(all of this was also sent in email via blackboard)

Blogs: You should be doing the “Close Reading Post”  What we went over in class is about close reading.  That’s the post you should do.

On Wednesday we will talk about Argumentation and we will also discuss the interviews with Monterroso and Packer.  (Please make sure you have read them)

Paper Due Dates:  Group 1 Close Textual Analysis Paper (Due Saturday March 7th,  Morning at 9:00 am)  and Group 2 Due the following week (Thursday March 12th at Noon)

For Wednesday you should post and bring to class a thesis statement on the short story “The Eclipse.”

You should arrive at your thesis statement using the method we practiced in class.

1. Collecting Data (some of which you’ve already done as a group.  You can check out the Chalkboard Notes page on the site for pictures of the board.)

2. Synthesizing– grouping your ideas (In this stage you are giving deeper attention to your observations and trying to understand how they are situated amongst each other and the text.  You are not necessarily making claims or even whole sentence statements to yourself.  This is a time for figuring out what’s prominent in the text and in your interest. You may do so via free write, webbing, story boarding, random notes, etc)

3. Analyzing  (In this stage, you you start asking questions about how these associations and patterns and connections work.  How is this individual element working on its own?  What kind of effects and affects does it produce?  How does this element work in relation to what the whole story is doing? Which means you must ask what is the text doing as a whole?  — The conclusion of all these questions should be an analysis claim aka thesis)

Your thesis must make a claim about how a specific element  is working in the text in relation to what you see as the overall function (or purpose) of the text.

This means, your thesis must include

a) some claim about a specific element (i.e.  This author layers one sharp contrast upon another in a way that intensifies the divide between Western culture and Mayan culture.    Note:  If you only have the first part of the sentence about layering contrasts, you’ve only made a description and not a claim.)

b) some claim about what the text as a whole wants to do (i.e. This author means to provide a critique of the idea of Western superiority.)

c) some claim about how  a affects our understanding of b  (i.e. The layering of the contrast intensifies the sense of a divide between Western and Mayan culture in  a way that makes the end twist all the more poignant.)

Due Tomorrow at 9am.    2 pages, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch font, in a Word Doc format.  Please email it as an attachment along with any accompanying primary text.

A good description paper will at least

1) identify the type of text (i.e. scholarly article, news clip, etc)

2) provide a generally about the content  (this may be in a narrative the plot summary)

3) articulate the piece’s central claim and/or main goal

4) explain the primary (2-3) ways in which the author goes about achieving that goal.

A great description paper will also relay all this information in a way that sets us up for a particular perspective.   You are not making an argument statement.  Repeat you are not making a thesis or argument statement (as I said in class if you have one, I should be able to cut it out and have the paper still stand).

What you are doing though is curating information for us.  You are ordering it in a particular way; you are making choices about what details you include and what you don’t (b/c in 2 pages you don’t have time to give it all). You are careful about the metaphors and ways you describe how you see your text working.

Remember you want to make sure you’re talking about the text (what it does) and not what the text is talking about.

I’m sorry we ran out of time and class.  Our discussion about the Kendrick Lamar was just so lively that I let time get away from me (the exercise was only supposed to take up a 1/3 of our class time). It was time well spent because it gets us ready for the next phase of the class about argument making; we will come back to the two approaches to analyzing, but alas we still have to finish the description writing phase of the class.   And my time management did not allow us to talk about the description paper which those of you keeping up with the syllabus know was due this Friday.

To accommodate the time management issue, I am modifying the syllabus.  Please read and prepare for all of the following:  1) The description paper will be due next Friday the 20th at 9:00am.   2) I have eliminated the two readings that were for next class (they are no longer on the syllabus).   3)  Instead you should read the description paper assignment on the assignment page, and 4) come to class with at least 1 page of your description paper drafted.  Lastly 5) If you are in paper group 1 (see bottom of the syllabus) please post at least one paragraph of your description  paper on the site  before class.   Note:  Anyone else who wants to post is welcome.  Because we don’t have internet I can’t just call on people to post in class, so I need to make sure we have some potential online examples.

