Monday, May 7

I talked about what needed to be included in the portfolio, and requested that you make sure you have your permissions set so that anyone with a link can view your site. I reviewed one more time how grades will be assigned (with the substitution of points for portfolio organization + content in place of the final project, which we did not do).

We then continued with presentations.  It looks like you are on the right track.  Make sure to post multiple drafts of your essays if you have them.

Your complete portfolio is due  by the end of class on Thursday.  Also, send a copy of your final Discourse Community project to the WAW email by the end of class Thursday.

4.26 Guidelines for presentation

Guidelines for presentations on the portfolios are posted to the right.

The presentation schedule is posted below.

April 30
Luis, Dewayne, Kathryn, Juliana,

May 3
Maria Elena, Qian, Christine, Isaac, Paul

May 7
Corinne, Stephanie, Tshandi, Valerie, Swaynisha

May 10
Amanda, Sindy, Maxine, Nicole, Jazmyne, Brittney, Sara

If I don't receive your draft by tonight  and you want some feedback - send me an email to set up a conference for may office hours.  I am already booked for Tuesday, but have time Monday, Wednesday & Thursday from 12-2.

4.23 Class

Assignment update:

Autoethnographies:  Essays in the course email after today will lose credit for tardiness.

Discourse community projects: Drafts for the Discourse community project were due today.  They will be returned with feedback by Thursday,
If you would like to revise your draft in light of today's discussion (see post 4.23 Workshop), you may do so and turn it in via email on Thursday, April 26, for feedback by Monday, April 30. I will not be providing feedback for drafts turned in after this Thursday, April, 26.  If you need to - you may schedule a conference.

Final Drafts are due with your portfolio, May 10.

Presentations on your portfolios/writing projects:  You signed up for presentations today.  In class Thursday I will go over the criteria for the presentation - and we will work out the final presentation calendar.

Today's class:  We discussed Lucille McCarthy's essay on a college writer's experience writing for different courses.  See earlier posts for overview of discussion.

For next class: Th April 26

workshop drafts
outline for portfolio presentation

4.23 Workshop Questions

1. What new language and forms are associated with this writing assignment?  (see Swales + Gee).  How have you integrated these features into into your analysis? (680)

2. What is the organizational structure of your essay?  (To answer this - make a brief list of the order of your points).  Have you created an organization the fits the information you need to convey (or are you stuck in the bullet points of the assignment)?  How can you re-arrange the order of your discussion to make a more clear presentation of your information? (682)

3.  Have you provided evidence (references to your interview + the documents) to support your interpretations of the "identity toolkits," purpose, networks of communictaion, etc for your Discourse community?  Are your interpretations of your Discourse community accurate (look at correlations between your evidence and your general statements)? What do you need to add?  What do you need to delete?(682)

4. Do you analyze - (in addition to summarizing) - the documents/interview talk that represents your Discourse community?  What do you need to add?  What do you need to delete? (685)

4.23 McCarthy + workshop Discourse community essays

McCarthy's essay follows a college writer through three of his courses.  Her central finding is that her subject Dave's success was deeply connected to the writing context.  In particular, she found the following (677-8).

1. Dave found writing for different courses as "totally different" even though she saw it as similar: it was all information based writing, and it moved between summary and analysis.
2. Social factors influenced Dave's success.  In particular, the functions of the writing in each setting (686), and the Dave's relationships to teachers, peers, and texts were important social factors (689).
3. Dave resorted to the same kinds of practices & resources to "figure out" what he was "supposed" in all 3 courses (692) - and for the most part - knowledge of these practices and resources remained tacit.

In class - we are going to go through these findings - a little out of order - ending with the first finding.  The purpose for this reorganization is so you can use what McCarthy identified as Dave's main stumbling blocks as a basis for workshopping your Analysis of a Discourse Community projects.

4.19 Workshop

Today was another workshop day - with final questions about the Discourse community project => drafts are due on Monday.

Also for Monday
Read: McCarthy + intro to Ch 5 (667-699)

4.12 Workshop + Autoethnographies

Drafts for the autoethnographies are due in the ENG3005waw@gmail.com account on later that Monday, April 23.  Essays received after that date will be marked down one grade for each subsequent day they are late.


I provided general feedback on autoethnographies turned in so far.   Your overall writing is strong, you generally collected acceptable data, and most of you came up with impressive observations about how your writing process worked, and what you needed to work on.
To work on:
providing detailed examples to support your claims
revising your work - in particular, making revisions that adjust, delete, substitute and re-locate material in relation  to "additions."

You turned in written suggestions for what to do with the autoethnography assignment.  The assessments came in 5 to 5, with equal numbers who felt the assignment should be ditched versus worth keeping.  It was a LOT of work for me as well - so I am not sure which side my vote is on..I received many excellent suggestions for how to improve the assignment if it included in the course next year.  Thank you for your help, and I am going to think this over.

The rest of the class was devoted to workshop.

On Thursday you will continue to work on the Discourse community project.  You should be posting your notes + your drafty writing to the portfolio site. If you have questions - let me know.

See you on Thursday.

4.12

Send a copy of the final draft for the autoetnography to the course email if you haven't already.

In class we talked about the organization for you paper + what you would put in each section.

Sections = introduction, discussion to introduce/set up your data, analysis of your data, conclusion (what it will take for you to join your chosen Discourse community).  We patterned these sections and what goes in them (roughly) on Mirabelli's essay (Monday, April 3). The particular organization for your essay will depend on your Discourse community.

