“On Self Respect” by Joan Didion

Once again, we are working with the same article for Monday analysis and Blog Week.   By the time that you get to working on this blog, hopefully your answers will be informed by some of the discussion that we have had in class.  Well thought out, detailed paragraphs will let me see how you are synthesizing the reading with the discussion and putting that to work in the blog.  Happy Weekend!

 Discussion questions for “On Self Respect” by Joan Didion

1)       Didion uses allusions to literature (that we may or may not have read) in order to support or illustrate her points.  What effect does this have on the reader?  Is it helpful? Is it alienating?

2)      List some statements that she clearly makes about having, or not having, self respect.  Are these based on assumptions that people would generally agree with?  For instance, she uses the example of committing adultery without asking forgiveness to illustrate “courage of their mistakes” and “character”.  What do we make of that?

3)      She maintains that having self respect is a “discipline,” a “habit of mind”.  She says that having self respect is a discipline “that can never be faked but can be developed , trained, coaxed forth”.  She also says that disciplines represent values that lie underneath them.  How are her statements about self respect as a discipline connected to the idea of building writing skills as a discipline or a habit of mind?

Analysis of an Essay

How nice is this?  We already worked this essay over the weekend to prepare for Monday's lesson/exercise on analysis.  What we did in class was something called a Rhetorical Analysis.  Here I am asking you to look at the essay for more technical issues concerning the organization of her paragraphs, so these questions have to do more with Structural Analysis.

#5  Discussion Questions for “The French Language: The Heart of Louisiana” by Kalyn Guidry

(The Reader)

1)      In her first paragraph, Guidry answers the who what when where why of the issue she is writing about.  They aren’t necessarily in that order, but they are all there.  List them to the best of your ability, like this:

Who:

What:

When:

Where:

Why:

2)      On her fourth page, in the paragraph that begins, “There are so many benefits of speaking one’s heritage language.” Guidry starts with that main idea that  supports her over all thesis statement and then gives some evidence and analysis to prove herself correct to her reader.   (She doesn’t just give only one point of evidence followed by one point of analysis then move right to the link.) Sentence by sentence, assign the letter of the MEAL plan that she uses in her paragraph by describing what the sentence is doing.  I’ll start you off:

Sentence one: M             She is giving the main idea.

Sentence two:

After you are done assigning parts of the MEAL plan to her sentences, look them over and decide if it works well for you as an audience member, or if you would personally rearrange or add anything, then tell us about it.

3)       She uses a different conclusion style than the simple formula of:

•     Restate thesis
•     Restate main points (or even Restate points of analysis, as I prefer)
•    Final strong idea, suggestion, or call to action

Describe her “formula” in a bullet point description style (It doesn’t have to be just three points).  I’ll start you off:

•  Reminds reader of the chronology (time period) covered in this particular treatment of the topic or subject matter

4)  We have looked at the Intro, at a Body Paragraph, and at the conclusion.  Lets backtrack now and look at transitions.

Page 3 begins with the last few lines of paragraph 2.  She uses the "carry over the key phrase or idea" tactic" that I talked about in class.  What is the key idea that she uses to bridge these two paragraphs?

Same page: Paragraphs 4 and 5, what is the key idea that she uses to bridge these two paragraphs?

Next page: Paragraphs 7 and 8, the key idea she carries over to bridge the two paragraphs is culture.  Could you tell that at first?  The word culture comes all the way at the end of the Main Idea sentence of paragraph 8! So, while she did carry over the key idea, the reader may not make the connection as easily.  Revise the sentence so that the word "culture" comes closer to the beginning.

Discussion Prompt #4 "Claiming an Education"

Discussion Questions for “Claiming an Education”  by Adrienne Rich

Please go to Moodle and find the pdf of  “Claiming an Education” by Adrienne Rich under "Readings and Handouts".

1)      On page 610, there are two paragraphs in which Rich discusses her conception of responsibility to yourself.  Explain the ways that this passage applies to not only women, but men also, as well as  those who have traditionally been underrepresented in the university, such as minorities or folks in low income brackets. 

2)      Answer question number 5 at the end of the essay.

Discussion Post Prompt #3

Moving right along!

There are 2 articles for this week's discussion post.  They aren't very difficult to understand, but may take some time to look over.

They are:  Irvin, "What is Academic Writing" and Hinton, "So You've Got a Writing Assignment. Now What?" These pdf's are on Moodle under "Handouts and Readings".

I timed these articles the weekend before I pass out Assignment #1 on purpose; they will help you prepare for talking about the assignment on Monday, Sept. 12.

Also, I made an announcement that there is an extra credit opportunity (Due Monday) that involves applying information from Hinton, "So You've Got a Writing Assignment. Now What?" to the set of Assignment #1 documents that I will place on Moodle in Box 10 and turning in your work to me at the start of class on Monday.  If you were absent or late, I suggest you ask your blogmates about the extra credit opportunity or post your question on the Moodle "Questions Related to Class" Forum. 

The questions for the two articles, due in your blog post Wednesday, are:

1)  How many times do you generally read over an assignment for a paper before beginning, during beginning, and after your first draft is done.  What could be the benefit of looking over the assignment again after the draft is done?

