Week 8

As I wrote this week's blog title, I surprised myself at the fact that we are half way done and much of the heavy work of starting is now over.  What we face now is not dropping our expectations or energy.  We need to do everything in our power to remain attentive and to stir our creativity to higher levels.

I read "Who Are You" essays most weekend long.  This is the hardest part of my job; it takes a whole lot of concentration to sit for hours on end and read only 25 essays.  Having to put that much effort seven times in order to finish all of my classes is a marathon like endeavor.  What keeps me going is a desire to see you "get it."  This is the most gratifying aspect of any teacher's life.   Satisfaction in teaching/learning is ephemeral; it flutters around us like a beautiful butterfly.  When I see this beautiful creature, I notice.  This weekend I was graced with many moments where  what I read made me very satisfied.  I would say that a good 90% of you listened very carefully to my instructions and attempted the best way you could to put your best possible effort with your essays.  I can't ask for a better feeling than reading through a paper and feeling awe.  That happened multiple times this weekend!

This takes us to our second essay.  You are free in this assignment to come up with your own topic and are challenged to make this second text even better than the first.  Here's what you need to keep in mind with this assignment:

1. Choosing a very limited topic is critical for the paper to have focus and power.  
2. The topic needs to come from the writing you have been doing in your notebooks and somehow relate to your experience at CHC.
3. The topic may not be researched in anyway outside of your own personal experience.  We don't want a research paper of any sort.
4. The topic should be something you care about passionately and are willing to spend a good amount of time writing for someone else.
5. The writing in this paper may use a number of different approaches, including narration, exposition, description, and persuasion.
6. The essay should be at least 800-words and should not follow the standard five-paragraph approach made popular by tests like the FCAT.  
7. As many of you saw from your visits to our office for writing conferences, writing a good paper involves conversations we often have with ourselves and, if we can, with others.  It also takes multiple drafts and careful consideration of the balance between content and structure to have the essentials of a good paper.  All of this demands a good use of time management!  Procrastination is not your friend.
8. Taking time to revise and edit very carefully is a last and important step in the writing process. Again, there are many resources that can help you.  The first one happens to be your group mates who by now I hope are more like friends than mere ENC 1101 acquaintances.  The other invaluable resource is our Writing Center (Rm. 2207).  The tutors are writing professionals eager to help you. 
9. The essay is due 10/1 for MW classes.  The essay will need to be turned in both as a hard copy and also in Turnitin.

Your experience writing the first essay should help you in your approach to your essay.  As you go about the writing process, please do a notebook entry on what advice you would have liked to have received eight weeks ago with the first essay.  As you write this advice down, consider what other students have said about writing and how your own insights and theirs can help you with big Essay #2 (400 pts).

While at CHC this last week Alex and I were able to scan through your writer's notebooks. We were happy to see the variety and also the great effort that many of you put into this tool.  I like the messy creativity behind the effort.

Notebook Magic from Week 7

I mention the notebook because we want you to continue writing as much as possible.  At a minimum you should be writing about 500-700 words per week.  Remember that this note that you are reading is part of our love letter to you and we expect a response!

Extra Credit Opportunities

Online Writing Conference (40 pts)

1. Gather members of your group.  If you can't convince everyone, don't worry;  the group minimum  for this project is 2; the max is 4. 
2. Everyone who is participating should upload her essay into Google Docs. This is important as it will allow you to share your documents easily with one another.  You have access to all of these Google products through your MDC email account.
3. Have everyone learn how to participate in a Google Hangout and record the session using Hangouts on Air.
4. Determine a time when everyone can meet online to discuss each of the essays.
5. Have each person share her essay and ask for feedback.  The feedback should focus on the structure, content, and quality of the essay.
6. Send the link of your Youtube recording of the session as a response to this post.  Do so by Monday October 29.

Writing Center (15 pts)

The Writing Center (Rm. 2207) is an incredible resource to help you in your writing process, especially revision and editing. 

For Monday's Class Discussion


What do we see?  What does it mean?

• Discuss Big Essay #2
• Gandhi Clip
• Discussion Question: Do you find Gandhi's advice about getting out of hell surprising? What exactly do you think he means by hell?

Here's a poem by Kevin Kling, who was born without the use of one arm because of a birth defect and then lost the use of his other arm at age 40 because of a motorcycle accident. Note the interesting title. How do you interpret it? How does the poem relate to the discussion about CHC and the Gandhi clip? A thread, a theme, runs between the three. Then look at what Kling says about telling stories. What does his quote add to your understanding about the personal importance of writing?

"Tickled Pink" by Kevin Kling

At times in our pink innocence, we lie fallow, composting waiting to grow. And other times we rush headlong like so many of our ancestors. But rush headlong or lie fallow, it doesn't matter. One day you'll round a corner, your path is shifted. In a blink, something is missing. It's stolen, misplaced, it's gone. Your heart, a memory, a limb, a promise, a person. Your innocence is gone, and now your journey has changed. Your path, as though channeled through a spectrum, is refracted, and has left you pointed in a new direction. Some won't approve. Some will want the other you. And some will cry that you've left it all. But what has happened, has happened, and cannot be undone. We pay for our laughter. We pay to weep. Knowledge is not cheap. To survive we must return to our senses, touch, taste, smell, sight, sound. We must let our spirit guide us, our spirit that lives in breath. With each breath we inhale, we exhale. We inspire, we expire. Every breath has a possibility of a laugh, a cry, a story, a song. Every conversation is an exchange of spirit, the words flowing bitter or sweet over the tongue. Every scar is a monument to a battle survived. Now when you're born into loss, you grow from it. But when you experience loss later in life, you grow toward it. A slow move to an embrace, an embrace that leaves you holding tight the beauty wrapped in the grotesque, an embrace that becomes a dance, a new dance, a dance of pink.


Kevin Kling on storytelling: 

"By telling a story, things don't control me anymore. It's in my vernacular; it's the way I see the world. And I think that's why our stories ask our questions, our big questions like: "Where do we come from — before life, after life?" "What's funny in this world or sacred?" And even more importantly, by the asking in front of people and with people, even if we don't find the answer, by the asking, we know we're not alone. And I have found that often that's even more important than the answer."

Sometime after class and before our session on Wednesday, please listen to the first 30 minutes of the On Being podcast featuring  Jean Vanier, the founder of the L'Arche community.  Take notes!