Lecture 1 - How You Get Your News (9-10-20)

Rhetoric

Not necessarily a negative to writing. Although bias can be seen as a negative, it also shapes the argument at hand

News Relevance

People are more interested in the news that is relevant to them

• We are more likely to click on a post if the headline catches our attention

MLA Handbook

What should you ask

• Who is the author of the source?
• Is it a primary source?
• How is this media produced?
• Where did you find this source?
• When was this source published?

  Lecture 2 - Discussion on Difficult Texts (9-14-20)

Group Discussion

What counts as a text? A difficult text? What is the relationship between the author and the reader in those texts, based on your experiences? Share an example ‘difficult text’ with the group, and then as a group try and speculate what the relationship between reader and author for one of those texts.

Group 4:

• A text is something that you can consume information from and counts if the information in it is valuable
• There is emphasis on how the reader depicts the piece, the reader has to become a listener, reading a text is like having a conversation (it can go two ways)
• A difficult text is where the reader has to analyze it themselves and it takes effort to understand what is going on – they have to put work into it to take something away from it \item It brings up questions for the reader and leaves more things up for interpretation
• It brings up questions for the reader and leaves more things up for interpretation \item Difficult texts: poetry (The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost), Shakespeare, older books in old english (jane austen, mary shelley), history texts (they don’t have one clear conclusion and it’s up to the reader to decide)
• Poetry is an art form; it is what you make of it and there is no one way to interpret it

Summary

Notes from Full Class:

• Anything can be a text. Including parking tickets, leases, etc.
• A difficult text is just something that makes the reader put in effort. Something that the reader has to relate to, or draw their own conclusions.
• A lot of texts are difficult texts. Examples include poetry, history, etc.

  Lecture 3 - Octavia Butler and N.K. Jemisin (9-16-20)

Octavia Butler

Born: June 22, 1947 in Pasadena California

Death: Febuary 24, 2006 (58 years old)

College: Pasadena City College

Publications (with dates):

Science Fiction/Fantasy

• Patternist (series): Books published 1976-1984
• Kindred: 1979
• Xenogenesis (series): Books published 1987, 1988, and 1989
• Bloodchild and Other Stories: 1995
• Parable (series): Books published 1993 and 1998
• Fledgling: 2005

N.K. Jemisin

Born: Sept 19, 1972 Iowa City, Iowa

Death: Still alive

College: Tulane University (B.S. in psychology) University of Maryland (M.S. in Education)

Publications (with dates):

Science Fiction/Fiction

• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (2010)
• Clarkesworld Issue 50 (2010)
• The Broken Kingdoms (2010)
• The Kingdom of Gods (2011)
• The City we Became (2020)
• The Killing Moon (2012)
• The Shadowed Sun
• Clarkesworld Issue 94 (2014)

Cultural Appropiation

When you portray a certain culture from a white-washed perspective

What to do for next class:

How do we manage difficult texts?

Lecture 4 - Preparing for Haraway (9-17-20)

Peer Review

Peer reviewed homework assignments are given through Canvas, do NOT reply on people’s posts.

Difficult Texts

What stratigies have been useful while reading difficult texts:

• Discuss with peers after the reading
• Underlining and highlighting
• Rereading
• Bullet point main ideas and key quotes
• Break your reading into chunks
• Know what’s going on before reading
• Read the first and last sentence in a paragraph before reading the paragraph
• Color code annotations
• Get background information about the context of society
• Take frequent breaks so you can be engaged in the piece
• Write about a text (ex. journal entry)

Reading a Manifesto

Terms:

Manifesto: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer (MW Dictionary, 2017)

Paradimn: How someone views the world.

Hierarchy: Social system with the power on top

Patriarchy: Social system dominated by men

Feminism: A theory political, social, economic equality of the sexes

Hegemony: the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group.

Ontological: metaphysical speculation on the nature and relation of being, or existence.

