Homework Due Monday, Feb 3rd

Read: chapter 17 in Everything's an Argument

       Write: 2 different pieces, see 1 and 2 below

             1)  A reflection on your summary

                 1 page, double-spaced

          In the spirit of a thought piece and Portrait of a Writer, reflect on your experience writing your summary. 

          Think/write through questions like these:
      
              How was it compared to other similar assignments you have done in the past?
              What was the hardest part of it? Easiest? 
              What did you wish you had to assist you that you didn't have?
              How would that have helped?
              Most importantly: What did you learn about writing in your field?

     

        2) 3 things you think are true about me.  For each thing that you think might be true of me, list your                   evidence underneath it. (Something I said or did or wore or wrote --or didn't do or say or write or wear--                  that made you think what you think)

            Bring this to class on a piece of paper--don't post it on your blog.

            If you want, you don't have to put your name on it, and we'll switch them all around so when you say                   them in class, I won't know who thought of them. Deal?

             Chapter 17 will help  with this concept, and we will talk about it in class.

             For example: Assumption/conclusion: She's lazy

                                  Evidence: she sits on her desk all the time, and doesn't take the stairs

Oh and by the way, I don't just mean how I am as a teacher, because who we are as people, what we value as people, bleeds through into our professional lives. So, go to town! Have fun! I am SO looking forward to this! And I offer no judgement in return--I just want you to see how much you already do what I'm about to teach you. That's all.

Something Fun

I ran across this today and thought you would like it. You don't HAVE to read it, but if you want to, then you should guess who wrote it (Or Google it!) You'll never guess.

For though at this moment at least a hundred professors are lecturing on the literature of the past, at least a thousand critics are reviewing the literature of the present, and hundreds upon hundreds of young men and women are passing examinations in English literature with the utmost credit, still – do we write better, do we read better than we read and wrote four hundred years ago when we were un-lectured, un-criticized, untaught? Is our modern Georgian literature a patch on the Elizabethan? Well, where then are we to lay the blame? Not on our professors; not on our reviewers; not on our writers; but on words. It is words that are to blame. They are the wildest, freest, most irresponsible, most un-teachable of all things. Of course, you can catch them and sort them and place them in alphabetical order in dictionaries. But words do not live in dictionaries; they live in the mind. If you want proof of this, consider how often in moments of emotion when we most need words we find none. Yet there is the dictionary; there at our disposal are some half-a-million words all in alphabetical order. But can we use them? No, because words do not live in dictionaries, they live in the mind. Look once more at the dictionary. There beyond a doubt lie plays more splendid than Antony and Cleopatra; poems lovelier than the Ode to a Nightingale; novels beside which Pride and Prejudice or David Copperfield are the crude bunglings of amateurs. It is only a question of finding the right words and putting them in the right order. But we cannot do it because they do not live in dictionaries; they live in the mind. And how do they live in the mind? Variously and strangely, much as human beings live, ranging hither and thither, falling in love, and mating together. It is true that they are much less bound by ceremony and convention than we are. Royal words mate with commoners. English words marry French words, German words, Indian words, Negro words, if they have a fancy. Indeed, the less we enquire into the past of our dear Mother English the better it will be for that lady's reputation. For she has gone a-roving, a-roving fair maid.

Guest Speaker in Class Monday! (1-28-14)

She's exciting, so bring yourselves, bring your notes-taking skills and questions, because after her talk we'll open it up for discussion. (I'm going to have to shut myself up so you can ask some stuff, because I'm thrilled to have her with us!)

Homework due on Wednesday:

 You are the CEO of a company that just landed a contract with this woman and her organization. Your company must be some kind of company that would realistically be in your field. (Make it up, have fun, and make sure you put a little description of your company at the top of your blog post).

Based on our guest speaker's talk, I want you to write a memo to your imaginary employees. Since your employees haven't met with her, but all will interact with her at some point, you must give them what they need to know about her and her company so they can successfully communicate with her regarding the working relationship between your two companies.  Her business is essential for your next step up in the corporate world.

 The purpose of your memo is to tell your employees how best to communicate with this woman and her organization. For instance, based on what services/products your company sells, what sort of documents might your employees be writing with her as an audience? What should your employees' writing be like when they communicate with her? Brief or detailed? Do you speak to her as a customer (they are always right), or as a partner (they deserve to know the nitty-gritty truth and will help you work through it to a solution)? Does she and her organization value bluntness or do they need  to be woo'd into being happy with your firm?

  Since your employees have never met her, what do they need to know in order to successfully work with her for a time?

Note:

---For the purposes of this assignment, you are the CEO of a made-up company, but she is who she is and her organization is what it actually is.

---If I haven't included an instruction or detail in here, then I want you to make the decision--you don't need to ask me.

---Have fun with this. It's credit/no credit, not letter graded. It's just like a thought piece--just in different form. Still not looking for a right answer, just your smart, educated opinion, based upon what you know about your company, her organization, and how writing works in her field and yours.

Oh yeah....don't forget to lock out the grammar police. This is fun thinking at it's best. NO STRESSING OUT ALLOWED!!! :-)

A Little Safety Training Goes a Long way

In light of the news lately, I want to share this with you. Feel free to comment with your thoughts.

Learning happens best in a safe environment. While we can't make our places of learning 100% safe, I believe that for every instructor and student who has a plan, we are that much safer.  Training is not bowing to fear, but rising to the occasion. 

After 9-11 we learned that terrorist attacks were meant to do just that: terrorize our way of life. Freedom is squashed if people cannot live without fear. Have our lives changed since then? Yes, we have to be more conscious of security. School shootings have the same impact. I know when they happen at other schools, it can be shaking for us--and we can always talk about these things in class. But we are stronger and braver than fear, or the events that cause it. We don't have to be afraid, and we don't have to try to ignore the news in order not to be afraid. We can do what we do best at college: use our smarts to prepare ourselves for whatever may come. 

I like this video because it breaks down the three simple things we can do in this kind of emergency. I know we talked about them in class, but this makes it easy to remember. In my mind, as long as we have a plan, we're safe--we can go about our lives without fear. Of course I think it would also be a blast to practice our plan too--kindergarten kids do--but maybe I'm getting carried away...maybe I should teach self-defense instead...

...Thoughts.....?

Course and Instructor info

English 250 PN: Written, Oral, Visual and Electronic Communication

Spring 2014

Communicating in Your Discipline

Instructor: A.R. Mallory

BA, Montana State University, English-Writing
PhD, Iowa State University, Rhetoric & Professional Communication (in progress)

Contact Information:

amallory@iastate.edu

Ross Hall 449

Office Hours:
Monday, 3pm-4pm
Wednesday, 3pm-4pm
(And by appointment)