Day 4:
Today we are going to start with work mainly on each other's writing.

In Class Group Work:

  1. Say what you like about Journal Entry #3.
  2. Go through each other's homework and underline:
    evaluative or judgmental terms
    descriptive or non-judgmental terms
    abstract terms
    concrete terms
  3. List two to ten details you found particularly striking.
In-class free write: 10 on 1:
List ten similarities or differences you notice in the writer's journal entries 1 and 2.

Choose one important similarity or difference between how the writer described someone else and how the writer described the place. Write down whatever comes to mind about how these details speak to one another. Don't think; write!

We will list responses on the board and discuss them. Journal Entry #4: Printed Copy Due Tuesday July 26
"Attend a communal event. You may choose to come to the field trip to the theater, but it is not required. List various details you notice about the presentation or about the people in the auditorium. Notice standout details and try to record how they color your experience. Don't worry about order. Just keep recording what you hear and asking yourself what you notice. Don't include judgments or conclusions about the event. Just collect detail that strikes you as particularly telling. You will find that it is surprisingly difficult to leave out your reactions, though you should recognize that the details you choose to record are already reactions because it is you and your orientation toward the world that have selected them.
When you are finished put together a one-to two-page account that tells by showing--that is, your account should be made up entirely of telling detail rather than your interpretations of the significance of that detail. Your goal is to provide readers of your account with a window on the world, but one that is, of course, highly selective, because writing does not operate like a camera eye. Writing is inevitably and necessarily more selective. Keep revising your account until you have a rendering of your 'data'--the observed details--that will cause your readers to think and feel as you do about the scene" (7).
Record your finished observations into your webjournal. You may choose to record notes or whatever extraneous information into your private journals

Suggestions: interesting, strange, revealing, and significant
Begin this assignment by making a list of details about the place you have selected. After compiling a healthy list, choose the details that you think are most important for understanding the character of the place. Use the four words above. It may be helpful to use these prompts:
What I notice is...
What I find most (interesting, strange, revealing, significant) is....

Notice we are not passing judgment on the place but are instead noticing and recording standout details.
Interesting: Things that capture your attention without your knowing why.
Strange: Things that are odd. This is not a judgmental term in this context because we are merely noticing things that are not readily explained.
Revealing:
Significant: These terms beg the question why. It may be useful to begin to say why you used these terms to label particular details. What do the details say about the place that make them important.