1. We live in a world together, with other people with whom we need to communicate;
2. Our language attempts to understand and describe the world we live in and the relationships we form in this world.  

• What are the different expectations and interpretations that different audiences might have of a text?
• How can a writer imagine an audience?
• What kinds of information about the "world" must we have in order to imagine diverse audiences and their probable reading/interpretative strategies?
• What are the risks of imagining audience (or: what kinds of stereotypes and assumptions do we carry about groups of people on which we might base our assumptions of audience?).
• How can we increase our awareness of different reading/interpretative groups (audiences) and their different knowledges and perceptions?

• An extensive writing log/journal that records the writing issues we define in class, your progress and process as a writer, your strengths and weaknesses and strategies for meeting the writing requirements of the class.
• Active participation in class discussion.  (This includes E-mail responses to the class list with ideas, thoughts, questions, emotions about the writing issues raised from our readings.)
• 3 short (2-3 pages) and one long (6-8 pages) formal writing assignments. These assignments will be determined partly by the context of class reading/thinking; in this sense, the class's responses to and evaluations of the readings are as important as the reading itself.  Our discussion is, in fact, an important "text" of the class!  These writings form an assignment sequence designed to help you progressively develop your writing voice, awareness of your own process as a writer, and your analytical and argumentative skills.
• Dream Journal
• A final exam that defines your progress as a writer.

• We will be doing a great deal of writing for this class.  Our informal writing, such as class E-mail, postings to the class Forum, and the Writing Workshop Wrap-ups, count as 20% of the course grade.
• The bulk of the course grade, 70%, will be determined by the formal writing assignments.  Thus, the grade breakdown is as follows:
• 30% -- Informal Writing (including discussion board postings, e-mail, quizzes, and workshops)
• 70% -- Formal Writing Assignments

• As you keep your writing log, pay attention to how your writing is changing, how you as a writer are evolving.
• Towards the middle of the semester, you should find that you are making fewer of the errors that you were making at the beginning of the term.

Readings/Texts (Texts at the GSU bookstore)
Pocket Style Manual by Diana Hacker (Or: you may refer to Purdue University's Online Writing Lab
You will need a college level dictionary.  Online handbooks and dictionaries available at http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/~lamy/tools.html

Attendance
I reserve the right to fail you if you miss more than five classes.  I expect you to email me or call to let me know when you will not be able to attend class and to make arrangements with me for completing your work for classes that you miss.  You have paid your money for this class; if you miss it, you waste your money.  If you miss a class, you must email or call a classmate to get notes for that class's work BEFORE you ask me for help with the work from any class you missed.

Writing Log # 1: From the Regents' scoring site, http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwrtp/essaygrd.htm

1. define the Regents' holistic grading scale: what do you have to do to get a 4, a 3, a 2, or a 1?
2. Explain, if you took the Regents' today, what score you think you would get and why.
3. From the sample 2/1 essay on the Regents' grading site, explain what's wrong with the borderline essay.

This log is designed as practice for your actual Regents' writing situation. To begin your brainstorming and outlining process, take 5 - 10 minutes to THINK about the question you are are responding to:

1. Step 1: Define your gut response to question
2. Step 2: Brainstorm
3. Step 3: Categorize
4. Step 4: Order
5. Step 5: Write Thesis

1. Gut response: Yes
2. Brainstorm: responsibility, save money, social life, skills, prepares you for college, -- figure out what you want to do with your life, -- don't want to spend life in dead end, low paying job, get connections/ reference, can go on dates when you want/ become independent with own money
3. Categorize:
• social skills, connections/references,
• save money, responsibility
• independence, figure out what to do with life, prepares for college
4. Order: -- after seeing how your brainstorm points group into categories, think about how you are going to order your points -- what will you say first, second, and third?  At this point, you need to begin thinking about each category as making up a paragraph or part of a paragraph, and you need to begin thinking about the transitions between points that you will make.  You may also end up re-categorizing your points, moving certain points around and re-grouping them.  The transitions are important: these show the relationships you are making between points.  So that, for this prompt, I might re-order in this way:
• 1 --responsibility, skills, connnections/ references
• 2 -- save money, independence, social aspects
• 3 -- figure out what s/he wants to do/career/, take college more seriously/ don't want to work atMc' d's the rest of my life

5. Thesis:
• Reword the question to use key words for your thesis
• Map the points you'll make in the order in which you'll make them.
• Example: It is very beneficial for high school graduates to work full time for a year before entering college.  Working allows young people to learn responsibility, save money, and figure out what they want to do with their lives.

