in-class exercises and discussion
1. Get into pairs, and try this exercise in class. Interview each other, take notes, and write about the process on the wiki this week. Let the interview go where it may, but structure your dialogue with the following questions:
What do you write about?
Where do we write?
Why do you write?
Who do you write with?
Section 799: we can simulate this exercise on the wiki. Initiate an interview process like this: go to a classmate's page, click edit, introduce yourself, and pose the questions listed above (or some variation on these questions). Zachary, you seem to be up and running, can you kick-start this assignment, please? -ShareRiff
2. Next, let's look at the handout (Williams' "Clarity") and related style/mechanics/grammar links listed at ProfessionalTools.
a) discuss
b) timed in-class writing exercise (solo)
c) whole-class writing exercise
write
blog: Interview
step one: Find a friend, family member, co-worker, classmate, or anyone you meet, and ask permission to record the audio of a conversation you will initiate about professional writing. If you don't have an audio recording device, just take good notes during the interview. You might ask for a definition of professional writing. Or, you might ask your interlocutor to provide a specific example of professional writing. Perhaps you can even draw an interesting story out of the interview.
step 2: review and transcribe--into a text document, so that you can copy and paste to the wiki--the most interesting, instructive, or problematic moments and ideas that came out of your recording session. You might write up a sequence of highlights, or, if the "best capture" comes in the form of an unbroken narrative, you may prefer to isolate and transcribe that highlight. What "brand" of professional discourse did you discuss? Managerial, technical, medical, legal, journalistic? Upload your transcription to the wiki.
step 3: going "second-order"
Write about the transcription process. Provide any "supplemental" information that you want to share--about the set and setting of your recording session, the ease/difficulty/effects of rendering your interview into written form, or anything else that comes to mind.
Due to the wiki by Saturday before midnight
Browse and Read
do one of the following exercises, or combine them into one reflective wiki post:
a) Browsing and reading name two different modes of information and attention management. Here on this page, I'm going to post links to 4 articles. Browse each of these articles. Then select one for closer scrutiny, and read it carefully. Take notes so that you can fashion them into a blog for next week.
Beyond Branding by Richard Raulerson
Egoic Branding...is your brand wearing leg warmers? by Karl Treacher
A Roadmap to Natural Capitalism by Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, and Paul Hawken
b) Clone a paragraph from the course description (i.e. select and paste to a new page). Have the Williams handout, "Clarity," on hand. Consulting this handout and the handbooks located on our ProfessionalTools page, revise the paragraph--make it better. Provide a brief explanation of the steps you took and the principles you applied in your "remix."
ShareRiff's post-class musings and amendments
We're almost there! Week 1 is a wiki boot camp of sorts, but the attention we pay to our medium now will pay off later. I think we made a lot of progress today, and I'm certain that by Saturday night each of you will find your balance and make 3 posts. Vivian is right: this week the wiki-uptake is taking most of our attention, but that's ok! Soon the focus will shift to working with informal blog prompts...and before we know it, we'll move into project-buiding. We're right on schedule. Keep it up!
wiki style
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