Hi everyone,
I'd like you to work on your draft for essay two over this weekend. Please bring three copies of it with you to class Tuesday for peer review. On reflection, I've decided not to give a blog assignment over this weekend because I would like you to focus your time on writing the draft of essay number two. See you Tuesday. Best, Paul Holchak
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
essay two topics
Hi everyone,
Here are the topics for essay two:
(1)
Present your own view of how family members relate to one another during the holidays. To support your argument discuss elements of one or both of the following: “The First Thanksgiving” by Sarah Vowell, “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan or your own holiday experiences.
(2)
Agree or disagree with the position taken about photography in one or more of the following: Susan Sonntag’s “On Photography,” James Nachtwey’s“Ground Zero,” or Ethan Canin’s “Vivian, Fort Barnwell.”
(3)
Explain what makes childhood, youth (or, if you wish, innocence) important for the way of seeing explored by one or more of the following texts: “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin or “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper.
(4)
Develop an argument in which you agree or disagree with David Guterson’s criticism of planned communties in “No Place Like Home”.
(5)
Define and explain how memory adds or subtracts to the meaning that things have for the writer in one or more of the following: “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper or “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin.
(6)
In paragraph nine of “Homeplace,” Scott Russell Sanders writes that “many of the worst abuses” in this hemisphere have come about through “the habit of our industry and commerce…to force identical schemes onto differing locales”. In paragraph nineteen, Sanders gives an example of this practice near where he lives. Think about why Sanders considers the practice to be a form of abuse. (Specifically, what or who does he imply is being abused?) Then, based on your own observations, think of an example in which a franchise or corporation has established the same store floor plan, or same product lines, advertising campaigns or… to do business in different communities. Do you agree or disagree with Sanders that this corporate practice is a problem? What difference does it make if businesses approach one community in the same way that they approach another? If there is a leveling effect, in which places lose their authentic character, and, if so, why is this a bad thing? What benefits do national chains offer a community? The point (your thesis) is to agree or disagree with Sanders that the proliferation of national chains is one of “the worst abuses” of industry or commerce.
(7)
Compare and contrast Guterson’s criticism of suburbia to Sanders’s criticism of the corporate practice of selling the same products in stores that look the same in different communities. Are the planning principles, mechanisms of control or social consequences that each writer criticizes similar or different? What are some of the possible explanations for these similarities or differences? Discuss relevant examples of the practices that these writers dislike and use the examples to identify what Guterson and Sanders agree on and what they disagree about.
(8)
Compare and contrast ideas of what home is and what it is not in two of the following: “At Home. For Now” by Richard Ford, “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper, “Homeplace” by Scott Russell Sanders or David Guterson’s “No Place Like Home”.
(9)
Argue for the relative importance or unimportance of things that are invisible (including things that are seen indirectly or indistinctly) for our experience of the visible world. In your argument, be specific about what sort of invisible things you are discussing. To help you be specific about this, refer to and discuss the significance of relevant points and passages from one or two of the following texts: “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper, “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, or “A Matter of Scale” by K.C. Cole.
Two other suggestions are the topics given as number 1 and number 2 under the section labeled “Writing” on page 269 of the textbook.
Here are the topics for essay two:
(1)
Present your own view of how family members relate to one another during the holidays. To support your argument discuss elements of one or both of the following: “The First Thanksgiving” by Sarah Vowell, “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan or your own holiday experiences.
(2)
Agree or disagree with the position taken about photography in one or more of the following: Susan Sonntag’s “On Photography,” James Nachtwey’s“Ground Zero,” or Ethan Canin’s “Vivian, Fort Barnwell.”
(3)
Explain what makes childhood, youth (or, if you wish, innocence) important for the way of seeing explored by one or more of the following texts: “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin or “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper.
(4)
Develop an argument in which you agree or disagree with David Guterson’s criticism of planned communties in “No Place Like Home”.
(5)
Define and explain how memory adds or subtracts to the meaning that things have for the writer in one or more of the following: “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper or “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin.
(6)
In paragraph nine of “Homeplace,” Scott Russell Sanders writes that “many of the worst abuses” in this hemisphere have come about through “the habit of our industry and commerce…to force identical schemes onto differing locales”. In paragraph nineteen, Sanders gives an example of this practice near where he lives. Think about why Sanders considers the practice to be a form of abuse. (Specifically, what or who does he imply is being abused?) Then, based on your own observations, think of an example in which a franchise or corporation has established the same store floor plan, or same product lines, advertising campaigns or… to do business in different communities. Do you agree or disagree with Sanders that this corporate practice is a problem? What difference does it make if businesses approach one community in the same way that they approach another? If there is a leveling effect, in which places lose their authentic character, and, if so, why is this a bad thing? What benefits do national chains offer a community? The point (your thesis) is to agree or disagree with Sanders that the proliferation of national chains is one of “the worst abuses” of industry or commerce.
