Outside reading/art assignment: The Wiz

Over Thanksgiving, me and my family went to our local community center and watched a adapted version of the Wizard of Oz called The Wiz. In summary, Dorothy, who is a twenty-four-year-old kindergarten teacher born, raised, and still working in Harlem, is celebrating Thanksgiving with her extended family, but she doesn't seem to be thankful for much in life. She lives a self-imposed sheltered life; she is shy and unfulfilled. Things change for her when she is caught in a snowstorm while chasing after her dog, Toto. They are transported to the mysterious Land of Oz, where she is informed that the only possible way to find her way back home is through the assistance of the powerful wizard in the Emerald City. As she goes searching for him, she befriends some creatures who are facing problems in life just like her. In their quest to find and get help from the wizard, they also face Evillene, the equally evil sister of Evermean, the wicked witch whom Dorothy inadvertently killed when she arrived in Oz, and who may be their biggest obstacle in achieving their goals. My favorite character throughout the whole play was Lionel the cowardly lion. not only was the actor's lines superb, but the sound that he made when he shrieked was to die for when Toto barked at him. The lighting might not have been that great but for a community based show the props/scenes were incredible. I cannot not wait until next year's production.

Please Come to My Chapbook Release Party!

If you are still around and need a break from studying, I'd love for you to join me!

(& No, sorry. No extra credit for this one! Just lots of extra credit in my heart. ;) )

The Chocolate Cake Reading Series Invites You to Celebrate the Release of 

 

A Woman Traces the Shoreline

 

a prose poem cycle

 

by

 

Sheila Squillante

 

Thursday, December 15th

7:30 PM 

ION

 

poetry reading, chapbook signing and, of course, chocolate cake!

 

*First ten purchases of $25 worth of ION merchandise includes copy of the chapbook! Support local business!

 

Sheila Squillante is a poet and essayist living in State College, PA. Her poetry chapbook, A Woman Traces the Shoreline, will be released in December, 2011 by Dancing Girl Press. She is also the author of Another Beginning, an artist's book collaboration with her husband, Paul Bilger, forthcoming from Kattywompus Press in 2012.  Her work has appeared widely in print and online journals like Brevity, No Tell Motel, quarrtsiluni, MiPoesias, Phoebe, Cream City Review, TYPO, Quarterly West, Literary Mama, Glamour Magazine and elsewhere.  She has been the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, Dzanc's Best of the Web and Sundress Publication's Best of the Net anthologies. She teaches writing at Penn State.

Elizabeth Kadetsky Reading Dec. 7

LAST CHANCE FOR OUTSIDE READING!

Wednesday, December 7, 12:10 p.m.


Palmer Museum of Art's

The Art of Poetry

Elizabeth Kadetsky, visiting assistant professor of creative writing, Department of English

New York-based author Elizabeth Kadetsky published First There is a Mountain: A Yoga Romance in 2004 and since then has written both creative fiction and nonfiction, garnering awards from the Thurber House, Ragdale Foundation, Project Censored, FAIR, EMMA, and others.

The Final Two Blog Journal Responses

Okay gang, here they are:

#9: Self Evaluation

Here we are at the end of our time together, and I'd like you to reflect on your personal experience in English 15S. THIS IS NOT A COURSE EVALUATION. (You'll get to do that in a minute...) Here, I want to talk about YOU. What did you learn this semester? About writing? About Penn State? About the arts near and far and your relationship to them. This is a place to reflect on your process and progress, and I'd like you to do that specifically and thoughtfully, but in no more than 1000 words. DUE: Monday, December 12th by 5pm.

#10: SRTEs (Course Evaluation)

Please go fill these out in ANGEL. Once you have, please create a post which says, "Hey, Ms. S--I just filled out my SRTE form. Thanks! Love, Student." DUE: Monday December 12th by midnight.

Alternate to Outside Reading Responses

For those of you who are still looking to fulfill your outside reading requirements, please visit this online journal, qarrtsiluni, and poke around. They feature printed and recorded poetry, video experiments and visual art of other kinds.

Please find FIVE pieces of work to respond fully to. Include the links to the pieces in your blog post response. 500-1000 words total.

Stuart Dybek to Read, Dec. 1

The Mary E. Rolling Reading Series 

with support from the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment,

the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, the University Libraries,

the Department of English, and the College of the Liberal Arts

presents:

Stuart Dybek

Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011

7:30 p.m.

Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library

Stuart Dybek is the author of three books of fiction: I Sailed With Magellan, The Coast of Chicago, and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods. His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Poetry, Tin House, and have been widely anthologized, including in both Best American Fiction and Best American Poetry. Among Dybek’s numerous awards are a MacArthur Prize, the Rea Award, PEN/Malamud Prize, a Lannan Award, a Whiting Writers Award, several O. Henry Prizes, the Nelson Algren Prize, and fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Still Are Penn State

Although I have only attended Penn State for half a semester, I am starting to understand why this university is so important to all the past and future students that attended Penn State. One event that has shed negative light on Penn State is the Sandusky Scandal that has shaked the very foundation of what this univeristy stands for. As stated in an old proverb the actions of one individual cannot influence or be considered the actions of the many. Joe Paterno should not have been fired for the path that he chose to pursue in this matter, in fact he should be given credit for actually doing his job. Joe Paterno did not see the crimes that Sandusky was committing in the shower but instead, he was tipped off by a non-credible witness that these crimes were taking place. So as the head football coach of a team, Joe Paterno did what he was supposed to do and told his boss, the acting athletic director. The fault placed on Joe Paterno should instead be placed on the Athletic Director for not passing on this information to the President of the University. Yes, Joe Paterno could have done more instead of dsoing the bare minimum in order to keep his job and causing a scandal but quite frankly so can millions of other individuals in different areas of their lives, with me included. I also find it hard to believe that the assistant coach named Curly still has a active paying job at Penn State after wittnessing the crimes that Sandusky was committing and not going to the proper authorities. In my personal opinion he should be fired and brought up on charges for being a partner in a crime (even though he wasnt the one raping the children). I could understand if it was a player or volunteer staff member that happened to catch Sandusky in the act of committing these crimes and decided not to go to the proper authorities because, that individual would be scared for his/her future due to the repurcusions that might occur thanks to Sandusky past title amongst the program. This situation is different however. Curly was twenty-eight years old at the time. He should have acted like a adult, and not just any adult but one with a morally right concious and stopped him or told someone. I am also highly irrated on how the media in particular, Sportscenter, is portraying the football team in this endeavor. Whenever this scandal is mentioned, the only images that can be viewed are those of the football team, with hardly any of the images portraying Sandusky in a negative light. I understand that Sandusky was a defensive coordinator here at Penn State, but that was in the 1990s. None of the current players have even come in contact with Sandusky, so the media needs to leave the football team out of their reportings.  I will be glad when people in other communities stop asking me about this horrible event and instead look at the positive programs and other activities that Penn State partakes in.

So... What Were the Journal Prompts We Were Supposed to Do Again?

Remember, the blog journal entries add up to be one of your major writing assignments, worth 20% of your grade. I hope you are keeping up! If you've gotten behind, and are unsure of where you lost the thread, this should help:

Prompts

#1: Make your blog and talk about your strengths/weaknesses as a writer

#2: Palmer Museum Visit

#3: The Powers of Description

#4: Memoir first scene (not on blog)

#5: Suicide poem comparison (not on blog)

#6: This Penn State Life

#7: Kiss Me, Kate

#8: We Are…

#9 TBA

#10 TBA

Questions? Lemme know.

Journal Prompt #8: We Are...

DUE Tuesday, November 29th

In light of the recent, awful events that have befallen our campus and community, I am going to ask you to reflect on your own experience and the experience of some others, rendered in language here.

Please read the following pieces:

Notes from Inside a Burst Bubble: On the Ground in State College, PA, by Dave Housely

Growing Up Penn State, by Michael Weinreb

A Classroom Discussion on the Week's Events, by Lori Shontz

We are...?, by your teacher ;)


Please also watch this:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-10-2011/penn-state-riots?xrs=share_fb

and this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OL8YjOUq6Oo


Now, respond in whatever way you need to to any or all of the above.

500-1000 words

Essay #4: Exploring an Issue in the Arts

5-7 pages

Draft workshop: 12/6

Final Draft: 12/8

We have spent this semester cozied up with the question of What is Art? We have analyzed visual rhetoric for its artistic and persuasive effects. We have written our own creative works. We have engaged other writers/artists in print and on stage. We have walked around a dying garden in the freezing cold. (I loved that!) We have considered our Penn State community and searched for ways to define and redefine it within an artistic context. Now, it’s time to Go Big (before we go home), and engage this realm of the arts at both a broader and deeper level.

