Annotated...copies of Ryan Broderick

Outline, Paraphrase and Evaluate

Response

Ryan Broderick essay "We must bulldoze what's left of the nerdy white man's internet"
is a confusing  rant by a internet commentator against other internet users and commentators.
It is hard for me to pull all my thoughts together in way that sounds reasoned, because Broadrick makes broad statements, isolates a few incidents then re-projects them back onto whole groups of people.

He begins with his musing about an  adolescent T.V. show from 13 years ago about nerdy gifted kids and
associates them with the "teenage boys who created the first mainstream Internet Culture." He then goes on to further define these teenagers internet culture as "...the frothing manic id of thousand teenage boys...".

Broderick then jumps six years forward to an internet that has reached a gender parity...online while "men still spend more time plugged in"... one is not connected to the other.

He further confuses the issues with  the various Platforms (?) on the internet and its diverse users. Somehow he is trying to make the point that the evolution of the internet as it progressed and grew from the way people used them. Internet based college accounts grew into broader based sites. Blackberry mobile users for another group. He seems to make his arguments as if there was something wrong. Different people with different needs and different means of access would seem like it should be a good thing, yet somehow Broadrick makes it appear that different is wrong.

Then  with maddening convolutions of statistics (27 million people gathered? Where? Across the world of 7 billion?) 6 million for Game of thrones? In a country of over 300 million, its not a lot.
Then there 68% of females on Instgram... ok, whats the significance? 68% of all females in the world? Or 68% of the 50.4% of the population in America? Or on smart phones? Is there a significance that 32% are not on Instagram? Really useless information, but it appears good.

He has an beef with "Gamergate" which is understandable and reasonable people will conclude it was about harassment.
One of the issues that Broadrick does not mention at all is the money being geneated by all these sites. Its as if the internet is a land of purity and innocence, when in reality it is finance driven as all businesses.  (After all isn't that how Broadrick earns a living working internet commentary?

Nerds, nerdy white men, monosphere, seems Broadrick wishes to be in a virtual "safe space".
But, as Broadrick comments attest to the internet can be just as cut throat, competitive, petty as the real world. Maybe I should take a selfie with my puppy make me feel better.

Reading for Monday

• Broderick, Ryan. "We must bulldoze what's left of the nerdy white men's internet." The Kernel.<http://kernelmag.dailydot.com/issue-sections/headline-story/11843/angry-white-male-internet/>

• Axelrod and Cooper, pages 294-316.

Using the methods detailed in Axelrod and Cooper, please:

• annotate, outline, paraphrase, and evaluate the Broderick essay. This will work as your first weekly journal entry.
• Write about a page in response. Do you agree with the general claims of the essay? Why/why not?

Shitty First Draft Anne Lemott

“Shitty First Drafts”   Anne Lemott

Anne Lemott discusses the constant difficulty of writing a first draft. Though a professional writer, she expresses the constant difficulty of facing a blank page.

At the beginning of her essay she brings along potential writers that all writing takes effort. She acknowledges to some that writing may seem effortless to professional writers who have this wealth of knowledge and talent and that words just flow natural from them without much effort other than to write them down.

She describes it as “…fantasy of the uninitiated.”   

Her process is to write everything down knowing that no one really is going to see it. Just start it, as if it was “child’s play” and pour out what ever may come… even “Mr. Poopy pants”.

The point I believe she is making is just start, don’t get bogged down in too much pre-thinking. No first draft in reality is meant for public reading, rather it is an exercise in just getting going on it, have some fun, look for things to expand on later.

While reading Anne Lemotts essay, it reminds me of Julia Cameron’s “the Artist Way” in that Cameron sets up exercises for blocked “creative’s” to three pages of stream of consciousness writing. The idea is just to write and through that act of writing you will find what possibly is stopping you.

As a painter, I can understand what Lemott means. It’s the “blank canvas”, when face with a blank canvas what are going to do? You get it dirty, throw a colored wash on it, scribble on a page whatever, and just to have it not blank and intimidating.

 (note: I am not sure that this is what the Assignment was. I couldn't find it on the blog page, so went on the internet and found "Shitty First Draft " there.)

Assignment 1

Just checking in. I am such a dinosaur when it comes to computers... it will become part of my learning curve. Posted answer to Assignment Friday. Now, I don't see it, which gets me to wondering about my blogging, this is also new. Think I may have posted on as reply on someones post. Will re post my answer, hope its the same content, not sure since re writing from notes...then see if it works.

