Bring a few questions that you want to ask me or a peer. You’ll have time to work on your essays and ask me questions during this time.

See you then!

Hi Everyone,

I forgot to send you this article on the positive/negative effects of legal marijuana: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/14/is-marijuana-as-safe-as-we-think. I think the article is particularly interesting because it demonstrates the way that the research process usually adds complexity to a topic. For example, you can start with a hypothesis and find out that your educated guess wasn’t as right as you though it was at the beginning. Give it a read if you have a moment.

Hi Everyone,

For our next meeting, please create the largest quotation sandwich you can possibly make using a quotation from one of the sources you are using in your essay. There should be thick bread on both sides and a hearty filling in the middle.

If you already have a draft of your essay written, just chose one paragraph that you think does a good job of contextualizing/analyzing a quotation. If you do not have a draft, just make a quotation sandwich from scratch. I can say from experience that the mere activity of creating a single quotation sandwich can jumpstart your essay writing process very nicely.

Here’s a reminder of what a quotation sandwich is: “to adequately frame a quotation, you need to insert it into what we like to call a ‘quotation sandwich,’ with the statement introducing it serving as the top slice of bread and the explanation following it serving as the bottom slice. The introductory or lead-in claims should explain who is speaking and set up what the quotation says; the follow-up statements should explain why you consider the quotation to be important and what you take it to say” (They Say/I Say 46).

Most important, please print and bring this quotation sandwich to class. You’ll trade with a partner and discuss strategies together.

That’s it. In the meantime, continue to work on your essays. Have a great weekend.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for a good class today. For our next meeting, please:

-Bring your essay proposal form.
-Bring one source that you’ll think you’ll use for your essay to class (you can bring the article/book itself, a laptop, or whatever else
-Print, actively read, and bring  “The Art of Quoting” to class (available here)

See you on Wednesday.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for a great discussion yesterday. For Monday, you have two tasks:

• Bring whatever you’ve started to work on for your second essay to class. Maybe you just have a bunch of bullet points or an outline or a free write. Maybe you have a bunch of doodles that represent your current thought process. Or maybe you’ve already started writing something. Bring whatever you’ve started. I’m going to give you some time at the end of the class to complete a proposal template that should help you better organize your ideas.
• Fill out the “persuaded by writing” handout I gave you yesterday (available here for those who missed class) and bring it to class.

See you on Monday!

Hi Everyone,

For Wednesday, please read the Twyla Tharp excerpt on creative scratching (available here) and then devise your own scratching method (or steal from her) and fill out the scratching exercise sheet that I handed out in class today (available here).

You might be thinking to yourself, what is he asking me to scratch for? The goal of our meeting on Wednesday is to arrive at a suitable topic for your second essay. So when you’re scratching, you should be asking yourself: how can I find a topic that isn’t too narrow or too broad? Here are some methods that could help you (besides the methods Thwarp mentions):

• Write down ten ideas connected to your main topic idea. Then pick only three that you think are the strongest.
• Read an article that advances a viewpoint you disagree with (for example, find an article that argues against paying NCAA student-athletes or an article that argues against allowing tennis players at Wimbledon to wear whatever they want to wear) and write a brief rebuttal.
• Try to persuade a friend/family member to care about your topic through an informal conversation (either  online/texting or in-person).

There are so many ways to scratch. Experiment with this process and have some fun. Use the handout I gave you today to record the process and its results.

One other thing. Keep your eyes out for or begin remembering back to one piece of writing that persuaded you to care about a topic that you previously hadn’t thought much about or hadn’t ever thought about. I’m going to ask you to bring this piece of writing to class next Monday, but I wanted to give you time to start looking now. Could be as simple as a text message or a tweet. Or maybe it is a speech from your favorite Shakespeare play. Or your currently favorite song.

Hi,

I forgot to give you a link to the extended mind article. It’s here. If you have a chance, read it. It is very interesting, especially for those of us who have extended our minds through our smartphones (i.e. all of us!).

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for a great discussion today. I’m sorry we didn’t have enough time to further discuss your Knaussgard-style descriptions. For Monday, can you please bring these descriptions to class? I want to give you some time to discuss them with each other at the beginning of class.

Your only task for Monday is to complete the free writing exercises I handed out in class today. The goal is to get you on the path towards your research topic by the end of our meeting on Monday. So we’ll spend plenty of time in class ideating towards your topics, using your freewriting exercises as our guides.

For those of you who were not here today, click here for your second writing assignment and here for your freewiting exercise. See you on Monday.

Hi Everyone,

I’m sure you know this by now but just in case: CUNY is closed today.

Enjoy your day off. Make sure to write and bring to class on Wednesday the short essay that was due today. Thanks!