English 2783
The Art of Fact: Contemporary Literary Journalism
Prompt # 12
21 October 2010
Assessing things, sharing what we have
Where we stand
The process for continuing this course over the Thanksgiving class
seems to have worked for six people, and fallen completely apart for
six (or for however many of the six are actually still in the
course). I had expected to have a week to read the reports on
readings from The New Journalism, and to prepare them to
serve as the basis for a discussion in class tonight. As of today,
however, there are only six reports there (and that's all there were
by the deadline). I have to say I find this disconcerting: for many
people, in two full weeks, as far as I can see, there's no evidence
of work done at all.
In any case, as planned, we'll take the first part of the class
meeting tonight to read each others' reports. If you haven't yet
posted one, please go away and do the assignment. If you've done it
too late for me to print it, go and copy it to a word processor
file, and print two copies -- with 2" right margin, and 1/1/4 or 1
1/2 spaces between lines. Bring it back and we'll try to fit it into
the process.
There are two copies of each report I have, to make sure everyone
has a chance to read all of them. As you read, comment and question
as liberally as you can. This is what you're learning from, so
extract everything you can from the author. Ask for expansion of
things you think could be expanded and for clarification where
you're confused. Mark terms you think might be explained. Read as
attentively as you can. At the end, make any suggestions you can for
improving the report. Sign the copy you read. We'll talk about the
reports, and the comments, when everyone's read all of them.
For next time
Revise your report in light of the comments and questions on your
copy, and the discussion in class. To do this, copy the text as it
stands in the forum, revise it with your word processor (revision,
as I think should be clear, does not mean fixing errors; it means
rethinking the piece to make it better in every way), and post it as
a reply to the original text (using "revised report" as your title,
to distinguish it from the report on exploring your writer's
context, which should be already there).
Do this before Friday night.
After Saturday morning, read the revised reports, replying where it
seems useful.
At any point this week, but before Sunday night, read through the
contextualizing reports that are already on the forum, and post
replies to all of the ones there -- again, asking for clarification
where it seems desirable, and expansion where that seems possible.
We'll talk about contexts next Monday night -- and about the
bibliography wiki.
It's the middle of the term . . .
. . . and time to assess your progress in the course. The next prompt, available later this evening
or tomorrow morning, will tell you how that's going to work.
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