Calendar for the next two assignments: Research paper & Creative Project #2

 I want to make this crystal clear, so there is no room for confusion. Please send me an email message if you have questions. csmith@dcad.edu

Tues, Nov. 3: No Zoom class, Election Day, check your DCAD email 

Thurs, Nov. 5: No homework, independent research on Poe research essay, Zoom class as usual.

Tues, Nov. 10: Draft of Creative Project DUE, Zoom class

Thurs, Nov. 12: FINAL of Creative Project DUE, Zoom class

Tues, Nov. 17: Draft of Poe research DUE, Zoom class

Thurs, Nov. 19: FINAL of research essay DUE, Zoom class

Sources: Primary vs. Secondary & Popular vs. Scholarly

 

Every student, from high school on up, knows that Wikipedia isn't a legitimate source to use for academic work. Why is this? The answer is simple: Articles on Wikipedia do not have a named author. We don't really know where they came from. Wikipedia is a great place to begin your research, but a lousy one to use in your final work. 

Here are a few short videos that deal with the issues of using different kinds of sources in college-level academic writing. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the links.

To access the DCAD library go to the Populi homepage. On the very top banner you will see a tab that's simply called "Library". To get to the databases, JStor and ArtStor, click on links. The username is "dcadstudent" and the password is "research". 

Introducing Module Six: Creative Project #2, Poe-Inspired Art

 

Here is a link to a gallery show featuring work by visual artists that features Edgar Allan Poe and the themes in his writing. 

For this module, you will be making an original work in the media of your choice. It could be a drawing, a painting, a sculpture, a short film, a collage, a photograph, or something else. We will talk more about this in the coming class meetings, but I want to plant the proverbial seed now in order for you to start thinking about it.

In addition to your original work of art, you will be submitting a developed paragraph or two (approx 100-200 words) that describes the issues you are addressing in your artwork. This module is embedded in the middle of the Poe research essay. 

Due: Tuesday, Oct 10, no later than noon. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Introducing Module 5: Using Secondary Sources, Edgar Allan Poe, "The Masque of the Red Death"

 

Halloween week is the perfect time to launch our new module featuring one of Edgar Allan Poe's strangest and scariest stories: "The Masque of the Red Death." Poe's original title for the 1842 publication was "The Mask of the Red Death," but an 1845 publication changed the title to the now-familiar "The Masque of the Red Death." It's quite obvious why this particular story has found new readers and critics in the age of Covid-19. 

Like James Baldwin, EA Poe is a brilliant writer. The story itself is relatively short, just 15 long paragraphs. Another great thing about Poe is there is no shortage of secondary criticism about his work available in the public sphere and also in databases such as J-Stor.

Your assignment for this Thursday, Oct 29, is to find three different secondary sources that comment (in one way or another) about this particular Poe story. You will be sharing these sources with classmates in breakout rooms and discussing their relevance in your own reading of the story. What do these secondary sources add? Do they give you another lens or point-of-view to understand or contextualize the story?

Also for our next class meeting, read Poe's essay "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846) and be prepared to discuss it.

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS FOR RESEARCH ESSAY

This assignment requires you to effectively use secondary sources in the formulation of an original argumentative essay. What is your interpretation of Poe's story? Do other critics agree? Why or Why not? We'll talk at greater length about formulating your argument or claim in coming days.

+ The final version will be written and formatted in strict MLA style.

+ The final version will be between four and six double-spaced pages of text. A "Works Cited" page will be the final page. 

+ FINAL DUE, Noon, November 19 (Draft due, November 12).

More details to follow.

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Easy Homework for Thursday During Class

 Hello Students!

This is officially mid-term; we're halfway there. You have finished your third brief essay (Baldwin), and as of today 40 out of the 100 points for the semester have been completed. Congratulations.

If you are one of the unfortunate students with incomplete or unsubmitted work,  you still have time to get partial credit. 

We are not meeting together as a class on Zoom this Thursday, October 22. 

