Outline Workshop

OUTLINE WORKSHOP QUESTIONS

Instructions: Please answer all of the following questions in detail for your partner in complete sentences, providing examples from their paper in your answers. You may not simply answer yes or no in your responses. This activity should take you around thirty minutes per person, not much less than that.

Before you begin writing, please make sure to share your work aloud.

1) Does the paper provide a clear thesis statement, sharing what game the writer will be analyzing, and from what angle they will be analyzing that game? Is the thesis specific, qualified, and clear? Give at least one suggestion for improvement.

2) What necessary background information is included? What further background information might be needed?

3) Suggest an opening hook that might capture the reader's attention.

4) Discuss the organization of the body paragraphs. What is the topic of each main paragraph? Are they in an order that makes sense, or should they be re-ordered somehow? Often, going from small to large (micro to macro) or vice-versa makes sense.

5) Are there clear examples from the games and from any outside research (if applicable) to back up the assertions made in the paper? Suggest places where more examples might be used. Also, discuss whether these examples are strong enough.

6) Point out any weakness in the analysis. What further questions do you have as a reader? Where can the writer dig deeper? Are there any logical fallacies in the paper?

Hi everyone,

A quick note to let you know that Emma (peer mentor in second section) pointed out that I had placed the outline due date next to the final draft due date. I've now adjusted the schedule so that your final draft is due one week from your rough draft, which ensures I will have time to return your outlines with my notes on them for you. You are also always free to meet during my office hours to go over the paper in advance of its due date, and you can send me questions through email at katedurbinteacher@gmail.com if you have them.

Best,
Prof D

Basic Outline Template

Par 1: Main idea/thesis
Background and introductory information

Par 2: Topic
Example / quote
Analysis
Example / quote
Analysis


Par 3: Topic
Example / quote
Analysis
Example / quote
Analysis


Par 4: Topic
Example / quote
Analysis
Example / quote
Analysis

And so on, until...

Conclusion

Final thought

Essay #1 Guidelines

Essay #1

Analyzing Video Games

Take a popular video game and analyze it as a reflection of cultural attitudes, desires, and beliefs. What makes the game popular? What does it reflect about our culture?

Since this is an analysis paper and not an argument paper (we will get to that next), please refrain from sharing your own opinions in the paper. ) Instead, try and focus on dissecting the game. What are the avatars like? What process do the go through in achieving their goals? Is the game single-player, or multi-player?

Use the vocabulary that you have gleaned from your in class readings to break down the components of the game and to discuss it.

Length 2-3 pages. Make sure to include a Works Cited page.

See blog for outline and final draft due dates.

Love is a Fallacy

The purpose of this assignment is to help you to make logical arguments with sound reasoning in your papers.

In your groups, please first read Love is Fallacy together.

Then, put together a 1-3 minute skit that demonstrates the fallacy I have assigned you in class. DO NOT SHARE WITH YOUR OTHER CLASSMATES WHICH FALLACY YOU HAVE. They will be guessing your fallacies in class.

You will want to learn the following fallacies before Friday's class, so that you can properly guess which fallacies your classmates are performing.

on Angela Washko

In early 2012 Angela Washko founded "The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioural Awareness in World of Warcraft" as a performative intervention within the misogynistic environment of World of Warcraft, the most massively popular multiplayer role playing game of all time. Instead of continuing to follow the quest structure of the game—killing dragons, getting better equipment, joining more competitive guilds—while performing as "The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioural Awareness in World of Warcraft," Washko facilitates discussions with players inside the game about the ways in which the community therein addresses women and how players respond to the term "FEMINISM." Washko is interested in the impulse of the community/player-base to create an oppressive, misogynistic space for women within a physical environment that is otherwise accessible and inviting. Furthermore, WoW is a geographically, politically, economically, socially, and racially diverse community (a much more varied community to engage with than she has in physical public space). Consequently, these discussions within the game space create a much larger picture of the American opinion of the evolving roles of women in contemporary society. In Playing A Girl Washko (as Washclothes) focusses on two topics: the male impulse to play female characters within WoW and why a woman would choose not to be a feminist (conversation meanders into discussions of inherent gendered qualities, homophobia, separatism, and rape).

Office Hours

Professor Durbin's office hours are from 2-3 on Wednesdays and Fridays. I am also available by appt Tuesday-Friday, provided we make plans in advance.

I will show you my office (which is on the very top floor of Mendenhall) next week, after the weather cools off.

What is popular culture?

1. 

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   Definition: culture based on the tastes of ordinary people rather than an educated elite.