Epistemology: the study or a theory of the nature and ground of knowledge especially with reference to limits and validly.

Biological determinist: also known sometimes as gene determinism. The idea that an individual’s actions are directly dictated by genetic makeup.

Primary Questions: What is nature? How is that different from Nature? What is the relationship between human and nature? What do we mean when we say human nature? What counts as natural? Unnatural?

Lecture 5 - Introduction to Haraway (9-23-20)

• HW Dump

  Choose any two short stories from the selections I’ve uploaded to Canvas. Alternatively, I would approve another short story selection from one of the authors I’ve included (Vonnegut, Butler, Nemisin) if you talk to me first.

  Give a general comparison of the two pieces you’ve read. What standsout out to you thematically in each piece? What lesson, or moral, does each text offer? Try and describe the ideals, ethics, or sense of morality the story deploys so that you (the reader) can tell right from wrong in the context of these speculative fictions. Feel free to quote directly from the readings if that helps you explain your ideas.

  Kurt Vonnegut - Welcome to the Monkey House

  • The town doesn’t like new people
  • First sentence - “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal”
    • Leads to one of the first characters mentioned having ‘average intelligence’. Because Harrison was average, his parents didn’t think about it very much
  • making everyone equal only pushed people down with the average
  • Referring to the time that people always competed the ‘dark ages’
    • Both Hazel and George agreed that it was good to have these limitations
  • Even though an announcer was terrible at his job, Hazel (who represents average society) thinks that he should get a raise because he tried so hard.
  • Harrison was seen as dangourus because he was a ‘genuis’ and an ‘athlete’
  • “Now watch me become what I can become!” (pg. 12)
  • “The music began again and was much improved” (pg. 13)
    • By allowing there to be competition, people are able to fulfill their full potential and therefore play better than if there were no competition
  • 30 foot ceilings - represent their potential and every time they jumped, they got closer to that potential until they finally kissed it
  • They were later shot by the Hadicapper General and everyone forgot about it.
    • It’s hard to go against society

  Jemisin - The Elevator Dancer

  • A girl dancing alone in an elevator, doesn’t care about anything else going on
  • Has free thought and is allowed to admire this girl’s free spirit
  • Realization that he lives an empty life
    • One that is fully controlled by a strict government
  • A lot of religious mentions. The society is governed by what is seen as holy

Responding to Haraway and Lorde

HW: When cpomparing pieces, have them from different authors

Group Discussions - The idea of Cyborgs

Often times, texts highlight the anxiety and hope of any given event going on in society.

Group 1 - Cyborgs in Fiction/Cyborgs in real life

• Fictional
  • Machines that enhance people
• Real Life
  • Bring people back to a base-line
  • Society doesn’t worry about real cyborgs - they don’t ‘trancend’ human potential

Group 2 - Haraway’s thoughts on human reproduction and technology’s influence

• The progression of technology has allowed for more control for the individual
• Increases the time span that one can raise children
  • Sets the woman free from the predetermined cycle
• Plants asexually reproduce
  • And therefore they are not bound by the cycle
• Abortion - 1988
• Haraway questions traditional ideas of society
• Haraway argues that it is good to have individual rights
  • Swap one form of labor (birth) for another (joining the workforce)

Group 3 - Machines and the labor force

• Wages decrease with tech advancements
  • A.I. can often do jobs better (and cheaper)
• A fear of losing jobs due to technology (in present day as well)
  • A.I. has killed middle class jobs which results in the lower class to not be able to climb the ladder

Group 4 - Influencial Women of the 20th Century

• See lecture 6 for notes on this

Lorde and Haraway

• They are both angry
• Lorde - 1979
  • Personal standpoint in her writing. Less abstract than Haraway

    Lecture 6 - Short Stories (9-24-20)

Where we left off during Lecture 5 - Introduction to Haraway (9-23-20)

Group 4:

