Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to remind you that we will be having an informal peer review on Thursday so please be sure to bring a draft of your first writing project. Class will be very difficult for you if you do not bring it!

Also, on Friday (remember we are meeting Thursday and Friday this week) we will be taking an “art break” and will spend most of our class looking at and talking about art. I just posted the reading for Friday here (as well as the readings for the next few classes). Its 30 pages but they are short pages and almost everyone page has a picture. In any case, if you have some extra time now, get ahead on the reading.

As always, if you have any questions at all feel free to write me. See you on Thursday.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to Bibi (thank you again Bibi!), I have updated our syllabus and the schedule on the blog. Basically, we won’t see each other very much for the next few weeks. Our next meeting is Thursday the 17th (9 days from today!).

I have posted the readings that you will be responsible to discuss at our next meeting here on the schedule page, one by Roland Barthes and the other by Virginia Woolf. Please read these essays for bits of advice about how to tell a personal story and write down at least one of these bits of advice to bring to our next meeting.  I will ask all of you to share your advice in class.

Most important, I have posted the prompt(s) for your first assignment here. Begin brainstorming as soon as you can, preferably after you do the Barthes/Woolf readings, and make sure to bring your brainstorming list to class next Thursday (details about this list are in the assignment).

If you have any questions at all between now and then, let me know. I’m happy to talk via email or in-person.

Oh yes, and thanks for such a great batch of poems today! I had a great time reading them this afternoon.

Talk to you later.

Hi Everyone,

As I said in class, feel free to take creative liberty with the Keats poetry imitation exercise (for anyone who was not present today-here it is). Re-write the poem in your own words if you want or do the mad-libs thing and just replace certain words in the poem with words that make the poem “yours.” The idea is to try to write about an important reading/art/life experience through the vehicle of Keats’s poem. Do your best, which I am sure will be great!

Also, here is the Ellison Reading and  the Tan Reading. Read each one carefully, and as you read, imagine how you might write a similar kind of short narrative about your own personal identity. Did you learn any tricks from these authors? For example, Ralph Ellison uses the second person voice. Is that something you might do? Be prepared to discuss both essays on Tuesday.

Oh yeah, and have a great Labor Day!

Hi Everyone,

As promised, here are the assignments for Thursday.

1) Read John Keats’s “Upon Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” and identify all the metaphors and similes you can find.

2) Write a one-page (longer if you want) “attentional narrative” in which you narrate your own experience of paying/not paying attention to your surroundings. You could narrate the experience of walking down Park Avenue or going to the museum or even to Times Square or whatever you feel like. There are so many demands on your attention in the city, I’m sure you can find one experience to write about. Have fun with this assignment!

P.S. I forgot to collect your writing assignments that were due today so make sure to bring them next time.

Hi Everyone,

What a pleasure to meet you all and begin getting to know you. Our writing assignment due at the beginning of next class is pretty straightforward. Feel free to type or handwrite it. Whatever is easiest for you.

Briefly respond to these two questions (around a page or so):

1) Summarize in your own words what you think the main ideas of each article (both the Lakoff/Johnson excerpt and the Matthew Crawford excerpt)  are. Imagine that a friend/parent/partner asked you, “What did you just read?” What would you tell them?

2) Write down a sentence that you particularly liked from either Lakoff/Johnson or Matthew Crawford and  explain why you liked it.

That’s it! Have a good weekend.

Welcome to English 2150!