Time to Make Kevin Blush!

So, I think we should all give Mr. Kevin Battista a mighty pat on the back for getting his 4 Lokos investigative report published on Onward State. It was a stellar paper -- well-conceived, well-executed, well-structured. When he wins the Pulitzer Prize, we can all say we knew him. That will rock. For now, read his journalistic debut here.

Journal Twelve: Developing Ideas for Your Final Paper

Like I said in class, it's about that time to start writing the final paper for the course. In order to get you set up before you leave for Thanksgiving, I want you to start brainstorming possible topics for this paper, which is worth 25 percent of your grade. Nothing to sniff at, right? So might as well start strong and confident. For this journal assignment, I want you to quickly propose two different topics you might be interested in writing about. Give me a link to some reputable source that talks about the issue, just to be sure you are already aware of the larger discussion. Make sure it is something you are interested in, invested in -- something you truly want to learn more about. It can be something related to your possible major; an extension of something you already wrote about in this class; a reverse stance on the issue you wrote about for your argument paper; a well-researched proposal related to your investigative report; something relevant to your personal narrative; an academic/critical analysis of a film or a celebrity you wrote about for the evaluation. Or something entirely new. Whatever you want, really. You'll be using these topic ideas for our Topic Workshop on Wednesday. Hopefully you'll leave class knowing exactly what you'll need to start researching. Oh...did I mention this paper is worth 25 percent of your grade? Good luck!

Journal Eleven: Close Revision

For your 11th blog entry, I want you to pick one of the weakest paragraphs in your paper and revise it as best as you can. Your blog entry should include that paragraph in its original/weak form as well as its revision so I can see exactly how you revised your work. Make sure to fix all verb tense agreement issue. Include strong transitions if necessary. Get rid of sentence fragments and/or run-on sentences. Tidy up your word choice. Clarify language where needed. And make sure any citations or quotes are properly formatted (you can use MLA, APA, Chicago Style -- whatever you prefer, as long as you are consistent).

Journal Ten: Analyzing An Argument

For your tenth journal, you'll need to find an article that is relevant to your paper topic -- something you actually plan on citing or referencing for your final argument paper. Please use one of the databases we accessed in Monday's library session to do this -- Opposing Viewpoints, ProQuest, etc. You may also find an article on Google so long as it is from a reputable and reliable source. Include a link to this article in your blog entry as well as the proper MLA citation that you will use on your Works Cited page. Then, in 500 words:

- Give a brief synopsis of the piece, telling us exactly what the article's thesis statement or general argument may be.
- Discuss how the argument is constructed -- what evidence is used to support the author's viewpoint?
- Is this a convincing argument? How so?
- How will you use information from this article to support your own thesis statement? What information will you cite? What quote might you use and why? 

Journal Nine: Argument Topics

For this journal entry, I want you to find three different links to newspaper articles, each one focused on a different current issue that truly sparks your interest. For each link: I want you to give me a brief summary of the issue and then tell me what your stance on that issue is. This is meant to get you thinking about a topic for your fourth paper: Arguing a Position. It will be important that you pick a controversial, relevant, and timely topic for your paper. I do not want you arguing for the merits of using sunscreen -- that is obvious and not controversial at all. Controversy will be the heart of why your paper topic merit's a discussion. So think about this when finding possible topics for your paper.

Journal Eight: Keep It Simple

For this journal assignment, please take a look at the comparison made between Nabisco's Sugar Wafer and Fig Newton by Paul Goldberger, the architectural critic for the New York Times:

SUGAR WAFER (NABISCO) There is no attempt to imitate the ancient forms of traditional, individually

baked cookies here—this is a modern cookie through and through. Its simple rectangular form, clean and pure, just reeks of mass production and modern technological methods. The two wafers, held together by the sugar-cream filling, appear to float . . . this is a machine-age object.

FIG NEWTON (NABISCO) This, too, is a sandwich but different in every way from the Sugar Wafer. Here the imagery is more traditional, more sensual even; a rounded form of cookie dough arcs over the fig concoction inside, and the whole is soft and pliable. Like all good pieces of design, it has an appropriate form for its use, since the insides of Fig Newtons can ooze and would not be held in place by a more rigid form. The thing could have had a somewhat different shape, but the rounded tip is a comfortable, familiar image, and it’s easy to hold. Not a revolutionary object but an intelligent one.