Discussing Discourse communities: We looked at the assignment sheet = to establish what needed to go into this essay, and we referred back to the blogs on Gee (Thursday, March 29) and on Swales (Monday, April 3) to help you with your descriptions of "identity toolkits" associated with Discourse communities (Gee) + the overall features of Discourse communities (Swales)

We checked in with each of you to make sure you had someone to interview, and talked about where to get documents.  I emphasized that you should choose documents that will be useful for you.  Pick something that you will probably have to write - and that will give information about your Discourse community.  To find documents - you might go to the professional web sites and look around for writing samples by your community.  You might also check out forums to see what folks write/talk about.

For next class:continue data collection and begin analysis of data

review + "tweak"  format for discourse project essay (keep planning your organization, identifying what information you will need, re-reading the articles and the assignment sheet to familiarize yourself with the language you will need for the essay and update your research plan.

In class we will have one-on-one conferences on discourse community projects= come to class with enough material so you can work.

what we are doing for the rest of the term

Week 13  continue data collection and begin analysis of data

M April 16

review + "tweak"  format for discourse project essay

conferences on discourse community projects

Th April 19

conferences on discourse community projects
Read: McCarthy + intro to Ch 5 (578-580)

5. Authority: How do you make yourself heard as a (college) writer? 
Week 14 Due: draft for discourse community project due as attachment to course email

M April 23

Discussion McCarthy
workshop drafts

Th April 26

workshop drafts
outline for portfolio presentation

Week 15

M April 30

presentations on autoethnography + discourse community projects

Th  May  3  Post final discourse community projects

presentations on autoethnography + discourse community projects

Week 16 

M May 7

presentations on autoethnography + discourse community projects

Th May 10  Due: complete portfolio

presentations on autoethnography + discourse community projects

4.9 Mirabelli - describing your Discourse community

We talked about Mirabelli's essay both as information about a particular Discourse community (wait staff/servers) and as one way to organize an essay that presents information about a Discourse community.  As we discussed his essay, you thought about how  the patterns for analysis & organizations from his essays might work (or not) in your essay.

Notes from discussion of Mirabelli

Main focus: Points out benefits + literacy features/practices important to servers

Introduction

Opening example: identifies community => sets up focus on the value of servers’ literacy practices/ knowledge

Sets up that assumptions are the servers are ignorant unskilled

And that there are A LOT of them

Literacy theory

defines what he counts as literacies in his essay

Methodology/Lou's Restaurant

describes the community he is writing about = the people/cast of characters + the setting

how he collected + analyzed his data

The Menu

Analyzes listeracies associated with wait staff

menu terms 

interactions surrounding menu

specialized language

Conclusions

relates discussion from analysis to central focus

For your essay:

Introduction

Identify your discourse community

Characterize how your D community looked to you from outside

State what you found about it from your research

What counts as literacy in your discourse community

Identify what you used as data + how you collected your data

Describe the context for your work + the cast of characters

Menu = analysis of the document

Social interactions that surround the document

-          Your relationship to the document + what it is used for (purpose)

-          What kinds of conversations surround that document

-          Who consumes/reads the document = who the audience is

-          Under what circumstances the document is written

Lexis (special vocabulary)

Visual analysis = how are your documents supposed to look

-          Think about whether conforming with community expectations or being creative is the right move

For Thursday=> Final revisions to Autoethnography due
Bring one or two documents from your discourse community; we will work on writing the analysis for these documents in class

Professional organizations

Writers in general  Writer's Market

Creative writers  Poets and Writers

Teachers  National Council of Teachers of English

Screenwriters  Writers Guild of America

Book publishing Internships

Journalism Internships

Technical Writers  Society for Technical Communication  also see New York Chapter

4.5 Creating a research plan

Today's class is a workshop on your project to analyze a discourse community.  By the end of class you should have a plan posted to your portfolio.  The plan should include the following (or at least as much as you can do in class):


List activities you will need to engage in to complete your project.  This list should inlcude:

• the identity of your discourse community
• who you will interview/what you will observe to collect data/how you will obtain documents
• the categories of data you will need to collect to  (refer to Swales or discussion surrounding Gee)

Make a detailed list of data/materials you need for the first list:

• developing a set of observation prompts or an interview protocol
• list of documents you will analyze
• developing criteria to analyze observations/interview and documents

Make a timeline

• name specific people, places for data collection & set deadlines for specific tasks
• the timeline should include a writing schedule that leaves you time to go back for more information 

Check your plan against the assignment sheet to make sure you will have data that allows you to meet the requirements.


For next class:

Read: Mirabelli   This is a sample analysis of a discourse community.  It is slightly different from your assignment - but includes a focus + analysis relevant to this project.

·       

4.2 Swales- defining discourse communities

Everyone who turned in a draft autoethnography should have comments.  You started class by writing a memo to your self in response to the comments.  You were asked to identify questions (and to ask me - in class - I went from person to person), and then to make a plan for your revisions. 

We then talked over Swales essay on defining discourse communities. We noticed the how the essay was orgainzed into parts that 1) defined the problem; 2) distinguished discourse communities from speech communities 3) identified a set of criteria to define discourse communities 4) gave an example of a particualar discourse community; and 5) addressed remaining questions about how discourse communities work.

We focused primarily on the 6 features that identify discourse communities, and we developed our discussion in terms of our class.  Swales pointed out that a given class may or may not be a discourse community, and that it certainly will not be one on the first day, unless people know one another.  We noted that our class fit all criteria, but was probably weakest on shared purpose/goals, and that we had fewer communication structures/feedback systems between student members than we might.

