Thanks for your patience and flexibility this week. I’ve been trying to get better at practicing self-care for emotional and mental health, and sometimes that means making last-minute schedule changes that affect others. For the disruption, I apologize (although if I remember my own undergraduate career, I never minded too much if professors had to cancel class! :P).
I will be making some changes to the calendar for this and the next few weeks to accommodate our schedule shifting a bit. Please be sure to check the course site!
On Monday, we’ll work on a brief reflection for Project #2 and introduce Project #3 and Project #4.
Looking forward to seeing your multimodal response for this week’s blog assignment!
I’m struggling with mental health stuff today and hoping you can forgive me canceling class this evening to catch up on some rest. Looking forward to taking a look at your Project #2s this week and getting you feedback soon.
Please take time to take care of yourselves this week!
Writing to remind you to play the assigned games on the Calendar and write a brief reflection for your weekly blog post. These are supposed to be weird! Lean into it.
For folks working on revisions of Project #1, consider this advice:
A rhetorical analysis focuses not on the *subject* of the artifact, but rather on the writer/author/rhetor and how they have done what they have done in this artifact.
For Monday, we’ll continue to work on Project #2 with our writing groups. Please bring whatever you need to bring to get some work done, and I’ll be available to answer questions or make suggestions as needed.
If we didn’t get to 1-on-1 last week, we’ll do this on Monday!
Get ready to write! Take the first 10-15 minutes of class to develop your first self-reflection for Project #1. Assign yourself a numerical or letter grade for this project, taking into account what you’ve done well and what you struggled with. Please elaborate on *why* you’re assigning the grade you chose, using specific evidence from your project. I recommend freewriting for at least some of this time, and making notes w/r/t which LLs you plan to use as evidence to support your reflection and the grade you assign yourself.
Project #2! Find your writing group and break out your notes for your annotated bibliography as well as any outlining/prewriting you have for your researched argument essay.
Questions to consider: how reliable are the articles you’ve chosen? why/why not?
How do you plan to work with evidence from your chosen articles?
What research questions have you developed (if any)? If you haven’t developed any, ask for advice on doing this.
Quick break for snax/h2o
Calendar check-in
Everyone gets to talk to me!
Work day: use remaining class time to consult databases, outline, or discuss with your writing groups.
PROJECT #2 – 1500-2000 WORDS; AT LEAST 4 SOURCES ANNOTATED; DUE 10/28 BY MIDNIGHT
Writing to check in about your progress collecting articles for your annotated bib!
I know it’s midterm season and you have a lot on your plate, but in order to stay on track, you really need to stay on top of Project #2 and keep track of your work in your Labor Logs. For Monday, it’s crucial that you bring in your work thus far, as this will be your biggest opportunity to get feedback from your writing groups about your chosen articles.
The articles you bring in do not have to be your final choices, but they should reflect your chosen topic and give some insight into what questions you plan to investigate in your upcoming argument essay.
I’ve also received a few queries about choosing a topic. You are the scholars here. Choose a topic that is interesting to you and that you can investigate further. My only advice is to pick something related to technology and digital culture so that I can provide suggestions for your research, as this is my area of scholarly interest.
Your final annotated bibliographies will be due with your argument essay. In class on Monday, we’ll talk about your expectations of your own argument essay: what rhetorical strategies will you use?; is your evidence compelling and analyzed appropriately?; do you have a clear point of inquiry/thesis?; have you organized your essay clearly?; etc. We will also plan a due date for Project #2.
One final note: we’ll have a visitor in class on Monday from the English Department. I’m being observed! This has nothing to do with y’all; just giving you a heads up 🙂
Looking forward to your Labor Logs and class on Monday!
Your feedback for Project #1 is now available on Blackboard.
If you don’t see any feedback from me, it’s because I don’t have a submission from you. If this applies to you, I recommend that you reach out to me ASAP so we can set a deadline for you to turn this in.
Coming up, you’ll have the chance to reflect back to Project #1 and, using your Labor Logs as resources, assign yourself a numerical grade. If I have recommended a revision, the final will by due by the end of the term. It is your responsibility to stay on top of your assignments. I will not be able to check in on your progress as I will not have the time.
This week, you should be reaching out to your writing group for feedback on your annotated bibliographies for Project #2. On our next class date, you will have time to meet face-to-face with your writing group to get feedback moving forward. You should be developing research questions and an outline/some prewriting for the argument essay component of Project #2.
Looking forward to seeing your latest Labor Logs and responses 🙂
1) Feedback
I am 2/3 of the way through your Project #1 submissions! Look for feedback from me by the end of the day today, including recommendations for revision and resubmission (remember: we talked about revise and resubmit protocols for scholarly journals on Monday?). The choice to R&R or not is ultimately yours, but receiving full credit for the assignment is contingent upon fulfilling the criteria for the assignment.
Here are a couple of resources from professional scholars on how to handle R&R protocol as the author: Get a Life, PhD and Inside Higher Ed. All of these steps are not necessary for a successful R&R at your level, but the advice is sound.
2) What’s coming up?
Project #2 should be well underway: your annotated bibliographies will be due when we return from the holiday (11:59pm Sunday October 14), and you should bring at least some notes/a working outline to class on 10/15. In class that day, you’ll spend some time with your writing groups to go over what you’ve got so far and provide feedback on what questions readers of your argument paper might have, which should inform your progress moving forward. We’ll talk paper logistics on 10/15 as well, and you should prepare to submit your essay for Project #2 by 11:59pm on Sunday October 21.
Your annotated bibliography should act as prewriting for your essay. Treat it as such. Pose questions. Make connections. Start to analyze. I’ll be scoring the annotated bib as prewriting, meaning that you should use it as a tool towards figuring out what you want to examine more closely in your essay.
3) Stuff to help you
I’ve gathered together a few resources for choosing a topic, developing a research question, drafting an argument-based essay, and general writing support.
Email us at commonshelpsite@gmail.com so we can respond to your questions and requests. Please email from your CUNY email address if possible. Or visit our help site for more information:
Jesse Rice-Evans (she/they) on 