Here, Goldberger focuses on the "architectural design" of the cookies for his compare/contrast exercise. I want you to do something similar. Find two objects that are equally interchangeable and write 200-300 words comparing and contrasting them using "design" as the only criteria for your evaluation. You might look at cell phones, the covers of two CDs from the same artist, toothbrushes. Have fun picking your objects. The only rule: KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Please include photos of the objects you are evaluating in your blog . When you are composing your new post, you'll see an image next to "Link" in the toolbar above your writing, below your title. Click on this image and then you'll receive instructions for how to paste images into your post. It's quite easy. 

NOTE: Despite what I said on Friday, this journal assignment is due by the beginning of class on Wednesday. That's right. You got yourselves a slight extension. 

Links to Presentation Readings

Here are links to the articles that you will be presenting on in class on Wednesday:

- Lauren Conrad: 
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2009/06/19/lauren_conrad/

- Social Network: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/10/04/101004crat_atlarge_denby

- James Ellroy: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/books/review/Jacobs-t.html?_r=1&ref=bookreviews

- Ruth Reichl:
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/29/arts/restaurants-065093.html

Journal Seven: Establishing Criteria For An Evaluation

For this journal assignment, I want you to pick something to evaluate. It can be anything you like that merits an evaluation: a product, a movie, a book, etc. etc. It does not have to be something you will use in your final paper, but it could be. After you've decided on the thing that you want to evaluate I want you to do the follow in 500 words:

- Of course, tell me what you are evaluating and why it merits evaluation (Is it popular? New? Revolutionary? Controversial?).
- Then, I want you to tell me THE CRITERIA you will use to evaluate your subject. You need to have at least FIVE pieces of criteria that you will use to establish the value of your subject.

Journal Six: Detailed Outline

For your sixth journal assignment, I want you to compose a detailed outline of your investigative report/profile/proposal using the structure we discussed in class. For each section, I want you to give me 1-2 sentences which state what you are going to do, what anecdotes you might want to include, whose voices you may include, what quotes you'll want to use, and what data will be relevant to the section. This is intended to help you organize the research you've been doing since last week. If you don't have your reporting done, then you may write information you hope to include in each section -- maybe you have an interview scheduled for Wednesday and you know what questions you will ask and, maybe, where you'll put that information in your paper. Here's the structure I want you to use as your road map:

1. Opening Scene
2. Illustrative quote that will conclude your scene
3. Nut Graph: This is where you have to tell me what you are writing about, why it's interesting, and why I should care.
4. Background: Give your issue/subject context. Let me know how this issue started.
5. Supporting Information 1: quotes? data? anecdote? what is your point and how does it relate to the issue?
6. Supporting Information 2: quotes? data? anecdote? what is your point and how does it relate to the issue?
7. Supporting Information 3: quotes? data? anecdote? what is your point and how does it relate to the issue?
8. Conclusion: Wrap-up your story. What would you like your audience to consider as a result of reading this piece? What relevant future issue could you point to?

Journal Five: Investigating

For this week's journal assignment, you'll basically be choosing your own reading material. This assignment is meant to help you get a decent head start on researching your topic for the investigative report. For this week's blog I want you to do all of the following:

1. I want you to give me a 200-300 word description of a place or scene related to your issue/profile. You'll need to do some observation for this part. If you are writing about drinking in your dorm: Describe your dorm. If you are writing about manic street preachers, give me a portrait of a scene of someone preaching -- where are they? In front of the Hub? What are they wearing? What are they saying? If you are, say, writing about ANGEL, describe how the platform works -- what does it look like? How is it used?

2. I want you to give me three quotes from a few interviews you've conducted that are related to your issue. Make sure they are relevant and colorful. They can be from an interview with a student, a friend, a professor, your subject, a police officer. Whomever. Just make sure you tell me who the quote is from -- give me their name, their age, their profession (or their year if they are a student). Things like that. They can be three quotes from the same person -- just make sure that each quote says something unique and points to a particular point of interest within your issue.

3. Write down four relevant facts that you have found in at least two different sources, whether from a website, a newspaper article, a survey, an expert you have talked to. Make sure that you cite each fact -- tell me where you got the fact from.