However, during class time you will need to write me a mid-term evaluation via email of your performance in class to date. Some of the issues you might want to discuss are your participation in class discussions, your performance in writing itself, and anything else that relates to your presence in this class. What are you succeeding in? What could you do better? Please be as specific as possible. In a second paragraph, write me with thoughts and suggestions about the first seven weeks of the class. What do you like? Why? What could be better? How? Again, specificity is appreciated. csmith@dcad.edu.

Write this during class. So, for those of you in section 3, I'm expecting to see it in my inbox between 2:30 and 3:15. Those of you in section 4, between 4:00 and 4:45.

Remember that you're writing this to your college writing professor. Be sure you get the grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. right. 

Questions: csmith@dcad.edu

Harvard's Free Resource: Strategies for Essay Writing

 

This wonderful site, Harvard SEW, walks students through the basics of writing essays in college. It's full of good advice, and it doesn't try to do everything. It's easy to digest. Give it a try. It has 18 miniature chapters that cover almost all of the common areas of college-level writing. 

Reminder: Final Essays on Baldwin DUE Next Tuesday, Oct 20, no later than noon.

 I am more than happy to give a one-on-one tutorial  to help turn your draft into a great final essay. I don't bite.

Send me an email message to csmith@dcad.edu

Zoom Cameras On/Off?

I felt like I was the one who wrote the question. What do you think?

Zoom Cameras & Students
 

Peer Review Guidelines

 

MLA Formatting: Examples

I found the following article that mentions James Baldwin's short story "Sonny's Blues" on JStor. It comes from a journal called PMLA, which is short for Publication of the Modern Language Association. Since it is the official journal of the MLA, it gives perfect examples of how to use MLA documentation. Following are some screengrabs:

Bibliographical Information

First Paragraph

Final Paragraph

Works Cited

As a DCAD student, you can access JStor through the library portal or through Populi. 

Asynchronous Today: Feeling Under the Weather

 After a brief recap of the current module (James Baldwin), every student needs to contribute to the discussion board by the end of the class. 

1. Write your paragraph.

2) Comment on at least two of your classmates paragraphs.

You have until the end of the period. 

As always, email me if you have questions or comments: csmith @dcaed.edu

Short Essay Three: James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" & "Letter from the Region of My Mind"

 

"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin is an unforgettable story.  His essay, "Letter from a Region in My Mind" is likewise unforgettable. I've decided to include a selection of other Baldwin essays. You can choose one of them instead of the rather difficult "Letter from a Region of My Mind: The Electric Typewriter. 

The photo above was taken by Richard Avedon in 1947, when he was roughly your age, around 23. Baldwin's Wikipedia page is pretty good. This is a good time to remind you that Wikipedia and other crowd-sourced information sites on the internet are great for learning basic things. However, they are still not considered "legit" as scholarly sources because they lack authorial authority. In other words, there is no author and therefore no accountability. Use them as a starting place. Check out the sources at the end of Wikipedia pages for legitimate and scholarly secondary sources.    

I clearly remember the first time I read this story in the summer of 1988 in preparation for teaching my first college class, now over thirty years ago. About a year earlier I was fortunate to hear Baldwin lecture at Kenyon College where I was an undergraduate. He was beyond amazing.  

Read the story and essay carefully for Tuesday's discussion. In particular, look for patterns of symbolism in Baldwin's magisterial use of language. Nothing is happenstance or random.

There are so many angles of approach to this story. Find your own. Here are some other resources about James Baldwin's life and work. 

I Am Not Your Negro (trailer) (film available on NetFlix)

Animated Biography
Quotations by Baldwin

I highly recommend printing out a copy of the pdf and marking it up with your notes and comments. If you choose to read it on your screen, have pen and paper ready to capture quotations that you might use in your essay. His story and his essay are both on the long side. You will need patience. Try to block out enough time to read each in a single reading session (approx 60-90 minutes). You might try to read them with a bebop jazz soundtrack playing lightly in the background. Maybe Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, or Thelonious Monk's Monk's Music. I don't really know if it would be better to read the story before the essay or the essay before the story. Maybe I would suggest reading the story before the essay. "Sonny's Blues" was published in 1957 and "A Letter" in 1962. The choice is yours. 