George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html -- quiz questions

• CATEGORIZE: Re-read your notes from your film and categorize them.  To categorize, think about each of the points in your notes and how these points show a main topic or theme.  For example, do your points show us something about gender, about race, or about class?  Do you have notes about how men interact with each other, about how women interact with men, or about the kinds of stereotypes that the film uses?  If the film relies upon stereotypes, what are they?  To a certain extent, the categories you develop will depend upon how you interpreted the film and what you found important.  Compare your categories to the categories of others in your group.  Did you define different categories?  If so, why?
• FOCUS: Once you have categorized your points, decide which of the categories you have defined you actually want to write about.  This is a short-ish paper  -- 3 - 5 pages, typed, double spaced -- so you cannot write about each of the points or categories that you've noted.
• ASSESS:  Think about why you are most interested in the particular categories that you have defined.  E-mail me with the categories you have defined, explain the categories you are interested in writing about, and why.  At the end of your E-mail, after you have explained what you are interested in writing about and why, formulate a tentative THESIS that sums up your main points.
• TIPS FOR WRITING:
• Re-read the Film Review Assignment.
• Choose several scenes (3 - 5) that are most important to the points about which you are writing and watch these scenes again.  Be sure that you have careful, detailed notes for each relevant scene.E-MAIL PRE-WRITING/ FREE WRITING: I will review and respond to the E-mail explaining your categories and what you are interested in writing about.  We'll use our E-mail exchange to think through how you can develop your papers.  You should plan on getting your first E-mail to me by this Friday, and I'll respond to you by Saturday.  You should plan on answering my E-mail by our next class session

Writing Log #6: Define theses terms
Existentialism
Postmodernism
Paradigm
Neurobiology
Sociopolitical
Quantum Mechanics
Sovereignty
Paradox
Tyranny
Lucid Dreaming
Ontology
Ideology
Gnosticism

Writing Log #7
Preview the links about The Waking Life. Based on what you're read, write a few paragraphs about what you expect from the movie.

Writing Log #8
After your first viewing of the movie, write a 1-page response to it -- did you like it? Not? What stands out to you about the film? What would you say it is "about"? Define what you think are the most important themes/ideas

Writing Log #9
During your 2nd viewing of the film, pay close attention to things that are repeated, to themes/characters that build on or mirror each other. Which characters do you like best? Which scenes do you like best? As you watch the film, do you see yourself (your thinking, experiences, questions about yourself or world) reflected in any way? For Writing Log 8, you are moving from "watching" the film to "engaging" with the film -- enter into the ideas/characters/world of the film, interact with it, and identify the most important things about the film for you to further explore.

Writing Log #10: If you are stuck and have not been able to draft your paper do this:
10-A: To start work with your paper, you had to pick out 7 - 10 of quotes from the film that best represent what you think the film is "about." To organize your paper:

1. Group these quotes into catergories -- what are the major themes these quotes address?
2. For each category, write a paragraph explaining the point that all the quotes are making. This is your free-write into the points you will be developing for your paper.
3. For each of your categories, write a sentence or two that summarizes the main point the quotes come together to make. Then, write several sentences explaining what each category of quotes has to do with the other categories. These elements will form the basic outline / thesis of your draft.
4. Begin drafting your paper.

If you have a draft of your paper, do this:
10-B: Exchanage papers with your group members and complete the Higher Order Concerns elements of this Peer Review http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/~lamy/peerrev.html

Writing Log #11
Identify a concept/idea from The Waking Life that you want to learn more about. Use lines from the script to identify key words that you can use for preliminary internet research on this topic.

• Review Effective Internet Searching http://www.brightplanet.com/deepcontent/tutorials/search/
• http://www.brightplanet.com/deepcontent/tutorials/search/
• Conduct a Google Search
• Keep an annotated bibliography of links/sites that you find (Follow format for combination citation)

Writing Log #12
For Writing log #12, do a free write that explores the information you are finding in your internet search, what ideas you are having as you research your topic. It's a good idea to do this free-writing in stages -- take notes as you are doing your internet search, and, at stages in your searching, pause to reflect on the overall experience.

