Friday, August 21, 2009

Welcome!

Many of you may already be familiar with blogs, and you may have certain assumptions about their function. The objectives of this blog are threefold: first, it provides a space wherein I can pose questions about the reading to which you will thoughtfully respond; second, because it is a public space where all members of our class community can read your ideas, insights, and analyses, it fosters community and creates public accountability (in addition to the fact that I will be commenting on your posts, we will use them as the basis for discussion in class); third, it allows you to take advantage of a medium with possibilities far beyond those of traditional print media. The mode(s) of composition you use in your blog posts, therefore, more directly relate to how you see yourself as a composer. So, in response to the readings, will you use additional audio-visual media? Will you highlight words that are important to how you read? Will you include links to articles or websites that you're talking about in your post? The blog affords all of these possibilities.

Details of the "Blog Discussion" assignment:
There are a total of five formal posts required over the course of the semester. You will find the "due" dates on your syllabus, but each prompt is flexible enough so that you can write the post on any day leading up to the due date, but not past it. Posts are due by the beginning of class on the appointed day.
One aim of the assignment is to build on the tools we're developing in class (poetic analysis, close reading, historical and cultural analysis, etc.) so that you have strong foundation for your final paper. As such, I will be looking for deep analyses that address the questions I pose and demonstrate fluency with the techniques involved in literary analysis, techniques that we will have modeled in class discussions. The aim is to go for depth rather than breadth; as such, I expect each post to be no fewer than 250 and no more than 500 words.

Details of the OED exercises:
In an effort to familiarize you with some of the research tools and databases available through the University Library's website and to introduce you to the historicity and richness of language, you will use the Oxford English Dictionary Online to look up integral words throughout the semester. This is part of your participation grade in the course, and each OED Exercise will form part of the day's discussion. The blog is a space to post and/or comment on definitions you find and surprising, notable, or interesting aspects of those definitions.

1 comment:

  1. The Poem I choose to discuss is "The Mexico Texan" by Americo Paredes. In this poem I believe The Mexico Texan is who someone who is struggling with idenity and is not sure where he fits into soceity.

    "In Texas he's Johnny, in Mexico Juan," clearly states that in Texas he is known as one person and Mexico he is someone enitirely different. It seems that becasue he is in Texas he is considered Gringo even though he is actually Mexican. Why is that? I think it is because the people in Mexico have never actually been able to get over how the United States took the land that once belonged to Mexico. For that reason, I believe anyone that crosses over to the United States is considered a traitor and will not be considered a true "Mexican". The Mexico Texan knows this and his heart seems to be in Mexico but everything else is in Texas.

    "He's a burden and a drag, he no gotta country, he no gotta flag" is another example of how it shows he just does not fit in in either Texas or Mexico. He is showing how insecure he is becasue he feels he is a "burden" and a drag". This shows he feels no one accepts him into their society and no matte what he does he will not belong.

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