We concluded class with discussion Anne Herrington's research on the Engineering Lab and Design classes.  Swales' observation was that while the Lab course was about demonstrating mastery of established forms, the Design class was about extending knowledge and communication practices associated with "engineering discourse" for use an future situations.  In other words the Lab discourse conserved practices & forms, and the Design course pressed for growth and change.  We then went back to our shared purposes/goals (to define our community) and considered that goals for this course were more like the Design goals, than the Lab goals.  

For Thursday:

Re-read Swales.  Make sure you understand the 6 features he uses to define discourse communities.

In class - you will create a research plan for your discourse community project and post it to your portfolio.

Good class today and see you on Thursday.

3.29 Characterizing a discourse community

Today's class connected to Gee's discussion of Discourse as an "identity toolkit."  in particular, we talked about college teacher writing Discourse and identified the categories or dimensions you would need to talk about in order to fully describe "who" a college writing teacher is, how s/he behaves and what s/he does.  Pasted below is the list Kathryn compiled from our class discussion (thank you Kathryn).  The bold headings are the features or general classes of intentions, behaviors, beliefs, and practices that characterize Discourses in general, and the lists beneath are the particular characteristics of college writing teacher Discourse.  We noticed that some of the characteristics conflicted with each other - and that in many cases different college writing teachers practice college writing teacher discourse differently.

purpose
- teach writing
- effective communication
- engage students in process
-develope students skills and attitudes
-connecting to students already existing naturals and knoweldge

goals
-aware of audience
-wants to create positive environment
-full participation

values
-correct grammar
-paying attention  
- participation
- conversation
- engagement
-interaction
-rights to/respect for home language
-”teaching’ the language of power
-tradition -- connect to scholarship
-own your education
-meet standards

power structure
-teacher decides what’s “right”  --- gives grades
-student directed learning
-negotiated
--
how knowledge is created
-negotaited
-created through language

what counts as “fact”
-text as authority
-teacher’s interpretation priviledged
-interpretative logic
-quotation/citation

authority - created/communicated
-logic citation quotation
-how participants represent themselves


hierarchy/organization for talk/writing

what kinds of documents characterize written discourse

appropriate vocabulary topics for talk


Characterizing a Discourse community.
At the end of class, we talked quickly through your final assignment (posted to the right). The purpose of this discussion was to give you a heads up for where we are going - and to set you up with the information you need so you can think about which Discourse community you want to choose for this assignment.


For Monday:
I will look through your draft autoethnographies and get back to you with comments and a grade so far.


Read: Swales, 466.


Write: choose a Discourse community for your final project.


Have a good weekend!

3.26 Discourse, identity and literacies

You turned in your draft autoethnographies = everything is posted on your porfolio sites AND you should send a copy (if you haven't already) as an attachment to the ENG3005waw email- name your file with your last name and autodraft.

We spent class talking about James Gee's take on Discourse, identities and literacies.  Before we started class discussion, I asked you to take notes on the "moves" I made, the implied values, the ways I related to/acquired authority, how I represented myself => all the features of a "teacher discourse" for college writing teachers.  And you took good notes!

We then talked through (and challenged) Gee's definitions and principles and we challenged the first theorem.  I hope to take up some more of that in next class (and maybe do some arguing over the second theorem - p 487).

Key terms :  Discourse (484); primary + secondary Discourse (485); dominant/mainstream Discourse (485-86); literacies as social practices (484); decontextualized skills (486-7); metaknowledge (489); mushfake (490); filtering + transfer (486 + 492).

We then developed a preliminary list of the kinds of moves that placed my identity within college writing teacher Discourse:

Features of talk + behavior:

ask questions

direct students to text

received answers  in ways that directed students more toward teacher expectations - not negatively

animated affirmation

try to get other students to answer questions

re-phrase questions when students don't produce preferred answers

take glasses on and off

Power moves:

surveillance

position in class room

evaluation of student answers

write on board

call on people

For next class:  We will do some more talking about Gee and identities on Thursday.  Come to class prepared to think about  features of the way people talk/represent themselves function to present Discourse as "identity toolkits."  Think about Discourses you own or that you are on the edge of.  Bring your notes from class so we can keep working on our list of "moves" that make college writing teacher discourse.

3.15 Workshop for autoethnographies

OMG you are really going to do this assignment.  Talking with you it looks like everyone is getting this.

Your first all-the-way through draft is due March 26.
Post to your site:

• track changes files of data essay (reaction essay)
• sound files
• transcript(s) of sound files
• Draft autoethnography

Also => send the autoethnography draft to the ENG3005waw@gmail.com address as an attachment.  Name your file LastnameDraftAuto.

In class we talked about what to set up in your introduction.  You mentioned that the introductory paragraphs should include (not necesarily in this order):

• what you assumed about your writing process before this project
• what you found out/.discovered about your writing process
• what benefits you hope to get from studying your writing process
• where your data comes from (the assignment you wrote to "watch" your writing process)=> include a link to or copy of the assignment sheet
• observations about your data collecting proces (any problems you had with track changes, transcribing, sound files etc)
• a general description of your writing process

In your data anlaysis you should connect back to your general description of your process and your findings in terms of particular findings.
For each finding state:

• what you discovered
• evidence (with particular references to your track changed files/sound files/transcript -memories)
• reflections on what your discovery means for your writing process + how you might use this discovery to strengthen your writing.

For next class:

DUE: draft autoethnography

Read: Gee + intro to Ch 4 (463-465)

3.12 Class workshop

At the beginning of the hour I noted some general patterns I am noticing in your writing process.  In some ways - each of these "moves" has advantages and disadvantages = that is, each approach allows you to write some kinds of papers - but not others.

