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Since students enrolled in the
honors sections of PWR1 have opted for courses more intensely focused
on the experience of writing and being a writer, students in PWR1H-3
will keep a writer's log throughout fall quarter in which they will
track their development, trials and tribulations, as a writer in PWR
-- and as a first year student.
- What is a writer's log?
- A writer's log is a space --
it can be paper or electronic -- in which you keep track of your thoughts
and experiences as a writer. We'll start the log together in class,
but you need to do ten entries -- roughly one per week -- in which
you write about the papers you are working on, on the research you
are doing, or on your feelings about writing in general (you can,
of course, write more if you like). I will be reading your logs at
the end of the quarter, and they will help me (and you!) conceptualize
your growth as a writer.
- What do I write about
in my writer's log?
- The subjects are up to you
-- as long as they are about writing. Here are some examples of content
from previous students' logs:
- pre-writing (brainstorming,
clustering, etc.) for various paper assignments
- free-writing on PWR and
I-Hum writing assignments
- notes on the research process,
including library citations and brief comments on sources
- pasted in examples of visual
rhetoric, accompanied by notes and free-write
- reflections on an article
read in the Daily
- reaction to another student's
ideas discussed in class
- rant about a student paper
model read in class
- written response to one
the research source's ideas
- image samples for research
paper
- on-going journal about
PWR class (excitement, anxieties, etc.) in general
You will need to include the
How I Write Report, a reflection on
the research forum you attended or on the Symposium of Undergraduate
Research, a mid-term writing evaluation, and Final
course reflection letter as part of your 10 (minimum) entries.
Beyond these four required entries, a minimum of five others should
focus on PWR-related writing activities (and of these, no more than
two should be drawn from in-class writing activities). The rest
of your entries can focus on any writing you are doing -- academic
or otherwise -- this quarter.
- What should it look like?
- Creativity and individuality
are key for the writer's log. Just as all writers write differently,
so your log should be an expression of your own unique style, voice,
strategies, anxieties, etc. You can produce it in paper or electronic
format.
- Paper:
You
can use white paper, graph paper, colored paper -- or a combination.
Just be sure to collect it all (in a binder or spiral notebook)
for final submission.
Electronic:
You
can create computer documents/files for each of your entries --
however, these files ultimately should be arranged and submitted
on a CD (not through PanFora or e-mail).
Since this
is a course on visual rhetoric, using images, color, design, etc.
is important to your log. If you are going to collect your log in
a binder, design a cover for your binder, for instance. Also, please
include images in your entries themselves.
One caveat:
Handwriting must be legible for entries to count!
- Turning it in
- You'll turn it in to me at
the end of the quarter -- Friday, December 5th. What I'm expected
at that point is an ANNOTATED writer's log. That means that the final
step in your log will be to go back through your entries and either
in a different color, or in a preface to each entry, give me the equivalent
of a "voice over" for each entry -- explaining it, its significance,
and how you feel about what you wrote now. Any
unannotated writer's logs will be returned to you for annotation before
I can give it credit.
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