Favor: Can you post your objections to Gandhi today? I forgot to copy them down off the board.
Favor 2: Any suggestions for the Doing project?
Homework: Course Reader 151-65 (Savarkar). Answer your study question as assigned below. (I just went alphabetically.)
1. Christine, 2. Joanna, 3. Aubrey, 4. Sarah B, 5. Marko, 6. Marcee, 8. Sarah D, 9. Annie, 10. Kiyomi, 11. Priya, d1. Steve & Elim, d2. Mark & Monique, d3. Ivan & Roselaine, d4. Ankita & Yen, d6. Lorena & Rosa, d7. Stephanie & Alexa
Kickoff: Lorena & Alexa (anything related to Savarkar from lecture or reader)
Research Prospectus: due Friday night, May 8. I'll explain more about that in class, but this page will be super, super helpful. Here's a sample prospectus the HumCore writing director put on the website... but it's probably a bit too long.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Class #13 postgame
Please note, The Plan does not go into effect until Week 9. I look forward to us all going to Chaturvedi's lectures on Savarkar & Vira and Hart's lectures on Kluger, and reading those texts. The only reason I said don't read Savarkar yet is that you're going to read him for Friday.
The Plan is probably better discussed by email and office hours than here on the blog.
Homework: 10 potential book sources for research paper & 40-50 potential article sources
Homework: Post your "Doing" exercise here if you haven't already, and check out my additional comments about the previous ones
Kickoff: Christine & Monique, who didn't get to go today
Back to Gandhi on Wednesday. Our main question... where did Gandhi lose you? At what point did you find it impossible to see things his way?
The Big Questions (as discussed on Monday):
-Do the ends justify the means?
-What causes historical change (meaning real, substantive, significant change)?
-What defines a nation? A political state? A public? A community? Etc. (and, how are "ancient" ones different than "modern" ones, what role does gender play, what role does religion play, etc.)
The Plan is probably better discussed by email and office hours than here on the blog.
Homework: 10 potential book sources for research paper & 40-50 potential article sources
Homework: Post your "Doing" exercise here if you haven't already, and check out my additional comments about the previous ones
Kickoff: Christine & Monique, who didn't get to go today
Back to Gandhi on Wednesday. Our main question... where did Gandhi lose you? At what point did you find it impossible to see things his way?
The Big Questions (as discussed on Monday):
-Do the ends justify the means?
-What causes historical change (meaning real, substantive, significant change)?
-What defines a nation? A political state? A public? A community? Etc. (and, how are "ancient" ones different than "modern" ones, what role does gender play, what role does religion play, etc.)
Thoughts on Final Draft #7
You'll get the grades tomorrow... this is the first set of essays I've hand-graded in two or three years. (I left my laptop in my office over the weekend and printed them out from my wife's computer.) You'll notice I messed with your formatting to save paper. I'm not like, trying to institute rules about tiny fonts and single-spacing.
This is a truly exceptional class. The average grade is about 3.09 (3.00 is a "B"), whereas I have been giving somewhere between 2.65-2.85 for most essays this year. I think part of it is your natural talent, and another part is that you have practiced so many essays over the course of the year. But having seen the first drafts, which were an absolute MESS to tell you the truth, the most encouraging thing to me is that this is a class that is really willing to get their hands dirty doing draft revisions. This will serve you well for the research papers, provided that you can keep up your motivation and your time management. (This is always a problem for students in the last five weeks of the spring term.)
The stuff I emphasized in our workshops last week (paragraph organization, and how to incorporate quotations from sources) will also be key to the research paper. That's the other reason I made such a big deal about it. But let me add one more comment that you should take into the research paper. Something that came up on many of these drafts... some of you need to cool it with the descriptive adjectives and adverbs. And with overwriting the sentences to use thesaurus words and long, winding constructions. None of this substitutes for actually having a point to make. Perhaps it was just a consequence of this particular assignment, but for the next one just be aware that there is a mile of difference between describing something and analyzing it. I don't mean to be mystical about that difference... to make it as simple as I can, good analysis is going to result in sentences with strong nouns and verbs. Otherwise you're just...