 

moving into the writing process BEFORE making sure of the requirements in the writing assignment

starting to write the draft before the writer has something to say

writing straight through (from beginning to end)

writing in a sort of random order

brainstorming through out the writing process when necessary

revising for grammar only

revising (or lack of revising) for focus

revising (or lack of revising) for organization

revising (or lack of revising) for development

checking (or not) to see if the essay meets the requirements of the assignment

on-going correction during drafting process 

The rest of today's class was focused on one-on-one workshopping

3.8 Autoethnography again!

Thank you for your patience and good work on this project.  We used the assignment sheet provided by your text book - but it is clear that assignment introduced too much information all at once.  So we have broken it down further.

We made clear that this is a kind of 3 in 1 assignment where you:

1. Write an essay (or something) - such as the reaction papers.

2.  Collect data on your writing process as you write your essay (such as the reaction paper).

3. Write an essay (the autoethnography) where you analyze what you learned from the data you collected on your writing process.

More support documents:
Autoethnography assignment sheet (posted to the right) reviews the directions from the text and in the last blog post, and sets forward the specific points I will be looking for in the autoethnography essay, and how you will be graded.

Brainstroming list for autoethnograpy gives you some prompts for the points you will need to address in your autoethnography essay.

We spent the remainder of class in one-on-one sessions working on your data collection documents and your autoethnography.

For next class:
If said on the calendar that the draft autoethnography was due at the end of class today - if you have a draft that you would like written feedback on - send it to the class email ENG3005waw@gmail.com.

If you are still working on your data and writing through the prompts on the brainstorming list - that is OK, you can send your draft on Monday.  

We will spend both classes next week workshopping drafts and revising.

Good class and have a great weekend.

3.5 Work on the autoethnography

I checked each of your portfolios to see how you are doing on the autoethnography project - and some of you have definitely got it - and for the rest we spent some detailed time on step by step directions.  I understand that this is different from other assignments - and that it is asking you to do something that you probably don't have a "model" for. So OK - we will work on it until you get it.  If you have question or just want to conference one-on-one to see where you are - send me an email and we can set up a time.

Step by step process for gathering data:
1.  Decide what writing assignment you want to gather data on.  You should post a copy of your assignment sheet if you can.
2.  Turn on your voice recorder, and talk through the description for your assignment - what you need to do, where you are (where you are writing - that may be relevant) and anything else that might provide important information about how you set yourself up to write.  Keep your sound files 4 minutes or under.
3.  Talk through your brainstorming process, and what every else you need to think through until you are ready to write.
4.  When you are ready to write, open a MSword doc & turn on track changes.  Use the sound recorder to talk through things you are thinking - and begin writing.  You don't have to say what you are writing - rahter talk about what comes into your head as you write.  If you need to turn of the sound recorder to type - go ahead - but check in if you have important observations to add.
5.  After you have written for several minutes, save your draft as date_Draft_time.  Example: 3_5Draft2:15.  Save the sound files with similar numbered names.
6   Then save all changes, keep track changes on - and continue typing.  This will show your next set of changes.  Save sound files as needed.
7.  Continue steps 4-6 until you complete your paper.
8.  Transcribe your sound files (see the blog post on transcription).
9.  Code your transcript (see coding questions = posted to the right) to name what you see happening in your writing process. Also code your drafts - to name what kinds of changes you make.  I suggest printing your transcript and writing on it - or marking it up with the comment function on your word processor.
10.  Use your codes to describe your writing process.  Put them in groups (the way Perl had groups of related codes) so that you can see more clearly when you do the same thing (only for different reasons, or in different circumstances).
11.  Write an essay where you describe your writing process in terms of what works and what doesn't.  Use what you discovered from analyzing your transcript & your drafts as evidence to support your statements about how you write, what you do well, and what you need to work on.

Coding a sample transcript.
We spent the rest of class looking at Christine's transcript (thank you Christine) and talking about what you were finding in your transcripts.

For next class:
Post your transcript, sound files, drafts (and assignment sheet if you have one) to your portfolio= this is your data.
.
Code your  data.

Start to write some discussions about what you see as relationships within your data.

In class you will have one-on-one conferences with me to talk about what you see in your data.  There will not be enough time for everyone - and if you want to set up time outside class=> send me an email.

Good work today.

3.1 Deborah Brandt again and getting ready for next week's data workshops

Stratification, competition and appropriation - the roles of literacy sponsors in these processes - and how individual life stories can illustrate and connect to larger patterns in literate lives.  We went through the structure of the essay, and pointed out how Brandt's process (naming and describing relationships) was similar to the kind of work you were doing in your autoethnographies (sort of)

The rest of class was set answering questions and reviewing the requirements for gathering (and posting) your data for your autoethnographic project.  You should have your essay completed and all of your sound files transcribed and posted to your portfolio by Monday.  In class Monday you will work in groups to analyze your data.  You will share the names (codes) you have developed for the circumstances, actions, behaviors, feelings, interactions, relationships, and outcomes you see in your data.

For next class:
In addition to posting your dat on your portfolio, code your transcripts, and post a list of  ideas + questions about what your codes show about your writing process.  I will conduct in-class conferences - and you will need this document to talk about your ideas for your essay.

2.27 Deborah Brandt & coding your autoethnography data

We spent the first part of class talking about Deborah Brandt's essay and spent some time translating it into plain English.  And you didn't do that great on the quizzes - but you gave awesome suggestions for doing better- including:
identifying key terms
group discussions
give examples of key points
read this blog
take notes *in your own words* (YES! ))
get a vampire to help you

I also noted that you took excellent notes on your quizzes.

