Some of you gave me papers with your notes on them from Tuesday's class, and I told you I would give them back on Thursday, and in fact meant to, but I did not. I will tape an envelope to my office door with your papers in them by 10:00 this morning.
Those papers don't have my comments on them, just your notes - so if you didn't make comments on your papers, or don't care if you have that draft, don't worry about it.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Response for Thursday
Hi -
Please read everything the class has posted, and then with the two you identified in class today, respond to the following. Please come prepared to discuss this in class on Thursday:
1. Describe your experience as a reader. What things intrigued, excited, bored, amused, confused (& etc.) you? Be specific.
2. Offer specific feedback for the writer, referring to specific aspects in the pieces.
3. Come up with 2-3 generative questions for the writer (questions that will require the writer to think more fully about the project in some way).
You can post these as comments to each writer's blog, but again, come in prepared to discuss them on Thursday.
Yippee!
Please read everything the class has posted, and then with the two you identified in class today, respond to the following. Please come prepared to discuss this in class on Thursday:
1. Describe your experience as a reader. What things intrigued, excited, bored, amused, confused (& etc.) you? Be specific.
2. Offer specific feedback for the writer, referring to specific aspects in the pieces.
3. Come up with 2-3 generative questions for the writer (questions that will require the writer to think more fully about the project in some way).
You can post these as comments to each writer's blog, but again, come in prepared to discuss them on Thursday.
Yippee!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Reading photographs
Please look closely at all the photos your classmates have posted, and make a note of any especially interesting things you notice, or questions that come up for you. Then, return to the photos posted by people from the groups you were with in class today, and write a specific response for each person. What do you see in these photographs? What connections can you make? What questions do they raise for you? What sort of emotional response do they evoke? Those are just sample questions - of course respond as the photographs lead you. In any case, look, and look again, and then write about what you see in a way that might be helpful for your classmates.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Style analysis
For Thursday, read each of the entries from the class, with special attention to the students in the groups from Tuesday's class (if you weren't here on Tuesday, then pick three blogs to respond to).
Focus at the level of the sentence on the style of the writers, on features that stand out to you when you look closely at their writing. What do you notice about their sentences? About their word choice? What effects can you connect to their style? Please include a short passage from each writer as an example of what you noticed in the style. Also, please pay attention to things you notice, but don't know how to name or describe.
Another way of thinking about this: if a writer is funny (or sarcastic, or angry, etc.), how does she create that tone stylistically? We want to start noticing, on a technical level, what writers are doing, especially writers who happen to be ourselves.
(Note: Shannon's blog is still not posted, if you are looking for it. I hope to have it up soon. If you read this, Shannon, send the url and link to me!)
Focus at the level of the sentence on the style of the writers, on features that stand out to you when you look closely at their writing. What do you notice about their sentences? About their word choice? What effects can you connect to their style? Please include a short passage from each writer as an example of what you noticed in the style. Also, please pay attention to things you notice, but don't know how to name or describe.
Another way of thinking about this: if a writer is funny (or sarcastic, or angry, etc.), how does she create that tone stylistically? We want to start noticing, on a technical level, what writers are doing, especially writers who happen to be ourselves.
(Note: Shannon's blog is still not posted, if you are looking for it. I hope to have it up soon. If you read this, Shannon, send the url and link to me!)
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Photo Essay
I’ve given you several examples of photo essays below, chosen more or less randomly (though I like all of the ones included here). As you examine the photo essays below, ask yourself these questions about them:
What effect does the arrangement of the photos have?
What story or stories do the photos tell?
What does the photographer seem to emphasize? (landscape, architecture, people, etc.)
What themes can you identify in the photographs? How?
What tone to the photographs have? (humorous, distant, angry, compassionate, etc.)
How would you define the photographer’s technique?
What statements or ideas (if any) do you think the photographer is trying to convey?
Walker Evans Photo Essay – Businessmen:
Walker Evans Photo Essay – Chicago:
Walker Evans Interview (at bottom of page):
Bruce Davidson – Time of Change:
Bruce Davidson – Brooklyn Gangs:
W. Eugene Smith – Country Doctor:
(there are also links to other Life Magazine photographs in this section)
Sim Chiyn – The Mean Streets of Vietnam:
Links to other photo essays here:
You can find dozens of other examples yourselves.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
But wait, there's more...
For Tuesday, please read all the entries about the photographs chosen by each writer. When you've finished reading the set, go back and respond to four of the entries (and, if appropriate or relevant, to the other responders as well). You should aim in your response for an interpretive or rhetorical push on the writer, which is to say, you should argue, or expand, or question, or extend the context (perhaps by mentioning a photograph or analysis of another student). Again, then, you should be aiming for generative responses, for comments that will require the writer to rethink, clarify, dismiss, argue back - whatever.
Then, when you've finished that, go back and see the comments that you've received (if you don't have any yet, come back later). Respond to them as well, in the same vein - with a comment that extends and does not shut down the interchange.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
To your own photographs
Okay, we're moving now into an analysis of a photograph of your own choosing - if it's possible, post it above your blog entry so that we have something to work from. I'd like you to the same project with this one that you did with the Lange photograph. Please be deliberate, in one way or another, about discussing technique and composition in this photograph, using specific vocabulary when appropriate.
Tyler closed his Dorothea Lange entry with this: "Prior to reading the vast information regarding the technical aspects of photography I didn’t really examine the technical qualities of the photo taken by Lange but after reading my opinion on what is going on in the photo remains relatively the same. " I suggested to Tyler that the technique may have led him to his interpretation without his awareness, which makes it more interesting to think about. Your analysis should still focus on what the picture is "about," whatever that means for each photograph, but you want to explore how you came to understand the picture as about that, which will, in the end, demand an examination of some technique. This does not have to be a "technical analysis" where you dryly list vocabulary words, but I want you to ask questions of the composition and the photographers' tools that illuminate your particular choice.
Remember: be specific. Describe things. Make claims. Have an argument about the photograph. And don't rush your entry: think, and write, and even revise.
Tyler closed his Dorothea Lange entry with this: "Prior to reading the vast information regarding the technical aspects of photography I didn’t really examine the technical qualities of the photo taken by Lange but after reading my opinion on what is going on in the photo remains relatively the same. " I suggested to Tyler that the technique may have led him to his interpretation without his awareness, which makes it more interesting to think about. Your analysis should still focus on what the picture is "about," whatever that means for each photograph, but you want to explore how you came to understand the picture as about that, which will, in the end, demand an examination of some technique. This does not have to be a "technical analysis" where you dryly list vocabulary words, but I want you to ask questions of the composition and the photographers' tools that illuminate your particular choice.
Remember: be specific. Describe things. Make claims. Have an argument about the photograph. And don't rush your entry: think, and write, and even revise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)