This is a truly exceptional class. The average grade is about 3.09 (3.00 is a "B"), whereas I have been giving somewhere between 2.65-2.85 for most essays this year. I think part of it is your natural talent, and another part is that you have practiced so many essays over the course of the year. But having seen the first drafts, which were an absolute MESS to tell you the truth, the most encouraging thing to me is that this is a class that is really willing to get their hands dirty doing draft revisions. This will serve you well for the research papers, provided that you can keep up your motivation and your time management. (This is always a problem for students in the last five weeks of the spring term.)
The stuff I emphasized in our workshops last week (paragraph organization, and how to incorporate quotations from sources) will also be key to the research paper. That's the other reason I made such a big deal about it. But let me add one more comment that you should take into the research paper. Something that came up on many of these drafts... some of you need to cool it with the descriptive adjectives and adverbs. And with overwriting the sentences to use thesaurus words and long, winding constructions. None of this substitutes for actually having a point to make. Perhaps it was just a consequence of this particular assignment, but for the next one just be aware that there is a mile of difference between describing something and analyzing it. I don't mean to be mystical about that difference... to make it as simple as I can, good analysis is going to result in sentences with strong nouns and verbs. Otherwise you're just...
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Class #12 post-game
We've had a pretty good discussion the past two classes, but many of you are still underprepared. Please take the weekend to catch up.
Post: Your character's response to the Doing list. Yes or no for each, detailed answers for two of them.
Finish: Hind Swaraj and assigned prefatory material
Kickoff: Wasn't it Christine for the lecture and Monique for the book? Or maybe vice versa.
Email Me: by Wednesday morning, 10 potential book sources and 40-50 potential article sources for your research paper
Post: Your character's response to the Doing list. Yes or no for each, detailed answers for two of them.
Finish: Hind Swaraj and assigned prefatory material
Kickoff: Wasn't it Christine for the lecture and Monique for the book? Or maybe vice versa.
Email Me: by Wednesday morning, 10 potential book sources and 40-50 potential article sources for your research paper
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Class #11 postgame
Let's see if I can remember all of this. Appropriately, we have a lot to "do" in the coming week.
Thursday p.m. = Final draft with acknowledgments, reflections, works cited (to Turnitin, classID: 2698576, password: ignite)
Friday: Class outside... hope for good weather
Friday: Catch up on your Gandhi reading (see previous post for page numbers)... I'm not spinning the wheel for you mostly by myself like I did today.
Friday: Marcee & Sarah Devine kickoff
Friday: The people in the back corner who got assigned to be Gandhi, you need to answer Yes or No for the remainder of the items on the Doing list. Then take at least two of the items on the list and explain why you chose Yes or No. Post this to the blog and be prepared to speak on it in class.
Monday: Finish Hind Swaraj (66-119)
Monday: The non-Gandhis need to answer for the thinker I assigned you to... remember that you have the option of substituting a character if you've been given a creative writer (like for Shakespeare you could choose Bottom or Titania, for Morrison you could choose Cholly or Pecola, etc.) Again, that means Yes or No to each item on the list, and at least two fuller explanations. Posted to the blog.
Wednesday p.m. = email or link me a list of 10 possible book sources and 40-50 possible article sources...
Friday 5/1 = midterm
Photos from one of Gandhi's ashrams (thanks to Ankita):
Thursday p.m. = Final draft with acknowledgments, reflections, works cited (to Turnitin, classID: 2698576, password: ignite)
Friday: Class outside... hope for good weather
Friday: Catch up on your Gandhi reading (see previous post for page numbers)... I'm not spinning the wheel for you mostly by myself like I did today.
Friday: Marcee & Sarah Devine kickoff
Friday: The people in the back corner who got assigned to be Gandhi, you need to answer Yes or No for the remainder of the items on the Doing list. Then take at least two of the items on the list and explain why you chose Yes or No. Post this to the blog and be prepared to speak on it in class.