For next class - be prepared to write a quiz on what Brandt's essay shows about the following points (the points she sets up as the focus of her essay on p. 336):

1)  the fact that even though we think of the US as the land of opportunity = there are DEFINITE inequalities with respect to literacies 

2)  the fact that literacy sponsors contribute to making and continuing these inequalites

3) that literacies in todays world can provide new opportunities for changing these inequalities

Coding your data from your autoethnography.

We are making gradual headway on this project.

As I said in class - I will work with you on this.  And yes - you are going to have to transcribe some of those sound files.  

Coding is simply naming the different actions, interactions, feelings, and other behaviors you see in your data. After you name what you see yourself doing - you can pay attention to where, when and why you do particular things => and that is a pattern.  Then you can look for that pattern (do you do it more than once?  is it different in different parts of your writing process?  What is it associated with?  Does it connect to other patterns?) 

For example, in class we noticed in Nikki's transcript that she paused some times, and we noticed that her pauses were associated with actions and comments that indicated that she felt uncomfortable when she paused - or was silent and couldn't think of what to say.  That might be a pattern. You might look for all the places when you remembered being uncomfortable - or when the language in your transcript indicates you are uncomfortable - and see if there is a "pattern" = a set of recurring circumstances or relationships associated with that discomfort.    

Transcribing:  Before you can analyze your data - you have to have it in a form where you can name and count recurring patterns and forms.  Before you caSome of our notes on Nikki's transcript (the last link on the list on the autoethnogrphy page of the Sample Portfolio).

We talked about this last class. If you have questions - I will go over it again on Thursday.

Codes/notes/reflections from our discussion of Nikki's transcript

Code: open language [about what she's going to do] (language that shows an idea is open = indefinite article,
"a draft"  one to two pages

Code: indefinite plans (link in Rose =loose ideas] = name some of what Nikki says she will do

Code: definite plans => clarifying assignment, audience, defining terms of the assignment

breaks a "too hard" rule by turning off the recorder and doing a freewrite with music

Things you might code for other than language & moves: feelings, pauses, interruptions (sample code-names for interruptions: self-imposed, external, editing, finding the right word, etc), procrastination, etc

Coding by parts of the writing process:

invention, drafting(writing), revising, editing (you might notice the sequence of which parts of the writing process you are in as you write => most of us do not go from prewriting to drafting to revising to editing;. Instead we move back and forth and around.  You might look for connections between what part of the writing process you are in when you get the most "stuck" - or what moves you make between different parts of the writing process to get unstuck. 

.

Naming parts within the different parts of the writing process:

invention/brainstorming: finding topic, finding language, finding a focus, meeting assignment, organization, figuring out supporting points. . .)=> again, you might notice where you get stuck & your best moves for getting unstuck

Naming where/how you get stuck

note what stumps you = different kinds of "stumps" = no idea what to say, not the right words, concern over grammar, worry its "not good enough". . . .

We will talk about this more on Thursday.

For next class:

practice coding of YOUR autoethnographic data

Review Brandt

Bring your data to class on your memory stick and post it on your portfolio

Thanks for your good work today and see you next class!

The fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

This is the animated short (about reading!) that  I told you about.  It is a kind of literacy allegory?



The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

2.23 Mike Rose & Writers' block

Portfolios:  You set up your portoflios - and if I sent you an email - then you are all set (with maybe a few minor tweaks).  If you did not get an email - then you need to set up your portfolio & send me the link by Monday.  Coaches in the writing center can walk you through doing this.  Remember that the "share" settings should be set so that "anyone who has the link" can see the portfolio, and you need to send an email to me - with the link.

Autoethnography assignment:

We talked through the Reaction paper assignment (posted to the right) and how you would use it to do your autoethnography assignment (see directions for saving track changes files, and for creating sound files, also to the right).

You will need to transcribe some or most of your sound files - so that you have data that you can work with.  By transcribe - I mean to listen to your sound file and type what you hear yourself say.  You don't have to put in all the "ums" and backtracks in your talk - but do make some effort to represent what you say, the order you say it. Look at the sample transcript from Nikki's files (posted to the right).  You can see that I put in some "time markers" (the numbers) every once in a while.  That's so if I want to go back to the sound file to listen - to make sure I got it right - it will be there. 

Mike Rose & Writer's Block: (actually the ENG 2020 class just read this essay - so these are our notes from discussion = which took a little more time than ours.


Main point(s):
Writing is a problem solving process: understanding the problem, processing, solving.

Unblocked writers were less rigid in their application of the rules for writing

Heuristic writers generally less blocked


Important vocabulary:
Cognitive – thought/ thinking processes

Algorithms –precise rules applied the same way 

Heuristics – rules of thumb = more flexible and less specific than algorithms

TOTE

Plan: bigger than a heuristic, has a sequence & hierarchy

Set: what you bring from your past, assumptions, values & beliefs + thinking patterns


FINDINGS
How writers got blocked
Blocked writers use algorithms rather than heuristics, and they use rules as absolutes

Sets (assumptions) from past experiences = can interfere with what you need to do for a particular writing task (Martha’s need to see writing as linear, logical and a straight path)

Were resistant to – or didn’t make use of- feedback

Can get stuck in intro paragraph (bad rule = have to write the intro first)

Closed system limits possibilities can lead to conflict (plans don’t take into account unanticipated factors in the audience, purpose or form of the writing task)

Too many rules (without a plan for how to choose among them)


Who didn’t get blocked and why
Just write and look at what happens

Lots of feedback considered

Knew how to respond to feedback

Flexible about finding alternatives = pragmatic approach – if the rule didn’t work, pick another rule

Didn’t take rules too seriously

Some reflections for ENG 3005:  This list of how writers do/don't get blocked could connect to a list of codes describing the kinds of moves writers make as they write.