An essay that explores an issue doesn't so much formulate an argument (an essay that advocates one particular position) as it explores a topic in depth by examining multiple perspectives about it.

Invention:

For our last major assignment, you will write an essay where you explore an issue relevant to the arts at any level—local, national or even global. Some possible topics to explore:

At Penn State:

*The history of the Penn State theater program

*Creative Writing at Penn State (current? Past?)

*The Penn State Arboretum

*The Hemingway Letters Project

*Julia Kasdorf (faculty poet) whose newest book is called Poetry in America

In Pennsylvania:

                *Andy Warhol Museum (in Pittsburg)

                *Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

                *Central PA Festival of the Arts (aka, Arts Fest)

                *Falling Water (Frank Lloyd Wright house in PA)

National:

                *National Endowment for the Arts

                *Alexander McQueen’s couture legacy

                *Lady Gaga (sure, why not?)

                *National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org)

These are just a fraction of the possibilities open to you! Where can you look for more? Why not start with the very first blog response that you wrote for class, in which you wrote about something you consider to be in the category of art. What was it? Think about your trip to the Palmer Museum. Was there a painting there that really spoke to you? Who was that artist? Did you attend Sharon Old’s poetry reading or John Edgar Wideman’s fiction reading? Did you go to Dave Housely’s reading? He’s an editor, remember. Are you interested in the history of independent literary magazines like Barrelhouse? I bet he’d talk to you about it if you asked him.

Yes, you can go to Google or Wikipedia for ideas, too. I want you to find something you are thoroughly interested in, puzzled by, entranced with and write about it so that an audience will better understand and appreciate it.

Audience:

So who is your audience? Who needs to understand more about NaNoWriMo? Maybe your best friend from high school who has always talked about how she wanted to write a sci-fi/fantasy series. Who needs to know more about the Andy Warhol museum? Maybe your parents who are coming for a visit and have asked you to find something artistic and worthwhile to do outside of Penn State.  The point is, think carefully about how to connect your topic to an audience who will benefit from learning more about it. This could mean thinking about people in your life who will argue the value of, say, Lady Gaga’s music, and figuring out how you might persuade them to think differently.

Research:

Exploring an issue will lead you to do more than just sit alone and think and write. You will be joining an active and ongoing conversation about a topic you care about, and will be honing your research skills (something that will help you in lots of ways, academic and non-academic, in your life).

To that end, your essay must include at least three (3) outside sources in MLA format to support your findings. Failure to have at least three (3) outside sources will cost you a letter grade for each missing source. 

Kiss Me Kate

I must confess that I dreaded the idea of waking up and spending a beautiful saturday afternoon watching a play but after viewing the play I must say that it was a worthwhile experience. I have had the enjoyment of viewing four plays plus, being apart of three and I must say that I was highly impressed with the production that this cast was able to put on. I wqas impressed by not only the way that actors preformed and acted out their lines, but also by the way some of the main actors did not break character when they stumbled at a line here or there. The lighting was also very exotic in the way it was able to create a specific atmosphere and ambiance for the audience, specifically during the musical number "Its too damn hot". Compared to other generes in the theater industry, I highly enjoy the musical-theater genere because of the amount of energy that is involved in pulling this specific style off. This was evident in the many countless dance moves that the actors had to preform. The way that the male actors were able to preform their ballet techniques and moves were flawless and I also was intrigued by the countless facial expressions that they were able to apply in every move that they preformed. My favorite musical that I just so happened to be apart of would have to be "Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street, which tells the tale about how the people of New York City are starting to lose faith in the spirit of Christmas so Santa Claus comes to the city to try and in still the values of Christmas in the city. However, things go terribly wrong when Chris Kringle is arressted for being an imposter (even though he is the real Santa Claus). In the end a little convinces the jury that he is the real Santa Klaus. This is my favorite musical because , to me the propt settings were excellent and I had a delightful time learning the musical numbers that accompanied the production. This production of Kiss me Kate blew my favorite musical out of the water mainly for two reasons. First, I believe that the production did an excellent job of outlining the story of Taming of the Shrew and blending key elements from that production into the main storyline of this play. Finally, I was set back by the way that the band was able to play under the stage in a secluded area so that they would not take away from the play itself. I have not had the pleasure of viewing the play Taming of the Shrew, but I have read the story line, and I feel that this production did make me feel a deeper admiration for the story of Taming of the Shrew, mainly because they were able to add modern-day humor into the story that is applicable for the audiences of today. In the end, I had a delightful experince and look forward to viewing more productions in the future

Essay #3: What is Art?

