Tuesday, March 29

So Fish is trying too hard, huh, to write "good" sentences?  Nice point in class from several people.  I concur.  The book is not unsmart, but the prose is self-conscious and sometimes overwrought.  Yet his principles remain: good prose has to be part of  a strongly held and powerfully understood purpose.  In fact, in class we discussed how "purpose" and "context" are nearly synonymous.  This parallel or synonymity (to coin a word) is in many ways Johnson's argument, too.  Context makes (induces, elicits, promotes, supports, "under-stands") our discoveries.  The papers you all wrote on Johnson make explicit connections between his book and writing -- again, it's interesting, but, more importantly, it is useful to find these metaphors and images and stories of "where good writings come from."  One claim, for example, that came from class discussion, is that inspiration and insight is not nearly as important as the context and community that sponsors your "personal" discovery.  Being in a stimulating environment (and what that means varies for everyone, but it seems to generally include conversation and reading) is important.  We discussed also the ways that a commonplace book can serve as a form of "conversation" with oneself and one's influential authors.

On Thursday we will spend the entire time writing on our individual projects.  At the end of class, we will post them, perhaps to Google Docs.  Conferences are as follows next week (Taylor, you and I will hold our conferences on the phone).  The point is to discuss your project's process.

9:00 Monday Elise
9:30 Heather
10: Sean

Richard 9:00 Wednesday
Taylor 9:30

9:00 Corey
9:30 Zack
10:00 David

We're on The Map

A list of Professional Writing programs was just released.  Note that we're rubbing shoulders with Perdue, Little Rock, and even Syracuse.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=217085203997748400413.00049f2ccd987df5bb24a&z=0%3E

Assignments out of Thursday, March 24 for March 29

Today we entered with both the Fish and Bell books, took a grammar quiz, filled out a form that identified our major projects' status and orientation, used google docs to summarize this information, went over the quiz, listened to a short lecture on sentence structure, and received several assignments.

The assignments for Tuesday next (March 29) as follows:

>bring the Fish and Bell and Johnson books<

1) Annotate and finish Johnson.  Write a one-page paper from that book that explains how his ideas connect to writing. One page sounds easy. I think it is not.  We will be discussing and finishing the book in class.

2) Read chapter 4 of Fish, annotate it, and find in your reading, from whatever source, four sentences that you feel are what Fish would call "good."  Bring those four sentences, typed clearly, to class on a single sheet of paper, assuming they will fit.  You will be expected to explain why they are "good," using Fish's criteria.

3) Bring the grammar test completed.  We will go over the sentences in class.  The test can be found here for you to print out and bring to class completed.  You are not to restructure the sentences, but merely fix the punctuation.  

5) Ten additional pages of your your major project (2,500 words) will be due in finished draft form on April 5.  We discussed how to break some of these unwieldy and ambitious projects into manageable sections.  

6) Scholar's Day is April 15

7) Transition has been fully funded.

Contact me if you have questions.

Readings for Thursday

> Please read Janis Bell's "Grammar Terminology" and Stanley Fish's "Why Sentences."
> Read over and add two comments each to the two google docs pages -- the one on Johnson's book and the one on your own project.

See if you can figure out how to use that comment feature and the other annotation tool, the one that allows you to insert footnotes.

Google Docs Day

Agenda:

1) Discussion of projects as heuristic (generative practices): project, the most interesting term of all.  I see in "project" a compelling set of problems and the urge to organize and undertake a developing argument that propels one into a certain environment and requires the cultivation that Johnson discusses.  I think Johnson has it wrong when he talks of inventions as the culmination of one man's work (and the germination of another's) -- or at least it's incomplete.  A good project will elicit and direct thinking into new forms of the "adjunct possible," making a sinuous path that you, the writer, really can't predict.  In fact, that is maybe the most valuable thing about a project: it is unpredictable.  It requires the writer to hit the "sweet spot" between control and passivity, the same sort of stance that a skier or biker has to develop.  New drivers, for instance, tend to oversteer; experienced drivers "feel the road" through the car and pay attention, but not too much attention, to what they are doing.

