How About Those Zombies?

Alright, so.

You're revising your little tails off this weekend. Good. This is the writing process, folks. Remember to, first and foremost, write an interesting and solid essay. Stop worrying about what "I want"--I've told you what I want: interesting, thoughtful, and engaging writing.  Do that. Worry about whether what you're writing is any good in general terms not what grade you're going to get. If you do good work, the grade will take care of itself. If you panic and default to sad, boring, stilted, studenty writing, the grades will likewise reflect that. Consult the original assignment sheet--there is valuable information there--and go through the workshop/revision steps in that blue packet. I am only collecting your final draft, so go ahead and set the other drafts on fire if you want. Really, it's cathartic.


You need to read that "Extended Language" piece for our work next week. Reading all of that and working on your essay and blogging and doing everything else you must do is probably kind of a lot. Read it when you can, I am not going to sniff out those of you who haven't read it yet on Monday, but it will help you to make sense of what we're doing Monday and Tuesday so... you know, read it, but sleep, too.


Your blog post is not open topic this weekend. Instead, pay attention to the lyrics of a song you have been listening to recently. Post the song and/or the lyrics and then comment on them.  (When I say "comment on them" I mean make some sense of them, see what you notice about them, explain how they are oh-so-effective and why. Not like mad-rhetorical-analysis-why, but some kind of why.)

Oh, and stay warm because suddenly winter is all: 
I'M HEEEEEEEERE.

Those Essays of Yours

Hey, remember when I moved your due date to Monday and you all cheered jubilantly? That was hilarious. I hope you learn something from this: I may expect you do so hard things but I am not altogether unreasonable, nor am I "out to get you" or some such nonsense. It took us a little longer to get through the documentary and I really wanted to be able to talk about it, so a concession I make is that we shove some things around. So what does this mean? It means this:

Tomorrow is our field trip to see King-Fu Zombies vs. Cannibals. Meet at the Trojan Head at the beginning of second block. Bring a bag lunch.

Friday you must have a printed draft of your essay in class for shredding and dismembering revisions and other workshop goodness. See blue packet you picked up for details about this revision.

Over the weekend, you'll have your usual weekend blog post, your essay to make awesome, and that "Extended Language" reading which is a xeroxed textbook chapter, so plan accordingly. This chapter should be read by early next week. Monday would be great. Tuesday is, I think, more realistic for you. It will inform the work we do next week and the work we will carryover into next term, so treat it accordingly.

End-of-term BLA stuff is right around the corner. I will tell you about it on Friday.

Who Loves MEA?

Enjoy your long weekend, get a good start on your rhetorical analysis paper--if you never got around to signing up, email me your first and second choice.

The following articles are full for block 3:
"Super People"
"Google"
"Culinary Elitism"

The following articles are full for block 4:
"Culinary Elite"
"Outboard Brain"

So pick another one. Remember, you have the option of selecting one on your own, just let me know what you've chosen. Remember the objective is to analyze the rhetoric; it's not to attack or support the argument. We just did lots of practice with the Dan Kennedy piece. You even have a student sample essay. That was from this very assignment. It's all about how the language works to persuade. Read you assignment sheet a million times. It's all on there.

BLA on Tuesday.

Blog sometime over MEA. Open topic.

Funny Business

Your weekend blog post assignment is this: open topic. What does that mean? Write about something. Anything you want. Make it interesting. Give it some thought. Don't just tell me about the amazing autumn squash soup you had at Panera and how you have to babysit and argh, that just sucks.

In case you missed it, on Wednesday we watched these two videos and talked a little bit about how they use humor to communicate argument.

C is for Cookie which, remember, is a parody of V for Vendetta.

And then, this one:



Which is just awesome.

You brought in an example humorous argument and then you posted it on your blog and wrote up a little explanation/analysis of it this week. Some of you still haven't done this...what's with that?

Browse and sample your peers' work--you guys found some great stuff. 

Weekend Update

Hi.

Remember when you did those great rhetorical modes blogs? Me too. Go back to your writing for that assignment and select one mode that you explored and revise that tiny blurb into a full post. The idea is to use the same topic you used for the rhetorical modes assignment but you can pick a new one if you really want to. Oh, and feel free to supplement your writing with other modes (as this is nearly inevitable) but make sure one mode is dominant and intentional. Create a label for this post that clearly states the mode you're playing with. (Labels option is immediately to the right of the posting text box. Just click it and type in the label: a mode.)

Other things. I will collect a CRJ from you next week (by Wednesday) so choose one that you did for an essay or article that we've read thus far. Options include:

• Declaration of Independence
• Gettysburg Address
• Ain't I a Woman
• On Compassion
• Million Dollar Murray
• On Dumpster Diving
• Tax Soda
• A Modest Proposal

This CRJ is a normal CRJ and not a massive, guided CRJ like you did this summer for "Letter from Birmingham Jail" it should, however, be a clear demonstration of your close reading skills.

You may be wondering when you're going to do some essay-writing. Rest assured that you already are flexing those muscles, whether you realize it or not, and that soon--very soon--you will be writing a full and proper essay. Details to come. First, we're going to play with satire and such.

Happy weekend. Have fun and be safe.