Conferences

Please remember that we will not meet as a class during the week of October 1.  Instead, students will meet with me individually at assigned times.  I strongly suggest using the time not spent in class to visit the library and begin exploring possible topics for the research essay.

Additionally, please read sections MLA-1 from your handbook (begins on page 373) and R1-a (begins on 332).  We will discuss this during our first meeting after we reconvene as a class.  A quiz is possible.

Frank Deford Article

Please read this article by sportswriter Frank Deford.  We will discuss it during an upcoming class.

Discovering Detailed Examples

[Friday class does not need to complete anything yet.  This assignment will be explained in class.]

During our next meeting, you will begin narrowing your general topic toward a more precise subtopic.  As we will discuss in class, this subtopic should be specific enough to address in a 1000-word essay.  Because you only have 1000 words, topics like "golf," "nursing," and "Angry Birds" are far too broad.  There is just too much to say about these things.

Once you have a suitably specific subtopic in mind, begin listing as many details as you can.  Begin by listing details that fit into the following categories:

• Sights
• Sounds
• Smells
• Tastes
• Physical (tactile) feelings
• Emotions
• Names (of people, places, objects, and concepts)
• Facts and statistics
• Analogies
• Testimony (What have others said about your topic?)
• Stories

Once you have listed at least a few examples from each of the categories above, freewrite for an additional fifteen minutes, expanding on your favorite examples.

Please bring this to class on Thursday (T/Th section only).

Sample Sentences for Use in Class

1.  My seven-year-old niece, Louise, cartwheels merrily down Maple Lane, toward the waiting schoolbus.

2.  With the agility of a six-month-old kitten, Old Man Watson's sixteen-pound cat, buttons, dodged the out-of-control garbage truck.

Assignment for Next Week

This assignment should serve as the first step in writing your first essay.

If you haven't already chosen a general topic, please do so.  Next, spend a minimum of twenty minutes freewriting with goal of discovering as many subtopics as you possibly can.  Lars Eighner's general topic is Dumpster diving; his subtopics include safety, finding the best dumpsters, competition among scavengers, the origins of the word "Dumpster," college students, the ethics of dumpster diving, hazards of dumpster diving, materialism in U.S. society, and several more.

Please come to class next week with a general topic and a list of at least ten subtopics.  This does not need to be typed, and it does not need to be neat.  It does need to demonstrate that you have thought considerably about your topic.

For the Tuesday/Thursday section, this is due on Tuesday the 18th.
For the Friday section, this is due on Friday the 21st.

Research Essay

We won't formally begin the research essay for a few weeks, but I'd like you to be thinking about potential topics.  The assignment for this essay will look a lot like this one from a previous semester.  Please read it over and start thinking about topics you might want to explore.

"On Dumpster Diving" Discussion

Below are several essay questions related to "On Dumpster Diving."  In class today, you will work in groups to create an outline which might be used to answer one of these questions.  Every response should use numerous specific examples from the text to support its claims.

1. Eighner discusses ethics at several points in the essay.  What, according to him, are some of the ethical issues faced by Dumpster divers?  What does he say about other members of society?  Do you agree with him?   
2. What do discarded items reveal about their previous owners?  How does Eighner feel about college students?  Do you agree with him?
3. What role does Eighner's dog play in the essay?  Why does he include the dog at all?  How does this help the essay achieve its purpose?
4. The essay's first five paragraphs pay a great deal of attention to language.  What effect does this have on the essay overall?
5. In paragraph seven, Eighner lays out the rhetorical direction the rest of the essay will take.  Describe some of the specific subtopics he uses to accomplish his stated goal.
6. In paragraph 37 (page 6?), Eighner states, "I do not want to paint too romantic a picture."  Describe his tone here.  What other places in the essay does his tone reveal something about his attitude toward his subject?
7. By the essay's end, we have a good sense of Eighner's attitude toward material possessions.  How would you describe this attitude?  How is his attitude different from other members of society?

Announcement

The due date for Essay One will be moved to one week later than is stated on the syllabus.  Details will be announced in class.

In Class Writing

The goal of this assignment is to help you better understand the choices writers make based on audience and purpose.  You will write in groups.  Each group will communicate about the same subject matter, but in a different rhetorical situation.

Each group’s project will be based on the following scenario:

You are an assistant coach at a nationally known college football program.  After the final game of a winning season, you throw the players a small party at your house.  Your university has a strict policy against staff members providing alcohol to students, so you don’t purchase any beer for the party.  At the party, however, a group of players finds a partial case of beer in your garage refrigerator, and they help themselves.  When you discover the students drinking, they plead to be allowed to drink one beer each.  Since all of the students in the garage are over twenty-one, you decide to bend the rules slightly and allow them to finish the beers they started.  You drink one beer as well.

After leaving the party, the team’s star quarterback, Bert Foster, is stopped by police.  The officer smells alcohol on Bert’s breath and administers a sobriety test, which Bert passes.  Bert insults the officer, however, and this leads to his car being searched.  The police discover a suitcase full of cocaine.  Bert is arrested.

Your job is to explain what happened as you would in your group’s assigned situation:

1. Bert called you from jail to tell you he has been arrested.  You called the head coach immediately, but he did not answer.  Write an email explaining the situation to him.  Assume the head coach is a close personal friend.  The national media have not picked up the story yet.
2. You went to the jail to see if you could bail Bert out and keep the story out of the papers.  Text your spouse to explain where you are.
3. The police visit your house the day after Bert’s arrest.  As part of their investigation, they ask you for a written statement of what happened.  Write that statement.
4. The story is all over the national media.  Your sister (with whom you have a close relationship) emails you to ask what happened and if you are okay.  Answer her.
5. You have been fired (unfairly, you believe) from your assistant coaching job for providing alcohol to students.  The local newspaper invites you to tell your side of the story.
6. You fail to get your job back and go on to a modest career as an advertising sales representative.  Twenty years later, Sports Illustrated invites you to tell your story as part of a where-are-they-now article.  Tell your story.

Email Closings

We'll probably read this article on email closings at some point in the future.  I am not formally assigning it yet, but feel free to check it out on your own.

Essay One Instructions

A Report from Exotic Territory

How would you would complete the sentence: “I know more than the average person about…”? Are you, for example, a bowler?  A dumpster diver?  A bird watcher?  A bartender?  Start by identifying a specific subculture to which you belong.

Once you’ve identified a topic, write a short (1000 word) essay educating the rest of us about your topic.  You might think of this as a survival guide to your chosen subculture.  Although you aren’t expected to approach the assignment in exactly the same way, Lars Eighner’s “On Dumpster Diving” should serve as a useful model (note: as of this posting, "On Dumpster Diving" hasn't yet been assigned.  It will be.)

Your audience consists of members of our class, so you think about how much we do and don’t know about your topic.  In class, we’ve been discussing specific examples, concrete details, generalizations, and abstract statements.  Be sure to keep these concepts in mind as you compose your essay.

Your manuscript should be formatted according to MLA guidelines.  Consult your handbook for details.  A sample paper begins on page 436.  The due date will be announced in class and/or posted here.

Link to "On Dumpster Diving"

Please follow this link to the essay "On Dumpster Diving" by Lars Eighner, and print a copy to refer to in our class discussion.  Individual sections should be prepared to discuss the essay on the following days:

• T/R: Tuesday, September 11
• F: Friday, September 14

A short quiz is possible.