• Influencial women throughout the 20th century

Lorde and Haraway

Haraway

• Poins the finger at herself
  • People use their identity and they “use the masters tools”
• We need to reimagine the socialist feminist movement
  • It still puts the minority at the bottom
• How do we move away from radical feminism

Lorde

• Has beef with modern, white feminists (for not liking diversity)

Short Story Breakout Rooms

I read “Elevator Dancer” and “Harrison Bergeron”

Group 3 - “Elevator Dancer”

• Government ran everything about everyone’s life
• Was the dancer really there?
  • YES! The main character is sent to a camp to convice himself that she does not exist
  • The camp conditioned him into a way of thinking

Group 4 - Butler’s “Bloodchild” and Jeminisn “The One’s Who Stayed”

• Gone is conflicted by the pain of ‘birthing’ (aliens)
  • Moves from love of his symbiotic relationship partner to fear
• Shows that we still use the “master’s tools”

HW: Connect one of the short stories to Haraway for the long journal entry

• MLA!
  • Include page number for quotes
  • Quote short stories, not italics
  • No works cited

    Lecture 7 - Profiles (9-28-20)

Looking forward:

Our next unit is profiles

Profile Project

• Essay
• Can’t do interview (but an interview is part of it)
• Start to think about what you want to write about now
• You can profile as author that you’ve already read
• Profile a real, significant person
  • Could be parents
• First person interview

HW: Read profiles from CTW

• Can’t have to read multi modal composition
• Read writing assignment
• Don’t have to do inquery questions
  • This is in class work
• There is only reading due, no writing

Profiles: Published vs Private

NOT as biography

A biography is:

• Tells the reader as much informaiton as possible to give the full story
• As unbias as possible

What is a profile:

• A partial story
• Leads the reader to their own conclusion
• The subject is worthy of the readers attention
• Brings out complexity

Published

In the public sphere

• Interview
• Periodicals

Private

Examples:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• NEU Student HC
• Facebook
• Snapchat - through the Bitmoji

How are these different across platforms? Who is your reader?

Lecture 8 - Analyzing Profiles (9-30-20)

HW: Bring in draft of outline (ask yourself what is the impression?)

Moving towards the profile assignment

• Final assignment is due Oct 11th

Breakout Rooms on Spesific Profiles

Group 1 - Artist

• Shows the relationship brtween the individual person and the social issues that surround him

Group 2 - Pollution (Pictures/Words)

• Images help add significance
  • Shows how companies are taking advantage of the people and the environment

Group 3 - Interview

• Shows someone’s personal voice

Can’t just do an interview for this assignment

Group 4 - Arkansas Boys

• Vignette style profile
  • Vignette - Brief scnees that explain a spesific point in time
• What is the dominant impression?
  • working class
  • People of their culture

---

Think about what you are going to the profile assignment on?

• Research:
  • library.northeastern.edu
  • Append “interview” to the search term to only get interviews with a subject
  • Only get the last 10 years
• Subjects: Place, Group, or Person
  • Place
    • Need to have first hand expereince
  • Group
    • Need to be part of the group

      Lecture 9 - Peer Review on Profile Outlines (10-1-20)

Profiles

Profiles should lead the reader to the conclusion that they should care about your subject. Why should the reader care?

Dominant Impression

• The main idea of your profile. A thesis statement
  • What are the 2 characteristics you want the reader to walk away with?
• Start with what the reader expects on a subject and then add a unique perspective (more informed)
• Need to have tension or unexpected difficulty
• My example: The Berlin Wall is not only a physical structure to stop people from moving across borders, but also a symbol of human longing for freedom and expression.

Research:

• Make sure the author has more credibility than you
• Documentaries are great

Wall:

• Art on the wall is interesting
  • Bring the reader to the scene
• Bring in the voice of my teacher
• My expereince with the wall

Opening the Profile

There are a few different ways to open the profile depending on your subject:

What is the occasion to talk about this subject? Aka, why now? Has something happened recently (anniversary of something happening) to prompt a timely discussion of your subject?