For next class: 

Read:  Brandt + intro to Ch 3 (328-330)  We will go through this quickly.  I will give a quiz= so you can see where you are, but we have made other arrangements about the grades).  Then I will identify the main points for you so you can go back and make sure you "got" this.

Write: Post transcripts to portfolio + post track changes files & sound files

We will have a workshop Monday.  If you are having trouble posting your files = we will work on it then.  Bring your work to class on your memory stick and everything will work out.  Good luck and I am really excited to hear how this goes for you.

Think: Start thinking about what you "see" in your data - and what kinds of moves you make and how you would name those moves.  In class we will start to identify some codes for what you do as you write. Codes are simply names for what you see yourself doing in your transcript/drafts.  For examples - look at Perl's list of codes - and the discussion in Rose where he names students as applying algorithms or heuristics, and being  rigid or flexible.  This is going to be very interesting.

For class Feb 23

Bring what ever writing and sound files that you have to class.

In addition to talking about Rose, we will walk through creating your portfolio (if you haven't done so already) + posting your files to your portfolio.

I am sick so I will not be in class today.

For next class:
Read Rose.

Work on your autoethnography:
Do drafts for your "response essays" (assignment sheet posted to the right) or your chosen assignments using track changes as we discussed in class.
Create sound files
Post this "data" to your portfolio site.

If you have questions - I should be able to respond by email by the end of the weekend.

In class on Thursday, Feb 23, we will:
1. work on developing codes for the drafts and sound files for your autoethnography.
2. Discuss Rose.

Have a good weekend and I will see you on Thursday next week..

2.13 Sondra Perl + autoethnography assignment

Autoethnography assignment:
We started class with a discussion of the autoethnography assignment.  I wanted to make sure you each had an appropriate writing assignment for documenting & analyzing your writing process as described for this assignment (see page 322 of your text).


After some discussion, we decided on the following options.

1. Students can do a writing assignment of their choice.  It needs to be an assignment that you HAVE NOT YET WRITTEN.  You will document your process for writing this assignment through producing a series of "track changes" drafts, and with sound files + transcripts of associated with those drafts. 


2. Students can do a "reaction paper" (assignment posted to the right) to either Grant-Davie, or Porter.  Students who choose this option will receive a grade for the reaction paper, and this grade will stand "in place" of quizzes for the remaining readings.  You will still take and receive graded feedback for the quizzes - but your "credit" will come from the reaction paper.  You will document your process for writing the reaction papers using track changes and the sound files + transcripts.






Vocabulary for talking about writing
Before we turned the discussion to Perl, we checked through the goals for this chapter - the first of which was learning a vocabulary for talking about writing process.  These terms included:


heuristic: patterns for problem-solving or learning which provide a simplified outline for what to do or how to think about ideas

editing: correcting errors and mistakes

planning/invention: gathering ideas

revision: revise for focus, organization /development=> addition, deletion, rearrangement and substitution

cognitive: thinking, the thought processes in writing

writing process: how writers construct & build meanings

mindfulness: awareness

context:  surrounding circumstances => what surrounds or goes with the creation of the text

transfer: cross over knowledge in process, content or form

methodologies: procedures for conducting research

Terms from Perl's essay that are not in the glossary (that you might want to know) include: egocentric (as in egocentric writers), lexical transplants (p 208), and internal semantic models (209). If there are other terms form Perl that you were not sure of = ASK!

Sondra Perl: The composing process of unskilled college writers
We discussed Perl's purpose for doing her study, and the focus of her study (both of which are set up at the beginning of the essay).  We then spent the rest of the class discussing her findings.  We only got a chance to talk through the "big ideas" she set up on 204-205.  Take a look at the more particular findings under the sub-headings in this section.

FindingsStudent composing processes are consistent across subjects and assignments=> very little appears random =  students in the study did the same thing for both kinds of assignment

Editing too early and with inflexible rules kept students from getting ideas on the page + did not improve form


For Thursday:
Come to class with a definite plan for which writing project/assignment you will use for your autoethnography.  If possible, bring an assignment sheet or a written description.  The assignment for the reaction paper is posted to the right, under assignments. 

We will spend some time in class making sure you know how to get started on creating your data.  We will also "practice" using Perl's codes, and talking about what other kinds of "codes" we might need to "invent" for our study.


I hope to come to class with some sample "data" for us to code.  

2.9 Summing up Chapter 1 & data collection methods for autoethnographic projects

You have now successfully completed Chapter 1!  After reviewing Porter, we checked out the :"what you should get out of this chapter" list and made sure you hit the expectations.  You definitely did.  You understand rhetorical situations, how readers construct meanings, and we explored the idea of both knowledge and plagiarism as constructs.

Go back over the vocabulary one more time - and think about how it applies to your reading and writing practices and aspirations.

Practices for gathering the data for your autoethnography
The second part of class was spent "practicing" using track changes & listening to a sample sound file for your project.  The directions for creating your data, along with a sample portfolio  (the sample data is at the link for the autoethnography), are posted to the right under Assignments.