4. While observing, interviewing, and researching, you likely stumbled across new ideas or avenues you hadn't thought about before -- things you might want to look into further for your paper. Tell me about two areas that you are interested in doing a bit more research, issues that you feel you need to address to make your paper stronger. Maybe you feel you need to interview someone in the IT department or you need to talk to a different fraternity or look for a specific article someone mentioned. Let me know what your next investigative steps will be.

You must include all four of these items in your blog -- there is no option to pick and choose. 

And don't forget! Bring research materials to class for Friday. If you can bring your laptop, do that. If not, print out a few articles/websites that you can look over in class to do a bit of fact finding. We'll talk about how to cull the information you need in order to make your paper the best it can be! There is such a thing as over-researching and I want to teach you how to stay focused on the task at hand -- how to look for information that is relevant to your paper and how to avoid getting overwhelmed by the available information.

Journal Four: #1 Party School

In 2009, the Princeton Review named Penn State the #1 Party School in America. In honor of this new title -- and out of a certain curiosity -- journalists from This American Life came to investigate the scene. Their findings culminated in an hour long broadcast entitled "#1 Party School."

Click on the link above and listen to the report. Then, in at least 500 words, I want you to analyze the piece using the five questions listed on page 193 of Harbrace, under "What Makes It An Investigative Report." Aside from these five questions, I'd also like to get your take on the piece. Did you like it? Why? Why not? What worked for you? What didn't? What would have liked to hear more of/less of in the story? Post your response on your blog.

Reading for Wednesday, Sept. 15: Profiles

Profiles are supposed to offer us revealing glimpses into the lives of people who intrigue us for one reason or another, whether they are Hollywood celebrities, politicians, sports players, rock stars, or just some random, enigmatic character we see on the street.

Profiles are supposed to get down to the nitty gritty of a person's character -- the "real" story behind the man/woman. Often, a journalist will interview not only the subject of their story, but several people in that person's life, too -- family, business partners, enemies and critics. They'll surf the internet looking for old stories and background information, maybe even pull up police reports, legal documents, tax filings -- whatever sources they need to make their story interesting, complete, and three-dimensional.

Sometimes, it's also in what the journalist isn't being told -- the information they aren't able to get -- where the story can be the most illuminating. One of the most famous examples of this sort of story is "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold" by Gay Talese. Talese obviously had a hell of a time getting Frank to sit down and be open with him. But it didn't stop Talese from writing a close study of the singer. He simply relied on other instincts -- other signs and observations -- in order to give us a rather personal and touching glimpse of Sinatra. More recently, a reporter applied similar techniques in her profile of Lindsay Lohan for Vanity Fair.

Here are several links to profiles I find engaging and/or helpful as we begin to talk about the structure and purpose of profiles. Please read at least 2 of these stories before class on Wednesday. We'll be talking about them in great detail:

- Gross, Michael Joseph. "Sarah Palin: The Sound And The Fury." Vanity Fair. October 2010.
You may have heard about this story -- it's received a lot of hype, particularly due to the fact that the author has claimed he actually wanted to do a "glowing" profile of Palin, but, in the end, just couldn't. Do you buy that? 


- Talese, Gay. "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold." Esquire. 1965.
For any young journalist, this story is required reading. It is used as THE great example of a perfect profile. A classic, for sure. You can't write a profile without reading Talese -- the godfather of great narrative journalsim.


- Grollmus, Denise. "Jesus For Sale." Cleveland Scene Magazine. October 2007.
Ok. I know. This feels weird to me, too. BUT...some of you have asked that I include my writing in your reading. I did work as an investigative journalist for over 6 years before coming to PSU. Here's just one example of the many profiles I did. It's about Rex Humbard, the father of televangelism. If you want to see more, there are links on my webpage. Also, I can talk very specifically about HOW these stories were put together, which should be helpful to you all!


- Lewis, Michael. "The No-Stats All-Star." The New York Times, February 2009.  
Here's a great sports profile. Just to mix stuff up. 

Journal Three

For your third journal assignment, I want you to read a chapter from Anne Lamott's book, Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, entitled, ehem, "Shitty First Drafts."