OR

A basic definition or contextual background to introduce the group to your reader, who might be completely unfamiliar with the subject. [still try and make this dramatic]

OR

A representative image of this community (crowd of members). Describe the picture in detail as if your reader can not see the image. What is important in this image and why? What small details should the reader notice as important?

OR

A dramatic scene that represents the subject’s dominate impression, or essential characteristics.

First Draft (for Peer Review) of the Essay due October 5th

• At least the opening should be there (150-200 words)
• The rest of the outline should be there

  Lecture 10 - Part I of Profile Peer Review (10-5-20)

Homework notes:

Make sure all submitted assignments (that aren’t discussion posts) are submitted as a word doc. (*.doc or *.docx).

• Also make sure you put your name in the file name. If you don’t do this, it will not be graded.

Structure of the Profile

Housekeeping

• Make sure the entire document is Times New Roman 12pt font
• Heading
  • On the left margin
  • Peer’s name
  • Professor’s Name
  • Date

Introduction

• Hook
  • Get the reader interested
  • Lighter information
• Who or what is their subject?
• When and where was the subject relavent?
• What makes the subject interesting?

Breakout Rooms

~ 15-20 minutes per person to read and discuss their piece

To get all of the comments into one document, use the ‘combine’ feature in Microsoft Word.

Office Hours

• Send the file to the professor before office hours so she can review it beforehand.

  Lecture 11 - 2nd Peer Profile Review (10-7-20)

Housekeeping

• You get 24 hours to respond to your peers
• 5 points per submittion
  • 5 for your work
  • 5 for each response to your peers

Make sure Zoom is updated for next class

What We’re Doing Today

• Header
  • Just page number
• Heading
  • Left margin
  • Either single or double spaced
• MLA Formatting
  • See the link in the week 2-3 page in Canvas for more information
  • Works cited and in-text citation
    • If you can’t do a page number, use paragraph number
    • Cite every fact
      • NO common knoledge
• Must have a direct quote/quotes
  • Refer to the MLA handbook for how to insert them
• Always add an image if you describe it

Breakout Rooms

• Make sure to add images to compare the two parts of your story
• Cite all information

Overview

• Cite all second hand knowledge
• Citations most likely appear mostly in the Historial section of your piece
• Make sure to show clearly the struggle of your subject

Tomorrow

• Have another draft which is due at the end of the day tomorrow
• Professor Clark will give you line edits on this draft
• Needs to be in *.doc or *.docx format
• You will get feedback within 48 hours

  Lecture 12 - MLA Formatting (10-8-20)

Today: MLA Formtting

Log in - Loading Session Information

Recall: you can get more information in the material section of week 2-3 in Canvas.

• For example, you don’t need date accessed

MLA

• Avoid plagerism
• Shows off the research you’ve done

Professor uses TurnItIn (orginality report)

• Avoid plagirism
• Professor only cares if it’s above 10% shared material
• Make sure to do proper citations (TurnItIn is picky)

If you are citing a source, try to get as close to the primary source as possible.

Sources

• Who wrote it?
• Where is it?
• When was it written?

MLA Cared how you found certain information.

How to Use MLA

• Start with the formatting
  • Font, style, spacing, alignment
  • Margins, Headers, Heading
  • Hanging indent for Works Cited
  • Short works vs. Long works
    • Short Works (ex. article, chapters, songs, poems, etc.) are part of a larger text and you put quotations around them
    • Long works can be broken down further and you put them in Italics

Make sure the header is also in Times New Roman 12pt font

Heading

• Student name
• Professor’s name
• Class
• Date

How to Cite Images

• Underneath
  • Caption: authors last name, title, create description

Footnotes (Try not to use them)

• Only for bibliagraphic information or if you’re providing vital historical information (however, you should have this part of the actual paragraph)

