Observing People & Places on Campus

Before class on Monday (May 3), I would like you to practice observing a public space on campus and how people use it. You’ll need to reserve about 45 minutes for this exercise, and what I’d like you to do is find a space on campus—like Jazzman’s, Driscoll Green, or a nearly coffee shop—where you can practice taking field notes. You’ll need to write down your observations in as detailed a way as you can. Describe the space, its layout and design, colors, smells, objects—whatever you can observe. Then describe the people you see there, what they are doing, how they interact with the space and each other. If you can, I’d like you to interview a few people briefly and ask them about how they use this space and why it is significant to them. Last, you’ll need to type up your field notes and post them to our blog before class on Monday, May 3.

Writing about Your Own Personal Geography

Choose a spot that brings back a rush of sensory details—sights, sounds, smells, textures, and tastes. It doesn’t need to be an enormous natural wonder like the Grand Canyon. Try describing a private spot—a certain tree in your backyard, a basketball court, a relative’s dining room, the corner of a city lot, the interior of a closet, or a window seat that catches sunlight. As you think about the specifics of this place—its details and sensations—you’ll probably remember a dominant impression, a cluster of images, or a person connected to the place. These are all part of your internal landscape. Write a few short descriptive paragraphs with as many details as you can.

Reflecting on Your Second Major Assignment

Take a few minutes and reflect on this assignment now that you’ve finished it. First, tell us what you set out to say about the primary document that you focused on in this essay. What did you learn by analyzing its rhetoric? Second, explore how the secondary research you drew on enhanced your understanding of this document. How did these sources shape your sense of the historical significance of your primary text? Last, what changed in your writing as you wrote for a different audience? What did you do as a writer to appeal to a scholarly audience versus the more popular audience that you wrote for in your first assignment?

Annotated Bibliographies

Post your annotated bibliographies (of five sources or the equivalent) here as a comment. Format them as works cited page and include a summary of each source following its citation. Make sure these summaries state the main claim or argument of the source, a description of how the scholar designed the study, an explanation what evidence is used and how it supports the main claim, and a discusion of what is significant about this source.

Summaries of Two Scholarly Sources

Please post your summaries of two scholarly sources here as a comment. Remember, I'd like you to summarize the source's main claim, a description of how the scholar created this study, a discussion of the major evidence that supports its claim, and an explanation of why this souce is significant for your research.

Practice Works Cited Page

Please post a practice works cited page of five (or the equivalent) article-length schlolary sources here as a comment.

Analyzing the Sand Creek Massacre Letters

To start class today, I’d like you to take just a few minutes and identify three key parts of the rhetorical event that today’s reading covers. First, tell us something important about the context that these letters emerged out of. Second, identify a key moment in the letters themselves that you thought was especially persuasive. Third, what did you think was the most important consequence of these letters?