Week 7: Debriefing (How to Improve Your Work)

Hello class!

This week, you'll begin working with new peer groups. See the updated list on the margin of the blog.

Last week, most of you conveyed good comprehension of the articles you've been reading. I'm glad you are gaining in confidence with more rigorous reading material, and I encourage you to make sure you're producing analysis and original thought beyond summation of the texts you're reading, and that the connections you are making are clear, before posting your response. Also, make sure you specify which question you are answering when choosing between options.

Here are a few of the Greatest Hits from last week:

See Justin Vizcaino's review and analysis of the movie "Training Day", http://vizzyalexio.blogspot.com/2010/09/real-wild-men.html and Jackie Pridgett's review of "Kill Bill" http://jackie-alwaysdream.blogspot.com/2010/09/real-wild-women.html for examples of excellent gender studies analysis of film.

See Amara's post on "Technology and Family", http://amararodriguez.blogspot.com/2010/09/technology-and-family.html, which is an excellent example of writing that conveys comprehension of the reading and also offers original thought on the topic at hand.

If your own posts are not meeting the standards exampled above, you are getting less than full credit. It's not too late to improve your scores by writing better work.

This week, as you write your blog posts, I'd like you to focus on clarity, strong editing, and completeness. For your peer reviews, focus on honesty. When you choose to avoid pointing out areas of improvement to your classmates, you put their grade at risk AND lower your own chances at receiving full credit for the review.

As for your readings this week, they are some of my favorites of the semester. You'll read articles that pose theories about the communication gap between genders (and solutions for this problem), and you'll read some science-based perspectives about our mating habits (which reveal some surprising, yet potentially convincing, insight as to why we do what we do).

Enjoy the readings!

-AP

Week 6: The Chaos of Gender

Hi Class,

Today, I finished the final round of comments on your rough drafts. If you posted late, you won't find a note from me. This is in accordance with standards outlined on your syllabus and calendar that state that your classmates are not responsible to comment on late-posted work and that late-posted work counts as an absence. This policy keeps things simple for all of us and protects you from having to check in on multiple days of the week to peer review in the event that classmates post outside of the alotted time.

That being said, I do keep myself available to all of you, regardless of posting time, to respond to specific emailed questions about your papers. You could also utilize the Writing Center and Ask-a-Librarian if you'd like assistance.

I look forward to reading your final drafts! Good luck finishing them up.

This week, you'll begin to reflect on issues surrounding gender and sexuality. I think you'll enjoy these upcoming readings.

The current academic discourse surrounding gender and sexuality offers insight on both men AND women, on straight AND homosexual relationships. There's a common assumption that these areas of study generally correspond with women's studies or gay & lesbian studies only, but you'll find that plenty of research is available about heterosexual relationships and about men.

One major area of gender studies pertains to the study of communication and behavioral differences between men and women. Beginning in the 1980's, the academic study of gender difference in our culture gave way to a rise in "self help" books that sought to improve communication in relationships, such as "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" by John Gray. More recently, you may have heard of a book called "He's Jut Not That Into You" by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, which translates, for confused single women, the actions and talk of men they are dating. Soon, you'll be reading an excerpt from one of these self-help author experts and I'll be curious to see what you have to say in reflection.

We'll also be reading perspectives about gender. Commonly, we take it for granted that all people belong to a certain gender, and that biological factors are a primary cause for difference between ourselves and "the other" sex. You may already be familiar with arguments that question the belief that there are only two genders, and that gender is a natural construction, but if not, you're in for a big surprise! You'll be interested to learn that new theories have been introduced which deliver evidence that perhaps gender is more often socially constructed than not, and that biologically speaking, everyone falls on a spectrum of gender, which accounts for variance. Yes, this is to say some scientists and theorists believe that even this very class is full of a variety of genders, not just what we call "men" and "women". Social scientists play an important role in this conversation. They decontruct gender and sexuality in ways that observe culturally imposed differences. Our first articles of the unit examine socially constructed roles that are presented in specific films. (You, too, will practice media analysis by choosing a movie that might be subject to similar critique.)

An umbrella question that I want you to keep in mind as we journey through this unit is, "What is the significance of examining gender and sexuality"? Often, readers find a practical purpose in discovering more about these issues, since we are innately social creatures. Read the articles then reflect on them by observing the world around you, your own experiences, and your personal sense of what's what. Though you can't argue theories made by experts by simply stating your own beliefs and opinions, you can find research that backs up your opinions to later create a persuasive argument essay.

Next week, I'll be posting your Unit 2 Peer Group lists and we'll continue to interact via blog.

Congratulations on successfully completing Unit 1! I appreciate the hard work you're putting into the class and in maintaining your beautiful blogs.

IF, for some reason, this unit felt difficult for you or if you don't think you're likely to succeed with this course, it's a good time to withdraw, with no penalty of a failing grade. And if you haven't met with or spoken with me yet, it's as good a time as any to schedule an appointment. I look forward to connecting with you!

Have a great week. :-)

-AP

Week 5: Creating Essay 1

Hello everyone!

Last week marked the completion of your unit 1 readings. I hope you enjoyed the articles! I often tell students in my first-year English courses that assumptions about identity and human-ness are the kinds of underlying warrants that appear in ALL academic arguments. Asking/answering questions about what it means to be a person is inherently relevant for that reason.