Wednesday’s class will begin with a presentation from the academic support center on writing help.  After that presentation I will discuss the description paper more, and then we will discuss your drafts.  We will do a few all together and then we will spend the last 30 minutes in class in small groups.  Please bring pen and paper or your computer (NOT cellphone NOT tablet) to class.

Here are three links to writing a visual analysis.  Remember that I am both interested in you learning how to write and make arguments about visual text and in you learning how to apply strategies for writing and discussing visual text to writing and discussing about other texts. To that end, the first link is favorite link.  The last one though is very good for quick reference about vocabulary common to visual analysis.

“Visual Rhetoric: Analyzing Visual Documents” Handout, Purdue OWL, Purdue University

“Visual Analysis” Handout, Writing Studio, Duke University

“Visual Analysis Tips” Handout, Art History Department, Skidmore College

A specific object

(a concrete event- i.e. Snapchat is going to host a Superheros series; a quirky object; an upcoming person of note; a burgeoning fad).

It’s about Nick Jonas, but it’s not;  it’s specifically about highlighting recent signs that he is being embraced outside his Disney persona); it’s perhaps about suggesting that he is going to keep rising in success.

It’s not about promoting Chef Santos or even about his restaurant, Louro (but notice there’s a link to the restaurant and more mention of the menu).  It’s specifically about this curious 5 month simmering stew.   It certainly advertises the chef and the dining establishment, but those are technically secondary effects of the article.

A mix of strategies

Good shorts incorporate a mix of rhetorical device.  They’re not all quotes (that would be like an interview).  They’re not all background (that would be like a Wikipedia article or a news brief).  They’re not totally (if at all) evaluative (that would be a review).  They’re not all pictures or all links or all metaphor or all data . . ..

Informative

shorts tend to educate us about something in particular.  They don’t necessarily weigh huge debates or give one person’s opinion.  They tend to play on the fact that you have some general interest (in the topic of the magazine) and are predisposed to want to know a bit more about what this headline announces.

Informative but Catchy Titles

the titles for shorts aren’t usually just poetic or great puns.  They’re marketed to readers who are skimming or moving quickly.  These readers kind of want to have the gist of what they are getting into before they start.  The title has to convey a lot of information while still managing to be punchy.

Little Personal Opinion

These are not Op Eds.  There might be some line about how “we love” certain tweets or light-hearted conjectures about how looking at Jonas will be enough to make any girl previously hurt feel better.  But these are strategic moments of kind of rubbing elbows with the reader and establishing a connection.  The assumption is that the reader thinks the same.   The whole article though while typically enthusiastic is not about the author’s opinion or evaluative review of this object.

A Few Different Devices for Writing a Short

quotes and excerpts from interviews

visuals

links to sources and background reference piece.

expert reports (for data and recent findings)

quick and easily digestible metaphors

Clear comparisons

references to social media and how the object stands in terms of popular notice

pointing out extremes, absurdities, and sensational details

pithy remarks, puns, or other forms of quickly consumable humor

As you read your  magazine shorts, remember not only are you writing a description post on this short for tomorrow, you will also be using these shorts as models for your next post assignment (writing your own short).   You really want to think not so much about content, but about form.  How is this piece accomplishing what it wants to accomplish in the space it has to accomplish its task.  Some questions to think about:

What is the central topic of this piece?

What is this piece’s underlying aim?  (I.e.  What does the article want to do?  Does it have an argument it wants to make?  Do you have a sense of who its intended audience is and what it wants that audience to think about or do?)

Can you describe what the piece does in the beginning of the article in order to achieve its underlying aim?

“. . . .”  in the middle of the article?

“. . . ” at the end of the article?

Does the article make use of any noticeable rhetorical devices?  Some examples of common rhetorical devices include but are not limited to:

Anecdotes

Quotes

Snappy one liners

Comparisons

Carrying an example to the extreme

Fear tactics

Lists

Compelling and easy to chief data bites.

Your description shouldn’t just be answers to these questions, but answering these questions should help you assess the reading and write a strong description post.