Monday will be Editing 101.
Well, not quite... but we're going to get our hands on some essays from last year, and start looking at what we need to do to turn a pile of essays into a book.
Reading Actively (Hacker)
Before we can edit a document, we need to read it. Reading something, in this context, does not mean "I skimmed it." It means engaging the text actively.
We'll begin by looking at Hacker (section A1) and talk about what it means to read a document actively.
September 11 (Discuss, 10m+)
Before we go on, I have a (challenging) question to ask:
What does September 11, 2011 mean to you?
My perspective on the world is different than yours. (In fact, each of your perspectives on the world is different from one-another.) What do you think about this date, the events that took place, and what has followed in the name of September 11?
Reading Actively (Op/Ed) (Read, Discuss, 20m)
After discussing hacker, we'll take a short op/ed (opinion/editorial) piece from a New Hampshire paper, and apply some of what we've discussed. Our goal is to look at that document and ask "what does it say, and to whom?"
The challenge to us, as readers, is to identify when the author is constructing a sound set of rational arguments as opposed to when the author is making claims without good support and evidence. I've chosen some extreme examples for the purpose of this exercise.
For Wednesday (Announcement)
For Wednesday, read Hacker section A3 (Evaluating Arguments) and read the essay written by one of your peers that you were assigned. In class, we'll discuss what it means to put forward a sound argument (the claim and support), and look for examples (and counter-examples) in the essays we've read.
Third Thursday (Announcement)
Wednesday we'll have some time to discuss our Third Thursday plans. Specifically, we'll need to think about how we can get the word out.
On September 22nd, I propose we host a "callout session." At this session, we'll talk about the kinds of things we hope to do, with the goal of interesting other students in attending. To do this, we'll need to think about what we will be doing...
Before Wednesday, please add your idea (or ideas) to our shared Google doc that is titled Third Thursday Ideas. You will need to be logged in to your Allegheny email account to access that link.
