11.19 A little bit of everything

Although the posts listed below,  have been talked about/used - even graded -  I haven't yet sent you the "tally sheet" for credit given. I will be providing feedback/counting what's posted (and what is not) beginning Thursday evening.  So this is a heads up to make sure the following list of blogs are posted so they can be reviewed.

Update:  There WAS a Blog 8 (only it was labeled Blog 7).  The first Blog 7 was the Draft Long Essay 2 (which everyone turned in - and attended a conference to talk about)
Blogs:

Blog 7: Long essay 2 draft
Blog 7: Write some notes about which essay you will revise, and what you will do to revise it.

Blog 8: not assigned!  (I just skipped over this number?) 

Blog 9: Post Brainstorming Short essay 1

Blog 10:  Revised (best) Long Essay

Blog 11: Post Short Draft Essay 1

Blog 12:  Short essay 2 brainstorming

Craft essay
We started class by reviewing the "moves" the authors of the craft essays made.  We noted that, in general, the authors made statements about where ideas came from, about writing process, and about what they learned (generalized reflections about themselves as writers).


We then took a look at the assignment for your reflective writing to introduce your portfolio.  We noted that it is similar to (makes the same kinds of moves) but different from (in that it considers a body of writing, rather than a single composition) the sample essays in your text.  Your task, is to use the moves - and the kind of detailed analysis - from the craft essay in your text book as a model for you analysis of the writing you have produced for this text.

We took a quick look at the form of the portfolio (set up through google.sites=> available through our kean.google account) you will use to turn in your work.

Workshop:
After this work, you spent the rest of class "catchng up" the assignment of your choice, while I had one-on-one conferences with each of you on blogs + short essays (2 brainstorms & 1 draft).

For the next class(es):
November 26: This is an open workshop for you to work on any of the assigned projects.  The lab will be open, but you are not required to attend class.  The complete draft for the short essay is due by the end of class (Blog 13: Draft short essay 2).  Due for next class (12.3) is Blog 14: Rhetorical analysis of publication venue.

December 3. In class you will give your rhetorical analysis presentation.  This it informal (do not stress over it).  You are not required to stand in front of the class - though you are welcome to.  I can click through the points in your blog post if you prefer.  The idea is for us to share information about the different expectations of journals where you might publish CNF.

If there is time left after the presentations, we will work on setting up the portfolio using the google.sites ap from your Kean account.  The model portfolio is posted to the right, if you want to fool around with it ahead of time.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

11.12 Journal Choices

Note:  You all should have received the Revised long essay with comments.  If you have questions, be in touch.

Tonight's class was mostly focused on preparing for the rhetorical analysis assignment.  We reviewed the assignment sheet (posted to the right) and conducted an analysis of Brevity.

The first request on the assignment sheet is for you to talk about "what kind of" CNF the journal publishes.  We generated a list of categories for the different kinds of CNF we have read this term. Some of the "kinds" of publications we identified include the following.

• personal essays (essay-y writing with the focus on self, like Lopate and The Patch, lots of analysis the point either embedded in the analysis or stated straight out)
• cultural/political essays 
• Journalistic pieces
• long or short essays
• classifications by topic/focus
• preferences for particular forms (narrative, experimental, reflective, multimodal/visual, etc)
• location based (may be about a place, or sometimes only writers from a particular geographical region are accepted)
• special interest (travel, horticulture, war, motherhood stories, religious)
• student publications

We then conducted an analysis of just 3 of the stories from Brevity, in terms of the categories listed on the sheet and came up with the following.

Ordinary shoes: (noticed = woman author, woman characters, mostly women commenters)

Subject: realization, mother/daughter

Voice/tone: reflective, somber, nostalgic

Form: personal essay, traditional, memoir (though she does skate with the mother in the photograph)

artistry/literariness: 3

27

subject: coming of age

voice: objective, descriptive

form: poetic, literary

artistry: 4

Cake

subject: forbidden self fullfillment

voice: intimate

form: narratve/reflective

artistry: up there

If you haven't chosen a journal yet - send me an email and I will add your choice to the list.
Journal Choices:
Briana  Literal Latte
Christina  Defunct
Cristal  vela 
Florie  The Normal School
Holly  Sweet 
Mary Ellen  The Collagist
Matt  Gul Coast
Melissa  Creative Nonfiction
Osza  Paper Darts
Patrice  Terrain
Patricia  Zone3
Stephanie  The Pinch

Read:  Zion, 402+ On writing Zion, 410 by Stanton,  Pope, Teacher training, 388, Composing 'Teacher training'" 394.

Blog 12:  Short essay 2 brainstorming

As discussed in class, next week we will start with some talk about writing "process" essays or craft essays as they call them in CNF.  These readings are to give you an approximate model for the reflective introduction to the portfolio assignment.  After that, the rest of the class will be workshop, with conferences on the short essay scheduled in class.  During this class, you will have an opportunity to work on the draft short essay 2, the portfolio introduction, or the rhetorical analysis presentation.  

11.5 Short CNF

Journaling:  You started by writing a scene where you are with someone you love.  I asked you to use dialog if you can remember it.  Describe what you were doing.  But NOT to interpret your actions or say what they meant.

Next I asked you to write a definition of what you believe constitutes "love."

We then spent way longer than I anticipated analyzing our definitions of love.  We looked at the kinds of actions (thinking/feeling) and qualities implied in the language.  We considered what kind of agency or control someone invested in that definition would feel as the lover or as the beloved.  We noticed that most of the definitions were about giving rather than receiving love.  We also considered, valence,  outcomes (results of believing in un/conditional love, love as selflessness etc) and the power dynamics, and we talked about whether we were able to choose our definitions of love, or whether they just "happened" to us.

Although we didn't have time in class, the intention was that after thinking about these features of our definitions (actions, qualities, agency, valence, outcomes and power dynamics) => you would go back to your definitions and characterize your ideas about love.  Finally, I was going to ask you to go back to your description, and see how/whether your "description" of what happens in a loving relationship matches your definition.

This kind of brainstorming can open up ideas within a piec.  It's one way to "see through" cultural assumptions or ways of talking about who we are and what we do.  It can help define questions and/or construct ways to think about the possibility of choosing new definitions for belief systems which we might otherwise think of as "given".

Short essays.  We spent the rest of class talking about short form CNF, first talking about Accident, and then Fallout, and for five minutes at the end checking in on the other reading assignments.

As I said in class, I will be grading the long essays and probably will not be replying to your blogs until just befoer class next week, which means it will be of  much use to you if you put out questions abotu material for your short essay.  So - if you want some input on the short draft - email me.

For next week:
Read:  http://brevitymag.com/category/current-issue/  Try to read at least 9 stories from the Fall/14 issue (the link is on the landing page).  In class we will use a discussion of Brevity as an example of how to do the Rhetorical Analysis of a Publication Venue.
Blog 11: Post Short Draft Essay 1

Also, in addition to posting your Long essay => please send it to me as an attachment.  Have a great week and I hope to have these back to you by next class.