Introductions:
There are no right and wrong answers; there are only well argued and poorly defended positions. In this class you will not learn how to be right, but you will instead learn how to argue your position clearly and forcefully. This means you will learn conviction.

Discussion of syllabus and Vocab. Notebook announcement.
For this class I want you to keep a vocabulary notebook. Each week you will add five new terms. Come up with a different word for each day of the week. Use your new word at least twice on the day you select it. You should choose words from the class readings, but you can choose words you pick up somewhere else. At the end of the each week we will compile a list of your favorite word from the week.

In your notebooks you should:

Evaluative vs. Descriptive Words (judgmental vs. non-judgmental words)
Say one word that describes you. Write it down and bring these to class with you on Tuesday.
Today we are going to differentiate between judgmental and non-judgmental words and concrete and abstract terms. Judgmental terms offer judgments and are generally not very descriptive (good, bad, ugly, boring, depressing, exciting). Judgmental adjectives and adverbs are usually only about the impact the subject had on the reader; they tell us how the reader responded.

Non-judgmental description is usually much more concrete (for example, describing something as green, or tall, or side-by-side, or generally about specific physical characteristics or mannerisms. Such description usually shows how the subject affects the senses.

Abstract terms, on the other hand, usually describe an idea (causality, virility, ideology, love, definitive, desultory, conscientious, democracy, fascism, benevolence, and sentimentality).

In your writing you are going to want to strike a balance between abstract and concrete description, and you will want to avoid judgmental description.

I will put them on the board and in your notebooks say if it is a judgmental or non-judgmental term (evaluative or descriptive) and if the term is concrete or abstract. You should also say why you think so. We will go around the room and hear repsonses.

In-class free write and group work: the interview
Free write: Take ten minutes and answer the following prompt:
"Pick a place, either from memory or from your current experience that appeals to your senses, a place that makes you take notice of your surroundings. Describe this place in a way that will cause another person to experience it as you do. Avoid evaluative adjectives and descriptions. Write the piece without telling your readers your reaction to the place or your reasons for them. Offer instead the concrete details that shape your response to the place. You can include action and people other than yourself in your description if you like" (6).

Don't think; write!
There are next to no rules in free writing, just that it is important to keep your pen moving. Don't reread as you go. Don't cross things out. Just keep writing. To get to good writing, we first have to tolerate some chaos. In free-writing, especially if you engage in it frequently, you will often surprise yourself with the quality of your own thinking, with the ideas you did not really know you had and the many details you hadn't really noticed until you started writing.

Interview:
Hemingway, I believe, had it right about how to engage in conversation. He claimed:

When people talk, listen completely. Don't be thinking about what you're going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling, you should know exactly what it was that gave you the feeling. Try that for practice. When you are in town stand outside the theater and see how the people differ in the way they come out taxis and motor cars. There are a thousand ways to practice. (6)