We discussed equipment and online system for reservations available through the DLC – though we (I) did learn that it took a phone call to reserve a laptop.  I’ll mention again that the DLC is the place to go for hardware and software concerns as they relate to coursework on campus.  We spent a few minutes discussing Online Caroline¸ an experience with new media literature and the conflation of character through which the story its plot line.  A handout to the class guided students through the possibility of enhancing WORD documents with applications internal to the program: hyperlinking (linking inside and outside the document), inserting borders, highlighting, commenting, and watermarking.  Finally, we spent time again visiting selections of writing to edit for many of the items about which we’ve learned in the first weeks of class.  

I’d like to highlight the use of the dash here.  From C. Edward Good’s Who’s Whose Grammar Is It, Anyway? (386), “the dash is one of the most effective punctuation marks of all.” Good describes the dash as the biggest of punctuation’s pauses, able to demand attention of the reader in a variety of situations:

1. as an explanatory or defining phase: “Of the three punctuation marks producing a pause – the comma, the dash, the parentheses – the dash produces the most abrupt pause of all.”
2. as a parenthetical insertion:  “The dash can halt readers in their tracks – it makes them pay attention – as they read through your words of wisdom.”
3. as an introductory explanation: “Em dashes, parentheses, and commas – these are the major punctuation marks used to create a pause.”
4. as appositive phrases: “Pauses in sentences – explanatory phrases, defining phrases, parenthetical material, and introductory defining phrases – prompt many writers to use the dash.”
5. as a sudden break in thought: “The committee’s expansive logic – it went far beyond any previous decision – increased the available remedies rather dramatically.”

The last of these explanations seem closest to the sense of use we discussed in class.

A wrangling with the understanding of the use of “which” and “that” may have left us more confused than when we started, and the discussion sent me back to the books to get a better handle on the topic.  I’ll talk more about this in class on Monday.

technorati tags: Purdue English 106, URLs

Here are the passages:

After reading an article entitled Iran Said to Have Nuclear Warhead Plans, I pondered a question what has happened to the United Nations of not so long ago. What is the effectiveness of the U.N.? The U.N. has been the place that has had a major impact on global history over the past 50 years. This organization has seen its fair share of peeks and valleys.

Well that has stopped, time to get my butt back on track. Ok back on topic. I was on Lifehacker and I saw an article about iPods. It basically explains how to emancipate you iPod from the shackles of iTunes.

Hate is a strong word; maybe I shouldn’t have used that one. Loathe could be an appropriate word for how I view technology today. The website building, (while really not that much of a pain), left me frustrated and irritated yesterday. … Class has been interesting as of late however, I would like some time in class to apply the things we set up during the hour.

technorati tags: Purdue English 106, rule of ten

• the “double life” of documents as both the creation of meaning and the creation of a community – often a reinforcement of the meaning by which it was, to begin, created
• documents as both structuring information and structuring the social space (2) “Seeing documents as the means to make and maintain social groups, not just the means to deliver information, makes it easier to understand the utility and success of new forms of documents.”
• new forms of documents allow for new forms of community – Strauss’s notion of “social worlds” (3)
• thoughts about what “authorizes” a document (4)
• an understanding for Anderson’s notion of “the imagined community” (5/6)
• “communities of interpretation” (8)
• an understanding of “intertexuality” and the writing act as provocation for more writing – the conversation in and between communities (9) How does hypertextuality and links speak to this point?
• an understanding of what Brown and Duguid call “intercommunal” and “intracommunal” documents – differences and examples (12)
• the importance of audience and “the economy of attention” (12)
• the mobility of documents – the issues of boundaries, the work of negotiation between formed communities, and the idea of “translation” (12-14)
• connections between the flow of information and “freedom” (responsibility) (15)
• the implications of form – what changes when the medium of information shifts? what becomes of the notions of “permanence,” “ownership,” and/or “producer/consumer”? (15-17)
• an understanding of the terms “ecology” and “economy” and how documents can be seen as a mediating force between the needs/drives represented by each (18-19)

These bullet points should guide those of you still reading to a better understanding of the material. For students striving to improve their writing, the challenge is to translate these ideas to an understanding of composition as a negotiation between multiple layers of meaning: information, social representation, permanent record, and, not the least, a statement – (real)ization – of SELF in the world.

