Paper #3

“The Solitary Stroller and the City” (Rebecca Solnit)

“You Have Gestures” (Christine Kenneally)

For the third paper of this semester, I would like you to write an essay comparing and contrasting two of the essays we’ve read this semester. Remember, a good compare and contrast essay reads as if it is a conversation between three people—the two authors you are working with and yourself.

OPTION ONE:  Solnit + ?

In many ways, Rebecca Solnit’s “The Solitary Stroller and the City” reads as a tribute to the “art of urban walking.” In fact, early in this essay, she writes, “Cities have always offered anonymity, variety, and conjunction…A city always contains more than any inhabitant can know, and a great city always makes the unknown and the possible spurs to the imagination.” (572) Do you agree with Solnit’s claim that a “city always contains more than any inhabitant can know”? Why or why not? What do you think Solnit means by “possible spurs to the imagination”?

For this option, I’d like to suggest that you begin by keeping a “walking journal” for a few days. Document your daily walks and try to locate a common theme or issue present in the things you notice.

For example, if you notice a lot of litter, perhaps your paper might be an exploration of the problem of garbage in New York City and why no one seems to do anything about it. Or, if you notice a lot of construction, perhaps your paper is an argument about the impact gentrification might be having on how one interacts with his or her surroundings.

Once you’ve done this (kept your walking journal and identified your central concern) you are ready to write your paper. This paper should revolve around the “problem” or “theme” you noticed in your walks. You must use Rebecca Solnit’s essay to support your ideas. You must also bring another reading of your own choosing to help you prove your point as well. In other words, this essay needs to have a strong thesis statement that you will prove by using your own ideas in combination with quotes from Solnit and one other text we’ve read this semester.

OPTION TWO: Kenneally + ?

The dominant version of Darwin’s theory of evolution focuses on competition and rallies around the concept of “the survival of the fittest.” The research on gesture that Kenneally discusses, however, highlights the importance and the centrality of reciprocation, cooperation, and altruism. “Language,” Kenneally states, “is an act of shared attention.” Language can, obviously, be used in the service of aggression and hostility, as well as cooperation and altruism, so what is gained by defining language as “an act of shared attention”? How does this differ from saying that language is a means of communication, for example, or a vehicle for persuasion?

What do you think the real purpose of language is? Why?

If you choose this option, you must write a paper that argues for a specific definition of language’s “use value” or purpose. You must use Kenneally and another essay we’ve read this semester in order to help you prove your points.

(this option is adapted from newhum.com)

ROUGH DRAFT DUE:  Thursday, December 2

(5-7 pages typed, bring 3 COPIES to class)

FINAL DRAFT DUE:   Tuesday, December 7 (5-7 pages typed)

Paper #3 Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #3 Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to request exactly the kind of feedback you need.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are the biggest problems you are having at this point in the writing process?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• What’s the number one question about your essay—its thesis, structure, use of evidence, persuasiveness, style, etc.—that you’d like your readers to answer for you?
• If you were going to start revising today, what three things would you focus on?  How would you begin?

Paper #3 FINAL Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #3 Final Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to share how you feel you have improved your paper.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are some problems you faced when writing and how did you try to or succeed in resolving them?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• Do you consider this draft to really be your “Final Draft?”  Why? Did you do anything while revising that could be described as a “re-seeing” of the paper?
• What grade do you think you deserve on this paper and why?
• What grade do you think you deserve for the semester and why?

RESPONSE PAPER #4

“Work Rules” (William Greider)

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In “Work Rules,” a reading that is excerpted from William Greider’s book length exploration of a “moral economy,” he explores the current workforce that we’ve all participated in over the course of our lives (whether as a consumer or a worker).

For this response, use Greider’s text and his unpacking of terms such as “cultural stereotypes” and “master-servant legacy” in order to present a model for what you think a successful work environment should look like. Take into consideration: workplace hierarchies, worker relations, working conditions, wage, hours, etc.

DUE: Tuesday, October 19 (1-2 pages typed)

RESPONSE PAPER #3

Selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran (Azar Nafisi)

OPTION 1:

For this response, I’d like you to begin by thinking about the subtitle of Nafisi’s piece: “A Memoir in Books.” How does the subtitle relate to the content (or thesis) that this excerpt is trying to depict or prove? Do you think that Nafisi believes that there is a right and wrong way to “interpret” a work of art? Do you agree with her? Why?

OPTION 2:

Consider this your chance to play with some creative writing–to create a little bit of your own “art.” Tell the story of your encounter with a book. You might want to approach this by thinking about the last really great book you read and why it was so great…can you make this into a short story that reads like Nafisi’s?

DUE: Thursday, October 14 (1-2 pages typed)

PAPER #1

“The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope for Dialogue” (Deborah Tannen)

“Surface and Substance” (Virginia Postrel)

“Dogs Snarling Together: How Politics Came to Dominate the Global Apparel Trade” (Pietra Rivoli)

OPTION 1:

Whether you realize it or not, you are all, by virtue of your long experience, experts on the subject of education.  So to begin the semester, you are going to write an essay on a subject about which you know a great deal.  As Emerson suggests in “Self-Reliance,” “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” (178) (This is an essay we will possibly read later in the semester.)

