Email Correspondence: MVE Project
Date: Fri,
15 Sep 2000 15:38:03 -0500
From: Kevin Brooks
Subject: The New essay
Thank you, all, for responding to the essay so quickly and thoughtfully.
The very basic question--I feel like I always drag the level of conversation down
with this group--is "how do you want to proceed with your narratives?" Dayna seemed
intrigued by the new essay (collaborative, hypertextual), Lynne responded like
a relativist (wishy washy ;)), Mary seemed skeptical of the new form. Last week
I asked you to write nodes or short narratives, and we (sort of) put them in Storyspace
(I've fallen behind on my duties there). Do you want to do that again this week,
with your eye now on developing a collaborative essay (exact purpose and form
to be worked out), or do you want to write a more traditional 3-4 page essay/narrative
about your experiences and philosophies as a teacher? If we were a larger class,
a handful could do a new essay, others could do their own essay, but we don't
have that luxury.
I suppose it is not crucial that we make a decision today--you may write 3 to
4 pages on teaching philosophies/experiences this weekend, either as one piece
or as "nodes" and we can continue to negotiate where the projects might go. At
least we know roughly what everyone is thinking. Everyone, except me, I guess.
I'm interested in figuring out how to write academic prose that *does* something
different from the thesis-claims-grounds kind of essay. That doesn't mean that
I want to jettison other essay forms. The issue becomes: when is it appropriate
to write a good old fashioned paper, and when is it appropriate to try something
different. This class is *potentially* a site in which to try something different
because of the material, the intimacy of the class, your own experiences as students
and scholars (i.e. you aren't beginners), and because we as a collective might
have something to say to a wider academic audience that none of us individually
could say.
On the other hand, I know many if not all of you feel like you might be beginners
and might learn more by reading and thinking about these issues (computers and
composition generally) in familiar ways before embarking on something "experimental."
I also worry about asking you to do something that might be considerably more
time consuming than an old-fashioned essay--your lives are plenty busy as is.
So like Lynne, I guess I am wishy-washy, a relativist, or like Cooper, I want
the collective to work this thing out. I will "demand" text for Monday (reflections
on teaching--you can write up the ones you have been talking about in class, or
even copy and paste your e-mail, Mary), but let you choose the form. Make sense?
Write or call if you want more clarification/discussion.
Other issues are floating around the e-mail messages, like the paragraph on page
91--we can start with some of those issues and questions on Monday.
Have a good weekend.
Kevin
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