• Major Projects

    11/26: Coding Data towards Autoethnography

    Last week, you worked to develop your own resource for this assignment in this list of qualities of autoethnographic essays and possible topics. The final defining quality of autoethnographic essays that we will introduce today is the use of qualitative data. According to Jackson and Grutsch McKinney, “the author uses an inductive, qualitative approach for project design, data collection, and analysis” (11). Qualitative data is narrative – it is data in the form of words, phrases, and sentences – and authors we’ve read have used qualitative data in their autoethnographies. (Think of Inayatulla’s use of her own journals, diaries, and course notes.) For our purposes, you will use your peers’ writing…

  • Major Projects

    11/21: Brainstorming Your Autoethnographic Essay

    The rest of this semester is dedicated to supporting you in writing your final project. Small Group Work As a way of imagining possibilities for your own autoethnographic essay, you will consider the three essays we’ve read as models. In small groups, fill in this chart that asks you to identify the signifying qualities of autoethnographic essays. Large Group Work We will come back as a group to list possible topics in the same document. I also have some questions for you about how best to proceed with this assignment. HOMEWORK READ chapter 5 of Kathy Charmaz’s text Constructing Grounded Theory available on BrightSpace. This reading is intended to prepare…

  • Posts

    11/19: Models of Autoethnographic Writing

    Today, we’ll look at Tiffany Rainey’s autoethnography “Her Own Voice: Coming Out in Academia with Bipolar Disorder.” CONTENT ALERT: This text mentions suicidal ideation. Individual Writing Rainey writes about her experience with bipolar disorder, how her symptoms manifested and made her feel, hiding her mental health struggle, and the process of ultimately understanding her diagnosis. Access Rainey’s text and the in-class writing you started last time. Write in response to the following: Sharing as a Large Group Pick one sentence of your in-class writing to share with the whole class. After our round-robin style sharing, we’ll revisit our collaborative definition of autoethnography. How do Inayatulla’s and Rainey’s texts fit our definition?…

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    11/14: Building Our Definition of Autoethnography

    Today, we’ll continue to look at Inayatulla’s autoethnography “Literate Vixens and Shameless Hijabis” in an effort to build our collaborative definition of autoethnography. I want to start with George’s question from Tuesday about race, specifically considering what is Inayatulla doing with the image of the ape that reoccurs throughout this piece. Alongside Inayatulla’s essay, please have Jackson & Grutsch McKinney’s “Critical Introduction” pulled up on your device and opened to page 11. After we do some close reading as a large group, you will pick a paragraph (either on page 50-51 or 55) that we quickly looked at together and write in response to the following questions: Hold on to…

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    11/12: Rubric Review & Introducing Autoethnography

    Rubric Review for Collaborative History Project Your Collaborative History Project is due in class today. Take some time in your groups to review your projects using the rubric. How long will your group need to complete any final revisions? Introducing Autoethnography We’ll take some time today to look at an example of the next genre we’ll be studying and eventually writing: autoethnography. What do you notice about the word “autoethnography”? What do you think it means based on what we know about language in general? Together, we will read the first two pages of Dr. Shareen Inayatulla’s chapter “Literate Vixens and Shameless Hijabis: An Automythnography.” Based on this reading, we…

  • Major Projects

    11/5: Collaborative Drafting & Task Schedule

    Working as a Large Group Look more closely at “Our Collaborative Histories” for how students last semester articulated their common goal in their collaboratively written piece. Consider how their different narratives sit next to each other throughout their article. Working in Small Groups As a reminder, these are the groups you will be working in on the Collaborative History Project: Take time to work in your groups to compare your revised individual narratives that you posted BP4; I suggest moving these narratives into your straw document. Together, you will begin to answer these questions for your group:  You may identify important similarities and differences between your narratives. Take note of…

  • Major Projects

    10/31: Project Management Day

    Today’s goals move between collaborative work and individual work. I’m happy to structure class time so I direct what you’re doing or to allow you to move organically between the collaborative and individual. We can decide together how to move forward. Your work for the next two weeks is to complete your Collaborative History Project. Based on the feedback you gave me after last class, I’ve assigned your groups as follows: Once you’re in your groups, access Team Writing from BrightSpace. As per the advice in this reading, you will assign a project manager and create a straw document. (You will develop a task schedule next week.) As you work…

  • Major Projects,  Posts

    10/29: Returning to Your Collaborative History

    Access your recent blog post, BP3 where you wrote about your history of collaboration within a discourse community and used Bruffee to help you reflect on your collaboration. Give your post a re-read and think about if this collaboration experience is something you want to develop for your next major assignment, the Collaborative History Project. In pairs or small groups, share your posts with each other. Identify the questions you have about the Collaborative History Project and how you want to present your own history of collaboration within a community. Go back to your writing from class on 10/22 where you reflected on your recent collaboration in-class. Since you will be…

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    10/24: Introducing the Collaborative History Project

    Modes of Collaboration We’ll take a little more time today to review the readings you presented last class. Wendy and Yuantong will kick us off by presenting on Beck’s and Ofgang’s pieces. We used our class time to discuss collaborative writing and the ethics of working with A.I. HOMEWORK Carefully READ instructions for our next assignment, the Collaborative History Project and come to class with any questions you have. Take a look at this example of the Collaborative History Project from ENGL 201W in Spring 2024. It might also be helpful to look brieflt at these models of collaborative writing:  McNamee & Miley and Efthymiou & Zea.

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    10/22: Group Presentations

    You’re leading class today! I’ll give you time in each of your groups to reconvene about presenting your assigned reading(s) to the class. As a reminder, you should summarize the reading(s) you’ve been assigned, identifying the author’s/authors’ main claim(s), any controversies they bring up, and important takeaways of the reading(s). I encourage you to choose relevant quotations as evidence in your presentation. Individual Writing Take a few minutes to reflect on how this recent collaboration worked. How would you describe the goals of your group work for today’s class? How did your group structure work or divide labor to fulfill your goals? What did you do together? What did you…