Assignment for Thursday, 12/18 (Day 4)

For Thursday, you should come to class with at least five images that you will use in your essay, and at least one written paragraph.  You may either e-mail the images to yourself (we will have the laptop cart), post them on your blog, or print them out and bring them to class. By Thursday, you should also have your blog set up to start posting your essay as it develops. 

In class, we will split into groups to look at examples of slideshows and see what works and what doesn't work in them.

Slideshow Essay Assignment

The slideshow essay should be well under way. Here are some firmer guidelines for this assignment:

1. Your slideshow essay can address virtually any topic.
   
2. Your slideshow essay must consist of at least ten images and ten accompanying (and substantive) paragraphs that address the topic.
   
3. Your commentary must address more than the images; your commentary must address the subject under consideration. The illustrations only supplement the written commentary. 
   
4. Your accompanying commentary must include outside sources that enlarge your perspective on the images.
   
5. You must set up a blog at blogspot.com or wordpress.com to post your slideshow essay. It's format will look something like this slideshow essay, except yours should alternate between text and image. 
   
6. You may use video in your essay, but it will not count toward your minimum of ten illustrations. 
   

One way to approach choosing a topic for this assignment is to answer this question: What would you write about if you could write about anything? Choose that, and find ten interesting and relevant images to accompany your text.

The essay component of this assignment should draw on outside sources, which must be listed at the end of the essay in MLA format. Your outside sources should not be limited to internet-based sources. The MPH library has a wonderful selection of books, and you should browse its catalog or shelves to find some that are relevant for your essay.

Click here for an example of a slideshow essay without, well, the slideshow. At the copyright holder's request, the images were only allowed for a restricted period of time. Nonetheless, this essay might help you see how the accompanying text functions independently of the images. You can read this without knowing which pictures are supposed to "go with" the writing. 

Click here for an example of the kind of slideshow essay you should not write. While this particular slideshow is valuable in itself (it is essentially a tour of the concentration camp at Auschwitz), it does not feature the kind of writing that I want you to produce for this assignment.  

Your slideshow essay is due on Thursday, January 15 (Day 2). That day, we will begin presenting them in class.  

Assignments for Tuesday, 12/2, and Monday, 12/8

Open the "Baldwin Essay" link to your right and read the directions for that essay. For Tuesday, you must either write two pages of that essay or prepare an outline for it. Click here to see the Rob Frenay essay, "Notes of a Ghetto Superstar," that I read in class. (The link opens a PDF of The Windmill, and his essay begins on p. 17 of The Windmill, p. 19 of the file.)

Essay for Monday, 11/17

In his essay "Shooting an Elephant," George Orwell writes, "As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that  I ought not to shoot him" (p. 305, par. 6). Think of a time when you felt yourself pressured to do something you "knew with perfect certainty" that you should not do. Write an essay modeled on Orwell's in which your speaker confesses to having "shot an elephant," so to speak. If you faced social pressure to "shoot" your "elephant," than you should describe its effects on your behavior. If the social and political contexts influenced your thoughts and actions, then you should describe them. This paper should be about three pages in length, but feel free to write more than that if you like. 

We will do a gallery critique of this essay, so bring two printed copies of this essay with you to class. Also, bring with you Advanced Composition Skills. 

Election Links

Here are links for the election sites and videos we looked at in class today, and a few we didn't get to:

Video of McCain's concession speech: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/video-john-mccains-concession-speech-993412.html

Text of McCain's concession speech: http://www.johnmccain.com/

Video of McCain's speech at the Al Smith Dinner: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27231593#27231593

Video and Text of Obama's victory speech: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2008/barackobamavictoryspeech.htm

Obama's speech at the Al Smith Dinner: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27231593#27231610

2008 Electoral College results: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/president/

2008-1992 Voting by County: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html (We didn't do this in class, but click the "Voting Shifts" box on the left to see how much these results differ from 2000 and 2004. It's misleading when you click on 1992 and 1996 because the shifts are based on total votes cast, so a greater percentage of people voted for McCain than they did for George Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996, who lost those elections in years with smaller turnouts. A smaller percentage of people voted for Obama than they did for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 because, like Obama, Clinton won.)

Election Results, 1789-2008: http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/

2008 Voting Returns, Appalachia (an interesting blog post we didn't have time for in class): http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/without-appalachia/

Assignment for Wednesday, 11/12

Write a three-page essay in response to the Focus on Writing prompt on p. 63 of ACS. I recommend that you complete the Focus on Reading (p. 62) before attempting to write the essay. Then, use the synonyms of those words as the basis for your essay. 

Alternative assignment: Write a rhetorical analysis of one of the four speeches listed above. (Warning: the expectations for this assignment are higher than for the other option.)

Assignment for Friday, 11/7

In ACS, read pp. 59-63. Complete the exercises on pp. 60-61, and be sure to follow the Focus on Reading directions on p. 62. There is no other writing assignment due.