Class #17 Post-Game and Reminders for the weekend

Announcement/Opportunity: I really botched things today by not including time for a thesis workshop in class. Unfortunately I've also canceled my afternoon office hours. So let me offer you the following opportunity... if you post a provisional thesis to the blog comments here by Friday afternoon (or email me, for secretive types)... I will give thorough commentary, criticisms, suggestions, encouragement etc. as necessary. Expect to hear back very late on Friday night. This is optional but might be a smart idea. Be sure to indicate whether it's an Article Analysis thesis or Scene Analysis thesis.

Great Link for Procrastinating: You may remember me suggesting to use Google Streetview to search for set locations used on The Wire. Apparently someone made a virtual tour with Streetview. Thanks to Megan for finding this.

Reminder: Finish The Wire! Or at least don't get mad at me if I talk about the ending(s) on Monday. Oh, and it turns out that 5.10 is a bit longer like 4.13, so be warned.
Reminder: Read the Viti article about lawyers and the Beliveau article about teachers. Our discussion on Monday will focus more on the style than the content because we will be revisiting the question of disciplinary-specific writing rules & practices.

The following schedule is for first drafts. If you're still not sure at this point whether you're supposed to be writing an article analysis or a scene analysis, god help you. As usual submission by Docs or email is fine, but don't expect a confirmation... I'll let you know if I didn't get it.

Essays Due Tuesday 2pm: Schwartz, Toder, Holmes, Powers, Barney, Regier, Semenov, Baldino, Stevens, Laudiero, Symons, Velazquez, Kim, Garney, Abed, Mailey, Musgrave, Elam 
Essays Due Wednesday at the start of class: Moyers, Stockmann, Klein, Annatone, Hagos, Wright, Shahidi, Johnson, Cohen, Ambrosio, Werner, Price, Foreman, Brahim, Taweechaisuntis, Fogg
Essays Due Thursday 2pm: Lawrence, Liggett, Perez, Guevara, Yorgen, Pollack, Peji, Brown, Thacker, Spencer, Bowman

Recommendation: Take a look at the sample essays in the next post.
Recommendation: Looks for a document titled "Essay #2 Prompt & Advice" in your Docs inbox. PDF copy here.
Recommendation: I will try to save some class time on Monday for an introduction workshop, so do yourself a favor and write a full introduction paragraph before class, if you do nothing else.
Recommendation: Even those with the Thursday deadline ought to get started early, because we are going to do various in-class workshops on Wednesday that would work better if your draft was at least semi-complete. Since we are focusing on transitions and meta-comments, try to work out what goes in each paragraph/section.

Proposition: I still have that brand new, never taken out of the box printer/scanner, and I'm so lazy that I don't even feel like photographing it and putting it on Craigslist. $20.

Class #16 Post-Game and Reminders for Wednesday

Warning/Announcement: I am canceling Wednesday afternoon office hours unless someone emails me to make an appointment. (I have to clean the house because my mom's in town!)


Today's Writing Exercise:

-Step One: Write statement about The Wire in “your own” voice.
-Step Two: Translate the statement into a more formal or stuffy voice register. The more you can exaggerate, the better this will work.
-Step Three: Translate the statement into some form of slang or more colloquial language. Again, try to exaggerate.
-Step Four: Identify at least one word from the “formal” statement and one word from the “slang” statement that provides value-added.
-Step Five: Write a revised statement that attempts to integrate elements from all three voices (step one plus the value-added elements from two and three). Use whatever signals or markers you deem appropriate.
-Post your Step Five sentence in the comments below.

Sample: This was one from class but I am pushing the exaggeration even further.

1. Many of Marlo's decisions violate the code of the streets. People who try to point this out to him usually get murdered.

2. The entrepreneurial young ruffian Marlo demonstrates neglect of the etiquette that pertains to his environment. Fellow community members and dealers of narcotics alike can be seen demonstrating outrage with respect to his actions, but ironically this only results in the continuation of his diabolical murder campaign.
3. Marlo don't follow no code. Kill when he pleases and when people try to step to, he just get more bodies. 

4. community, ironically, outrage, pleases, bodies

5. Many of Marlo's decisions outrage the West Baltimore community. Ironically, this only leads to more "bodies" as we see that it may please him to violate the code of the streets.

Reminder: Watch 5.5-5.6. Haley and Roconia have the final two SAW.
Reminder: Read the Jones article and read the Marshall article if you didn't get to it last week. Heads up to AAW 31-35.