In-Text Citation

• At the end of the sentence(s) of information (NOT at the end of the paragraph)
• If you’re using the same source, cite it every 3 sentences
• You might want to work the author’s name into the sentence (narrative citation)

No class on Monday

Lecture 13 - Final Profile Draft (10-14-20)

1st Page Formatting

• Times New Roman, 12pt
• Heading, Header, title, paragraph (indent)
• 0.5 inch indent, 1 inch margins

Pictures

• Side by side if you have two images in a row
• Caption
  • “[Figure x:] description + citation”
  • Font Arial 8-10pt font

In Paragraph Features

• In text citation
  • (LAST NAME pg#/para. #) ← actually write “para.” if it’s a paragraph
  • (“TItle of Source (or first few words)” para. #)
• Don’t use surface level sources
• Always cite sources
  • Nothing is assumed to be true

Paraphrase/Summerizing

• Basic Statistics
• When wording doesn’t matter

Quote

• The original phrasing matters
• Short quotes are more useful (a long quote is 3+ lines of text; everything should be shorter than that)
• Don’t need an in text citation for one word quotes when you note the author

Before You Turn In

• Make sure there are no comments or suggestions
• Make sure to have your name on the final document

  Lecture 14 - Intro to Franchises (10-15-20)

Cultural Drift in Population Entertainment Franchises and Genres

• Next unit
  • Movies/TV shows/video games
• Cultural experiences
• Compare and Contrast Essay
  • Due by the end of the unit
  • TV/series/reboot

Breakout Rooms: Our Experience with Movies and TV Shows

Group 4

• Lot of overlap
• Still the physical VHS/disk

Summary

• First TV shows/movies
  • Designed for children (often has adult humor as well)
    • Reflects cultural norms
• First movies →current favorite movies
  • The movies are different
  • Usually first movies are fantasy/animated
  • Favorite movies are often live action
  • Nostalgia carries over
• We can’t remeber exactly what movies/TV shows we watched

For Monday

• Read article on Canvas aout franchies and reboots
• What reboots/remakes that you know?
  • What remake failed to capture the nostalgia
• See Canvas for more information

  Lecture 15 - Intro into Research in Franchise Unit (10-19-20)

2020-10-19

Built research into franchise unit

Conflict Types

• Man vs self
• Man vs man
• Man vs nature

Response to What Franchise Do You Know

• Essentially, will this franchise work for the final essay?
• What did you find?

Read through the titles and abstracts of articles you have found with your search. Create a reply post to your original discussion post for today. Have you found any criticism, critique, news, historical context, or other information about that franchise? Now that you have read the essay assignment prompt, do you think that the franchise you already know will work with this assignment? Why or why not?

• -Research– Beginning Research on franchise:
• Northeastern Snell library search (online)
• Use key terms.
• Filters:
  • Full Text Online
  • Between the release year to present

Homework for Wednesday:

• Read Star Trek introduction and watch two episodes
• Pop quiz on the Star Trek episodes on Wednesday

Breakout Rooms

• What franchise did you pick for your discussion post?
• What are your thoughts on the reboot/remake/sequel?
• Star Wars
  • A New Hope - classic story line
  • Modernness of Lia (she acts like a general)
  • The Force Awakens (The Awakening by <++>; backwards to this piece)
  • How do the new movies compare to the old ones?

    Lecture 16 - Star Trek as a Franchise (10-21-20)

Star Trek as a Franchise

Quiz on Star Trek

• 10 Questions on the introduction and the two Star Trek episodes watched

Star Trek

• Episodes that we watched:
  • “The Ultimate Computer”
  • “The Measure of a Man”
• Notable first: First interracial kiss in episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” 1968
• Over 700 hours of television episodes and movies
  • Has a lot of influence
• Diversity on the screen
• 1966-1969

Comparison Chart

• What themes did you watch for?
• Which themes seem to change and which themes stay the same?

