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
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.
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