Monday: Finish Hind Swaraj (66-119)
Monday: The non-Gandhis need to answer for the thinker I assigned you to... remember that you have the option of substituting a character if you've been given a creative writer (like for Shakespeare you could choose Bottom or Titania, for Morrison you could choose Cholly or Pecola, etc.) Again, that means Yes or No to each item on the list, and at least two fuller explanations. Posted to the blog.
Wednesday p.m. = email or link me a list of 10 possible book sources and 40-50 possible article sources...
Friday 5/1 = midterm
Photos from one of Gandhi's ashrams (thanks to Ankita):
Monday, April 20, 2009
Class #10 post-game
Thanks for being on the ball at the library session today. I hope it was helpful. Now that all of you have settled on a topic and formulated a list of questions, it's time to start gathering sources. I believe it says this on the official prompt, but at minimum you want one book to feature as a major source or theoretical model for your paper, and four or five articles. But as you see, you're going to need to sort through dozens or maybe even hundreds of potential sources to find ones that will actually work for you. I'm going to require a certain number of potential sources for Monday... I haven't decided how many yet, but you may as well get started.
Tip: If you want to procrastinate your Antigone paper, start working on your research paper. If you want to procrastinate your research paper, finish your Antigone paper. If you want to procrastinate both, read Gandhi and help me try to figure out what doing is.
Read: Hind Swaraj xiii-xxxii, l-lxii, & 1-65... you might also find it helpful to consult the biographical timeline (lxv-lxviii) and the glossary of terms (lxxvi-lxxvii) as you read along
Kickoff: Marko (book), Sarah B (lecture)
Final Draft: due Thursday p.m. to Turnitin with acknowledgments, reflections, works cited
Tip: If you want to procrastinate your Antigone paper, start working on your research paper. If you want to procrastinate your research paper, finish your Antigone paper. If you want to procrastinate both, read Gandhi and help me try to figure out what doing is.
Read: Hind Swaraj xiii-xxxii, l-lxii, & 1-65... you might also find it helpful to consult the biographical timeline (lxv-lxviii) and the glossary of terms (lxxvi-lxxvii) as you read along
Kickoff: Marko (book), Sarah B (lecture)
Final Draft: due Thursday p.m. to Turnitin with acknowledgments, reflections, works cited
Friday, April 17, 2009
Class #9 post-game
Thanks for doing such a great job commenting on each others' papers at the conferences today. I felt they were really successful and I look forward to seeing the final drafts.
As for Kleist, Kafka, and Doing... two more weeks until the midterm, seven more weeks in the course... we'll figure something out. I was sure we'd never figure out Making last quarter, but in the end we did.
And we are going to ignite some research papers, yes we are.
Reminder: Class Monday will meet in the Langson Library (classroom on main floor).
Reminder: Final draft #7 due to Turnitin.com on Thursday night with acknowledgments, reflections, and works cited (I'll explain those next week)
Homework: Write 20 questions about your research project for the library day
Homework: Jiminy cricket this Gandhi book is longer than I thought... I think at minimum you need to read all of the prefatory material so Monday's lecture doesn't go over your head... and then a little taste of Gandhi's writing style (Hind Swaraj xiii-lxxvii, 1-18)
As for Kleist, Kafka, and Doing... two more weeks until the midterm, seven more weeks in the course... we'll figure something out. I was sure we'd never figure out Making last quarter, but in the end we did.
And we are going to ignite some research papers, yes we are.
Reminder: Class Monday will meet in the Langson Library (classroom on main floor).
Reminder: Final draft #7 due to Turnitin.com on Thursday night with acknowledgments, reflections, and works cited (I'll explain those next week)
Homework: Write 20 questions about your research project for the library day
Homework: Jiminy cricket this Gandhi book is longer than I thought... I think at minimum you need to read all of the prefatory material so Monday's lecture doesn't go over your head... and then a little taste of Gandhi's writing style (Hind Swaraj xiii-lxxvii, 1-18)
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