Blog Topics for 4/8

Topic 1:

As we have discussed plagiarism and copyright, we have looked at several remixes like the Gang Fight remix of "Friday," and Colbert's cover of the same song. Then, of course, there are the auto-tune remixes done by the Gregory Brothers like "Backin' up."

For this blog post, think of another such remix that you enjoy and have the group discuss how the remix works (what they actually did to remix the piece) and why it works (why does it appeak to an audience). What is the significance of such parodies? Do they do serious work? Your group will look even more impressive if you can relate your analysis to our discussions of plagiarism and copyright.

Topic 2:

This topic will be much more difficult than topic 1, because it will require you to 1) have a good working relationship with your group because you will need to 2) do outside work, and 3) you will need some basic computer literacy.

Your assignment for topic two is to create a video blog in which your group will perform a "mixup" of your own. You might construct a parodic music video, or a short sketch in which you will adapt another work (song, story, speech, advertisement, etc.) into a new work of your own. There should be a rhetorical purpose. What comment on the original work are you trying to make by doing this one?

You will need to have at least an outline to turn in by the end of class, then you may have the weekend to work on and edit your video, but it must be completed and uploaded onto your blog on Monday.

Blog Topics for 3/25

Topic 1:

In advance of paper four, as kind of a freewriting exercise, this topic will be similar to the literacy narrative many of your groups constructed for the first blog. In this topic, each of you should write a detailed narrative about a time you creatively solved a problem. Be very specific, even to the point of over-specificity. What made you realize that there was a problem? What were the dimensions of the problem (in other words what were all the aspects of the problem you had to consider when deciding on a solution? What solution did you come up with and how did you come up with it? How was this solution received by others and how did this make you feel?

Now, compare and contrast your story with your other group members' stories. What were the similarities in the stories--in the kinds of problems, the solutions, and how solving the problem made you feel. Again, the more specific the better. Where there any notable differences?

Topic 2:

We have been discussing plagiarism and copyright law as separate but in some ways related concepts. We often think of these as being ethical or moral issues and thus think that they are natural and common sense. After all, don't people have a right to own their work and protect it from use by others?

Read this brief wikipedia entry (yeah, I know, I know) about the history of copyright law. What does this history suggest about copyright? What were the motivations behind copyright laws and do these motives problematize our understanding of copyright as a moral issue.

Also, what about the current popularity of remixing to create new works out of other existing work like this one and even popular and successful ones like those by the Gregory Brothers? These are absolutely acts of plagiarism and could be copyright infringements. But these are also examples of a very popular trend in the new literacies and may be seen as creative in their own right. What does our ability to do these things with technology mean for the future of copyright law? What about for our concepts of plagairism?

Literature Review

Here are the instructions from you assignment sheet for the literature review paper.

In this section of the assignment, you will compose a 5-6 page paper known as a literature review in which you discuss, in essay form, the problem you have researched. Why is it a problem? What is its history? What are the dimensions of the problem? What solutions have been proposed, have they been tried, and how successful have they been? What have been the criticisms of the solutions proposed?  In this essay, you do not need to argue for any of the solutions offered. The idea is to synthesize the literature about the problem to provide an overview of the problem and the solutions that have been offered so far.

Here us the most important thing to remember about the literature review paper: You are not making an argument for a particular solution, you are not arguing right and wrong, or anything like this. This paper should avoid being evaluative. Instead, you should think of this as something of a definition paper. The point of this paper is show that there is a problem and to show that the literature in your field has become to describe and think aboout the problem. This paper is an overview of the problem according to other writers in your field.

You might look at this video, produced for a class at San Jose State University to explain the literature review paper.

Ultimately, the point of the literature review paper is to show that you have a deep understanding of the problem you are researching and that you have done the research to understand the problem from many perspectives.

This paper should seem open-minded and informational.

Possible Topics for 3/11

Topic 1

Over the past several weeks, we have been working out of the "Apparel Merchandising and Social Responsibility" unit of Academic Universe. A helpful way to think about these essays is that they are arguments of problem and solution. The problem is unfair labor practices, specifically sweat shops and child labor. The solution is the Fair Trade movement. You've read essays that address unfair labor as a crime of humanity, as a necessary evil, and even as a beneficial first step toward development. You've also read articles that address the Fair Trade movement as a cultural and economic revolution, and as a naive non-solution.

Using these arguments as support for your own opinions, compose a post that argues whether or not your group sees Fair Trade as a solution to the problems involving unfair labor practices. Support your view point. You may also do some fast interbet research to find websites or videos that support or inform your view.