2) Go to the Steven Johnson page at  https://docs.google.com/document/d/12nxRkdnLX6nqmEWx0TYq1F1oHDHTBXo2mgTxSPbd-4w/edit?hl=en&authkey=CKH6-58B

3) Go to the Project in Process page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mes-SVr0DA61ByCfjCJmkt6SKeVahNYrYhk1zjJVamM/edit?hl=en&authkey=CPz6x4IL

4)  Go back to the Johnson page again and develop your commentary under your section and other people's sections

5) Go back to the Projects in Process page and develop your commentary about two other people's projects

6) Add in at least two more thoughtful comments on each page before the next class.  We will be reading and commenting out of these for that class.

7) For Thursday, please bring the Fish book and the Bell books.  Thursday is very much about sentences.

Heal these sentences

Senior Seminar

After Break

Grammar Test

Clause has a subject and verb:

Subject > verb <object

John > threw < a tantrum.

She returned only the most important calls, the rest could wait.  Mail piled up and memos went unread. This meeting today determined her future, it could make her career and bolster her status in the office. Or the opposite.  When the razor-thin office manager finally called her into the back office, she sensed a trap, it was too late to back out.  Afterward, she hid in the supply closet.  She sobbed and sobbed, everyone could hear.  Everyone but the one person who needed to hear them; her mother. 

She awoke with her head on her mothers stomach to the grumbling voice of her doctor.  Soft and smooth but with a down to business overtone.  Her face froze, she pretended to sleep.  But the news was bad.  It turns out, Danielle was very sick.  Everyone knew.  How could her mother have been hiding this for so long?  Cue tears, tears.  It was a very sad moment.

Later, Danielle dashed from one end of the room to the other, looking for her favorite pants. The ones that were most comfortable, the pants she felt she could do anything in.  “Where are my pants, I can’t go to work without my pants.” Once she found them, she would circle the track all afternoon, never wanting to leave.  Never wanting to stop running.  She loved to run.  It gave her a thrill, it made her smile, it gave her purpose, provided a certain nobility. When she thought about graduating, however, her smile quickly evaporated, she blamed it on the grueling years of college, there was one more semester left.

Obligatory pictures everywhere: her first date, and of the family vacation. Memories: Danielle, I have a question for you, can you please step into my office for a minute? I am very concerned about your work record, it seems to me you are almost never on time to work, this has to STOP!  Danielle tries to play it calm and nods and says, “yeah, sure, that’s true”! She did not mind this for it was a peaceful part of her day.  A time where she can relax and not be afraid, a time when she could reflect on her life and what it had become.  She clenched her eyes and folded her arms across her chest tightly, maybe she’ll think I am taking a sudden nap or sleeping?

Steven Johnson

When we return on the 22nd, bring a list of your projects and choose one: bring a reasoned discussion of why that is the most rewarding and challenging (the best) project for you to complete this semester.

We'll also discuss the next two chapters, up to 148.  Or finish the book.  It's certainly not a problem.

This book is on innovation and success is pretty exciting, maybe simply because it allows me to hear people talking about the subjects.  But more than that, I think.  It's exciting because it's very grounded theory.  The examples and connections are powerful, and I want to use them as a writer (not just for cocktail party conversation).  (And I wonder about his blog, too),

liquid networks
spillover
hunch
building 20 and building 99
commonplace journal
flow
environment
patterns
cultivation
global brain


My favorite is the term project.  I see in "project" a compelling set of problems and the urge to organize and undertake a developing argument that propels one into a certain environment and requires the cultivation that Johnson discusses.  I think Johnson has it wrong when he talks of inventions as the culmination of one man's work (and the germination of another's) -- or at least it's incomplete.  A good project will elicit and direct thinking into new forms of the "adjunct possible," making a sinuous path that you, the writer, really can't predict.  In fact, that is maybe the most valuable thing about a project: it is unpredictable.  It requires the writer to hit the "sweet spot" between control and passivity, the same sort of stance that a skier or biker has to develop.  New drivers, for instance, tend to oversteer; experienced drivers "feel the road" through the car and pay attention, but not too much attention, to what they are doing.

Steve Johnson

Can't wait to see what we do with Johnson's book (up to or past 65) and the Amazon reviews of it.

