ENG251culture

The rest of our semester together in ENG251 looks something like this:

4/19: bring in a draft of your social commentary piece and a draft of your final paper. I will be collecting your final paper drafts. Your commentary piece will be workshopped by your peers and you can take it home to revise.

4/24: Revision of your first essay (music/video or film) due. Commentary piece also *due*.

4/26: Converse all*star group presents

5/1: Hummer group and tanning groups present. **Final draft of final paper due**

5/3: ipod group and playstation3 groups present (last class)

5/8: Final Exam 10:45-1:15 (we’ll discuss this further in class); blogging portfolio due (I’ll be posting guidelines for this assignment, but for now please concentrate on your group project work).

We also have three more discussion starters (4/19 and two on 4/24), so I’ll be posting those as they come in to me. Please have those read for their respective class sessions.

Presentations: I expect the group presentations to be approximately forty minutes. Your goal is basically to portray to the class a reading of your object as cultural artifact, so take us through the five parts of the circuit. You can present in whatever manner you deem effective–powerpoint, posterboard, handouts, show-and-tell, etc..

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Choose one: letter to the editor, op-ed piece, essay for radio, or poem as social commentary
4/19 bring a draft to class for workshop
due: 4/24

Commentary — you are commenting on something you’ve noticed (had a “huh moment”), read about, thought about, seen on TV, etc.

A commentary

• makes a clear and concise argument
• says something compelling
• is part of an ongoing conversation
• opens up further conversation
• is short and to the point
• makes connections amongst issues and ideas in a way that hasn’t been done already
For the letter to the editor you will need to choose a specific publication and an article published within it to which you are responding. Please include a cover page that indicates the publication you are writing to and gives a citation for the original source/article. If possible, attach a copy of the original article. Letters to the editor tend to be short — 250-500 words.

The op-ed piece should also be written with a specific publication (and therefore audience) in mind. Please include a cover letter indicating the publication. Most op-ed pieces run about 500 words, but some featured pieces might be longer (750-1000 words).

The essay for radio or poetry pieces should be written with an “ear” toward how the piece will sound when read aloud but also how readily the piece (and its argument) can be followed by an audience who might only be listening to it.

**Use the texts we’ve read in class as models**

Relevant links:
“Tips for Writing a Strong Commentary”
“What is an Opinion Piece?”
“Ten Tips for Writing Opinion Pieces”

Here is the link to Tessa’s discussion starter article.

Please also remember to have questions prepared to ask Megan Fulwiler, author of the piece you’re reading for tomorrow — “In Defense of Free Time.”

Extra credit if you bring in an example of a letter to the editor and are able to articulate why you find it to be an in/effective letter.

See you all tomorrow!