Word and Image (2023)

First pre-semester meeting, 1:00

We will introduce ourselves, go over some information for registration, and discuss course planning.

• "Entering" chapter from How College Works, by Daniel F. Chambliss and Christopher G. Takacs (handout or PDF in Pioneer Web Documents)
• The Grinnell College catalog, Education in the Liberal Arts (the first four sections, ending with the one called "The First Year")
• What Questions Do You Have? (handout or PDF in Pioneer Web Documents)

First assignment!

I know your schedules are tight between our first meeting on Saturday and our advising meetings on Monday. Make some time for these readings; they are important building blocks for our advising conversations leading to registration.

After you do the readings, create the following and bring them to our meeting:

1. Your driving questions. This is the list of three questions that you compose in response to "What Questions Do You Have?"
2. A visualization of your preliminary course selections. On one sheet of paper, create some combination of words and visual elements that shows me the three main non-Tutorial courses you're thinking of taking, some backup courses, and something about the reasons for your choices. I am not asking you to create gallery-quality art but rather any useful way of helping yourself think about your course choices in light of the readings. At least one of the readings should appear directly on your sheet, in whatever way you find useful.
3. A draft of your registration card IN PENCIL. AFTER you have created your visualization, use it as a starting point for creating your draft of a preregistration card for our advising meeting.

Bring your questions, visualization, and card with you to your first advising meeting in my office on Monday.

Advising meetings! Your time is on the schedule I handed out Saturday. My office is HSSC N3146. After our scheduled appointments on Monday, I will have open office hours for follow-up appointments from 9:00-1:00 on Tuesday.

PREREGISTRATION CARDS DUE TO THE REGISTRAR BY 3:45 ON TUESDAY

• Assignments and Policies for this class (all pages in each section)
• PDF document: Erik Simpson, ChatGPT (and Its Relatives) and College Writing: A Quick Guide for Students
• Writing Analytically, seventh edition, beginning of Chapter 2: Overview, "Becoming Conversant Instead of Reading for the Gist" (3-page section) and the first two subsections of "Focus on Individual Sentences" ("Pointing" and "Using Quotation") [Or, from the sixth edition, "How to Read" section through the "Pointing" bit, pages 106-109)

Introduction and first day

Quick first assignment by the end of today: Put a paragraph of self-introduction in the "Self-Introductions" forum on our Pioneer Web discussion board.

• Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, Chapters 1-4
• Sam Nakahira (Grinnell '19), Japanese American Food Pioneers of California Cuisine

By 9:00 on the night before class, post a paragraph applying one of McCloud's points to Nakahira's comic.

Come to class ready to discuss the readings from McCloud. We will also do a "drawing jam" based on Lynda Barry's Syllabus but extended to work with McCloud's concepts.

• Tutorial Plus videos, Episodes 1-5 (about an hour of video in total, linked from the main menu of our Blackboard site)
• Your Academic Transition for a Successful First Year (booklet, linked from the main menu of our Blackboard site)

Class will meet at 8:30 today. You will have a session about academic success in college with Belinda Backous and Kate Ferraro, who are amazing.

• McCloud, Understanding Comics, Chapters 5-9
• Allison Bechdel, Fun Home, Chapter 1

First, we will do a Good Sentences exercise.

Then, we will build on Tuesday's conversation by using McCloud's work as a frame for looking at the beginning of Fun Home.

• Writing Analytically, seventh edition, Chapter 1: "The Analytical Frame of Mind" (whole chapter) [or for the sixth edition, all of Chapter 1, the second section of Chapter 2 on "The Method" (pages 26-32), and the first part of chapter 3 on "Five Analytical Moves" (pages 53-66)]

This part of Writing Analytically will be central to our experience of reading and writing for the rest of the semester. Read it carefully and come to class ready to apply The Method in a group exercise.

We will also do an introductory exercise on academic honesty in class today.

• Bechdel, Fun Home, Chapters 2-4

Group 1: By 9:00 the night before class, post to our Pioneer Web discussion board at least 200 words describing how you are thinking about a connection between Understanding Comics and this section of Fun Home.

• Erik Simpson, "Getting from Topic to Thesis" and "Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis" (PDFs)
• Grinnell College booklet, "Academic Honesty" (distributed in hard copy)

We will spend the first half of today's class working on citation and academic honesty. During the second half, we will do an exercise about thesis construction and evaluation. Bring to class an idea for a thesis for your paper. This is a low-pressure assignment; you will talk about your draft thesis with your classmates as a way to continue thinking about the first paper.

• Bechdel, Fun Home, Chapters 5-7

Group 2: By 9:00 the night before class, post to our Pioneer Web discussion board at least 200 words describing how you are thinking about a connection between Understanding Comics and this section of Fun Home.

• Rob Walker, from The Art of Noticing (Pweb Documents)
• Jenny Odell, from How to Do Nothing (Pweb Documents)

Paper prototypes due in class: bring to class (in printed, hard copy) the two prototypes for your first paper, which will address some aspect of Fun Home. We will have short conferences about these prototypes tomorrow.

Choose a noticing activity based on the readings from Walker and Odell. By 9:00 the night before class, post to the Pioneer Web discussion board at least 150 words about your activity and what you experienced when you tried it.

Library day! We will have an introductory session at Burling Library and then remain there for a TREASURE HUNT OF THE MIND.

FIRST PAPER DUE BY EMAIL ATTACHMENT BY 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON. Just to be sure I receive the text of your paper, copy the text into the body of the email as well. I will read the version in the attachment.

Because the paper is due this week, you have no additional assignment for class. We will use class time to look at the beginning of The Best We Could Do and to do an activity about analyzing writing computationally.

• Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do, Chapters 1-5

Group 3: By 9:00 the night before class, post to our Pioneer Web discussion board at least 200 words describing how you are thinking about a connection between Understanding Comics and this section of The Best We Could Do.

• Sara Milstein, "How To Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking"
• Bryan Alexander, "Giving a great presentation: notes on using PowerPoint"
• Daniel H. Pink, article AND video, "Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides Then Sit the Hell Down"

In class today, we will do an introductory exercise on creating presentation slides in multiple styles, drawing on insights from the readings.

The guidelines for the presentation assignment are on this page of the Assignments section of Connections. (You will give the presentations later in the semester; for now, this link is just to help you see what's coming.)

• Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do, Chapters 6-10

Come to class with one idea, written as a paragraph, about how a page of today's readings builds on something we talked about in our previous discussions of The Best We Could Do.