Your final post of the unit allowed you to practice the type of writing that would be required of you in an art history class. The kind of analysis that is appropriate for art history is highly technical and precise. This might be surprising to you since we normally associate the arts with feeling and interpretation.

To view a handful of "Greatest Hits" that exhibit very strong descriptive writing, see:

Darien's blog: http://darienallen.blogspot.com/

Amber's blog: http://ambalicious7.blogspot.com/

April's blog: http://aprilpage333.blogspot.com/

Others of you also had insightful, deeply felt things to say about the artwork. It was fun to read your thoughts. :-)

This week, we'll be using previous blog posts as the rough material for a fully realized analytic essay. You can use your peer group members' reviews to help you judge which blog post might have the most potential to become a strong final essay. Be sure to expand on your topic within the appropriate field of inquiry. For example, if you decide to expand on the post about the Frida Kahlo painting, choose articles that appear in journals that are specific to the field of Art History. A link to ASU Libraries is available in the "Research and Writing Assistance" module of your Course Documents on Blackboard. Academic Search Premier and JSTOR are great search engines for journal articles. A good way to remind yourself about which field of inquiry is most relevant to your own essay is to go back to your book and look up the article you wrote about in the post; each article mentions which specific field the scholar was writing for, and will allow you to similarly narrow the scope of your inquiry.

View the following brief video clip to learn about the purpose of academic articles for your own essay writing: http://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/2010/04/20/libminute_026/

Remember to post your rough drafts to Blackboard by Tuesday evening and to offer critique to your group members by Thursday evening. This will give everyone an opportunity to review their revision suggestions and edit their essays through the weekend before turning in a final draft.

This upcoming weekend, you'll recieve an email notification from me once I've posted my own revision suggestions for your rough drafts. I like to point out areas of strength/weakness as a way of guiding you towards a successful final draft. Keep in mind that my own feedback may be more constructive than praising. Know that I appreciate your effort and writing, and that my intention is to assist you in getting the best grade possible, and in teaching you how to write to a high academic standard.

Writing an academic essay presents an opportunity for you to be just as innovative and creative as in any other style of writing. You'll want to think of ways to surprise, interest, and motivate your readers to continue on. Remember: great writing is just as important as great thought. Also remember to write for an audience that may or may not be in this class; this means, you ought not assume someone knows what you're talking about. Spell everything out as you would have, had you been writing from a set of articles that none of your readers have read before.

If you have any questions, feel free to email.

Happy Writing!

-AP

Week 4: More Thoughts About Thinking

Hello Class!

I appreciate your patience in receiving an introductory post this week; today presented the earliest opportunity to write to you so here it is. :-)

First, I want to thank you for continuing to improve your writing. The beginning of the semester presents some ambiguity and I know it's a balancing act for everyone to learn about course expectations. What I've noticed is that many of you are gaining confidence in learning ways to be successful with the coursework. GREAT job, and thanks for being open to improving!

This week, you've continued to read work from your classmates' blogs and you're continuing to study on topics about intellectual capacity through your textbook readings. You might have noticed by now that the human intellect has been studied in almost all academic fields. You can also make special note of what sorts of perspectives interest you most (for example, are you more excited when reading science writing or philosophical writing on the topic? more inspired by the psychological perspective or by perspectives from technology-related fields?). Learning about where your personal interests lie can give you insight about what sort of query you'd most enjoy pursuing when developing academic essays in the future, and perhaps also about what types of classes you'd like to take (or avoid!).

For Thursday's assignment, you'll be asked to include an image of artwork as a part of your written text. I recommend that you start with a quick google search or library website search for images of Frida Kahlo's work and view as many as possible before choosing the image that you'd like to feature on your own blog. You can save the image to your computer and then upload it to your blog post using the "Add Image" button (when you're composing your post, look for a small blue and gray box on the tool bar, next to a button marked "ABC"). Also, since the image is borrowed materials, be sure to cite your source at the end of your blog post using correct MLA format. You can find formatting directions at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/ under the citation example that's titled "An Image (Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph)".

To end, I'll leave you with links to just a few of our "Greatest Hits" from last week, so you can continue learning from each others' good work. :-)

Jessica, Jordan, and Hilary all had exceptional blog reviews for their peer groups. Thanks to all of you for caring enough about your classmates to be thorough, honest, encouraging, and attentive! Links are below:
http://jlchee.blogspot.com/2010/08/week-2-blog-reviews.html
http://jordan-english215.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-3-blog-reviews.html
http://hilpaige.blogspot.com/2010/08/peer-reviews-of-posts-824-826.html

I admire the posts by Morgan and Lauren from our 9/2 assignments, particularly because they display remarkable consideration for the article writer as someone who's investigation was valuable and reliable. Rather than reflecting at surface level about the discussion questions posed, they referred to ideas presented in the article and sought ways to understand it. Argument writing is not always about refuting claims made by other writers... sometimes we benefit to find agreement with certain stances and support them by using our own persuasive points or related data.
http://morganbpaulson.blogspot.com/2010/09/can-machines-surpass-human-brain.html
http://laurenspencereng215.blogspot.com/2010/09/robots.html

See, also, Ricky's post as a great example of writing that synthesizes information from a course reading into a brief, clear summation that includes excellent personal reflection and response: http://richardkriebel2.blogspot.com/2010/09/will-machines-surpass-humans.html

Thanks to all of you for producing great work last week! I look forward to reading more.

-AP