Looking back

There may be some residual questions left over from last time about how the course will be organized. I'll respond as best I can.

I was surprised that there was so little discussion on the "opening survey" forum (especially given that the prompt said, "Between Wednesday night and the weekend, read as many other people's responses as you can, and reply to at least three." Because I think there are issues implicated in people's responses on the forum, I'd like to spent the first part of tonight's class exploring those. Here's how we'll do that. 

There are really three sections of the forum that will afford some useful discussion:  1. What's journalism? 2. What's "literary?" "6. Journalism and other forms. We'll be coming back to the others later, but there's not much exploration to do, since really they're focused mainly on information.

I've made some copies of the responses to each of those questions. I'll divide the class up into three groups, give each group copies of one set of responses, and allow everybody about twenty minutes or a half hour to put together some things to say to the rest of us about the responses. What you might say could include some strong patterns you see among the responses, some disagreements that perhaps we should talk about, some phrases or ideas that seem to you especially striking, whatever. One member of the group should agree to tell us what you've seen. We'll discuss things.

I'll collect the reports you've brought, in response to the second assignment from last time. Then we'll take a short break. If it looks as though we need additional copies of reports I'll make them during the break.

What we've learned so far (those reports)

Everyone should have with her a report of what you found in response to the second assignment (and where you found it). We'll take some time to read them (everyone should read at least three or four other people's reports, marking on them responsively as you go -- questions, agreements, problems, disagreements; whatever; note them in the margins or on the back. Watch especially for suggestions of specific avenues of research -- particular books, articles, or essays, authors who've written about this genre, etc. -- that we might pursue next as we start to lay out a map of the area -- especially its history and its central characters.

When you've read one, put your initials on the top. How many everyone should read will depend on how long they are. We'll spend about an hour on this process.

Deepening and extending the exploration