2)  How can you apply the "Consider the Evidence" information to the drafting of an Argument from Personal Experience paper?  (One without "outside sources" like news articles or journal articles").

3)  What is the most useful tidbit from the "Academic Writing is an Analysis" section? What is a part of that section that needs more explanation (as in: we should definitely discuss it in class).

4) Compare the section "Three Characteristics of Academic Writing" to the Rubric for Assignment #1 (Located on Moodle in Box 10).  What similarities and differences do you see in the expectations for Academic Writing between the section of the article and the Rubric?


REMINDER: THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE PLEASE SEND YOUR URL TO MY EMAIL:

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Review the Moodle and Blog Announcement, posted last week and mentioned in class, that details the factors and deadlines involving 1) me getting your url address and 2) you getting your points (scroll down, or go to Moodle, "Class Announcements").

ANNOUNCMENT

I’M STILL MISSING SOME BLOG URLs

If your clid is on this list, please send your blog URL to my email: maia@louisiana.edu.

The url should look like this:

http://achievingliteracye101.blogspot.com/  

except, this part: achievingliteracye101, should be whatever you named yours.

• ·         Yes, I may be following you, but your blog link doesn’t show for me on your personal profile, so I can’t get to your actual blog page.
• ·         Yes, I may have even seen your blog once successfully, but for whatever reason, I can’t find it now.  I’m sorry, I know it’s a pain, but we’re almost over this hump.

I have a spreadsheet now with all the URLs I have gotten from folks saved in it, so once I get these from the rest of you, I’ll have them forever, no more worries.

Once I get these, I’ll be able to finish grading the first round of discussion posts.  As long as you have done your part by the deadlines, you’ll get credit, so don’t stress.

If after this announcement, you don’t contact me with your URL, I won’t contact you again, so you will be getting zeroes for this portion of your grade.  My offer to give you points for what you have done so far as long as you have met the deadlines ends this week.  If you want credit for the work you are doing, help me find it.  BY FRIDAY THE 9^TH OF SEPT.

If your clid is on this list, please send your blog URL to my email: maia@louisiana.edu.

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mxc9757

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sjg2691

tch5421

bjj3183

ael3156

kal6528

jlm4937

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REGARDING THE BLOGS AND GRADING FOR THIS WEEK.

I placed this on Moodle Announcements, so you should see it on our Moodle page also, and you should have automatically gotten it to your email.   If you don't check your university email, you should set it up so that it forwards to your more convenient email. (Instructions are on the Univ Website somewhere, or you can contact IT).  Once I announce something on the Moodle Announcements, my buns are covered because it is YOUR responsibility to keep up with university/course related emails, so if you don't get emailed announcements from me, follow up with IT.  **BELOW THIS ANNOUNCEMENT POST IS THE DISCUSSION POST #2 PROMPT.

Whew!  This has been tricky!  The hardest part of this process is getting set up and following each other, trust me.  After that, this will be a breeze.    We have spent about a week and a half going over instructions, addressing issues in class, and talking expectations.  Because it has been such a rough start (mostly with the part about following and commenting on your group mates) I am making changes to the way I will grade the first week:

This week, full points will be given to those who have:

-set up their blogs and written bios (in the about me section or as a post)

- given their group mates the info needed to allow them to follow their blog

-posted responses to discussion post #1

Note: the “Blogging Instructions” on our Moodle page clearly reads that in order to get points for your response to my discussion post, the answer to each question must be done with a full paragraph.  If not, how can I be sure you are incorporating the reading into your thoughts?  If not, how can your group mates find something interesting to comment on, so they can get their commenting points?  So, if you didn’t read this in the instructions the first go around, you may want to reread the section  in “Blogging Instructions” on how to get full points (it discusses directions for commenting on others, and suggests ways to comment thoughtfully). 

You have this opportunity to redo your answers to discussion post one in order to create more full answers, and the deadline is THIS SUNDAY.  Also, remember, as long as you have completed the items above, you will get full points for this week, don’t worry about issues that you may have had finding and commenting on your group members’ blogs.

MOODLE LIVE CHAT:

                This Sunday at 3pm, come to our class Moodle page, find the “Live Chat” and click “enter this chat”.  We will discuss any more issues and try to get them solved.  If that time doesn’t work for you, email me Saturday or Sunday and I’ll get back to you to try to get these issues sorted out.  Don’t wait until the last minute, this set up grace period ends this weekend.

AS OF NEXT WEEK:

                I will consider the blogs up and running and we won’t address blog issues anymore in class.  You will need to meet me in my office hours to get things resolved after that.  If you are hard for your group members to find and comment on, you risk that affecting your participation grades.  Use the emails you have exchanged and keep in contact with each other.  I am ready to move on to the “hard skills” components involved with prewriting and drafting your papers, and that means we are done with handholding and ready to step up our game. 

                If you don’t have your books, you need to get a buddy and borrow them or copy the readings, because the next blog discussions will be based on our Reader readings.  Refer to your course schedule to keep up with the reading due dates. 

The next discussion post is up, the due dates for response posts and comment posts are on your course schedule.

ENJOY YOUR LONG WEEKEND!