Topic 2

Last class, we discussed the importance of being a critical consumer of internet sources.  Write a blog that assumes internet initiates as an audience explaining the importance of critical literacy of websites and give some guidelines for evaluating internet sources. Just as we looked at websites about the same topic in class to determine the reliability of these sites, you may find and link to examples explaining which site is more reliable and why.

Possible Topics for 2/25

Topic 1:

In class on Wednesday we talked about the issue of sweat shop labor in developing nations. Barboza discusses the inhumane kidnapping of children to work in sweatshops in China, arguing against such dehumanizing practices. Kristof, on the other hand, argues that sweatshops are necessary because without them, the people who work there would have nothing to live on. So, they are a necessary evil. The point of looking at these two articles together was to illustrate that many important topics are too complex for easy answers. Can you think of another topic that fits into this model? What are the complicating factors that make your issue too complex to be easily decided? How does this issue illustrate the importance of seeing more than one side to an issue?

Topic 2:

Continuing on this topic, what responsibilities do we have as consumers? Should we be aware of where are clothes are made and by whom, and should this knowledge inform our purchasing decisions? Come to a consensus as a group and defend your position with evidence.

Blog Post Ideas for 2/11

Blog Project 1

You have read Paulo Freire's "The Importance of the Act of Reading" and Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," and you have watched "Brazil in Black and White." Each of these suggests that many of the advantages that allow many of us to pursue an education, career opportunities, and so on, and which we see as natural elements of a meritocracy are in fact bestowed on us, not through our merits, but through our membership in particular exclusive groups.


The McIntosh piece and the film both point to race as one of these "invisible knapsacks." What others do you see and what evidence do you see of the existence of these knapsacks? How do these give privilege? What parts of this knapsack should be rights for all and which should we try to abolish as oppressive?


Blog Project 2

Having just experience two substantial snow events back to back, we have all probably been watching a lot of weather lately. So, find one or two news stories, news advertisements, or other weather related media and perform a rhetorical analysis on it. What are the ad's explicit and implicit messages? How do the news outlets you are looking at talk about weather and why do you think they talk in these ways? Did your example attempt to name the weather phenomenon? If so, what effect did this have?


In short, what arguments do these supposedly objective news stories make?

Three Literacy Narratives

This post is an example of Topic 2 for 1/28.

Jeff and Charissa, both teachers and avowed smarty-pants(es?) and Kara, a computer scientist, turned stay-at-home mom answer the question "What are your earliest memories of reading?"

Jeff:
I don't remember much about learning to read. I can remember having children's books around with gold spines and adolescent books handed down from my aunt. But I don't remember phonics drills, or sounding words out or any of the things commonly associated with kindergarten education. My memories of anything come surprisingly late, and children in my family learned to read early. I do though remember when I decided to love reading.

On my birthday one year, I was given a book about astronauts and cosmonauts and a paperback dictionary by my Opa (Opa is German for "grandfather;" he is from Maine, but he married a German woman. She took his last name, but he took her language. Thus, they were Oma and Opa [German] Munsey [Irish].) Though I had been raised around the thin gold spined books, these were the first that were actually mine and mine alone. This gift, then, represented ownership and this a kind of adulthood.

Also wrapped up in this was the fact that, technically, my Opa was my step-Opa. He is the father of my mother's second husband. And though as an adult I have always considered my step-family my real family (I don't even remember my mother marrying my step-father), I imagine that at that young age I may have still had a childish understanding that this was a new, not-quite-real family. The books then were also a sign of acceptance from a man I really admired, but with whom my relationship must have felt tenuous.

Charissa:
My earliest memories of reading involve my father reading to my brothers and me every night before bed. My favorite book was "Could be Worse." The only thing I remember about the book is that it mentioned orange marmalade. I thought "marmalade" was such a pretty word, and yet sounded so disgusting. I insisted we read the book every night, and before long I had the story memorized and would "read" the book to my baby brother.

Kara:
I was 4 years old in my first memory of reading Dr. Suess' "The Cat in the Hat". I was sitting next to my mother on the couch in the living room of our small house in Dallas, Texas. I knew how to read all the "at" words, but had to sound ou...t others. There were other little books I read in my pre-K school. The one I remember was titled "Matt the Rat". I only remember it because my older brother Matt hated that I kept saying the name of that book over and over again. These memories make me smile, and make me anxious for the days when I can share these moments with my own children.


Reading is a Family Thing:
All three of our narratives mention family members. In both Charissa and Kara's stories, their parents read to them in the home. In mine, I was given books to read by my Opa. Stories like these dominate literacy narratives. Family sponsorship (to borrow the term from Deborah Brandt) is the common theme in literacy narratives. It is also the most noticeably absent among folks who are illiterate. This suggests that literacy may be more closely tied to the home than it is to general intelligence, school teaching practices, or anything else. Thus, a person's literate potential may be closely tied to their home lives, and in fighting illiteracy, the battle is one fought on home soil.

