CCWP05: Making Sense: Perspectives On Interpretation

Preparation for Week 3, Unit 2

I would like you to submit by e-mail by Wednesday morning (Group 1) or Thursday morning (Group 2) your choice of texts for Essay 1 and (most importantly!) a detailed explanation of the reasons for your choice and a clear statement of the issue you plan to focus on. I will try to summarize some important criteria that I would like you to bear in mind for your selection.

You may select as many texts as you like (but please be realistic and consider 1) that you will have to read the texts - not only the bits we discussed in class but all the excerpts in your reading packet - and 2) that your final essay for this unit should be only 5-6 pages long!). Of course, your choice of texts will be influenced by your choice of question, and I hope your ideas about questions will be somewhat clearer after today's meeting. As a general rule, though, it might be helpful to remember that, if you select more than one text, the texts you choose should neither completely confirm nor completely refute one another but stand to one another in some complex and intriguing relationship. Remember that successful essays have a motive, and that the motive should interest the reader, but must first fascinate the writer; if you cannot find a reason to engage with the texts you have selected, if you fail to find your question genuinely perplexing and intriguing, it is not likely that your readers will bethrilled by what you have to say. I know that your writing for this unit has an external motive (you are under an obligation to write three essays in order to pass the course), but I would like you to become so engrossed by the questions you ask and by the texts you examine as to lose sight of the obligation and just revel in the possibility of thinking rigorously and critically about a topic that you find interesting. Believe me, it can happen. Just give it a try.

I will select two choices for each group and will e-mail them to you. I would like each of you to come to the following meeting on Thursday / Friday having selected two or three passages that in your opinion could be useful to the writer for his/her essay; needless to say, be prepared to give reasons for your choices.

Do you remember the Incredibly Important Handout for Unit 2 that I gave you a couple of weeks ago? Well, the time to use it is now! On our next meeting two volunteers from each group will bring to class short samples of nonfictionprose that made a lasting impression on them as readers and analyze the rhetorical means by which the writer has achieved this effect. What this odd and vaguely threatening assignment actuallyboils down to is simply an exercise in concentrated reading and an effort at clear and orderly explanation of your feelings, likes and dislikes. I hope that our workshops on introductions and on structure in Unit 1 have given you some idea of how to conduct such an exercise. But the most important thing to remember is that there are no right answers; I am interested in hearing what you think, and in getting to know texts that have been meaningful to you and that I would otherwise miss (course readings for my module are off-limits for this assigment!). I tried my best to give you an honest answer in class last Thursday when you asked me what I liked about the Arendt text, and I would like you to be honest with me too.