   "the assimilation of elements of popular culture into the fine arts"

   
   

   
   

Course Syllabus

I N T D   1 0 0:

CULTURE GOES POP! REALITY TV, VIDEO GAMES, AND CELEBRITY CULTURE

Fall 2015                                                                                                       

Professor: Kate Durbin

Email: katedurbinteacher@gmail.com

Course Objectives

This course is designed to help you become a successful critical thinker and writer, equipped for the rigors of academic discourse. You will achieve these goals by cultivating active reading skills, developing effective writing habits, and learning to understand and use the many rhetorical techniques available to writers. By the end of the semester, you should be able to:

-       Read texts critically, noting how a text’s style, structure, and context contribute to its meanings and implications.

-       Write well organized, clearly written argumentative essays that are supported by strong evidence and clear explanation, and which employ a rhetoric and tone appropriate to the broader academic audience.

-       Research—and integrate—credible and relevant sources that support the thesis of your essays.

-       Apply effective drafting and revision techniques to your essays, including improved proofreading skills.

-       Format your papers according to Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines.

The class readings will act as prompts for critical thinking about and engagement with others’ writing. As a key part of a community of writers, you will actively critique your peers’ work. Lively and regular engagement in the classroom is also necessary to your success in INTD 100. This class, which emphasizes the process of writing, will require a considerable workload, and moves at a rapid pace, so you must be prepared to commit a substantial amount of time to each assignment.

Why Pop? Why 

Video Games? Why Reality TV?

Popular culture is all around us. Whether we like it or not, daily we are inundated with images and sounds and brands that soak into our consciousness. From Disney, to the Kardashians, to Nicki Minaj, to Grand Theft Auto, these various signs, symbols, and cultures impact the ways in which we see the world and our roles within it. 

Often the sort of knee jerk reaction to popular culture is to criticize it as shallow or stupid, but the truth is more complex than that. The popular culture mediums of our times--mediums such as reality tv, video games, social media spaces, even tabloids and the red carpet--are in fact highly complex spaces in which culture is created; and, when analyzed, these spaces and their specific attributes can provide us with tools in understanding and changing the world we live in. For we must go into these spaces in order to transform culture, recognizing that we, in fact, play a part in pop culture, whether we like it or not. 

Required Texts and Supplies

Reality Bites Back Pozner

Understanding Video Games by Egenfield-Nielsen, Jonas Heide Smith, an Susana Pajares Tosca

Feed by Mira Grant

Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson (not available in bookstore, please order on your own)

Readings via links on Class Blog (check syllabus)

Note: Always, always bring the book you were assigned to read and A Writer’s Reference to every class meeting unless informed otherwise by your Professor. Please note that even if we do not useA Writer’s Reference in class for several weeks, you are still required to have it on hand. Points will be taken off for failure to purchase and utilize this book.

Note: All books are available in the Whittier College Bookstore, and also can be purchased at Amazon.com (please choose 2-day delivery if you order online, and order immediately).

Note: Make sure you get the same editions of the books your teacher has and the bookstore has. You cannot use different editions, as they do not have the required supplemental texts. You will lose points for having the wrong editions.

NOTE: THE BOOKSTORE RETURNS ALL UNBOUGHT BOOKS AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS INTO THE SEMESTER! DO NOT WAIT TO BUY ANY OF YOUR BOOKS.

Note: Points will be taken off for those who fail to have their books on time. All of the books you are to buy for this class are relatively cheap, and plentiful—I would strongly recommend ordering them new and having them shipped as quickly as possible.

Course Requirements

Students will write four essays, one of which is an in-class essay. The course will also include in-class quizzes, writing process work, Peer Reviews, and other group work. Students will compose first drafts of all their essays, in addition to other pre-writing activities such as outlining and brainstorming. They may also receive the opportunity to share some of their writing aloud with the entire class, as well as with one another in Peer Reviews. Any work done in class cannot be made up if missed. Homework will include reading comprehension questions, and writing process work.

Note: To insure participation and on-time attendance, there will be a daily reading question at the beginning of class which functions both as a critical writing assignment and a reading/participation quiz.  These quizzes are absolutely unrepeatable and impossible to make up. You must do your reading regularly. Anyone who does not regularly do well on reading quizzes will not pass the course.