After the reading, you'll notice that there are three questions. You can use any of these questions to guide your reflection on Lamott's piece. But, most importantly, I want you to think about what Lamott says regarding the importance of the "shitty first draft" as it relates to your personal writing process. What could you relate to in the reading? What did the reading illuminate for you? What part of Lamott's observation relates to your recent experience with writing your rough draft for our personal narrative assignment? How did it contribute to the strength of your story?

Please write your reflection on the reading as it relates to your own writing in at least 500 words and post your response on your blog before class on Friday.

And by the way...

On Monday, we'll begin talking about your personal narrative assignment...a lot. So, start thinking about something you might like to write about. Also, a great way to get inspired, get ideas, and really amp up your own prose is to read stuff you like. I suggest looking at all the links under Journal Two. The essays, articles, and excerpts I linked to are stories I found really moving, funny, relevant, and/or revealing. They are all very different. And offer you great examples of great personal narratives. Cool? Cool. See you all Monday!

Journal Two

Alright, folks. So, I think we all agree that people in this class -- and, in the world, generally -- dislike writing about those subjects with which they are not engaged. Correct?

Since establishing that fact this past week -- thanks to your free writing exercises, journal entries, and our classroom discussions -- I am going to do my best to spark your imaginations with readings and writing projects that you might ACTUALLY LIKE. I'm even going to give you a couple different options for how to construct your next journal assignment.

First, you all are now responsible for building and maintaining your own blogs. That means that under "Dashboard" (See it in the upper-right hand corner? Good.), I want you to start a new blog. Give it a snazzy, clever title. Play around with the design. Add photographs. Add links to websites you like, love, and loathe. Change up the fonts. Post videos from You Tube that you find relevant. Remember: all these seemingly insignificant choices are part of a greater rhetorical situation that you are creating. So, when designing your blog, try to remember what message you, the rhetor, want to send about yourself and your writing. And don't forget! Your peers and I are your audience. And the context in which you are writing is this grand ol' course, ENGL15: Composition And Rhetoric. In 2010. For whatever that's worth.

Ok. Now for your prompts. Remember, your journal entry is due by class on Wednesday and must be posted on your new, personal blog.

Here are your options:

1. As we get ready to write our personal narratives, I want you to start thinking of narrative techniques that help move your story along in a way that keeps the reader engaged, moves the plot along, and contributes, in some way, to the point of your story. One of these techniques is dialogue -- the direct speech among the characters in a story. Take a quick look at page 346 in Harbrace for more about dialogue. Now, I want you to create a story out of nothing but dialogue that is taking place between two people over instant messaging. Before you begin, make sure you have thought about the story it is you want to convey through the exchange. Make sure it's nothing too complicated or involved. Keep it simple, as they say. Maybe one person is telling the other about their recent break-up with a boyfriend. You'll want to tell us how the break-up happened and why. How that person may be feeling. But you'll need to do it within the limitations of the IM dialogue. (400 words)

2. Read one of the following personal essays and then, in 400-500 words, break down for us the elements of memoir which you learned about in your reading and which you'll be including in your own personal narrative. Tell us what the subject of the story is, why this particular story is timely or relevant, who is the intended audience, what is the point of the story, and what rhetorical devices are used that you found particularly strong and are ones you might like to incorporate in your own writing? Here are your choices:

- Giffels, David. "Shirt-Worthy," The New York Times Magazine. October 28, 2007.

- Lamott, Anne. "What She Gave," Salon.com. May 8, 2005.

- Sheff, David. "My Addicted Son," The New York Times Magazine. February 6, 2005. Note: this one is a bit longer, but it is so worth the read. Very emotional. Very riveting.

- Walker, Rebecca. An excerpt from her book "Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self." 

Journal One

Think about your past experiences as a writer and rhetor. What are two of your strengths as a writer and rhetor? What are two of your writing weaknesses? Specifically, how would you like to improve as a writer? What could you do or learn to make such improvements? How do you anticipate that this particular course will help you improve as a writer and rhetor?

Answer these questions in 500 words or more. Also, include examples, via at least two hyperlinks, of writing or rhetorical situations that inspire you to be a better writer. It could be song lyrics, a scene from a television show, your favorite book, or a recent article you read. For example, I love reading The Onion. For me, satire is one of my favorite things to read -- but it's not always the easiest thing for me to write. How about you?