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ENG 214
Class updates, homework info., links to required reading...plus: good times galore. Get ready.
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Mao II Assignment Sheet
Hi, everyone!
Here is the Mao II assignment sheet for you to view while you read this week. Enjoy!
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Mao II reading for Friday, April 29
For Friday, read the first three chapters of Mao II. For now, just concentrate on the reading. Next week you will be taking notes as you did in White Noise, when you analyzed passages according to this process.
As you read the first three chapters, take some brief notes on these characters:
Roger and his wife (the couple at the very beginning of the novel who are watching their daughter get married)
Scott
Brita
Karen
Bill
For each character, choose a word (or a few words) that you think describes that character, and then make note of a passage that would support your choice of word. (For instance, if you had said that in White Noise, Jack is insecure, you might have then cited the passage in which he worries that people will find out he doesn't speak German as evidence of his insecurity.)
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I'm meeting you on Wednesday @ 2:30 right? The voice of reason keeps telling me that I might have wrote that down wrong and it was really Tuesday @ 2:30. Just want to check.
Yes, 2:30 Wed. And eek--I just realized I never put up the Mao II reading assignment! Doing that...right now! See you Wed.!
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Homework due Fri., April 15
1. Read, "Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language." Answer the "Focusing on Content" questions.
2. Read this article. Once you have finished reading the article, write down your impression of it: How is the victim of this crime portrayed? What about her family? And her attackers?
3. Read this article. Once you have finished reading the article, write down your impression of it: How is the victim of this crime portrayed? What about her family? And her attackers?
4. Compare your notes on the articles: Do you feel they offer the same impression of events and the people involved, or do they differ? Explain your answer.
5. Find three examples of slant in each article and put them in MEJ format (see pg. 37 in the course reader for an example--note that the example has two typos in the "Context" column--replace the word "speaker" with "author" and the word "speech" with "article."). Be sure to identify what kind of slant you see in the example (charged language, emphasis, or selection of facts) and the impression the slant gives of the events and/or people involved.
6. Decide on a topic you think you'd like to focus on in this essay. If you aren't sure what is going on right now in the world, you can check out:
NPR
The New York Times
The Los Angeles Times
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Bay Citizen
The Washington Post
The Sacramento Bee
6. Tweet a link or two using the course hashtag so that I can check out what you're thinking of investigating and tweet you back Re: whether that topic will work or not.
NOTE: Bring all of the readings with you to class on Friday!
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Video
NOTE: Because I have not yet uploaded "Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language," you do not need to worry about it for tomorrow's class.
Here is the video you need to watch for homework. Below is the rest of the spring break homework. See you all on April 8!
1. Watch The Falling Man (that's the video above).
2. Answer the questions in the Falling Man viewing guide (in the course reader).
3. Read "Photography" by Susan Sontag.
4. Answer the questions for the Sontag reading (in the course reader).
*Try to have the above finished by Fri., April 1.*
5. Read "Selection, Slanting and Charged Language" by Newman P. Birk and Genevieve B. Birk. <--I will link to the reading by Fri., April 1. I thought I had a scanned copy on my computer already, but I don't. I'll have it scanned by Fri. April 1, so check back for it.
6. Answer the "Focusing on Content" questions.
7. Tweet some links (include our course hashtag) to stories you think you might want to follow for your media bias investigation.
*You must have all of this homework completed by Fri., April 8. Bring the readings and your answers to all questions with you to class on the 8th. See you then! *
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Homework: Fri., March 18
Besides the essay that you have due next Fril, you also need to read Television News: The Language of Pictures by Neil Postman and Steve Powers. Answer the "Focusing on Content" questions at the end of the reading. (Answer them on paper and bring the reading and your answers to the questions with you to class on Friday.)
You also have a post due on your Tumblr. (See the calendar I gave out last week for the due date on that.) In order to complete the Tumblr post, you need to do the following:
First, take a moment to look at the following photos:
John McCain
Ann Coulter
O.J. Simpson
Spend some time looking at each photo. Then, decide how you feel about them: Do you feel these photos accurately reflect the person each depicts? Why or why not?
Once you have viewed the following photos and jotted down your ideas about them, listen to this audio file from On the Media:
After you listen to the story, write your reaction by first including your thoughts on the photos you viewed before listening to the OTM piece, then by answering the following questions:
At one point during the story, host Bob Garfield asks, "Is creating a disturbance ever a reasonable journalistic technique?" How would you answer this question? Explain your answer. In terms of this interview and the photos discussed, which of those photos do you think are appropriate? Which are not? Why?
Post your answers to these questions on your Tumblr by the date and time listed on the calendar I gave out last week.
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Essays and Groups for Peer Review
Below are the groups for the peer review session for this unit. Remember: You need to come to class having already read through each group member's essay and provided written feedback to them for each paragraph. This time each group is meeting with me in our classroom at the time specified below. As before, each person’s name is a link that will take you to that person’s essay for you to print out. Remember: You only print the papers for the people who are in your group for peer review.
Group One (9:10-9:40):
Jessica
Aakash
Group Two (9:40-10:10):
Michelle
Heather
Drew
Group Three (10:10-10:50)
Eli
Andrew
Paolo
Gwen
If you were not in class on Friday, email me ([email protected]) and I will give you directions for peer review.