3-5 pages, double-spaced

Draft workshop: Thursday, 11/10

Final Draft Due: Tuesday, 11/15

For this assignment, you will need to use/tweak the criteria you have been inventing all semester for what makes something art and apply it to a thing, place, person, event or phenomenon at Penn State.

It would be easy to argue that something housed at the Palmer Museum can be defined as art. But I want you to go beyond the obvious. Think about the structures (buildings, monuments, statues), the public spaces (gardens, malls, alcoves), groups, individuals, meals, sounds you encounter in our community. (For the purposes of this assignment, you may go beyond campus and into State College itself)…the possibilities are endless.

You may also go a bit larger and choose to re-define Penn State itself as a thriving artistic community, with the express intention of refuting the NPR podcast that defined us as a “Party School.” If you choose to do this, you must use examples from that podcast in your essay.

You have been working on the first step—creating criteria—since the first week of class. You will need to explicitly state them in your thesis statement. Then, you will need to show how X thing/person/event fits the criteria you put forth for category Y/art.

An example:

The image of David slaying Goliath at the Palmer Museum (x term) is an example of art because it references historical and cultural figures and arouses strong emotions in the viewer. (two possible criterion that make up art/category Y.)

For this essay, you may choose between two possible audiences:

1        1. Parents who are coming to visit campus with the idea of sending their kids here.

2        2. Incoming freshmen like yourself who will want to get to know their campus.

Think about genre. What will be the best way to reach your audience?  Orientation brochure? Article or open-letter in the Collegian? Your choice of genre will dictate many things, including your tone.

Whatever genre you choose, though, think about what your audience might assume about art and about Penn State. Think about what they might already know. Think about what they care about and value. Have they heard the podcast? Do you need to address that? Being able to answer these questions will help you choose the best, most persuasive appeals in your writing. 

Journal Prompt #7: Kiss Me, Kate!

For your seventh journal, please reflect on the experience of seeing the stage production of Kiss Me, Kate!


NOTE: THOSE OF YOU WHO MISSED THIS PERFORMANCE MUST WATCH THE MOVIE VERSION http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045963/. I WILL TRY TO PUT A VERSION ON COURSE RESERVE, BUT YOU CAN ALSO FIND IT VIA NETFLIX OR OTHER MEANS. YOU HAVE UNTIL THE END OF THE COURSE TO DO SO.

***

Have you ever been to a live theater performance before? If so, how did this compare? If not, was it what you expected it to be?

What do you think about the musical-theater genre? What are some of your favorite musicals? (on stage or on television.) How did this measure up?

Have you read or seen Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew? If so, did that increase your appreciation of the plot? If not, did you feel like the show did enough to integrate it seamlessly?

What were your favorite parts of this experience?

Please answer the following questions in 500-1000 words.

Due by Tuesday, November 8th at 5pm.

Journal Prompt #6: This Penn State Life

For your sixth journal prompt (to be posted on your personal blog), you will need to listen to the entirety of this podcast about Penn State's party school status on NPR's This American Life. It's an hour and a half long, so be sure to allot yourself the time necessary. I promise, it's gripping.

I am looking first of all for a general, immediate response from you. How did this make you feel? As a Penn State student? As a college student in general? Do you think this is an apt portrayal?

Think about the appeals as you listen. Where is ethos particularly strong/weak? For the arguers? For the people interviewed? What about pathos? Where were you most moved/confused/angered/proud and why? Finally, how well does the piece make use of logos--statistics, reason, facts--to make its case?

What issues of definition are at stake in the piece? Small ones (hint: a jacket you wear to a frat party is called a___?) and large ones. How does this piece define PSU? Our students? Faculty?

Please address the above in at least 500 but no more than 1000 words.

Due Thursday, October 27th by noon.

Journal Prompts 4 & 5

Good news!

I'm counting your memoir's first scene and the comparison you did between the two suicide-themed poems as journals # 4 & 5.

Stay tuned for prompt #6...

