Blog #3: Academic Writing? (Please No.)

Most freshmen college students think they know what academic discourse is. After all, they've been writing in an academic setting for about 12 years by the time they arrive at university.

And then they get a grade on their first college essay, and they wonder what went wrong. 

What worked before doesn't work as well now. What do university professors expect anyway? 

Disclosure: They expect something more like Teresa Thonney and "Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse," the article you just read.

Why didn't they just say so? Why keep their expectations a secret?

That's Thonney's point to the college writing teachers she is addressing. (No, you are not the primary audience!) She contends that there are some common characteristics of academic writing and college instructors should teach those conventions in their classes in order to give them the tools to meet professor expectations.

Yeah, that's basically it.  Except she goes into detail about what those conventions are, why scholarly writers use them, and how it will help undergraduate students to begin using them in their own writing.  

In this post, talk about your experience reading this academic journal article, written by a scholar for other scholars. What did you like? What was challenging? After all, you are not the primary audience.  OR if you have read these types of articles in the past, what was that like?

And then talk about one or more of the conventions and how this style of writing is similar or different than what you have done in the past.  

Or you could talk about how these conventions, which are rhetorical strategies, use the appeals to persuade the primary audience. 

Blog #2: First Impressions of a Chomsky's Dystopian Dream

The American Dream: Lots of stuff. Happy family. Fun times. That's definitely not what Requiem for the American Dream is about. Yeah. Pretty much the opposite. Chomsky lays out a really depressing view of the prospect of rewards for working hard in the U.S.

And I'm just going to say I hesitated before assigning you this book. 

First of all, it's Chomsky. He's a genius, and his ideas are complex and hard to sort out. He is also very controversial. Some people have labeled him anti-American. (I don't think so, but you can decide that.)

Unlike some of Chomsky's other works, this one is fairly accessible. He's got a conversational tone. He addresses complex ideas in ways that are easy-ish to understand. He uses tons of examples and evidence. So I set aside my first concern.

As for my second concern, this book is definitely controversial. Chomsky takes everything you thought you knew about American history and says, "America: A nation of equality? Government by the people? Yeah. Not so much. Not now. Not ever." And I wondered whether or not I wanted to introduce you to such a dystopian view of the American Dream or America. After all, you are young and impressionable. (Apparently I decided it was okay.) 

So here we are. The book in your hands. You're about to write your first blog on this book. What stands out to you in the parts we have read this far--or in the film? What is interesting? Problematic? Challenging? Why? How does Chomsky contradict or affirm what you learned in your American history or government classes? What is YOUR first impression? (In other words, don't just summarize. Respond.)

Btw, remember, argument deals with contested issues, complex issues. There is no right/wrong binary here. You can agree with PART of what he says and disagree with part of what he says.

As always, make sure to include at least one RELEVANT quotation to support your discussion. That means it illustrates something you are discussing or it sets up something you want to discuss. Set up the quoestion with context from the text, introduce it, analyze it. And be sure to respond to at least two other blogs.

Blog #1: Dream On!

 Portrayals of the American Dream are everywhere. In films. TV. Art. Music. Political speeches. Advertisements. We want to believe that things will get better, that if we just work hard, we will be given the opportunity to succeed.

For example, Aerosmith released their hit song "Dream On" in 1973, and it quickly shot up to #5 on the charts, and the lyrics still connect to Americans. It's been covered by Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys, and many other well known and unknown artists. (Listen to one of the links while you read. It will place this post in context!)

"Dream On" is a song about aging. A song that reflects the understanding that life is short. We live. We die. We chase our dreams. But we don't know how long we have to achieve them.

When asked about the song meant, song writer Steven Tyler asserted, “It’s about the hunger to be somebody: Dream until your dreams come true.”

It's about The American Dream. 

But where did this dream come from? 

White and Hansen explore this question in "The Making and Persistence of the American Dream," the introduction to their anthology The American Dream in the 21st Century (2011).  

After examining the origins of the dream, they review what others have said about the American Dream over the years and then offer some reasons why the dream persists even when it is so hard to achieve.  

In this post, do not merely summarize what they say. (Seriously, there is too much there to summarize, and besides, we already read the chapter so we know what it says.) 

What I'd like you to do is to choose a part of this chapter that is interesting, problematic, or surprising to you, briefly review what Hanson and White say in this section, and then add something new. Add analysis. Add why this section is significant. Add examples from your own life or what you have seen or heard in the real world. 

This is similar to what you wrote last week, but this time your audience is different. You are not writing for ME; you are writing for the students in this class. How does this context change the way you write. Also, this time you are not writing an academic paper; this time you are writing a blog. How does that genre shift change your style of writing? Your presentation? 

You should use at least one short quotation from the text. (When choosing a quotation, consider the context in which White and Hanson make this quotation, recreate that context, introduce the quotation, provide analysis about what this means and add why the quotation matters.)

Oh yeah. Respond to at least two other student blogs. Don't just say, "Yeah. Me too." No. Add something.