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Audio file for homework due Friday, Mar. 11
Here is the audio interview you need to listen to for homework over the next week. Some context: This interview is between Brooke Gladstone (on of the hosts of NPR's On the Media), and Thomas de Zengotita, author of author of Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live In It. When Gladstone refers to "Cho" at the start of this interview, she is referring to Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui.
Once you have listened to the interview, write a response on your Tumblr in which you identify how the phenomena that de Zengotita describes in the interview relates to an event in WN--in other words, what scenes in the book are similar to the phenomena that de Zengotita describes in this interview? Once you have answered that question, explain whether you are inclined to accept or reject De Zengotita's argument, and explain why you feel as you do.
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Papers for peer review
Below are the names of the people whose papers I have received for peer review. Each person’s name is a link that will take you to that person’s essay for you to print out. Don't forget to print the papers for the people who are the writers for your master group session.
Drew
Jessica
Allyson
Aleisha
Indeah
Vivek
Gwen
Michelle
Paolo
Beatriz
Heather
Eli
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Is there any chance in the future that we could get longer than 24 hours notice to do a posting on the reading?
Hi, Andrew-
Yes, for sure. I am sorry that the other prompt was so late--and in fact, I should have changed the due date. Getting sick made me slow to update our site; when I did, I should have changed the due date for your post. My apologies for that.
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Prospectus and next Tumblr post
Hi, everyone-
First, if you haven't already found them on your own, the Prospectus guidelines are on page 16 in the Supplementary Course Materials packet. I went by the Bookstore on Friday, and the packet was there, so pick one up if you haven't already done so.
For your next Tumblr post on TOD, respond to the following questions. Have your Tumblr post up before class begins on Friday.
1. Toward the end of Chapter 13, Pollan discusses the challenges involved in trying to "Eat your view!". What "view" is he speaking of, and what are some of the challenges faced by those who are indeed trying to eat their "view"?
2. What nutritional benefits does Pollan outline in chapter 14 when he discusses the ways in which "pastured" food is different from the food available to us via the industrial food chain
3. What differences does Pollan notice in the taste of his meal at the end of chapter 14? How did you react while reading this portion? (In other words, how much does flavor matter to you in what you cook and eat?)
4. What is "The Ominvore's Dilemma"? What does it mean, and why did Pollan give his book this title?
5. What is your reaction to Pollan's argument "The Ethics of Eating Animals"? Which two points do you think he made that were the strongest? Which two were the weakest, in your estimation? Why?
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First Tumblr Post for TOD
Hi, everyone!
I hope you are enjoying The Omnivore's Dilemma. I know the beginning of the book is a bit dense, but once you get through the history of farm subsidies and the chemistry of corn, it picks up and becomes a much easier (and more enjoyable) read.
For your first TOD Tumblr blog assignment, you should write a short post (around 200 words) in which you answer the following questions:
What is the difference between "corn the food" and "corn the commodity"? Why does Pollan say they are "two subtly but crucially different things"?
What is a CAFO, and how have CAFOs enabled Americans to eat more meat? What does Pollan mean when he says that "when animals live on farms, the very idea of waste ceases to exist"? What reasons does Pollan offer for why eating corn-fed beef is more harmful to our health than eating grass-fed beef?
Conclude your post by discussing how you feel about what you have learned so far reading this book. What information is particularly disturbing, interesting, or astonishing? Why? What are you noticing about the foods in your food diary?
Upload this post by Thurs. at noon, and let me know if you have any questions.
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Sharing your latest Tumblr post on Twitter
Hi, everyone.
You will want to get in the habit of sharing your latest Tumblr posts via Twitter so that I can check them as soon as they are up. Doing so is easy once you get in the habit of it, but in case you need a little help starting out, follow this guide below:
1. First, you need to get the permalink to the post--in other words, you want to share the link to that post specifically, not to your Tumblr. To do so, click on the time stamp at the bottom of the post:
Clicking the time stamp will take you to the page with that individual post.
2. When you have opened the post, copy the address (URL). Because the address will likely be pretty long, you will want to use a "URL shortener," which makes long web addresses smaller to conserve space. I like to use bit.ly.
3. Once you have the shortened URL, copy it and paste it into a tweet, like so:
4. Click "Tweet," and you're done! Woot!
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Food Diary Assignment
In addition to the reading you will be doing for The Omnivore's Dilemma, you should also keep a food diary for the next week by following the guidelines specified below:
There is a typo in the date--it should say that you will be keeping the diary through Sat., Feb. 5.
Let me know if you have questions about your food diaries. There will be no judgment! Don't feel self-conscious: the purpose of this assignment is to help you gather data about your own eating habits, NOT to make you feel bad about those habits.
Keep this information on a sheet of paper; you will not post your diaries on your Tumblr.
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Link to reading for Tuesday's "Sample Essay" assignment
As you know, the first bit of homework for the weekend is a “Sample Essay”—the first assignment due on your Tumblr blog by Monday, January 31, no later than 10 p.m. In order to complete the essay, you will need to read, "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch," by Michael Pollan, which you can find here.
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