Poet Anne Stevenson to Read, October 20th

Anne Stevenson is widely recognized as an eminent Anglo-American poet. Her many books of poetry and criticism include a collectedPoems 1955–2005, which won her the Neglected Master’s Award from The Poetry Society of America and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lannan Foundation. She is the author of two critical studies of Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry and an important biography of Sylvia Plath. Her fourteenth collection of poems, Stone Milk,appeared in 2007.


October 20th
7:30pm
Foster Auditorium

Poet Heather Jordan to Read Wednesday, October 5th at 12:10 pm

Wednesday, October 5, 12:10 p.m.

The Palmer Museum of Art 

Heather Jordan, lecturer, Department of English

Heather Jordan published a collection of poetry titled Cheap Grace with Finishing Line Press in 2011 and will soon release a second book of poetry, Lottery Ticket, with the University of Wisconsin Press.

Paper # 2: Memoir/ Personal Narrative

Length: 3-5 pages double-spaced

Purpose:

Recall, retell, and analyze a significant experience in your life, carefully choosing a sequence of events that supports a specific thesis and helps you fulfill your rhetorical purpose regarding a specific audience.

A narrative based on personal experience can serve to communicate some insight into our experiences, our feelings and our values. A meaningful narrative is more than just a list of things that happened: “I woke up, answered the ringing telephone, heard my mother’s voice tell me that my dog, Rover, was killed by a hit and run, threw the phone down, threw myself down and began to cry…” A meaningful narrative makes a point: “After my dog died,  I threw myself into the work of cleaning out my top desk drawer, culling and sorting through bits of love letters scribbled on angel-blue paper, red ribbons from swim team in seventh grade, a matchbook from Senior Prom at the Fireside Inn, a swatch of taffeta that was ripped from my dress as I clambered over the country-club fence to have a night swim with my date—the domestic energy and descent into living memory distracting me and pulling me through the grief of losing my beloved pet…” That’s the purpose of this writing: for you to draw upon your memory of a real, true experience that makes a point that all of us can learn from.

Invention:

Write about an experience that changed you. Think about a time in your life when something caused you to question or shift your perspective on life. This does not mean that it must be a tragedy or a death, though these are appropriately fertile options as well. A life-changing experience could very well be something that seems, at first, insignificant, boring or small: the summer you spent on your grandmother’s farm, the stranger you talked to at the bus stop this morning, how eating ice cream at the Creamery made you reconsider what it meant to be on your own for the first time. What did you learn from this experience? How are you different for having gone through it? In any case you will need to think of a moment which has stayed with you, one you know deep down had some real effect on you, and try to figure out what and why. Tell us the story so that we may feel what you felt, react as you reacted and learn what you learned.

Remember that you must limit your scope. You can’t possibly write about your entire life (Nor should you! That is autobiography, not memoir.), or even about your entire experience playing high school basketball in one essay. You must focus on some one thing: an experience within a larger context; a moment of change in a relationship.

Be sure that whatever you choose to explore in writing interests you and then write to interest readers and affect them in some way. As you decide what to write about, keep in mind:

* What do you want to say? What point are you trying to get across?

* Who are you writing to and why should they care? What do you hope they will do or feel as a result of reading your memoir?

In the end, you must work to evoke a powerful pathos response in your reader through the use of vivid, memorable, language, concrete details, plot, character and setting.

         

           

Expectations:

A successful personal narrative will:

• Focus on a significant experience;
• Use ample sensory details;
• Include dialogue that reveals information about your characters;
•  Employ transitions that will help your reader follow your narrative and/or logic;
• Showcase a personal narrative voice—your voice! (e.g, use a variety of sentence patterns and Lengths, don’t sound like you come from the bureau of statistics, and so on); and
• Provide reflection and analysis in order to help your audience understand the significance of the experience.  

Join the Staff of Kalliope!

Folks, as you know, I am the faculty advisor for our fantastic literary magazine, Kalliope and we are currently looking to fill staff positions for the 11-12 school year. Below is a message from our editors with more information about how to get involved. No experience necessary. Just bring your enthusiasm for writing and art!

***


We're looking for people in the following departments: 

-Readers for all sections: poetry, art, nonfiction, fiction.
-Production (especially: book and advertisement production)
-Social networking personnel

If you're interested in joining the reader, production, or social staff, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SMPR66J for our online application. 

Thanks!

Kalliope Editors 

Nate Davis, Jess Brenn

Journal Prompt #3--The Powers of Description

Imagine a conversation:

"I met this really great girl at the coffee shop the other day! I think she could be The One!"


