What an interesting conversation over Gladwell's "The Art of Failure"! His terms "choke" and "panic" were useful ways for us to reflect on the strategies that writers use. I was interested in how writing is a slow-burn sort of event: there is no clear win/lose threshold. We often don't know if writing was good (or bad) until we reflect on it -- and as Corey brought up, that's one of the uses of looking back on writing (as we are doing in our portfolio of previous writing). Choking -- thinking too much -- is a perennial threat because we deal with words, the stuff of thought. The opposite -- reverting to thoughtless instinct -- is interesting because sometimes writers seek out the state of "flow" where there is little explicit thinking; other times, it's terrible because it's like trying to start a car on ice: no thinking happening anywhere, like a high-stakes "casual" discussion with the President: words escape us, almost literally.
So how do writers avoid the art of failure? David suggested time spent writing, practice, developing experience to carry us through those blank spots of panic.
Today we're discussing the first section of the Gladwell book, up to page 116 (Outliers). We will look for questions in class on the material, share them, and develop possible answers. We will read well into the second section for Tuesday and do the same, but I'm going to ask you to email me your questions before by Monday.
We will also take a grammar test, located at http://www.kristisiegel.com/grammartest2.html
Comment with your comments!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Just after Raquette Lake
Tuesday at 1:15:
- Grammar Test
- Reading for Tuesday: Annotate and write on Malcolm Gladwell's "The Art of Failure" (eLearning) and you can also find the article here: http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/choking.pdf
Monday, February 7, 2011
The first major paper of Sen Sem
Seminarians,
I am looking forward to the "Project Map" paper you are turning into prose for Thursday. It occurs to me that there might be two different kinds of papers in the world: those that develop an argument out of one text (a close reading of a poem, for example), and those that develop the implications implicit in many sources. One is deductive; the other is inductive.
Your paper is inductive, developed from examples and patterns you've seen in many sources: the Table of Contents for your final Senior Seminar portfolio (you don't need to include the actual papers at this point), the StrengthsFinder results, those crazy dialogues where you created a roomful of characters discussing your future and abilities, and the original project map -- and each other as we discuss things in class. Be sure you turn in all those pieces of "data" with the actual paper on Thursday.
Your goal is to make claims about what will/might/could count as writerly "success" for you from this day forward, through the semester's projects and beyond. For data, you the sources above.
So the question you're trying to answer is this: What writing projects fit your experience, knowledge, and abilities? How will you capitalize on those personal qualities as you push forward through this class and after graduation? What kind of a writer should you be?
What's unusual here is that you're asked to look at productive tensions in your writing self -- the struggle, say, to be easy to read but at the same time challenging your reader (to draw from one of my own tensions). How can both be true? They are in contradiction. But it is from trying to write through these tensions that everything emerges: your style, voice, topics, audience, self-image...and your version of success.
I'll be in my office all week if you want to stop by to talk over a draft.
THURSDAY: Project Map due in prose. Topic: As a writer, what will count as “success” for you? Draw from the early project map, the portfolio table of contents, strengths inventory results, dialogue among your inner voices (Feb 8), etc. Examine the major tensions in your writing style, habits, topics, audiences, etc. Five pages min.
That's it for now.
DF
I am looking forward to the "Project Map" paper you are turning into prose for Thursday. It occurs to me that there might be two different kinds of papers in the world: those that develop an argument out of one text (a close reading of a poem, for example), and those that develop the implications implicit in many sources. One is deductive; the other is inductive.
Your paper is inductive, developed from examples and patterns you've seen in many sources: the Table of Contents for your final Senior Seminar portfolio (you don't need to include the actual papers at this point), the StrengthsFinder results, those crazy dialogues where you created a roomful of characters discussing your future and abilities, and the original project map -- and each other as we discuss things in class. Be sure you turn in all those pieces of "data" with the actual paper on Thursday.
Your goal is to make claims about what will/might/could count as writerly "success" for you from this day forward, through the semester's projects and beyond. For data, you the sources above.
So the question you're trying to answer is this: What writing projects fit your experience, knowledge, and abilities? How will you capitalize on those personal qualities as you push forward through this class and after graduation? What kind of a writer should you be?
What's unusual here is that you're asked to look at productive tensions in your writing self -- the struggle, say, to be easy to read but at the same time challenging your reader (to draw from one of my own tensions). How can both be true? They are in contradiction. But it is from trying to write through these tensions that everything emerges: your style, voice, topics, audience, self-image...and your version of success.
I'll be in my office all week if you want to stop by to talk over a draft.
THURSDAY: Project Map due in prose. Topic: As a writer, what will count as “success” for you? Draw from the early project map, the portfolio table of contents, strengths inventory results, dialogue among your inner voices (Feb 8), etc. Examine the major tensions in your writing style, habits, topics, audiences, etc. Five pages min.
That's it for now.
DF
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