Class #7 Wednesday, September 24, 2014 IN CLASS NOTES POST

Tonight, we will begin class in families. At the start of class, after your family gathers, you may head to a quiet corner of campus to re-convene. You will gather with your family, and, using your recording device, relay the story of your scar to your family aloud. Be sure you are recording the story on your phone or other device as you tell the story. After the story is told, you must have a clear recording of yourself. When not telling the story, it is your task to be an enthusiastic, active listener. No texting while your family talks, please.


We will re-convene in our room for class at either 6:30pm & 8:30pm respectively. 

Try to have fun!

Class #6: Monday, September 22, 2014

ASSIGNMENTS: 


DO: #1. Each family will post at least one rhetorical device with example employed in "Finding the Perfect Sports bar" by Chris Ballard. When one is posted by a family...it is off limits. In other words, if someone says, it is an "allusion" when the author says, "back up, Romeo," because Romeo refers to love as embodied by the Shakespeare character. Another family could use "allusion," but they must have a diufferent example. Each tweet must contain the name of the device, the example from the article and the family name. Must be tweeted @JoeCostal #costrhet #6pm or #8pm. Good luck. Tweeting cannot commence until midnight 9/23. 

#2. One of the purposes of this course is to introduce you to the process of writing: to help you understand the close relationships among thinking, language, and writing. Our approach is to investigate this topic by doing or trying out for ourselves the kinds of writing we are studying. 

Today, we discussed the "science" of grammar as opposed to the "art" of rhetoric. Even with this in mind, it's important to remember that our writing is more than the process of putting language to our thoughts. Reflections of our identity appear in our writing like DNA. Our genes carry coded information passed onto us by our ancestors, and our personalities bear the imprint of people we've met, the books we've read, and places we've visited. Our environment marks us in, perhaps, even more literal ways. It places scars on our bodies, inscriptions that we can "read." Every scar tells a story. Or rather, we probably can tell a story--interesting or not--about every one of our scars.

Our writing is the same reflection of our identity. Choose a scar on your body. Come to class Wednesday prepared to tell the story of one of your scars. DO NOT write the story down. Just mentally prepare to tell it.

 READ: Hacker Usage Glossary (does not demand a linear read, instead go through and check the rules you do or do not know).

Finish reading the article from today's assignment.

***Scar assignment attributed to the Penn State University Writing Dept.