Class:

• Are robots part of the class structure?

Technology:

• Most prominent read-through in the class
• Technology is the subject in both of the episodes
• Ultimate Computer
  • More efficient than man
  • Less prone to mistakes
  • “Men need not die in space…”
  • Will it replace people?

Other themes were Ethics, Conflict, Gender, and Race.

HW:

• Get ready to compare and contrast these series’s for next class

  Lecture 17 - Intro to Comparison Essay (10-22-20)

Comparing Two Movies/TV Shows

• The comparison should look like: https://northeastern-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/tab_clark_northeastern_edu/EYqGbT9rP2FGmTWkkg0adaABTRtv3atwaZDfjR8Ex7Yogg?e=fvhg6w
• Next week we are going to be drafting this assignment
• Which examples are you going to use?

Star Trek Comparison

• Recall Lecture 16
• How to write the comparison essay on these:
  • One paragraph: Ultimate Computer (M5)
  • Second Paragraph: Measure of a Man (Data)
  • Similar texts will make this assignment harder
  • NOTE: The transition between these two paragraphs should be the similarities
  • Close analysis includes quotes and description of scenes
  • Aim for 20-30 quotes
  • Description of scenes are important too
    • What kind of spacing is there?
  • Think about the time period in which the texts were produced in
• Technology
  • Spock admires M5’s competence as a slave, but does not wish to serve under it.
  • Next Generation:
    • What is the relationship between man and machine?
  • Both looking at the impact of a new technology
    • There are no other Data’s or M5’s
• Ethics
  • Ultimate Computer
    • “I have no wish to serve under [computers], Captian”
  • Measure of a Man
    • What are computers’ rights?
    • Are machines slaves? Should they be?
    • What does society value?
• Class
  • Ultimate Computer
    • How is the top of the social hierarchy effected by techonolgy?
  • Measure of a Man
    • How is the bottom of the social hierarchy effected by techonolgy?
  • Similarities
    • Computers are used so that humans don’t have to do dangerous work.
• Conflict
  • Ultimate Computer
    • Man vs man
  • Measure of a Man
    • Man vs self
• Gender
  • Ultimate Computer
    • 1 female character
      • Capitan addresses her by rank
    • She interupts and corrects the captian which shows her authority
    • “there are some things men much do to remain men”
  • Measure of a Man
    • Significantly more female characters with obvious status
• Race
  • Ultimate Computer
    • Smartest man in the universe in a black man
    • Uhura was on al three seasons, played by the same actor
  • Measure of a Man
    • More diversity
    • Not only different races, but also non-human characters

Homework

• What franchise/reboot are you working with?
  • Have to be at least 5 years apart?
  • Figure out who the actors are
    • Know a little bit about them
  • Start doing the factual research
    • Get basic information about the movie/TV show
      • IMDB/Snell Library
  • Monday: Structured brain storm
    • Fill out a chart for your franchise (the 2 examples that you picked)
      • Put in quotes
    • Based on this assignment, Prof. will approve the topic
  • Wednesday: First paragraph, the introduction
• No class Monday or Wednesday next week
  • Next week: Peer review on first draft

    Lecture 18 - Research for Compare and Contrast (10-29-20)

2020-10-29

Research in a College Level Class

• This isn’t high school
  • Need more rigorous research
• Those who need to redo this part of the assignment got an email about it
• If you have a 0, this is a major red flag
• IMDB
  • Good for general factual information
  • Not for reviews though

Examples of Good Work:

• Starts with the introduction of the franchise
  • Timeline for what the franchise has looked like
• General information on each of the texts
  • A lot of factual information such as director, producer, cast, etc.
  • Reviews on each of these

Research

• Author
• Publisher
• Date
• Organization as Author: the organization should be associated with the entertainment sector, or possibly an organization dedicated to the particular franchise you’re working with.
• Credential
  • Make sure to cite people who have more credentials than you
  • Look in established newspapers and magazines for reviews