For next class:

Read: Perl + intro to Ch 2 (170-173)

2.6 Porter

Autoethnograhic project:  We talked about what writing assignment you would use for this project (see your textbook, page 322) and I answered some of your questions about "documenting" your writing process. This is the first time I have assigned this project - so we will work out the requirements together.  Make sure you have a recording device that you can bring to class to experiment with.  

Intertext.  James Porter's essay introduces the idea of intertextuality, and claims that "intertext constrains writing" in terms of the traces and presuppositions associated with the discourse communities it connects to.  If you can translate that into regular English - you've got the most of the main ideas in this essay.  He points out that current approaches to teaching writing draw from the idea of the writer as the autonomous, creator of his/her texts - and based on his analysis of the framing of the Declaration of Independence - this is clearly not the way writing works.

In class, you looked at course syllabi - documents routinely "written" to describe courses.  As you analyzed these documents, you found three "classes" of traces: traces associated with form/organization (the layout including the sequence of headings/ideas, use of typeface, organization on the page,  etc); content (what the headings were concerned with, the focus of individual sections), and language (standard word-for-word descriptions in the course description, objectives, and required materials etc).  

We then discussed the idea of plagiarism - and what is expected and prohibited - in terms of intertextuality.  For a syllabus - standard content, form and even standard language is expected - since students across the university expect to have the same standards & experiences for the same course.  We then turned back to the essays written for the placement exam - and were getting started on thinking about what is "expected" in terms of intertext, and what is prohibited.  We noticed that "complete" directions for form and focus were NOT available in the prompt itself  - rather, the student writer had to be "already" familiar with the expectations of the discourse community (college writing teachers) in terms of how to focus, organize, and develop the essay. And we also noticed that in general - in college writing - students are expected to use their "own language."

So far so good!

For class Thursday:

We will continue our discussion of Porter, and you practice using track changes to document successive drafts. You will also make sure you can use your voice recorder to create & save mp3 files.

BRING YOUR VOICE RECORDING DEVICE TO CLASS (and something = thumbdrive - to save your files to).

Exploring traces

Exploring  Traces (iterability)

ENG 3080: Writing for Cyberspace :  Fall 2011,  Spring 2010,  Spring 2009

2.2 Grant-Davie again = constraints

In class today we reviewed exigence, rhetors, and audience, and took up discussion of constraints = factors in the situation's context that may affect the achievement of the rhetorical objectives.  One example we used in class was that of a rhetorical situation where the rhetor's audience is a very angry person.  The audience's identity is SEPARATE from the constraints - but expectations and knowledge about how to talk to people  who are angry (discourse = a particular pattern for using language) will be constraints within this rhetorical situation.  You indicated that your discourse would need to be receptive (listen), indirect (not try to make your point directly), and be emotionally neutral.   And within our culture we agreed that those are constraints for any person who hopes to be "heard" by someone who is angry.

As Grant-Davie pointed out, constraints can come from the history of earlier discussions, or from the way you have already started to make your argument.  They can involve more than one rhetor or audience, and they can connect to economics, law and expectations about what is "right" or fair, or the "proper" way to talk.

We spend the last part of class looking at essays written in response to a placement prompt from David Bartholomae's essay, "Inventing the University" and talked about the "constraints" on acceptable discourse for college writers that may or may not be identified either in the prompt - or in the instructor's evaluation of the essay.  In many cases, constraints are not 100% conscious, and they can involve subtle expectations about "the right way" to demonstrate "authority," or to organize your ideas, the right "connections to make" or the right way to choose and develop examples.  As we saw in the sample essays, one writer understood the constraints in college writing discourse and was able to write to them - and the other writer kind of an idea - and made a good attempt - but fell short, maybe because he was not used to writing or talking that way.

Constraints in college writing often have to do with academic discourse but - as you pointed out in class -they vary from instructor to instructor, and topic to topic.  So as rhetors - you need to notice and make decisions about the "constraints" that go with any given writing assignment.  Some up-front thinking about constraints - can help all of us become more effective communicatiors.

For next class:
1. Read through directions for the auto-ethnography assignment on page 322.  Just read through and we will answer questions and talk through what comes next in class on Monday.  For now - the only "action" you need to take is to think about which writing task/assignment/project(s) you want to document.  As you noticed in the assignment, the project asks you to document your process IN DETAIL for one particular composition - and it suggests that you use the assignment to learn about your writing process, or possibly to gather information about why you have trouble with particular kinds of assignments.  We will do some in-class talk/writing about this on Monday.
2. Read, James Porter, p. 86, Intertextuality and the Discourse Community

Have a great weekend and see you Monday.

1.30 Grant-Davie and Rhetorical Situations

Today's class was an introduction to reading academic essays by composition teachers/researchers.  I was VERY impressed with how well you did on the quizzes and with the ideas you raised in our discussion.

Terms you should feel comfortable with from today's discussion:

rhetorical situation
exigence
rhetor
audience

Hopefully discussion helped sort out (using an example different from the ones raised by Grant-Davie)
1. definitions for terms
2. connections among rhetors, audience, and exigence =>

• how rhetors' self-representations are shaped by the purpose of their communication 
• how the values and beliefs of the audience and the rhetor shape exigence
• how exigence shapes discourse, and how it can be explored both in terms of questions of fact, policy and value - and in terms of questions addressing "what the discourse is about (surface versus deep/larger issues)?" why the discourse is needed (why now, why it matters)? and "what the discourse is trying to accomplish?"  

 We did not get to constraints.