Duchamp: Post Modern Forerunner; Practical Jokester

This blog is an example of Topic 1 for 1/28.
In 1917, while in New York, French artist Marcel Duchamp bought a urinal from an iron works company, signed it "R. Mutt" and called it "Fountain." The piece (if indeed it is one) has been considered a practical joke, but has also been taken quite seriously. Duchamp added the piece to his collection of found art objects which he had titled "Readymades." In 1915, Duchamp began displaying every day objects in artful ways in order to critique the adoration of art and the artist. Though there is as much playfulness in his movement as there is philosophy, his concept of found art, and his statements behind it pre-figured important post-modern ideas, a few decades before post-modernism became all the rage in Europe.

With his found art movement, Duchamp intended to question what defines art. Where does craftsmanship or utility end and where does art begin? What makes one piece of white earthenware featuring graceful geometric curves art, and what makes another a urinal?

Duchamp, who was critical of artist worship, played with the notion that by signing something and putting it in a gallery, one elevates it as art. This is particularly true if the signature is that of a well-respected artist. In fact, what allowed many 20th century artists to experiment with deconstructive styles was that they were already accomplished artists. Picasso's cubism might never have been accepted if not for his more traditional early work, his almost Classical Rose Period, and the aesthetically pleasing Blue Period. But, because he was who he was, he was able to experiment. People would expect the sometimes childish looking work of cubism because it had his name on it.

Duchamp seemed to recognize this ability, and he purposefully questioned this by simply signing every day objects, and placing them in galleries, knowing that folks would therefore call this work art.

This suggests then that the label "art" is arbitrary. The fact that "Fountain" was critically received as art (it was, in fact, named the most influential art work of the 20th century in 2004), suggests this. It's acclaim clearly had nothing to do with the graceful, arching lines of the urinal, or the pure white color, or the perfect classical geometry of its shape. If this were so, it would have been the original craftsman who made the first of these who would deserve credit as "artist." Instead, Duchamp signed a pseudonym on it, included it in a gallery show, and it was art, simply because the right person (Duchamp) put it in the right place (a gallery).

This attack on the arbitrary nature of art is decidedly post-modern. Duchamp questions to what extent art is art because it has some intrinsic quality, or to what extent is art art simply because someone decided that it was. In this way Duchamp is, in 1917, already doing what post-modern thought would do just after World War II, decades later.

Possible Topics for 1/28

Choose one topic as a group and write your blog post on that topic.

Topic 1 involves the analytic moves you have been using in Paper 1, in which you have connected a song to culture. This assignment, should you choose it, is to find another work of art (painting, photograph, poem, song, sculpture, play, etc.) and discuss how this work of art is a reaction to culture.

You are making the same analytic moves you made in paper 1, but you will have less space to make your argument. Come prepared with an idea of a work of art already in mind.

Topic 2 will prepare you for the next paper, where you will compare the arguments of two different essays, both dealing with literacy and multiculturalism.

In this topic, each member should share, in a paragaph or two, your own literacy narrative. What are your memories of learning to read? You should probably label each person's story seperately. Then, write a paragraph or two discussing what similarities there are between your stories and what differences there are if they seem significant. Do these similarities suggest any important lessons on literacy?

Welcome OSU Comp Bloggers

Welcome to OSU Comp Bloggers. Whether you are a student using this blog for directions, a fellow instructor who wants ideas on blogging in the classroom, or a bloke who's stumbled across this blog by happenstance, it's nice to have you reading along. This first blog post is designed to introduce you to the goals of this blog and with what you can expect to see here. Enjoy your stay.

From Jeff Spruill's English 1213 Syllabus:

Increasingly, workplace writing is being done collaboratively, so that authorship (and the responsibilities that go with it) is shared by several members of an organization, rather than by a lone author working in isolation.  Furthermore, professional writing is rarely presented in the traditional, essayist forms typical of academic writing.  Rather, modern professional writing often involves mixed media, visual imagery, and other such rhetorical devices.

As an introduction to and an initiation into these concerns, students in our class will compose blogs during this semester. These blogs will be open and available to the public.  The class will work in groups to compose original blog entries, corresponding to issues we are dealing with in class but written for a general audience.  Group members will work together to draw conclusions based on consensus and will work under deadlines to complete these projects.

This blog is designed to act as the mother ship for our project. It is a place for students to receive instruction, find useful and interesting guidance, view examples of specific blog assignments and more general examples of academic blogging.

If you are a teacher or interloper reading along out of interest for our project, you will find here ideas to incorporate in your own classroom, links to the writing done by my  students in their blogs, and samples of blog assignments.

Whatever your motivation for being here, happy reading.