They say I say book

Learning Objectives for Assignment 1 • To understand and explain a complex text in which much is implied, rather than directly stated. • To use a complex text and your own experiences to develop your own ideas. The Assignment The “conversation” our class is considering this semester is what it takes to manage the stresses of college life to develop and grow as a learner and person. As a college student, there are many competing demands for your attention that you must navigate as you prioritize what you need for your own well-being. In “The Case for Nothing,” Jenny Odell advocates for “doing nothing” as way to resist the “Attention Economy.” Odell never explicitly defines what she calls “the Attention Economy” nor does she state plainly how one might “resist” it. Instead, she places before her readers her evidence and asks us to understand it ourselves. Write an essay in which you consider some of the implications of Odell’s ideas in light of the experiments we will conduct in class in “doing nothing.” This assignment asks you to use Odell’s examples and ideas to reflect on your own experiences doing nothing and how they affected your sense of self and well-being. Consider the exercise of this essay an opportunity not to simply do nothing but to do nothing and be with yourself, to touch grass, to take stock in yourself and your life and your path and your goals and your time and your energy and you. You’re here – how do you feel? What do you want? How do your experiences doing nothing connect to, or complicate, what Odell claims about doing nothing? Purposes of the Assignment • Show your reader that you understand Odell’s purposes and positions in her essay. • Apply Odell’s ideas and examples to your observations about your time doing nothing as well as your analysis of that time. • Use extensive details, descriptions, key ideas, and phrases to build to a point. Your analysis should lead to some larger purpose, a So What? that offers readers a sense of synthesis. Process for Assignment 1 First, we’ll focus on comprehension of the Odell essay, through reading responses and in-class discussions and activities. Odell doesn’t always say explicitly what she wants the reader to take away from her essay, so we will do some concentrated work in understanding the implications of her ideas and examples. During this work, it will be important for you to highlight or note in some way the key parts of Odell that you are drawn to and that you might use to conduct and reflect on your own experiments with doing nothing. You will ultimately need to work with direct quotes from the Odell essay, so it’s a good idea to start identifying early on what those might be. UND Department of English English 110, 2024-2025 2 Next, we’ll conduct some experiments in “doing nothing” in a few different ways. We’ll dig into Odell’s descriptions of what she is doing when she does nothing and try to do the same. We’ll also experiment with other ways to do nothing. You’ll want to take careful reflective notes on these experiences so that you capture as much data as you can on where, when, and how you did nothing, and what the results were. What did you notice? Write down any vivid sensory details. How did you feel during and after? Why do you think you felt those ways? How did different ways of doing nothing compare? Once you’ve collected your own data and reflections on doing nothing, we’ll explore in class ways to connect Odell with your own experiences and write about them, using techniques from They Say, I Say and The UND Guide to Writing. A major focus of this first assignment is learning how to do the fundamental they say, I say moves in your writing to create a “conversation” between you and Odell on the page. After you produce an initial draft, you’ll have a chance to read and respond to classmates’ drafts and get their feedback on your own. This feedback, along with classroom instruction, will focus on helping you revise to produce a longer, more complete draft for your first conference with the instructor. At this conference, you’ll get detailed feedback on how to improve your paper. Ensure by the end of your conference that you understand how to prioritize and carry out your instructor’s feedback, and revise in response to this feedback as soon as you can after having your conference. In-class instruction on revising and editing will help you produce the final version of the assignment to be submitted for a grade. There are also resources in They Say¸ I Say and The UND Guide to Writing to help you revise and edit. Common Pitfalls to Avoid • Watch out for dividing your paper into two big chunks—a “they say” chunk and an “I say” chunk. Instead, you want to alternate they say and I say throughout the paper. • If you were drilled in the five-paragraph essay format prior to this class, watch out for trying to fit this assignment into that template. While it’s true that this essay should have an introduction, a conclusion, and a multi-paragraph body divided into chunks, the number of those chunks, and the number of paragraphs for each chunk and overall, will depend on which pieces of Odell you choose to work with and what you choose to say. Since the average length of this paper is five double-spaced pages, you should definitely have more than three paragraphs in the body of your essay. Formatting and Submission Details • Documents submitted to Blackboard must be either Microsoft Word or PDF files. • Name the file [Firstname] [Lastname] Assignment 1. (Make sure your file name is descriptive of whose paper it is.) • 1-inch margins. • Standard font (Calibri, Times New Roman, etc.), 11- or 12-point. • Include your name and the date on the first page. • Include page numbers. UND Department of English English 110, 2024-2025 3 • Include works cited, in MLA format. • Target length: 4 ½ - 5 ½ pages, double-spaced. Grading Criteria for Assignment 1 • Purposes of the Assignment (30%) o Show your reader that you understand Odell’s purposes and positions in her essay. o Apply Odell’s ideas and examples to your observations about your time doing nothing as well as your analysis of that time. o Use extensive details, descriptions, key ideas, and phrases to build to a point. Your analysis should lead to some larger purpose, a So What? that offers readers a sense of synthesis. • Working with Sources (20%) o Accuracy and Ethics: Represents source text(s) accurately and fairly. Cites source text(s) appropriately and ethically. o Integration and Explanation: Includes direct quotation from source text(s) and uses conventions and techniques from the UND Guide and They Say/I Say (e.g., quotation sandwiches). Integrates source text(s) smoothly into the writing, connecting them to other ideas in the essay. • Working with the Writer’s Own Ideas (20%) o Focus and Relevance: Writer’s ideas, commentary, and examples are focused, coherent, and related to the purposes of the assignment. o Clarity and Development: Writer’s ideas, commentary, and examples are well-developed. Relationships between source text(s) and writer’s ideas are clear. • Reader Guidance (20%) o Engagement and Orientation: The essay is well-framed by a rhetorically effective introduction and conclusion, as described in the UND Guide. The essay uses strategies to engage and orient the reader, adapting appropriately conventions and techniques from the UND Guide and They Say/I Say. o Organization and Transitions: The essay follows a reasonable organizational structure. The essay has clear transitions and connections among parts, adapting appropriately conventions and techniques from the UND Guide and They Say/I Say. • Language (10%) o Grammar, spelling, and usage are appropriate for college-level English. Style and tone are appropriate for the assignment. Point Totals and Letter Grade Conversions • Essays may be awarded up to four points for each of the ten criteria listed above: o 4 means you exceeded expectations on that criterion. o 3 means you met expectations on that criterion. o 0 – 2 means that criterion is an area of concern for you. Your instructor will provide feedback to explain why you lost points in any area of concern. UND Department of English English 110, 2024-2025 4 ▪ 2 means there were isolated instances of meeting expectations, but over the course of the whole essay, expectations were not met completely and/or consistently. There is evidence in the essay that the student understands the principles behind the criterion and could meet expectations if they applied the principles more consistently. ▪ 1 means there was evidence of attempting to meet the criterion, but based on the text, it is unclear whether the student understands the principles behind the criterion and how to apply them. ▪ 0 means there is little to no evidence of the criterion. • This means there are 40 points total available for the assignment. Your total points convert to a letter grade in which “meeting expectations” (3 points) for each criterion is equivalent to a traditional Bminus.