Reflection on Swales
We briefly applied Swales CARS model to Grant-Davie's introduction; as you read additional essays you will see the moves identified by Swales used repeatedly, and you can use them to nail down the focus/purpose of these essays.

For Thursday:
We will continue class discussion on Thursday - with some discussion of constraints and "applications" of the terminology.
Think about which of the objectives for Chapter 1 (listed on p. 36) Grant-Davie meets + what we have left to do (by reading Porter).

1.26: Sample quiz + introduction to the readings

Quiz: We started out with a practice quiz - which was a little unfair since about half of you couldn't get the book (the bookstore sold out).  The point was for you to get an idea of the kind of questions I will ask, and to think about what kind of study habits will best prepare you to answer those questions.

FYI:   the most common points you made about how to strengthen your study habits were:

• to use writing (write down points in your own words) 
• to connect the reading to your own experience
• to read the essay more than once (a second time with a focus in mind)

Some additional suggestions: do some thinking about what the author emphasized as the most important points (as indicated in the introduction/conclusion, headings, bolded terms, etc);  and to ask yourself why/how the reading is important to course/unit we are working on.

Good job on this!

Journal writing: what do you want to do with writing and what do you want to get out of this course?  The writing for this prompt covered a wide range of purposes and needs.  You reported that you wanted to teach writing, write books, work in law and journalism.  You also wrote that you wanted your writing to be respected, have authority, be "heard" by others (so that it can change the way they see the world), and that you wanted to be clear, and know how to write to different audiences.

Writing from these prompts was meant to set up discussion of rhetorical situations - with the differences between student vs and teacher purposes, needs, values and expectations as a focus for defining rhetors and rhetorical positioning = but our discussion took a (useful) sidestep - and we considered the imbalance of power built into the physical set up of the computer labs. This is part of the rhetorical context of teaching in that room - and it shapes the kinds of conversations we can have - as does the fact that you call me Dr. Chandler and I call you by your first names.  This connects to the discussion we had about your expectations of me as a teacher - whether teachers should be the expert to "tells" students what is important in the readings, or whether they are guides/facilitators who direct students as they discover their own interpretations, or whether we are full partners in discovering/creating the meanings of these essays.   I am hoping we can work into the last postion - where we work together.  I am counting on you to fill in some of the gaps in what these researchers say about writing - so that your perspectives, needs, and interests will be part of the research in our classroom.

Set up for Grant-Davie essay (if you don't have the book yet - click on the link.  It might take a while to load).  We spent the last part of class talking about the language and ideas from Grant-Davie's essay.  You (very quickly) worked through the first "getting Ready to Read" activity = describing (and writing down)  a serious argument in as much detail as you could remember.  We used those descriptions as illustrations of the terms Grant-Davie used to write bout rhetorical situations.  We noted the exigence (the problem/disagreement/factors that convinced the rhetors that this issue needed to be dealt with in discourse = language in use) and the stases= the matters of fact, value and policy that shape the discussion.  If we had more time, we would have talked about audience and constraints.

As you read this essay, think about why this is an "important" essay for you to read.  Look back to the goals set up for the chapter (p 36) and think about how this essay meets those goals.

For next class:

Read:  Grant-Davie, p. 101

Have a great weekend!

Voice Recorder

This is a link to a description of the digital voice recorder I recommended.

Writing about Writing

Thanks for a great first day!  I didn't spend as much time learning your names as I meant to - so I will have to catch up on Thursday.

We spent today setting up the class.  I talked through the readings and major assignments, and directed you to the syllabus for the course policies.  The syllabus represents our agreement for how we will work through the course together.  If, as you read through, you think of questions or concerns - let me know and we will talk them through.

You then did some writing about  times in your lives when writing was important to you.  You came up with the following list:

• Business self representation
• Relationship building
• Song writing = metaphoric representation of self
• Interpretations of others’ ideas
• Creative writing (family + personal significance)
• Journaling/autobiography
• Documentation (professional)
• Political activism
• Planning – containing craziness
• Representation of self

We sort of ran out of time - but the plan was to take a look at how you used writing - and what it "did" for you - and then to think about the features of writing that allowed it to work for you the way it did.

In the very short time we had to talk about this - you pointed out that writing helped you build confidence, be creative and provide information.  You also noted that it was therapeutic.    We then noted what some of the particular features of writing were that allowed you to "use" it for these ends.   Some of these features were that writing: 1) creates distance between the writer and his/her feelings or thoughts by putting thoughts outside -on the page - where they can be examined, rearranged, and re-combined.  2) It waits -  it is "still" - and "permanent" so that you can come back to it - and while your feelings and interpretations may change, the while the interpretation or understanding of what they say can change = the marks on the page will be the same when you come back.  This contributes both to its importance as documentation =recording "what happened" at a partricular point in time.  There were some more ideas on our list - and what is remarkable is that the "important experiences" you noted were evidence for features of writing that linguists and other language researchers have observed as characteristics of writing.

Our little experiment is along the lines of what we will be doing in this course (well, sort of).  You will read essays about writing - and then reflect on and apply what you have learned,  You will then analyze your own writing and your relationships to writing conventions and communities = and use what you discover to re-think who you are (want to be) as a writer.  Sorry for running out of time at the end - it would have been better if we had more time to talk through what your experiences suggest about writing - I was pretty interested in your interpretations of what we were finding.


For next class:

Read: Introduction to WAW, pp 1-8, Introduction to Chapter I, pp 34-36

Bring your books and we will talk through some of the vocabulary + the way the book is organized.  You will also do some more writing + reflecting, and get set up to read Grant-Davie's research essay.  Great class and see you on Thursday.