Group Presentations
On Monday, after your Scrabble debriefing, you will receive the assignment for the short group presentation you and three or four of your classmates will deliver on Wednesday, March 11. You will have the majority of Monday’s class period to devote to planning, and you will have the first ten minutes of Wednesday’s class for final preparations.
The subject of your presentation will be an article focusing on one of these aspects of English 1103:
- Blogging
- Limiting screen time
- Reading printed texts (rather than reading online articles and ebooks)
- Writing longhand
Although you and your group members will focus on only one of the four articles, all of you will read and annotate the other three in preparation for your classmates’ presentations.
If you decide to devote your final essay and annotated bibliography to one of the aspects of the course covered in the group presentations, the article focusing on that subject will serve as the starting point for your project.
Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography
Which aspect of the course or which of the writers we have studied are you interested in examining further? Your answer to that question will determine the subject of your final essay and annotated bibliography.
In preparation for beginning your research next week, review the list below and freewrite in your journal on the subjects that appeal to you most.
- Donald Barthelme
- Blogging
- Tom Junod
- Helen Keller
- Limiting screen time
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Harper Lee
- Michael Lewis
- Reading printed texts (rather than reading online articles and ebooks)
- Scrabble
- David Sedaris
- Writing longhand
If you choose to research one of the writers we have studied, keep in mind that your project will be an exploration of the author’s words, not his or her life. Your aim is not to write a biography, but instead a study of the writer’s craft.
Bonus Assignment
Directions
- Go to the class blog page, and click on the link for the blog of the classmate whose name precedes yours. If you are first on the list, go to the blog of the student whose name is last.
- If your designated classmate’s blog is not linked to the page, or his or her analysis is not published, choose another classmate’s blog.
- Read the classmate’s analysis.
- Compose a one- or two-paragraph response (75 words, minimum) that includes both the classmate’s name and the title of his or her analysis. In your comment, address one or more of these elements: the title, the thesis, evidence to support the thesis and/other claims, organization, the conclusion, the image documenting part of the writing process away from the screen, the embedded link to a relevant website. Note that you will mention the classmate by name, but you will not refer to him or her in third person. In other words, you will not write, John’s examples of “The School”‘s incongruities effectively demonstrate Donald Barthelme’s postmodernist approach to storytelling. Instead, you will write, John, your examples of “The School”‘s incongruities effectively demonstrate Donald Barthelme’s postmodernist approach to storytelling.
- Recommended (not required): Draft your comment longhand in your journal.
- Type your response as a comment. You should see a leave comment/reply option at the top or bottom of the post. If you do not see that option, click the title of the blog post, and scroll down. You should then see leave comment/reply.
- Before you click leave comment/reply, copy your comment (on a PC, copy with control + c; on a Mac, copy with command + c).
- After you submit your comment on your classmate’s blog post, return to this post, and paste your comment as a reply (on a PC, paste with control + v; on a Mac, paste with command + v). This step is critical because your classmate may not approve your comment, which means it will not be visible on his or her blog post. To receive credit for the assignment, you must post your duplicate comment as a reply to this blog post, “ENG 1103: Looking Ahead.“ To submit your comment, click the title of the post, then scroll down to the bottom. There you will see the image of an airmail envelope with a box for your comment. Type your comment in the box and click Comment. Post your comment by the 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 12.
I will make your comments visible after the deadline.
Next Up
On Monday, you will begin planning your group presentations. For more details, see the first paragraph of this post. I will provide additional instructions in class.
Jane Lucas 