"Oh yeah? What's so great about her?"


"Oh, well she's just awesome. She's got a lot of interests and she's smart and pretty and has great values."


"Hmmm. Yeah, dude. I can totally see why you're in love." <insert eye roll>

***
Can you see why he's in love? I sure can't. The girl in question sounds like she could be any number of awesome girls in a coffee shop. What in particular makes her "awesome?" What about her is "pretty?" What's so great about her values?

If you met someone who knocked you off your feet and you wanted to convince your best friend that she/he was "The One," wouldn't you try a little harder? Of course you would. You would carefully describe all the particular things that attracted you to her.

Like so:

"Oh yeah, what's so great about her?"


"Dude, she knits and plays Rugby! She's sharp as a tack; she got my Star Wars reference right away. I love nerdy girls. She's got this pixie cut with pink streaks in the bangs and wants to spend her senior year working in AIDS clinics in Rwanda.  Sigh. I'm so in love."

***

For your third journal prompt, I want you to go exploring campus and downtown State College with your senses and then write descriptively about something you discover in order to persuade me that it is awesome enough (or awful enough!) for me to check out.

Look around you. Listen to people talking, traffic moving. Stretch out on the lawn at Old Main and feel the grass under your hands. Walk down Calder Ave behind Fraser Street garage or into Saints Cafe on Beaver. What do you smell? You're hungry, aren't you? Well go get something to eat! What does that falafel taste like?

You can choose absolutely anything that moves you to describe, but remember that to do so effectively, you need to attend to a few things:

1. Situate it in a rhetorical context. Where is it? When did you find it? What time of day? Was there anything else of note going on around you/it?

2. Use vivid, specific, sensory language that will help me imagine how you experienced it. If you want someone to eat the Buffalo Chicken Pizza at Canyon Pizza, you need to make it sound like something they would absolutely love.

3. And speaking of audience, think for a bit about what you know about me. Is there anything you've learned that will help you choose which details to highlight and which to leave out of your description?

Once you've got your subject, write a description of NO MORE THAN 250 words. Part of the challenge here in a small space is to pick the best details. The ones that are sure to persuade.

DUE: Thursday, September 15th by noon. 

The coming of dawn : Journal #2

On my trip to the museum, I encountered many intriguing and captivating works of art including many valuable sculptures and displays. One work of art in particular, a digital print named the "Dance of Death" by Eleanor Antin which was created in 2007, caught my eye as being  rhetorically interesting. This work of art was created completely using digital effects on the computer and had many underlinings and messages encoded within the images. This work of art has 3 x 3 images of death as the centerpiece of the work. The first row, is marked with death playing the drums, posing as a server and as a old man carrying a lantern. The second row is marked with death posing as a alchemist, as a woman carrying a infant child away and as a herder carrying a dead lamb. The third and final row, is marked with death as a angel playing a flute, as a warrior carrying a spear and the last image is of a old man carrying a tombstone above his head. This work of art was created in 2007 at the University of California, San Diego. The artist found the inspiration for this piece from the dark ages of the Medieval ages, from which most of the citizens during this period of history were dying of the plague and had very short life expectancies. This piece is definitely in conversation with this historical moment with death being the focal message of this piece. This piece is making a social comment by stating that death in inescapable and effects all ages from all spectres of society. However, the people of society can find death as a relief in hope that they are leaving this world filled with aggression and torment in order to gain access to a world of tranquility. This piece makes me feel curious but also relieved, for since I am a Christian, I find that death is just another step that every person must take in order to  finally be at piece with oneself and find ultimate happiness. This artist has many sources of credibility. First, both of her parents were born and raised in communist Poland, but integrated to the United States in order to give their daughter a better life so, the artist has plenty of connections to the emotions of anguish and heartache but also to joy for what tomorrow might hold for any individual. Finally, the artist has created many similar works of art that worked around the idea of death, such as her painting entitled "Blood of a Poet's Box" in which the vision of a jar filled with the blood of a hundred dead poets can be seen. The claim that this piece is making is that in some form or shape, death will eventually devour us all but, death can be seen as a sign of relief ( which is illustrated by death posing as a angel), and also as a glimmer of hope and satisfaction for others (which is illustrated by death holding a lit beacon). After this trip, I can conclude that I am definitely a museum goer and that I can count on taking another trip to the museum, since it was only my first time, to look at and read more of the works of art more thoroughly. One of the reasons that I can expect myself to make a return visit is that the museum had many works of art from the early twenty century, and I find myself quite fascinated with the messages and themes that each artist developed into their works of art.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=when+was+the+Dance+of+Death+by+Eleanor+Antin+created&hl=en&sa=X&tbm=isch&prmd=ivnso&tbnid=huEZwCmRPVCK4M:&imgrefurl=http://www.brodskycenter.org/_pages/ARTISTS/Femfolio2.html&docid=4wCh_KYmUXG0qM&itg=1&w=430&h=412&ei=OqhlTuz7A4XMgQf9_fiKCg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=1&page=1&tbnh=129&tbnw=142&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=87&ty=88&biw=1093&bih=538