What to do if you didn’t get a good grade on either assignment:

• Resubmit! Will regrade
• Research
  • Make sure to have a general overview of the franchise
• Brainstorm/Outline
  • Have a lot of quotes
  • Describe scenes and characters
  • Good examples:
    • A lot of quotes
    • Some description
• Thesis statement - Misunderstanding
  • The why question is essentially “why analyse this franchise?”
  • Look at the thesis statement and make sure that it’s representative of this comparison
    • Example: “gender is represented in a one-sided way”
    • Why did this change happen?
      • Because the culture changes, the difference in times

Make sure to balance each film in the comparison

From here:

• Revise the Journal Response
• Revise the Structured Brainstorm
• make an appointment with professor

Draft is now due on Sunday night

• Think about going to office hours

  Lecture 19 - Revising Compare and Contrast Essay (11-02-20)

2020-11-02

Drafts of Compare and Contrast Essay

• Use dates and research
• Give more context on the franchise
  • It didn’t just come out of thin air
• Don’t have IMDB or Rotten Tomato’s as a primary source
  • Cannot cite people with no credentials
  • Use established people (ex. From magazines)
• Summary is not analysis
• Evidence includes
  • Staging/blocking
  • Costuming
  • Camera angle and lighting
  • Dialogue
• Need to balance evidence between films

Organization

• Should reflect the outlines that we made
• The thesis should be at the end of the introduction paragraph
  • The thesis should show the difference in themes
• Outside research should only be in the introduction paragraph
  • Only thing you cite in the body paragraph is the films
• No personal opinion on the franchise
• Star Wars example
  • Needs a strong assertion on how the themes evolve in different directions
  • Name the two films in the topic sentence
  • Unbalanced evidence
• Mulan example
  • Organize introduction
  • Have transition phrases
  • MLA: If something has the time title, include the year
• Batman example
  • Sets up the franchise well.
    • Acknowledges how old the franchise is and how it started

      Lecture 20 - Intro to Reviews (11-09-20)

2020-11-09

Changes to the Schedule:

• Short journal response due at the end of the day today
• Due 11-12, find a review
• Reading a negative review
• For Wednesday: Read the review chapter
  • Don’t have to read the multimodal composition part
• Week 10-12:
  • Starting work on Essay

Reviews

• Find a published review
  • Could be either a local or national newspaper
• Essay
  • Writing to a more informal audience
  • Can be more creative with wording and structure
  • You can use personal pronouns
  • Worth 30% of overall grade
• Types of reviews
  • Media
  • Live performances
  • Sports
  • Greatest or best list
  • etc. (See Canvas)
• Needs to be at most 2 years old
• First time that our own opinion is apparent in our writing
• We create our own criteria of assessment for the media

  Lecture 21 - Discussion on Review Unit (11-12-20)

2020-11-12

Discussion on Review Unit

Choice of Subject

• Needs to be less than 2 years old
• You need expertise on this subject

Breakout Rooms: Discuss What We Picked

• Examples:
  • Sports seasons
  • Albums
  • Films

Breakout Rooms: Answer Questions on Chapter

• Group 1
  • Peter Travers’ Review on the Girl with The Dragon Tattoo
  • How is their impression created?
  • Notes how the editing and production was good
  • More implicit on what he’s suggesting
  • Anything that’s not negative is positive
• Group 2
  • What does Travers say that the film is missing?
  • Didn’t think it was daring enough
    • Didn’t push social bounderies
  • Wasn’t as good as other works by the director
• Group 3
  • Historical context for reviews (like we saw in the profile unit) is good

    Lecture 22 - Introduction to Review Drafts (11-18-20)

2020-11-18

The Difference between Greta Van Fleet’s Review and Guy Fieri’s Restaurant Review:

Guy Fieri’s Restaurant

• Personal Experience with restaurant
• Explains why every aspect of the restaurant is bad
• Calling out Guy Fieri specifically

