Your primary task with this assignment is to read one new text you’ve never read before. You’ll do things as you read and after you read to get the most out of this reading experience. If you’re not sure what you want to read, I encourage you to peruse the list of recommendations I’ve been building. You are not limited to the texts on this list! My only requirement is that you select a written text that addresses some aspect of immigration. It should be something you haven’t read before. We will discuss how the plot is constructed for each of the texts you’ve chosen, but this doesn’t need to influence your choice of text. Every story has a plot.
You will follow the same steps as you did in assignment one to chronicle and process your reading experience in a post for our course website. You can return to the prompt for our first assignment if you’re fuzzy on the details. We’ll be following these same steps for the fourth assignment this semester, so this will start to feel familiar
Part 1: Draft your post on course website
- Describe your experiences
- Classify your experiences
- Describe the features prompting your experiences
- Try to determine the narrative technologies used to create the features you describe
Part 2: Revise your post, making sure it includes
- Any sources clearly cited (hyperlinks for online sources and in-text citations for print sources) with a list of works cited at the end.
- Title
- Featured Image (usually an image associated with the story you’re writing about)
- Complete media file details for featured image and any other images included in post.
- “caption” field should include an attribution statement (TASL guidance here)
- “alternative text” field should provide a summary of what is in the image
- “description” field should include the URL for the image file you downloaded
FAQs
- Should I choose something short so I can finish reading in time? You don’t need to finish reading the text you select in order to complete this assignment.
- Should I do research on what I’m reading? Only if you want to. You can process your reading experience without looking at what others have said about the text, but some students like getting the perspective of others. If you do look at secondary sources, please mention this as you describe your experience with the text (even if you don’t wind up citing the sources).
- So, this isn’t a typical “English paper”? No, it isn’t. There is no requirement to have a single argument or claim. You are not required to find peer-reviewed sources to support or contextualize what you want to say. There is no requirement to be original. I want you to let your interests guide you and share your experiences, questions, and theories with me (and your classmates!).
- Can you share an example of what a finished product is supposed to look like? Yes! I will create an example post with something I’m reading for the first time. You’ll get an e-mail when I publish it.
- Do I have to share my post with classmates? You can choose to share your post with classmates or share it only with me (set your post to private if you only want me to see it).
- How will you grade this? This assignment is graded on a pass/fail basis. If you engage with the task and turn in a project, you will get 100%.