Writing Log #13
From your free-write, define the three or four primary categories of things you'll need to talk about in your synthesis paper. Follow the same strucutre we used to practice brainstorming and outlining for the Regents' prompt . . . develop topic sentences for each category, find 2 - 3 quotes to support your points in each category. Decide what you have to talk about first, second, third, etc., and then write a preliminary introductory paragraph that maps the paper. (This will, of course, be revised as you write the paper and figure out more clearly what it is you want to say.)

Wrigint Log #14

• Re-read your papers -- read my comments as you go.
• What do you think . . . ?  Does my evaluation match yours?  Do you have any emotional response?  Do you need to cuss or cry?  Do you need to schedule an appointment with me?
• Complete your writing issues checklist
• Complete a paper map for this paper -- I WILL NOT GRADE THE FINAL PAPER WITHOUT THIS PAPER MAP!!!!

Writing Log #15
After all of your work with the film The Waking Life, I want you to think about what the issues you have been working with mean to you. What do the ideas you encountered in the film, the research you have done for paper 3, and the conversations you have had with your classmates have to do with your life, your world, your experiences, the people you know? Think self-reflectively here: why did you like the things you liked, choose to read and write about the things you did? For writing log #15, you need to do a self-reflective free-write about yourself: what can you see about yourself by looking at the topics about which you have chosen to read and write? Write a page or two explaining this -- this is your autobiographcial interface.

Writing Log #16
Most of you have chosen the cookbook option for your final project. If you are not doing the cookbook option, see me to define writing logs 16 - 20. If you are doing the cookbook option, writing log 16 asks you to pick three food rituals to begin your cookbook project exploration. Think carefully about each ritual -- brainstorm these points:

• what foods do you eat? describe these in detail.
• who eats, where, and how? (that is, is this a family meal ritual? a neighborhood/community food ritual? a church or religous ritual? a ritual of college/dorm life? do you eat in a formal dining room? In a living room or your bedrooms? on paper plates? on china/formal wear? Do you have place settings? do you eat buffet style? Serve yourself out of pans? Have food arranged in serving dishes on a table? Have it served/handed to you? These are important details . . . record as many of these as you possibly can)
• who cooks? what kinds of oven/range, pots, plans, utensils, accessories are required for the meal preparation?
• who cleans? what do the people who are not cleaning do while the cleaning takes place?
• who shops?
• what do people wear while eating (are there any special dress requirements?)
• is this food ritual part of a daily life routine or is it special in some way (i.e., a holiday, a religious rite, a seasonal activity such as football parties or hot dogs at a baseball game)
• free-write about the occassion of eating -- make notes about everything you can think of here -- what time of day/night, what people do/say, the kind of mood or emotion associated with this rite?

Writing Log #17
Read at least one of the articles or chapters from the books on reserve in the library about the cultural contexts of food. Provide a brief summary of the main points from that reading. (Continue reading -- you will want to have at least three sources that you have read carefully and to which you refer in your analysis segments.)

Writing Log #18
After reading at least one source on food and culture, return to your food ritual notes and begin to think about what that food customs you have defined can tell you about your culture and identity. That is, begin to intepret the meaning of your rituals. In this context, also think about food taboos . . . are there any religious injunctions or taboos governing the ritual? For instance, Muslims and Jews do not eat pork, certain classes of Hindus do not eat meat, Muslims fast during Ramadan. Are there any cultural constraints on what foods you can eat, how they may be obtained or prepared? At this stage, you will also need to compile your recipes -- write detailed descriptions of how to prepare the foods you have identified for your cook book project.

Writing Log #19
Freewrite about at least two other sources that you have read in order to think about what your food rituals mean. This is not so much a "summary" of points as it is a free-association . . . how does your reading help you to think about this project?

Works Cited Model
Horgan, John. "Lucid Dreaming Revisited." Omni. 16 (Sep. 1994). 5 October 2005. <Ebsco Host Premiere>

LaBerge, S. & Levitan, L. "Lucid Dreaming FAQ." 2.3 (January 16, 2003). The Lucidity Institute. 5 October 2005. http://lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ.html