Written Assignment Standards

Any writing done outside of class must be typed and follow the conventions of MLA style (see A Writer’s Reference 354-412). All outside assignments should be in twelve point Times New Roman or Garamond fonts, with one-inch margins, and black ink only. Do not use title pages or report covers; follow the MLA guidelines for formatting. All copies must be submitted on time. In addition, please think ahead when it comes to printing out, stapling essays, etc. Never turn in faded printing or unstapled documents.  Never turn in any assignment without your name, my name, the date, and the class time, typed in the far left corner. Points will be taken off for failure to follow these basic instructions. I do not provide staples in class, and I do take points off for late work—even if it’s just ten or fifteen minutes late. 

Very Important Note: While you will be turning in hard copies of your rough drafts and a few other assignments, you will be required to turn in your final drafts via email only. The same formatting and MLA guidelines apply to these emailed assignments, as does the fact that they are due at the beginning of class. All of your emailed assignments will receive notes and scores electronically only, which is very convenient, organized, and helpful for both you and me. 

Please note that I do not accept hard copy assignments such as rough drafts via email. The only assignments I accept via email are final drafts. This is to ensure I keep my inbox organized.

Also, please note that for every half hour a paper is late, your score goes down one whole letter grade.

Point Breakdown

Quizzes, Homework, Class Participation and Activities: 200

Essay #1—Analysis: 150

Essay #2—In Class Essay (Comparison/Contrast): 200

Essay #3—Argument: 200

Essay #4—Final Essay: 250

Total: 1000

Attendance Policies

As your success depends on regular attendance and active participation, regular attendance is required.  Work done in class—quizzes, group work, Peer Reviews, etc.—cannot be made up and you will not be allowed to make up work completed after you arrive. You will also not receive participation credit if you are not in class to participate! Participation credit is primarily given for sharing your thoughts aloud during class discussions--so please speak up. 

If you have to be absent, please make arrangements with a classmate to turn in assignments for you, or turn in your work to my mailbox in in the English Dept. at least twenty minutes before the start of class (I will pick it up before class begins).  No excuses, barring written, professional proof of illness or extreme emergency, will be accepted without prior notice.

Note: The Professor reserves the right to lower the final grade of any student with more than two unexcused absences or three unexcused tardies. Please do not be tardy. It is very disruptive to the class and to myself, and this class meets for a very short time frame. However, if you do end up arriving late for whatever reason, enter the room quietly. All tardies, whether I appear to notice your late entrance or not, are duly noted. In addition, if you are more than 15 minutes late to class, I will consider you absent.

Lastly, please do not arrive on time and then ask to be excused to the restroom or to get a drink of water. Do these things before class, or you will be considered tardy. Please don't leave in the middle of class to do these things either, except on rare occasions (and in those cases do them quickly and return to class). I require that you ask me permission before leaving, only because students have exploited this option in the past. 

If you have a medical condition, let me know.

Missing/Late Assignments

All homework assignments and essays are due at the beginning of class. Late papers will not be accepted under any but the most extreme circumstances, and written proof will always be required (notes from parents do not count).  Computer or printer problems, procrastination, and the complications of your academic and social lives are not extreme circumstances. This class has a heavy workload, and if I accept your late assignments, not only do you create more work for me, but you hinder yourself as well.  If you know you will be gone, hand in or have a peer turn in your work for you. If it is an email assignment, obviously you should simply email it early.

Class Conduct

Cell phones should be quiet and out of sight.  Absolutely no texting and no taking phone calls during class. If I see you looking at your phone once class has started (even just pulling it out of your pocket), it will be mine until the end of class. Please be respectful and do not talk while others are sharing. Raise your hand before speaking. As mentioned prior, be on time, and if you are late, enter the room very quietly. Stay in the room during class unless absolutely necessary (and abuse of this privilege will result in loss of the privilege). Please use the restroom and get water before class begins, not right after it does. You are welcome to bring food and drinks into class provided they don’t become a distraction.

Note: If you prefer to take notes on a laptop or iPad please discuss this with me. In general, I prefer for you to take notes on paper, so as not to disrupt the focus of our attentions in class.

Final Thoughts

A composition class requires hard work and is time consuming.  Double check your schedule to be sure you have allotted enough time for this class.  The rule of thumb is to expect to work two hours out of class for every hour in class. 

This will be one of the most important classes you take—one that will affect how you do in your other classes as well as your job performance after graduation.  Work hard.  Do well.  Your hard work will pay rich dividends beyond your academic career.

*A syllabus is a contract. Your continued attendance in this class means that you have read, understand, and agree to all of the expectations, policies and guidelines in this syllabus. I strongly recommend reviewing the syllabus several times throughout the semester, paying close attention to the attendance and class work policies.