Caption Contest!

 

Write your own caption for this cartoon:

 

The New Yorker magazine runs a weekly cartoon caption contest. 

Check it out. 

Welcome to Class, Welcome to DCAD

This is our class blog. Please bookmark it on your browser's toolbar. Our "official" site for readings and assignments is our Populi page, but this blog will feature related information about art and writing.  

Whenever we write something, we are (almost) always writing for an audience that has certain expectations. For instance, a writer could accurately depict an event in two totally different ways, yet keep faithful to what happened in that event. Case in point: You go to a really fun party. You might send a text to your best friend. You might tweet about it. You might post an Insta. You might make a FaceBook post (no, only old people use FaceBook). You might write a Snap (that's probably old-fashioned too by now). You might write a standard email message. You might write a postcard. You might write a traditional, old-fashioned letter. All of these different formats bring with them their own "rules" or expectations. These are called genre conventions.

Academic writing has a shifting set of genre conventions. Literary writing also has a shifting set of genre conventions. 

Let's take a look at a short story, "The Last Leaf," written by the American author "O. Henry." It has been adapted in countless ways. Here are a few:

Here's an article about Genre Conventions to get us started. 

Links Below to 15 Versions of "The Last Leaf" 

First Appearance, 1906, page 198

Original Story

Film Version

Longer Film Version

Mormon Film Version

Children's Animation

Learning English

Audiobook

Japanese Anime Version

1963 Pop Song

Tom Waits & Keith Richards Version

Storyboard Comic Version

Quasi-Documentary Version

Reader's Digest Version

I did not include a link to the version by heavy-metal band, Monolord. Curious students can easily find it with a Google search, but it's too disturbing for general consumption. 

Final R&C Class!

Dear Students, Here we are at the end of the semester. Time flies! We're going to watch and discuss a short animated film in the final class session, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce. This animated film, made by a small studio in Lousiana, won many awards, including the prestigious Academy Award (a/k/a the "Oscar") for an animated short in 2011. A children's book and app were released a year later.

What is the "message" of this story? What does it have to say about the place of reading and writing in our culture? Do you agree? Why or why not?

Revising, Editing, Proofreading: What's the Difference

 

I often think that revision deals primarily with global issues within the piece of writing. It's not about sentences and words, but about essay structure, argument, and evidence. You might have a little bit of revision to complete before proofreading your essays for the final portfolio submission. However, most of you are going to want to be concerned with proofreading (which is sometimes called copyediting). Makes sure you have all the little things in order: sentence fragments and run-ons, grammar, spelling, punctuation, formatting, etc.

This blog post does a fairly good job of explaining the differences.

End of the Semester: Final Assignment(s)

 

Revision Portfolio: Due no later than Friday, December 10th at 11:59 pm. This assignment is worth 10 points.

Revise and edit these five pieces:

a)  "First short essay" (due Sep 9)

b) "The Last Leaf" & Genre (due Sep 23)

c) "Literary Analysis" Hughes or Gilman (Oct 21)

d) "The Future of Reading" MLA (due Nov 16)

e) "500 Words, Anything Goes (due Nov 23)

Rename your files as follows: 

yourlastname_last leaf.docx

Bring your laptops for the next two class periods. We'll be working in class on this. 

Questions?   csmith@dcad.edu

Language Unleashed, Unbridled, Free

This is a really straightforward assignment: Write anything (new) that you please. Make it something that you want to share with the class. This text should be around 500 words. If you need more words, go for it. If you're short of 450 words, keep writing. HAVE FUN. Tell jokes, be serious, speak the truth, get political, get apolitical. It's all your choice. We're going to share our writing with the entire class as a treat for our Thanksgiving class next Tuesday.  This assignment is worth ten points. Make sure you proofread carefully.  Questions? csmith@dcad.edu.

Upload to Populi no later than Tuesday, Nov 30, at 3:00 pm. 

New Cell Phone and Laptop Policy

 

No cell phones, no laptops.

For our remaining seven (!) classes, we're going to try something different. Patrick Winston is right. Cell phones and laptops from now until the end of the semester are prohibited in this class. This is the new default position. If we are doing some kind of exercise that requires your phone or computer, then I will let you know. 

If you break this rule and I see you on your phone or computer, then I'll ask you to leave the class and go to the Writers Studio for the remainder of the class. At the conclusion of class, around 4:35-4:45, meet me in my office to explain the situation. OK?

Thanks, Casey

PS: If there is some kind of dire emergency that requires you to use your phone or computer, please excuse yourself and do your business in the hall. Come back when you're finished.