Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Assignments"
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| [a] Preparation RF |
This is a two-part post. Click below for the other "half" of the assignment.
Autumn 2012
Midterm Review Essay Assignment
Harold Ross's New Yorker (continued)
PreparationYou have read your books and looked through back issues of The New Yorker (if you have missed any of these steps, use some of your time to catch up a little). There are a number of ways to proceed, and some are not very different from what you did in high school. If you love making outlines, indulge yourself. Even if you are comfortable with that, though, please indulge me as I walk you through two other ways to get the process started. Outlines can be as inhibiting as they are useful, so it is always good to have other techniques ready to go.
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| [b] Outlines RF |
Spoke Outline
I almost always write "very-first drafts" this way. Remind me to show you the first draft of my anthropology thesis (I still have it). Spoke outlines generated so much (eventual) text that I have been a fan ever since, and always use them. The idea is simple. Get a piece of paper, and make sure that it is at least "regular size." No scaps of paper or index cards here, my friends. You need room. The ideal size is not-too-big and not-too-small. Big, double-sheets (11x17) are great for huge projects you have been thinking about for a long time, but probably not for your first review essay in the first semester of your first year of college. Get a regular-sized sheet of paper. Start in the middle with something like "Harold Ross/New Yorker." Circle it. Now start forming other ideas and putting them into little clouds above and below the center. When they link, draw lines between them. If they don't seem to link, keep forming new ideas anyway. Do this for at least twenty minutes. Now open your books and look for ideas you might have missed. Check The New Yorker archive for more. Expand to one hour (maximum) if you have the energy.
What you will have is a cluster of ideas you can ponder as you prepare to organize your review essay. Now you are ready to make that outline you learned in eighth-grade English class.
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| [b] Audience RF |
Talking It Through
The other "device" I like to use is the talk test. It is based on the time-honored principle we have already discussed in class that you always learn things more deeply when you teach them. Well, find someone and spend an hour describing The New Yorker and its little world to someone who will listen. If you are at home as you read this, corral an indulgent family member. If you are back on campus, find someone who will at least pretend to listen while you talk. Seriously, the bar need not be very high for "listening" here. I have done this for years. Like the spoke outline, it dates back to my own college years, when I would explain the entire class in advance of an exam to anyone who would pretend to listen. I finally came up with the perfect solution. My dog, Zorba, pretty much had an entire college education of his own as I described everything from Principles of Geology to Contemporary Sociological Theory as he lay sleeping. Anything works, as long as you are talking, thinking, and interpreting. You will find that you quickly are in your own world, and the very strangeness of it all doesn't matter much. You can learn...a whole bunch.
What you will have is a cluster of ideas you can ponder as you prepare to organize your review essay. Now you are ready to make that outline you learned in eighth-grade English class. If that sounds familiar, it should.
Which one do I recommend? Both.
Audience
You should keep firmly in mind that you are writing for an audience much larger (and more diverse) than just the professor in your class. This is true in all of my papers, and it is why I always say that you should imagine that you are writing for a diverse group of people who like to read (never forget that). Imagine that I am reading over their shoulders, as it were. A good way to keep this in mind is actually to imagine a group of people who like to read and who might make up your intended audience if you could choose them. For example, choose your other two, three, or four professors this semester (you will have more room for choice as you advance in your education), as well as a handful of others: Aunt Sally, who teaches junior high school English, the guy behind the counter in Barnes & Noble who always talks to you about what you buy, and the woman at the tattoo parlor who quotes Nietzsche as the needle whirs away on the canvas of (your) arm. Just imagine.
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| [c] The World RF |
I will be reading along with them.
I have sometimes threatened to make students understand "audience" with a peculiar kind of real-world exercise. I have never followed through on it, because the adjoining perceptions are just a little too creepy. It remains useful as an imaginative exercise, though. Pick out a half-dozen people who make up the audience to whom you know you should be writing. Take your (or borrow a) digital camera (or phone) and "snap" pictures of them. Print 'em out and tape 'em to your wall, right above your computer. There you have it—the picture of your audience, right there in front of you.
Or the workplace of a serial killer. That is why I don't ask that you actually do it.
Think about audience, though. If I read "...as you said in class..." in your review essay, I will know that I might need to lend you my digital camera, no matter the consequences. Write for an audience of intelligent non-specialists. You are the "expert." Share your knowledge.
Details
[1] This assignment is
meant to tie together much of the work you have done this semester. Just as you must do on weekly quizzes, be
sure to use the full range of your “sources” in your interpretations—classroom
analyses, your books, and the magazine itself.
[2] Don’t forget that I
will be evaluating this assignment with the assumption that you are trying to
explain these matters to “intelligent non-specialists.” That means that I do not want you to “skip”
those portions that you know I know. I want you to explain them. I want you to be the expert who interprets these matters for someone who may
not know much about The New Yorker's past, but is certainly able to follow a
complex argument. Imagine, for example,
that you are writing for a couple that has subscribed for many years, but has only a hazy picture of what the magazine was like in its early decades. They are smart; you know more.
[3] Follow standard
Chicago Manual of Style citation form, and use the style sheet as you
proceed. This is a “formal” paper, and
the style sheet’s guidelines should be followed closely. This does not, however, mean that you need to memorize the style sheet. The most important thing to consider is #34—write complete sentences. We'll discuss other matters in class on 10/25.
[4] There should be a
short bibliography of sources (class books and any outside materials—they are not required, but they must be cited if used—that you
have consulted) at the end of your document.
[5] Be sure that you
fill out a “paper checklist” and attach it to your essay. It will be sent as an
attachment.
[6] Good luck. There is more than enough material to write
any number of essays. Choose several
good points, images, or themes. Then
write one review essay.
[7] Illustrations optional, but warmly encouraged (think about your books and the magazine itself). Your grade will not be affected (possible very slight uptick; no "downtick").
[7] Illustrations optional, but warmly encouraged (think about your books and the magazine itself). Your grade will not be affected (possible very slight uptick; no "downtick").
Due by 5:00 p.m.
on Monday, October 29, 2012.
(Put a hard copy outside my door).
Use the word count
feature of your software and put the word total at the bottom of the essay,
e.g. “3,062 words.”This is a two-part post. Click below for the other "half" of the assignment.
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| [e] Soon RF |
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