Greta Van Fleet

• More historical context
• Going against popular opinion at the time
• The essence of the band is just going off of Led Zeppelin
  • Just going off of nostalgia

Outline for Review

• People usually read reviews with an opinion already in mind
  • Can upset you because reviews often don’t give both sides
• You can do whatever you want in your own review
  • As long as you have criteria
• Needs a dominate impression
  • And a call to action
• Because this is for the public’s view, if can be more informal.
  • Have creative liberty (can have sentence fragments, etc.)
    • Just avoid cliches
• Needs in Image at the beginning
• Where are you going to bring in your research?
• Justified text
• MadLib for what we’re doing

Example: I am going to write about Tim Minchin’s new album Apart Together. Apart Together is an example of a singer songwriter album. Another example of a singer songwriter and R&B is Awaken, my Love by Childish Gambino (Donald Glover).

For Tomorrow

• Not very long draft
  • Just the first paragraph (hook and outline for the rest)
• Works Cited page
  • Doesn’t have to be MLA, can just be links

    Lecture 23 - First Peer Review for Review (11-19-20)

2020-11-19

Peer Review

• Does your peer pass the ‘look test’.
  • Essentially, does it look like a review?
  • No MLA. This is for the public. Not an academic.
• The ‘hook test’
  • Do the first 50 words draw in the audience?
  • Is the pacing appropriate?

Breakout Rooms: Peer Review

• What criteria have been setup by the author of the review?
• Do their images work/does it look like a review?
• Does their hook draw your attention in?
• NOTE: ignore Canvas peer review

Next draft due on Monday

• About 600 words
• Expectations written on Canvas
• First 3 sections of the review
  • Background not just on the artist, but on the genre as well
• For album reviews, you don’t have to review every track

When we com back from Thanksgiving, comments will be available.

Final assignment: E-portfolio

• Show at least 2 of your pieces (50 point assignments )this semester

  Lecture 24 - Second Peer Review for Review (11-23-20)

2020-11-23

Second peer review for the Review document

How to do the second peer review:

• Think about your own target audience
  • What type of person is going to read this?
• You need an exemplar in the field
  • Essentially, find a review that you want to ‘copy’

Look test

• Look at the design elements of your peer
  • Not academic (no MLA)
• Are there other places that images could help?
  • You could have graphs as well

Content test

• Paragraphs cannot be longer than 100 words
  • Can be used to emphasise movement or time
• Criteria
  • Read their opener (first 100 words). Can you describe their criteria?
• Don’t have more than 50 words of summary
  • The reader already has background knowledge of the material

Instructor Review

• Get them to Professor by tomorrow by midnight

  Lecture 25 - Thoughts on the Week (11-30-20)

11-30-20

General Comments for Draft III of Review

• If she said it looks good, it’s close to done
• If asked to resubmit the draft, consider that
• Make sure to have hyperlinks to reference material
  • Little commons knowledge; push your reader to sources to prove things
• Include MLA format on the works cited page
• History
  • Recent or relevant
• Expect line edits by the end of the day today

Draft of the E-Portfolio

• Thursday should have a draft
  • Don’t want the reflective essay part of it, just the e-portfolio
• Worth 10% of your final grade

  Lecture 26 - Draft of E-Portfolio (12-03-20)

12-03-20

• Next week is open office hours during class time
• Think about the thank you to peers (see Canvas)
  • Upload a video of your voice and face (no editing required)

Thoughts on E-Portfolio

• Make sure to upload something
• Thoughts on your peers’ work:
  • Do they make use of images?
  • What is the theme?
• What two pieces are you picking?
• Things to keep in mind:
  • Are you presenting yourself as an individual or as part of Northeastern? (either one is fine)

NUWriting

• You can submit any of your writing to the Northeastern Journal
• Theme: Anti-Racism and Justice