Liked this:
1. Adjacent possible: different innovations vary in their ability to unlock adjacent capabilities. In other words, timing matters. 
2. Liquid environments: from a coffee house to your lab, the environments ability to circulate ideas plays an incredibly important role. 
3. Serendipity: more often than not, it is a rare connection of two existing ideas that sets off a lightbulb, not discovery of a new one (see 2). 
4. Slow hunch: instant flash of insight usually comes from years of exploration, where at some point, those ideas collide (see 3). 
5. Error: many discoveries come about as an unrelated, and unexpected consequence (ex: penicillin) - be flexible with your ideas. 
6. Exaptation: existing components and discoveries can often be adapted to different use cases (ex: consumer GPS applications.. see 1). 
7. Platforms: where possible, build platforms and ecosystems that foster environments where 1-6 can be recombined at will. 

contents of portfolio

Contents of PWR Senior Portfolio

Over your four years in Professional Writing you will collect quite a lot of work from your professional writing courses. In Senior Seminar, you will assemble that work into a professional portfolio.  Here is the bare bones list of the portfolio for 2011.  Feel free to include other materials at the end

1. Table of Contents
2. Reflective Essay from an early course (perhaps PWR 295) on your own writing process or style
3. A paper that comes from one of your very early undergraduate courses (not necessarily PWR course) on any topic
4. A paper that explicitly refers to rhetorical principles.  Appropriate selections include a rhetorical analysis of a text (speech, an advertisement, a piece of literature, a business document, or a bumper sticker, etc), a theoretical paper in which the writer demonstrates her understanding of a rhetorical concept or principle, a genre study where writer applies rhetorical theory to the discourse conventions of his minor, or a cultural studies paper that demonstrates how discursive practices shape and are shaped by cultural forces
5. A document exemplifying a technical genre.  Likely sources for this paper will be
6. Technical Writing, Internship, and elective PWR courses like Business Writing. This paper often “translates” from an expert audience to a general audience or vice versa.  Examples of such documents include a set of instructions, a grant proposal, a technical report, a feasibility study, a progress report, a business plan, a public relations document, a public service announcement, white paper, or other problem-solving document.
7. One example from each of several creative genres: poems, fiction, novel, creative nonfiction essay, screenplay, script, and the like
8. Your resume
9. Project paper written this semester in Senior Seminar
10. Portfolio reflection
11. Any other interesting papers you’ve written as an undergradate

All the papers should be clean two-sided double-spaced final drafts assembled in a SUNY Cortland folder OR on a CD.  All should be set up like the top of this page.  Except for papers papers 1, 2, 3 and 11, be sure you are submitting revised work in the best condition. 

Bye, Malcolm

That was exciting.  Wow.  From Kentucky clansmen to rice paddies to Korean airline pilots to Asian math kids.  And now we're done with Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: A Story of Success.

I started class by talking about two "impertinent" questions: "What good is this" and "Is this good news?"  The first question, "What good is this," when addressed to Gladwell's book, might seem pushy or rude.  I don't think it is.  In fact, every writer should be asking this all the time.  "How does this apply to my writing" is the best question a writer can ask.  "How can this help me succeed as a writer"?  If writing is your priority, asking this question needs to be, too.

I argued that his book has a lot of implications for us as writers.  It talks about the conditions necessary for success, and puts down the idea that grit and determination is enough.  Instead, success depends on sustained critical practice, deep attitudes toward possibility and risk, sustained challenge (but not too much), visible success, a degree of autonomy, etc.

My second question was more or less simply "Should we worry"?  If Gladwell is right and we are in many ways handed our options -- rather creating success out of our will -- then is his story deterministic, even pessimistic?  Is there any hope?  Has he stripped us of our freedom to be become better writers?

Of course, I want to see it as a positive story.  If Gladwell is right, becoming a successful anything depends on luck -- but you can't know if you are lucky while you're in the thick of trying.  Faith -- or if that's too inflated of a word, hope -- is about all a writer has.  This leaves knowing or not knowing in the dust and leads to a question more useful than "Will I make it as a writer": it leads to "How do the successful succeed?"

Gladwell suggests that they have to move toward challenging problems, real tasks for a real community.  It means drills (and skills) are meaningless.  It means that being smarter is not better: there is a threshold above which predictions for success are not meaningful.  It means your community -- the writers you work with and know -- matter more than your GREs or SATs.  It means sustaining work as a writer -- not knowing "about" writing -- is the best thing you can do for your future career.

I collected papers today on your "heroes."  Thursday, we will look at the writing that begins your "unfamilar" genre.  Bring 10 copies.

DF