Journal #2: Palmer Museum Visit

For your second journal prompt, you will visit the Palmer Museum of Art either during the hours of 10-12 on Wednesday, August 31st, when your instructor will be there, OR on your own any time during the week prior to Tuesday, September 6th.

Your goal for this journal is to find a piece of art in the Palmer's collection that is rhetorically interesting to you. Wander around for a bit, upstairs and down, and look closely at the paintings, sculptures, sketches, and other artistic pieces, paying attention to what draws you in. Maybe it's the color or the scale or the material choices. Maybe it's the subject matter and how it's being depicted. Maybe it's something else entirely. Once you settle on a piece, do the following:

1. Write down the title, the artist, the materials and the year in which it was made.

2. Spend some time writing a thorough description of the piece so that a reader will be able to visualize it outside of the museum. If you have access to an iPhone or similar device, take a picture of it.

3. Now, write a blog post in which you include the above information and answer the following questions about the piece:

     * What is the rhetorical situation of the piece? That is, what can you tell us about the place/time in which it was created? Is there a particular cultural or historical moment to which it belongs? Does the piece seem to be in conversation with that moment? Does it seem to be making a political/social comment of any kind?

     * How does the piece work on your emotions? (pathos) What does it make you feel? How does it connect to your values?

     * How does the piece/artist create credibility? You may need to investigate a little more about the artist to answer this. Who is she/he? What are her other contributions to the world of art?

      * What claim do you think the piece is making? Is it making more than one claim? Does that claim seem persuasive to you?

       * Finally, reflect on your overall experience at the Palmer. Are you a museum-goer? Is this your first time here? Can you imagine going back? Why or why not? Tell me what you think!

Answer the above in 500 or more words and post to your own blog by noon on Tuesday, September 6th.  Include a photo if you took one.

Project #1: Analysis of an Advertisement

Draft workshop: Thursday, 9/8

Final Draft Due: Tuesday, 9/13

Length: 1000 words

Overview:

The first assignment is designed to introduce many of the key concepts we'll be working through in our course. It will also give you an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to "think rhetorically." From a print medium choose an advertisement that you find rhetorically interesting. The ad could be one for which you consider yourself part of the target audience or not. Write an analysis of the ad that will help your reader--i.e., your instructor and the class or some other audience that would be interested--see how the ad works to influence its audience, both through its images and its text.

Invention:

Refer to pgs. 446-450 for some questions to help you ground your analysis.

Audience & Rhetorical Situation - Where was the advertisement published and when? What does the type of publication tell you about the probable audience for the advertisement? To get a better idea of a publication's target audience, look at the other advertisements in the publication. Are they targeted towards a certain gender, age, income level, education level, and so on? The ad itself should help you to flesh out your audience analysis. What visual and verbal cues does the ad give that would connect to a particular audience?


Ethos - Companies work carefully to build a recognizable brand image, and advertisements play a big role in this task. What kind of image does the ad create for the company? How does the ad try to build credibility? Look at the verbal cues, like "4 out of 5 dentists recommend Crest" or "Serving you for 75 years." Websites, 800 numbers, and even registered trademark symbols are also verbal cues. However, the images in an ad also provide cues to its ethos. What type of company do they want the audience to believe they are? Progressive, traditional, reliable, trendy, exciting?


Logos - First, identify the main claim of your ad. (In many cases, the main claim will be something like "You should buy product X"). What logical reasons does the advertisement use to support this claim? What evidence is provided to support these reasons? Again, look at the text, but also the visual cues. Remember that the logos of an argument isn't always stated explicitly - sometimes it's implied by the images, word choice, etc.


