Email Correspondence: MVE Project
Date: Fri,
15 Sep 2000 15:20:13 -0500
From: "Mary Ellen Pull"
To: "Kevin Brooks"
Subject: Re: The New essay
Hi Kevin,
I was thinking more in terms of teaching at the high school level to kids who
don't want to be there. In our class of MATURE, responsible, English-loving eager-beavers,
I'm sure the collaborative essay would work--and be fun, too! I'm open to trying
all kinds of new technologies (you might just convince me!) and ideas, during
and outside of class. We already know how to write traditional essays (supposedly),
so let's experiment!
Mary --On Friday, September 15, 2000, 11:20 AM -0500 "Kevin Brooks"
wrote:
> 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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