(7)
Compare and contrast Guterson’s criticism of suburbia to Sanders’s criticism of the corporate practice of selling the same products in stores that look the same in different communities. Are the planning principles, mechanisms of control or social consequences that each writer criticizes similar or different? What are some of the possible explanations for these similarities or differences? Discuss relevant examples of the practices that these writers dislike and use the examples to identify what Guterson and Sanders agree on and what they disagree about.
(8)
Compare and contrast ideas of what home is and what it is not in two of the following: “At Home. For Now” by Richard Ford, “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper, “Homeplace” by Scott Russell Sanders or David Guterson’s “No Place Like Home”.
(9)
Argue for the relative importance or unimportance of things that are invisible (including things that are seen indirectly or indistinctly) for our experience of the visible world. In your argument, be specific about what sort of invisible things you are discussing. To help you be specific about this, refer to and discuss the significance of relevant points and passages from one or two of the following texts: “The Streets Change, But Memories Endure” by Kenji Jasper, “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, or “A Matter of Scale” by K.C. Cole.
Two other suggestions are the topics given as number 1 and number 2 under the section labeled “Writing” on page 269 of the textbook.
Monday, September 20, 2010
blog for Tuesday, 9/21
Hi everyone,
As discussed in our last class, please post the concluding paragraph of essay one as your blog entry this time. Best, Paul Holchak
As discussed in our last class, please post the concluding paragraph of essay one as your blog entry this time. Best, Paul Holchak
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
September 8th
Hi all,
As we discussed in class on Thursday, your first blog assignment is to post the introductory paragraph from your draft for essay one. The post should be up by the morning of Thursday September 16th when we meet next. Until then...all the best,
Paul Holchak
As we discussed in class on Thursday, your first blog assignment is to post the introductory paragraph from your draft for essay one. The post should be up by the morning of Thursday September 16th when we meet next. Until then...all the best,
Paul Holchak
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Welcome to the Fall semester
Hi everyone and welcome to the blog site. It was a pleasure meeting with you Thursday evening. I wanted to offer a reminder that you need to bring our book, Seeing and Writing 4, with you to class on Tuesday as we will be using it in our discussion. In fact, plan generally on bringing Seeing and Writing to each of our class meetings because we will use it in class as we discuss the readings together.
As noted on Thursday evening, your first assignment is to learn how to post a comment on this blog. Here are some pointers on getting started
Below this window, you will see the word "COMMENTS".
Click on it. Next, click in the new window that opens and type a few strokes then go below the window to where it says "select profile". When you move the cursor to "select profile", you get a drop down menu. From this drop down menu, select "google account". After selecting "google account", go over to the box labeled "post comment" and click on it. Since you are not signed in yet, you should get a prompt explaining that to complete the post requires a Google account. If you already have a google email account, sign in with it and proceed to post a comment to our blog. If you do not have a google email account yet, click the prompt to create one, proceed to create the account and then post a comment on our blog. I hope these instructions are of some help. You may need to improvise with them a little, and there is probably a way to do this that involves fewer steps that some of you will discover. We'll talk about it next class. Bring up any questions that you have then. See you soon, Paul Holchak
As noted on Thursday evening, your first assignment is to learn how to post a comment on this blog. Here are some pointers on getting started
Below this window, you will see the word "COMMENTS".
Click on it. Next, click in the new window that opens and type a few strokes then go below the window to where it says "select profile". When you move the cursor to "select profile", you get a drop down menu. From this drop down menu, select "google account". After selecting "google account", go over to the box labeled "post comment" and click on it. Since you are not signed in yet, you should get a prompt explaining that to complete the post requires a Google account. If you already have a google email account, sign in with it and proceed to post a comment to our blog. If you do not have a google email account yet, click the prompt to create one, proceed to create the account and then post a comment on our blog. I hope these instructions are of some help. You may need to improvise with them a little, and there is probably a way to do this that involves fewer steps that some of you will discover. We'll talk about it next class. Bring up any questions that you have then. See you soon, Paul Holchak
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