There was not much writing from me in English. As I recall, freshman English was a non event. Ms G and I disagreed on my first book report. Book reports, papers and tests from that point on only consisted of my name and date written at the top. I failed every quarter that year and ended up having to take two English classes the following year. It was difficult falling behind so far, never really caught up. Commenting on what my best and least writing attributes is difficult because it was a long time ago and really only seems I did enough to get by.

I don't know what to expect from College writing, but look forward to finding out.

Answer to the questions.

1. As a writer in high school I was very good at painting a picture of what I was writing about by being very descriptive. Also I was very good at coming up with a thesis statement. I feel as a writer I need to improve on not making some many spelling and grammar mistakes. Also I need to expand on my vocabulary and not use the same word some many times.
2. I expect college writing to be a little bit more difficult because the professor is expecting more from you than a high school teacher would. An example is your professor will expect you to be an expert on what your talking about. Also you will need to use more difficult vocabulary words and not make minor spelling and grammar mistakes. Ideas should come from the writer and his research. My assumptions about college writing come from college students I talked to.
3. Every essay has a introduction, body and conclusion. In the introduction you will find the thesis statement and the background information. In the body of the essay your will find your main ideas. Finally in the conclusion you find the thesis again and a summarize version of your main points.

EMAILS

I have emails from five of you--you know who you are, because you got an blog-author invite.

The rest of you: please send me emails with your responses to the questionnaire, ASAP!

Syllabus!

Sam Cha

sam.cha@gmail.com

Office hours: by appointment

SYLLABUS

COLLEGE WRITING I

ENG 111-MH (SPRING 2016)

M-W 10:00AM – 11:15 AM

Malden High (room TBA)

THE MOST UP-TO-DATE VERSION OF THIS SYLLABUS, ALONG WITH ANY LAST MINUTE CHANGES TO ASSIGNMENTS, WILL ALWAYS BE ONLINE AT THE CLASS BLOG: http://eng-111-mh.blogspot.com/

Please check the blog every Friday morning, at 11:00 AM, and leave a comment on the latest entry so that I know that you have done so.

REQUIRED MATERIALS & TEXTS

• Hacker, Diana and Nancy Sommers. A Pocket Style Manual. Boston and New York: Bedford St. Martin's Press, 2015.
• Axelrod, Rise and Charles Cooper. The Concise St. Martin's Guide to Writing.
• Other materials, via email / handouts / class blog.

• A notebook, for in-class writing exercises.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course emphasizes writing as a process, from planning and drafting through revising and editing. Using personal experience, readings, and other sources, students write unified, coherent, well-developed essays and practice paraphrasing, summarizing, and using sources responsibly. To be eligible to take College Writing II (ENG112), students must pass the College Writing Exam and earn a grade of C or better for this course. The course meets General Education College Writing Requirement Area 1.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS & EVALUATION

Attendance & Participation: 35%

Come to class: 2 unexcused absences = one letter grade off of your final grade. If you have 4 or more unexcused absences, you risk failing the course.

Come to class on time: More than 10 minutes late = tardy. 2 tardies = 1 absence.

Come to class on time, prepared. You won't get anything out of this class unless you: i) know what the reading is, ii) are fully informed of any changes to the assignment (check the blog!), and iii) have done the reading. 

Come to class on time, prepared, with at least one thing to say about the reading: Say what you have to say, listen to what your classmates have to say, and respond to what they say. The goal is to say something that will help other people learn.

Phones must be turned off, unless I ask you to turn them on.

Writing: 65%

Weekly Journal (Pass/Fail): 10%

You can't become a better writer without reading. Also, you can't become a better writer without writing. To this end, each week you will choose and read an article, an essay, a story, or a poem.

In 100-200 words: i) summarize what you read (i.e., “tl;dr,” except you will have read). ii) Say something about your response to what you read: did you like it? Agree with it? And iii) give a reason for your response.

Your journal entry must do all three things in order for you to receive a “Pass” for that week.

Weekly Paper (Pass/Fail): 15%

500 words. Usually this will take the form of responses to the week's reading; I will occasionally give you more specific assignments.

Three 5-6 page papers: 30%

Final portfolio: 10%

Everything above collected + your chance to revise 2 of the 3 longer papers for a better grade.

Plagiarism & Academic Honesty: If you plagiarize, you fail.