Think about the essays you’ve read by Tannen, Postrel, and Rivoli.  Write an essay of 3-5 pages exploring what you think education should look like and why. The most effective way to approach this might be to use a specific experience or two of yours to show what your education was like and what you wish it was like.  Use at least one of the essays discussed in class to support your ideas.  The goal of this paper is to present an analysis of how you think you learn most effectively and why.

Questions to consider:

–       What are each of these authors saying about education and how we learn? (Even if education is not the overt topic of the essay, there are commentaries about learning in each.)

–       Do you agree or disagree with the ideas in these essays?  Why?

–       How do your surroundings affect how you learn?

–       What kinds of conversations encourage learning?

–       What makes a good teacher?

(The questions I pose are tools to stimulate thought.  You do not have to answer them.)

Keep in mind that the more detail you use, the more specific you can get; the more likely it is that you will compose an effective paper. 

OPTION 2:

In a recent interview, Rivoli comments, “One of the things Karl Marx said about the effects of capitalism is that we lose track of where things come from—how they come to be…I guess one of the main things that affected me and I hope affects readers is the idea of stopping every once and awhile and looking at the cup of coffee in your hand, or the shirt you are wearing and thinking about where they come from. It’s an important part of being an educated person in today’s world.”

How does Rivoli’s notion of “thinking about where they come from” related to your opinion of what the word “value” means. What does it mean to “value” something or to place value on something? How do Tannen, Postrel, and Rivoli deal with this term? Is it possible to maintain a commitment to “surface” value once one stops to think about “how [the product] comes to be”?

In other words, I am asking you to create your own definition of “value” or “worth” and prove why your definition is the most productive and rational one using at least one of the readings we’ve done so far.

ROUGH DRAFT DUE:  Thursday, September 23

(3-5 pages typed, bring 3 COPIES to class)

FINAL DRAFT DUE:   Tuesday, October 5 (3-5 pages typed)

***

Paper #1 Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #1 Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to request exactly the kind of feedback you need.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are the biggest problems you are having at this point in the writing process?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• What’s the number one question about your essay—its thesis, structure, use of evidence, persuasiveness, style, etc.—that you’d like your readers to answer for you?
• If you were going to start revising today, what three things would you focus on?  How would you begin?

Paper #1 FINAL Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #1 Final Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to share how you feel you have improved your paper.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are some problems you faced when writing and how did you try to or succeed in resolving them?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• Do you consider this draft to really be your “Final Draft?”  Why? Did you do anything while revising that could be described as a “re-seeing” of the paper?
• What grade do you think you deserve on this paper and why?

Blog Post

“Surface and Substance” (Virginia Postrel)

Because we do not have class on Thursday (September 9) or on Tuesday (September 14), it is very important that we do some work online.

Please do the following no later than Tuesday, September 14, 6PM:

—   Read Virginia Postrel’s essay in The New Humanities Reader.

—   Seek out some additional writing by Postrel—she has a web site that has extensive links to blogs and columns she writes:

• http://dynamist.com/articles-speeches/index.html

—   Select one additional piece of writing by Postrel to present to the class via blog. Please make sure your blog post includes a link to the article you chose. I also encourage you to use images and media.

—   Post a written response to Postrel—you might compare and contrast the piece in the textbook with the article you found yourself, you might investigate what Postrel calls “the very power of aesthetics”. Your goal should be to write something (perhaps that takes the form of an “op-ed”) that will spark conversation and share the ideas you are having.

**Please make sure to check the blog and comment on the writing your classmates are doing! There should be a lot of blog action next week!**

Response Paper #2

“The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope of Dialogue” (Deborah Tannen)

OPTION 1:

In a critique of Tannen’s book, The Argument Culture, Larissa Macfarquhar writes, “what Tannen is missing is that conflict is fun. We love fighting for its own sake, even when one side is obviously wrong. Who knows why…but for whatever reason, conflict isn’t just crudely entertaining — it’s romantic.” How do you think Tannen might respond to Macfarquhar? Do you agree or disagree with this description of argument as “fun.” Is it fun to fight? Why or why not?

OPTION 2:

In the section titled “Graduate School as Boot Camp,” Tannen describes her own educational experience (in this case, graduate school) as a place where one “value[d] attack as a sign of respect.” In what ways has this “boot camp” model shaped your own educational experience? Have you experienced rivalry in the classroom? Tension? How? Why? Who caused it? Do you think that your school encouraged the kinds of behavior that result in arguments and attacks? How?

DUE:             TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2010, 1 PAGE TYPED

Response Paper #1

“Preface” to The New Humanities Reader

New York Times Op-Ed Column by Paul Krugman

OPTION 1:

We began this semester by looking at piece(s) of writing by Paul Krugman, an economist and regular columnist for the New York Times. Specifically, Krugman is a regular “Op-Ed” columnist. What is an “op-ed” column? Can you point to moments in Krugman’s text that you think characterize why he writes regularly for one of the leading newspapers in the world? What makes Krugman’s writing (and/or ideas) so special?

In other words, look at how Krugman says what he does. Evaluate his style and method of writing. Why is it successful or unsuccessful? How can you tell?

OPTION 2:

What do you think Miller and Spellmeyer are trying to persuade their readers through the “Preface”? What is the “New Humanities”? Why does it matter?

For this response you need to really examine Miller and Spellmeyer’s piece. Do you agree with what they are saying? What assumptions can you make about the selections they chose to make up this anthology? Why use a book with a preface like this in a course thematically organized around “persuasion”?

DUE:             TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2010, 1 PAGE TYPED