The Final Version of Short Essay Three is due no later than noon on Tuesday, October 20. Upload it to Populi. The draft is due one week from today on October 15. You will need a finished draft for our peer-editing workshop that day. Note:  Next Tuesday, we will start class with a ten-minute short answer quiz. Please make sure you do the reading and are prepared to discuss it. 

This is a more complicated essay than our first two because we are learning how to incorporate other sources (using MLA format) into the fabric of our own writing. It's not as complicated as it might seem. If you pay close attention, I'm sure you can get it right. 

DIRECTIONS for SHORT ESSAY THREE

1) Closely read and think about both the story and one of the essays (the links are on the top of this blog post). This will take some time; many of the essays on "The Electric Typewriter" are much shorter than "Letter from a Region of My Mind." 

2) How do Baldwin's words and ideas (now more than 60 years old) connect to what's happening in America in 2020, especially in terms of racial, social, and economic justice? What can we learn from listening to Baldwin and applying his thoughts and ideas to our current situation? These are the questions (and related questions) that should be at the center of your essay. 

3) Use at least one quotation from "Sonny's Blues" and one from the essays linked from "The Electric Typewriter" in your essay. This is called "In-text citation," and we're following MLA format (see the blog post underneath this one). You are free to use more than one quotation from these primary sources. Later in the semester, we're going to be working with secondary sources. 

4) You will need a simple "Works Cited" section at the end of your paper.

5) We're going to break away from MLA format in one and only one way: We're sticking with the single-spaced two-column format (with a graphic in the top left). Make sure that you have true single-spacing. If you need more room than a single page, feel free to use a second page or shrink your font-size to 10 pt.

6) Remember to give your essay a real title. Don't title it "James Baldwin" or "Essay on James Baldwin."  

7) While you can still use your "I, me, my" voice, this essay is more about Baldwin and America in 2020 than it is about you. It's also more formal, so you have less leeway for using casual slang.

8) Revise and edit your final paper carefully before uploading it to Populi. 

As always, if you have questions or want to chat, send me an email message at csmith@dcad.edu. I'm also happy to look over your draft before you upload it for next Thursday's class. 

MLA Formatting Basics

 

This video is one of the best basic explanations of how and why MLA documentation works.

The Purdue OWL gives a more thorough, but less entertaining, explanation of MLA in-text citation and "Works Cited" format.

Here is a great stand-alone page on in-text citation.

Lastly, this video from McMaster University gives solid advice.

Introducing Module Four: The Short Story

 

Even though I told you earlier in the semester that there would be no homework between our modules, I have decided to require a very simple and painless reading assignment for next Tuesday's class.

Read Tillie Olsen's story, "I Stand Here Ironing" and be prepared to discuss it. The story was published back in 1961, which makes it both not new and also not terribly old. 

Questions? csmith@dcad.edu

Visual Poetry by Women, Part 2

 

Last Thursday a posted a short piece asking about the reasons why women seem to be under-represented in the history of visual and concrete poetry. Today in my in-box I found a review of a new anthology that directly addresses this question. Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 (Primary Information, 2020) will be available on October 6. Check it out. 

Women and Visual Poetry

 

Jessica Smith (no relation) writes about the relative lack of representation of women in anthologies of visual poetry in this article in Volta Magazine.

Think about it. Why would women and POC be under-represented in the world of visual poetry?

Visual Poetry: Critique Guidelines

I'm really looking forward to the critique session in this afternoon's class. We're going to have to keep it moving, so I apologize before the fact that your crit might seem a little rushed.

The order of presentation will be reverse chronological by surname. If your last name starts with Z, you will go first. If it starts with A, you will likely go last.

The student will read his/her/their visual poem if it can be read. Some visual poems can't really be "read" in the conventional sense. After the class gets a sense of what's going on, we'll begin the critique. The author/artist of the piece must refrain from speaking until after we address the three following questions. After these three questions are addressed, the author/artist is free to speak. 

1) What specifically do you like about the piece? Why?

2) How does the graphic dimension of the piece work with the language? Would the poem be different without its visual aspect? How?

3) How could this visual poem potentially be improved? What specific changes would you suggest?