Pathos -Think about the values, emotions and beliefs contained in the ad. Once again, examine the images in the ad as well as the text. For example, do the colors used in the ad evoke a particular emotion or belief?


Composition:
Once you've worked through the invention topics above, look for a common thread that seems to connect most of your ideas together. For example, you might find that the theme of family values relates not just to the pathos of your ad, but also to the ethos, logos, and target audience. You can use this common theme to formulate your thesis statement. As you write your paper, use concrete details from your advertisement to support your claims. You can quote directly from the ad's copy, or use detailed language to describe the images, colors, fonts, etc. in the ad. Although you're free to structure your paper however you want, it's often a good idea to organize it around the following categories: audience/rhetorical situation, ethos, pathos, logos. Keep in mind that your audience for this paper is your instructor, and that she will be looking for a solid understanding and application of the rhetorical concepts covered in class.

Include the ad or a photocopy of the ad with your paper.

Blog Journal Assignment/Prompt #1

Over the course of 15 weeks, you will be required to write in response to ten different prompts, provided by your instructor, and to post them on your personal blog space. These responses may vary in length, and each prompt will tell you explicitly how to proceed. The writing in your blog journal needn't be formal or academic--blogging is supposed to be conversational, casual and fun-- but it does need to be thoughtful and error-free. You should imagine that you are writing for an audience of your classmates and instructor, certainly, but remember that ultimately, the internet is a public space. But you guys know that already, don't you?

So, without further ado..

Journal # 1: Make Your Blog

For your first assignment, you are required to register for Blogger and then build your own blog. Get yourself over to Blogger.com, where you will either need to register or sign in with your Google account. Once you are logged in, you will arrive at your Dashboard page. In the right hand corner of your Dashboard, click "Create a Blog." As you begin adding titles and design elements to your blog, remember that all your choices are part of a rhetorical situation in which each decision you make plays its own role. Choose a title that suits you and your interests and is appropriate for an English 15 class. Once you've found a suitable title and an available URL (the unique address at which we can find your blog), you'll be sent to a page where you can choose from a variety of design templates. Again, pick a template that will suit the aesthetic and feel of the blog you are developing. At the top of your blog page, you'll see a "Design" tab. Click on it. Here you can rearrange the elements on your page. You can also customize your site more fully by clicking on the "Template Designer" link. Upload a background, change your fonts, the color of your text. Just make sure that 

your design choices allow for easy readability. You can also customize your user profile.

Warning! This stuff is fun to fiddle endlessly with. Don’t forget to pause to eat and sleep!

Once you are satisfied with the look of your blog, you will add it to the list of Class Blogs on our master site.  I have sent invites to all of your PSU accounts.

Then, you can post your first Blog Entry! Here's the prompt:

Think about your past experiences as a writer. What are two of your strengths as a writer? What are two of your writing weaknesses? Specifically, how would you like to improve as a writer? What could you do or learn to make such improvements? How do you anticipate that this particular course will help you improve as a writer?

Answer these questions in 500 words or more.

Additionally, please include a link to an example of “art” that you admire or which interests/puzzles you. This could be something visual, like a painting, or it could be writing or sound or…well, I’m interested in what YOU think art is! Tell me what strikes you about this piece.  Where did you first encounter it? What emotions does it evoke in you? Why do you think it merits the term “art?”  For example, I love the work of the late fashion designer, Alexander McQueen http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/objects/. His avant garde pieces evoke a mélange of feelings in me: whimsy, thrill, intrigue, puzzlement, discomfort, awe. I think this is part of what art does—it makes us feel strongly.

Your response is due by noon on Tuesday, August 30th.

Welcome!

Welcome to English 15S: The Arts at Penn State. This course has two goals: 

1. To teach you about audience-centered writing and give you practice in using rhetorical tools to create persuasive, eloquent arguments. 

2. To show you around your new home--Penn State--and introduce you to the arts community that thrives here.

This is a small class, and we will get to know one another well over the course of the semester. It is my hope that this blog will offer you another way to engage with the class materials, with me, with the community and with each other. I will add links and resources of interest throughout the semester and invite you to suggest events and articles--anything you find relevant--to me for inclusion here.


I will also use this space to post prompts for your short writing assignments. We will talk more about those in class.

Above you can find the course syllabus (which is also available on ANGEL). Please read it carefully and refer to it from time to time as we go forward. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

I hope you will think of me as both instructor for this course and mentor for your first college experience. My door--real and virtual--is always open to you!