In the ACT of word(ing), image(ing), and voice(ing) you are writing yourself and your world: in(form)agination – do your part well.

technorati tags: Purdue English 106, The Social Life of Documents

• PROOFREAD by reading aloud. Many errors left on a page can be found by the writing when the “distance” created with voice is added.
• CAPITALIZATION can be a problem for those of us writing in an age of IM. Check sentences (of course) for a capital letter at the start, and check names of people groups in particular.
• ONLINE: Insert an image on the front page of your Blogger writing space, edit any links there that still read “edit me,” add an email link to the front page of your Blogger writing space, and, when composing your post, incorporate links to external sources as part of the text.
• PARAGRAPHING = “doing your laundry”
• HARVARD COMMA is still standard: __________, _________, and _________ .
• TITLES: Underline (italicize) all titles unless the title is “inside” an already titled work – then use quotes: the title of the CD is underlined, but the title of the song is in quotes; the title of the book is underlined, but the title of the chapter is in quotes; or, the title of the conference is underlined, but the title of a particular presentation is placed in quotes. Gettit?
• APPOSITIVES: … a new word for you? The word doesn’t matter as much as the function in writing. It works like this: I had a date with Harry, the rat-fink, and it stood me up once again. Or… The State of the Union Address, President Bush’s sixth, left the majority of Americans with a large number of questions. … The “rule” directs along these lines: when a noun or noun phrase is place as an explanatory equivalent (a restated equal), the restated noun or noun phrase is set off by commas. See how it goes?

I’ll try to put notes up here from time to time that will help you in composing your “lists of ten.” Be watching for updates.

technorati tags: Purdue English 106, list of ten

Note, too, that the email sent last Friday included an assignment for updating your Blogger writing space by thoroughly completing your profile do as to include an image, compose an intentionally written “about me” section, and edit links in such a way as to include an “email me” link on the front page as well as replacing/removing links that currently read “Google news” or “edit me.”   Many have overlooked Friday’s email; I encourage a return for another read and attention given there. 

My English 106 course sequence at Purdue has basically one standing assignment: improve your writing skills.  You’ll have many opportunities each week to address yourself to that work; my expectation is to see you do so at least three or four times a week.  Let one of those times this week be a response to last Thursday’s writing.  I’ll check again for that by 9:00 p.m. on Monday night.

In the meantime, any response to the discussion about a use of color in composition?  

Follow this link to Claudia Cortes’s work on color for a look at the meanings with which color invests inself – the meanings at play when color contibutes to the message.

Then, for those with an interest in seeing color “put to work” in fashion, you might enjoy this Cathy Horyn (NYTimes) report on the latest of Paris fashion, “Haute Couture 2006.” How does color contribute here to the composition of message/meaning?

technorati tags: Purdue English 106, rhetoric and color

technorati tags:

PurdueEnglish106, free culture

· Begin your work on project one (Writing a Non-Profit) by exploring and developing a working definition of “non-profit.” Be sure to link to the most “reliable” sources of information not just the first site you find. This might be a good opportunity for exploring Wikipedia. If you can, avoid sites that come with pop-up windows attached.
· Generate a counter statement. Explore other blogs or read the news from one of your subscribed news services, and build a triangle! For example, work from something you’ve read in TWIF, locate another source discussing the same topic, and formulate a response to that connection/exchange/conversation that inserts the (real)ized YOU into the discussion.
· Finally, don’t forget that you have an edit to post – a re-write of Thursday’s in-class writing.

technorati tags: PurdueEnglish106, posting