Calendar

Lec # Topics key dates

Unit One: First Essay - Writing Focus: Living In the Age of the Image; Close Textual Reading

1

Introduction to the Class as a Writing Community And to the Academic Study of Mass Media

Distribute writer's letter assignment

Distribute reader/writer notebook assignment

2

Image Culture and Media Artifacts

Advertising, Media Literacy and Close Reading

Discussion: Notebook Assignment

Distribute essay 1

Distribute exercise 1.1

Distribute "Reading Print Advertisements" Handout

Writer's letter due

3

Writing as Process: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising Advertising: A Case Study of Mass Media

Exercise 1.1 due: small groups

4

Strategies of Close Reading: Ads as Representative Texts: Finding Patterns

5

Strategies of Close Reading: Constructing Arguments About Advertising Texts

Living in Consumer Culture Theories of Social Control and Social Reflection

Essay 1 introduction due (3 copies)

Small group workshops: introductions due

Essay 1 draft due one day after Lec 5

6

Writing Workshop: Peer Review of Drafts

7

Using Secondary Sources: Library Workshop

Description of choice of interview subject by email to the instructor

Unit Two: Second Essay - Writing Focus: Working with Primary and Secondary Sources; Crafting Individual and Group Identities in the Age of Mass Media and Consumer Culture

8

The Individual in the TV Age: Working With Primary Source Data: Interviews, Letters, etc.

The Art of Interviewing

Essay 1 revision due (2 copies with revision cover letter)

9

The Individual in the Media Age: Growing Up on TV (cont.)

Distribute essay 2

Distribute exercise 2.1

Notebook assignment due

10

The Individual in the Media Age: The Interview Transcript as Primary Source

Identifying Key Passages

Exercise 2.1 due: small groups

Prewriting strategies due

11

The Individual in the Age of Television and Mass Media: Interpreting Interview Material Within the Context of Secondary Sources

12

The Individual in the "Digital Revolution"

Discuss: Assigned Readings

Managing and Citing Sources

Issues of Structure

Bookending: Intros and Conclusion

13

Generating Hypotheses from Case Studies: From Individual Lives to Social Patterns

Hypothesis Exercise

Television Analyses

Essay 2 draft due

14

Workshop, Draft, Essay 2

Unit Three: Writing Focus: Comparative Analysis: Print Into Film

15

From Print to Film: Thinking Critically About the Potentialities of Different Media for Storytelling

Literature, Film and the Depiction of Madness

16

From Print to Film: Questions of Comparative Analysis

Discuss: Susanna Kaysen. Girl, Interrupted

Distribute "Reading Films Critically" Handout

Distribute essay 3 assignment sheet

Distribute exercise 3.1

Essay 2 revision due

17

Film Showing: Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold, 1999)

18

From Print to Film

Discuss: Novel and Film, Girl, Interrupted

Exercise 3.1 due: small groups

19

Writing About Film

Film as Language

Discuss: "Reading Films Critically"

20

Incorporating Secondary Sources on Film and Print-to-film Adaptation

Types of Writing About Film

Small Groups: Scene Analysis Exercise

Essay 3 draft due one day after Lec 20 (2 copies)

21

Workshop: Draft, Essay 3

Revision Strategies

22

Advanced Revision: The Potential of Publication

Discuss: Assigned Readings

23

Course Evaluations

Portfolio Preparation

24

Advanced Revision Workshop: Essay 1, Essay 2

25

Student Readings

Course Overview

26

Final Class

Student Readings

Submission of Portfolios

Essay 3 revision due (with final portfolio)