Wednesday, July 29, 2015

"Moves!"

I.  Can't.  Wait.  To.  Teach.  This.  Lesson.
#omfg
#truestory

Whether you realized it or not -- and whether I, the writer, realized it or not -- I made some "moves" right there.  I tapped into my pop culture resources and used some informal conventions of the modern "millenial" generation to (1) reach you, my target audience, by writing a somewhat unusual teacher-to-student "hook" in the beginning (2) let you know that I'm honestly juiced up to teach this lesson... perhaps my enthusiasm for this will be contagious, and (3) let my hair down for a change.


Some other moves I made right there?

  • put the key buzzword in boldface for added emphasis
  • #'d that list so you realized that there were only a few things you had to get through
  • #'d that list so that my punctuation (commas) would come across more clearly -- the #s allowed me to separate each "thing" without using commas.  By using #s, I can save my commas within each item/thing so you (probably) wouldn't confuse them as an additional unit/thing
  • used the "rule of 3" (a cheap trick that most readers seem to enjoy)
  • finished the list with a joke.  If I started that list with my "long hair joke," would it have been as effective?  Probably not -- punchlines usually work best at the end.

OK, so your paper/project is coming up, and you can base part of your argument and analysis on your informant's textual (written) moves -- what they're doing, how they're doing it, and whether you believe that it was effective.


By studying this, my hope is that you'll be able to detect writers' moves more clearly and, in doing so, consider adapting what you find to be effective.  Think of this as a way to open up your tool kit.


Ever hear of two musicians "jamming out"?  Well, this is essentially what you're doing as a (good) reader.  You're listening to what the writer/musician is trying to communicate, and if you like what they've done, feel free to "borrow that lick."  (But remember: if you're borrowing their ideas/research, you need to attribute that work to them in a citation!)


Blah blah blah.  Here are some videos that can help us start thinking about "moves."


#thisissocool












Wednesday, July 15, 2015

In-Class Notes

Each week I'll take notes of our in-class conversations, so don't feel the need to jot everything down -- I'd rather have your in-the-moment undivided attention.  You can find all of our notes throughout the quarter right here.

Horror Movies: More Practice with Genre and Conventions

Scenario: all of a sudden, you're sitting in the middle of a movie theater, watching a horror movie.  How do you know you're watching a horror movie?  What about this movie make it a horror movie? Put another way: what are the ingredients, features, or patterns of horror movies?

 After you jot down your predictions, we'll put our hypotheses to the test!

The Shining



Psycho





Wednesday, July 1, 2015

"Welcome!" Video

The video quality seems to have gotten reduced in its translation from Photo Booth to Blogger... :(