This is Just Amazing: Taking the Dickens connection further, these guys wrote a fake literary analysis of a book called The Wire that was supposedly published in the 1840s. Complete with quotations of real show dialogue and illustrations of Omar walking through Victorian London.

SAF Sample 1: This essay about Omar & Bunk's first encounter is pretty close to what I envisioned when I wrote the assignment. It keeps to a focused thesis and mainly to one scene that fits well with this thesis. The grade was A-.
SAF Sample 2: This essay about Bubbles  shows how it's possible to use scene juxtaposition to create more of a character analysis; I'm sure the temptation to do this will be extreme now that we've made it to Season Five, but it needs to be done carefully. Another A-.
SAF Sample 3: This one comparing Omar to a Cirque du Soleil performer shows you how wide the possibilities are as long as you fulfill the basic goals of the assignment. Another A-.
AAF Sample 1: This essay represents a successful rebuttal of Harvey's main point and many of his sub-arguments, but as I've said this is not a specific requirement. It relies mainly on evidence external to The Wire. The grade was A.
AAF Sample 2: This essay focuses on a specific part of the Brooks article, and then goes further in that direction. It relies mainly on evidence internal to The Wire. The grade was A-.
AAF Sample 3: This essay uses the Klein article as a starting point for its own critical question about the concept of "honesty" in fictions, which it then links to reality TV. The grade was B+.

Note these are not necessarily the best essays, nor should you emulate all of their features, but I think they are good models for forming and developing a thesis for these two assignments.

Upcoming Schedule:

-Wednesday 3/30: Discussion of gender on The Wire, introduction & thesis workshop
-Monday 4/4: Reactions to Season Five conclusion, Viti & Beliveau articles, continuation of our discussion about disciplinary writing rules
-Tuesday 4/5: 11 of you will have your first draft essay due in the afternoon.
-Wednesday 4/6: Group workshops focusing on transitions (They Say I Say ch. 8) and metacommentary (They Say I Say ch. 10). 23 of you will have your first draft essay due before the start of class.
-Thursday 4/7: 11 of you will have your first draft essay due in the afternoon (those 11 are the people doing AAW 36-46).

Class #15 Post-Game and Reminders for the Weekend

Thanks for your contributions in class today. As usual my time management was much better in the 10:30 session, but at least the 9:00 people get the better classroom space, so maybe it evens out.

Reminder: Post anonymous advice for your fellow students about how to do the Article Analysis or Scene Analysis essays directly to the main prompt document (currently titled Essay #1 Prompt & Lab Exercise though someone might take it upon themselves to change the title; just look for the "modified today" section of your Docs inbox). If you are having problems with Docs you can just email me. We will come back to this discussion before the next essay is due.
Reminder: Post the ideas you generated in the "rules or situations of writing that are peculiar to my discipline" exercise in the comments below. We will come back to this discussion next week.
Reminder: Watch 5.1-5.4. McNulty and Bubbles fans will rejoice, and you will also meet a new set of characters who work at the Baltimore Sun newspaper. Heads up to SAW 41-44.
Reminder: Read They Say I Say chapter 8 (about transitions) and chapter 9 (about voice).

Reminder: I had a couple of people come to parlay with me (as Prop Joe says) about their essay grades. I've never actually changed a grade (ever) but sometimes I do a bad job with the explaining comments and I can give you some further pointers that might be helpful if you come talk to me.
On Hold: We will discuss the Marshall article on Wednesday 3/30 because it pairs well with the Jones article.
Link: For those of you interested in the education subplot, this article advances some provocative ideas about race. Meanwhile, this article proposes a surprising explanation for one feature of African-American dialect.

Thoughts about this week's opinion poll:

-Again, thanks for your input. I love teaching you guys, and one of the reasons is because you speak your mind.
-One person mentioned persistent downloading problems, and maybe this represents others as well. This problem has an easy solution that I thought I made clear last month... you can take one of my backup hard drives home with you. Likewise someone asked whether there is some way you can get an email update for blog posts... I think this is a setting you guys can control on Blogger.
-More than half of you specifically indicated that you thought the general class discussion was going well. Some people questioned my time management of the discussions. All I'll say is it's way harder than it looks. A few others wanted me to stop butting in so much or pursuing pet themes... that is very fair, and oddly enough I think McNulty might be a good role model for me there, in light of some of the scenes discussed today.
-Other likes included the pace of the class, the blog, the electronic submission policy, the assigned articles, and the in-class workshops. Though as is often the case, those turned up as dislikes for others.
-About six or seven of you indicated that you were having trouble keeping up with the episodes, though several also commented that you still prefer this to the kind of extended reading assignments that other 302s are doing. I sympathize and have tried my best to lighten your other workload. This is always a problem for me in classes of this nature, because I don't want to overwhelm people but I also want to provide rewards for those who can take the time to watch/read more. Let's just say there's a reason that you're only assigned to one specific scene for the semester.
-Some indicated that they wanted the in-class exercises and perhaps attendance to be more specifically tabulated/commented/graded. This is an instance of me cutting corners I will admit, but I think of these as processes that fall mainly on your shoulders. On a more technical note, I will be issuing a status check soon on participation grades soon as well as worksheets grades and draft grades. And yes, I do wish I could give specific commentary on all worksheets... I feel like Carver with the Randy situation in that respect.
-Naturally many people wished they had more specific guidelines for the essays. I have explained that the reason for this is partly philosophical and by design, partly me being lazy and hypocritical, partly something that occurs because of the natural mismatch between grading and educating, and partly something we can fix by means of models and continued advice sharing for the next round.
-A surprising number of people asked for more "they say I say" workshops. Can do. Other popular workshops requested were thesis, outlines/organization, introductions, and conclusions. Hopefully we can do all of those. A few people asked for exercises specific to research and more use of the computer lab, which as you can see is part of the upcoming schedule. A few asked for something like a group or peer review exercise on the essays, which is definitely part of the plan. Some asked for another stage of draft and commentary before the final draft, which I would encourage you to do for yourself by relying on classmates/roommates or perhaps the Writing Center. But to be honest with you I feel like Landsman writing red names on the board with that... that's one of those "wouldn't it be nice?" things. In a perfect world there would be 11-15 students in your class instead of 22-23.
-A few people wanted more discussion of the assigned articles. A few people wanted less. Someone suggested that we should writing something every class, which is a great idea and one that I can now blame on you, so thanks.
-One person wanted more Honey Nut Cheerios. One listed HNC as a specific dislike, so go figure. Someone wanted sandwiches... is Wee Bey in the class? Someone is actually running a count of my use of various profanities, which is a first in 8 years of teaching, but certainly a good research project.

Class #14 Post-Game and Reminders for Wednesday

For those who missed episode 4.12 today, I put a heavily compressed version on the re-up page that you should have an easy time downloading. (You still need to use VLC to watch it.)

For those who missed the opinion poll, here are the four questions. 1. What's going right in the class? 2. What's going wrong in the class? 3. Specific suggestions - desired writing workshops. 4. General suggestions. The idea was for it to be anonymous, so have one of your roommates email it or something.

For those who missed the Honey Nut Cheerios, TOO BAD.

Invitation: If you have concerns about your individual grade and/or writing development that go past what I discussed in the previous blog post, please feel free to visit me in my office anytime on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday afternoon.
Reminders: Big day on tap for Wednesday. I hope to start with a philosophical discussion of the function (dysfunction?) of grading practices in college writing courses. We will then try to squeeze in SAW 34-40 and AAW 21-30. Everyone needs to finish season four (please note that 4.13 is about 80 minutes long). And everyone needs to read the Alff article and the Marshall article.  last minute change, sorry. The Marshall article fits better with the Jones article for 3/30 and saves us some time for other stuff tomorrow.

Class #13 Post-Game and Reminders for the Break

Announcement: On-campus office hours canceled for this afternoon. Please email.

Reminder: Please post your individual or group response to today's they say I say exercise in the comments below.
Reminder: Watch 4.8-4.11. (Heads up to scene analysis 34-38.) We will view 4.12 in class on Monday the 21st.
Reminder: Don't forget to take a look at potential research topics under "research proposals." You can add more by emailing me or posting a comment below.

Breaking News: The real Snoop Pearson, who plays the character Snoop Pearson on The Wire, has been arrested for drug trafficking. And David Simon has an interesting response. On a similar note, I was able to learn more about Melvin Williams, who plays the Deacon (the church leader with the slow voice who councils Bunny and Cutty). He was apparently the main inspiration for the Avon Barksdale character; Burns arrested him in the 1980s and Simon covered it for the Sun. Oh, and the guy who played Detective Norris used to be Baltimore police commissioner but got fired/arrested for some sort of malfeisance.

Fun: And not at all edifying about dilemmas in American society, I promise. A different take on what wires are good for.

Probably Not So Fun: The following is an explanation of the notation you will see in your grades when I email them to you. I already emailed the first half of the scene analysis grades; the remainder of those will be done before sunrise. The article analysis grades will probably be sent on Thursday night.

Ideas (1/3)
----------------------------
-logically reversible thesis
-complexity of thought, thesis goes somewhere
-effective article or scene analysis
-answers "so what" convincingly

Argument (1/3)
----------------------------
-effective use of "they say I say" type moves
-provides appropriate context for claims and method
-uses fitting examples, illustrations
-effective organization, transitions

Language (1/3)
----------------------------
-audience appropriate
-consistent rhetorical persona/voice
-clear, no overtly distracting usage errors
-smooth incorporation of quotations/citations

Average Score for Scene Analysis: 2.94 (B)
Average Score for Article Analysis: 3.01 (B)

These grades may seem tough, but remember to factor in the automatic A for submitting a completed worksheet and a completed first draft, and consider the whole thing as a composite. (So that 2.94 average is really something more like 3.29. I can't do much better than giving an average grade of B+.) I also want to make it clear that you shouldn't feel like your effort at revision was wasted if you got a lower grade... I assure you the revision raised your grade.

I must apologize for the brevity of my comments on these final essays, but I will offer two partial excuses. One, several decades of research suggests that writing students will carefully read and consider comments at the _draft_ stage, but will basically only pay attention to the grade if one is marked. Two, as I've alluded to before, I work within the bounds of my disciplinary institution and I have 84 students whom I am leading through writing and research intensive classes with multiple versions of multiple essays. This means I must conserve my time and energy, and I have found that it is better spent on proposals, drafts, and conferences, where frankly I am going far beyond what is specifically asked of me. (Try this math... 45 students in English 302 times 30 minutes for each first draft, 15 minutes for each conference, and 15 minutes for each final draft. On top of all other teaching responsibilities. Two 3-credit course sections is supposedly 20 hours of work per week for the instructor, at least in accounting terms. In sum, this course would be far better for everyone involved if the cap was lowered from 23 to something more like 16-18.)

There are all manner of general class discussions to have about what grades mean, and what they are good/bad for. This is one of my favorite topics and you can always bring it up, but I hope to specifically introduce it in the 3/23 session. If you have concerns or questions about your individual grade, email or come to office hours beginning 3/21. Oh, and sorry to dodge you by returning these grades up against the vacation, that was not my intention.

Let me conclude by saying one thing further, because the need to get these grades out quickly also takes away some of the ability to manage emotional connections that I can create more easily in class meetings or in conferences. I am tremendously proud of everyone for the level of effort you are putting into the class, and I know that I am asking a lot of you. You are doing great work, and you are progressing well toward the writing skills needed to tackle the end of semester research project.

Class #12 Post-Game and Reminders for Wednesday

For those who missed today's class, we spent about half of our time getting up to speed with characters and plots, the other half practicing moves from They Say I Say chapter 6, and a little bit at the end brainstorming topics for the end of semester research paper. I will post those brainstorms to the blog under the "research proposals" tab.

Note: Don't worry if you didn't get a confirmation from me that I received your final draft essay. I'll let you know if there was a problem. I hope to grade all of these by the end of the week.

Reminder: For Wednesday, watch 4.6-4.7. (Heads up to Scene Analysis 33 and 34.) Over spring break you need to watch 4.8-4.11, and we will watch 4.12 in class on Monday the 21st.

Class #11 Post-Game and Reminders for Next Week

Perhaps more sleep will make next week's rantings more coherent. We can only hope.

Reminders:
-Final draft of essay due at 10pm on Sunday!
-Watch episodes 4.1-4.5. For those who mourned the death of Wallace, lo he hath returned to thee multiplied by four.
-Read They Say I Say chapters 6-7. You might find these quite useful for revising your essay.
-No scene analysis or article analysis worksheets due. We all need some recovery from the essay process!

Links: 

-Here is the Implicit Association Test I showed in class today.
-This article about Defense Secretary Gates reminded me of The Wire because apparently he has been warning about the way the Pentagon bureaucracy doesn't promote creative thinkers to high positions

Apology: Anyone who sent an email to my GMU box in the past two weeks did not receive a reply. What happened is I changed my password and then apparently this stopped the forwarding to my Gmail address. It also explains why I didn't get some of your essay drafts. So this is fixed now, and sorry to those who wrote about discs or office meetings, to people with sick or deceased older relatives who failed to receive my sympathies, to athletes who didn't get their status forms turned in, etc.