The Oatmeal Teaches You How to Use a Semi-Colon!

People! If you are one of the lucky ones who got a bubble comment from me on your last paper regarding semi-colon usage and you are saying BUT I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO THAT THING, please get thee immediately over to the Oatmeal and have a gander. Loads of grammatical fun!
 

Click here for semi-colon goodness and hilarity, accompanied by English teacher-approved instruction.

Blog Journal #6: Self Evaluation, etc.

Due: Monday, December 10 by 9pm



Your final blog journal will include a self-evaluation and some last housekeeping items for our course. Please follow the guidelines, using the form of a numbered list as below:

1. Self-Evaluation

Here we are at the end of our time together, and I'd like you to reflect on your personal experience in English 15S. THIS IS NOT A COURSE EVALUATION. (You'll get to do that in a minute...) Here, I want to talk about YOU. What did you learn this semester? About writing? About Penn State? About yourself? About the arts near and far and your relationship to them? This is a place to reflect on your process and progress, and I'd like you to do that specifically and thoughtfully, in a post of 500-1000 words.

2. Blog Response Round-Up

Please provide the url addresses for each blog post of your classmates' which you commented on this semester. You are required to have responded to 10 individual posts. 

3. SRTE Evaluations

The link to the course evaluations (SRTE) can be found on ANGEL. Please take a moment to fill this out--it's important!--and then post a sentence under #3 of your final blog journal that says, "Hi, Ms. S--I completed my SRTEs!" 

The Art of Poetry Series--aka, come hear your teacher read poetry!

The Palmer Museum of Art presents

The Art of Poetry

with

Sheila Squillante & Paul Bilger
reading from and discussing
their forthcoming limited edition artist's book,

Another Beginning

Wednesday, December 5
12:10 p.m
Palmer Museum of Art

  

Paul Bilger is an experimental photographer and a lecturer in Philosophy and English at Penn State. His photography has appeared on the cover of music releases by Dead Voices on Air, Autistici, and Brian, and has been featured at qarrtsiluni, Kompresja, Smokelong Quarterly, and will appear in a forthcoming edition of Brevity. You can find more of his work here.

Sheila Squillante is the author of four chapbooks of poetry, A Woman Traces the Shoreline (Dancing Girl Press, 2011);Women Who Pawn Their Jewelry (Finishing Line Press, 2012); Another Beginning (Kattywompus Press, forthcoming, 2013); and In This Dream of My Father (Seven Kitchens Press, forthcoming, 2013). Her work has appeared widely in print and online journals like Brevity, The Rumpus, No Tell Motel, quarrtsiluni, MiPoesias, Phoebe, Cream City Review, TYPO, Quarterly West, Literary Mama, Glamour Magazine and elsewhere.  She has been the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, Dzanc’s Best of the Web and Sundress Publication’s Best of the Net anthologies. She teaches writing at Penn State. Visit her website for more information.

Major Paper Revision Assignment

Draft Workshop: Wed., Dec. 12

Due: Fri., Dec. 14

Purpose

Choose either the Memoir or the Visual Analysis you wrote for our course, and revise it.  Rather than starting over or taking a radically new direction, work with the draft you turned in to bring it up to your current writing level.

Invention

Keep in mind as you brainstorm/draft:

●    This is a chance to revise, not start over.  You may need to reconsider everything from the material you included to the audience you addressed to the style you used, but your new draft should be working toward the same purpose as the original was; it should be the same sort of paper, trying to accomplish the same goals.

●    Consider the comments you received on your final draft as a starting point, not a laundry list.  The comments are necessarily brief and point to only the most important things that need addressing.  To revise successfully, you will want to get input from as many people as you can, including, probably, more extensive comments from the instructor.

●    You may need to find more information, or read new sources, to really improve on the original paper.  It is expected that your revision will differ substantially from the original draft, and much of that may be new material.

●    The standards for the revision are higher than those for the original paper.   Think beyond simply “fixing” the paper’s problems to see how you can make it stronger, more coherent, more eloquent; use what you have learned.

Expectations

A successful revision will:

1.        Address significant problems with the original paper;

2.       Work toward the same goals as the original, and do it better;

3.       Appeal to the audience more successfully and subtly;

4.       Work more consciously within the expectations of the genre and medium;

5.        Marshal better emotional appeals, logical reasoning, and examples to enhance your points;

6.        Improve on the original’s style, tone, humor, phrasing, metaphors, word choices, etc., where applicable.

7.        Demonstrate what you have learned in this course.

Length: See original paper requirements.

Special Grading Consideration: You will receive a separate grade for your revision, as it is a separate assignment from the original paper. Please note that it IS possible to earn a LOWER grade on your revision. This can happen if you don’t pay very close attention to the expectations listed above.

However, assuming you surpass the original grade with your revision, I will also bump the original grade by ½ a letter. 

Assignment: Critical Introduction

DUE: Monday, Dec 3

For the Curated Art Exhibit project, each group is required to write a 6-10 page critical introduction that will serve two purposes:

1. Demonstrate to your professor that you have an understanding, both broad and deep, of your chosen phenomenon in the arts;

2. Orient your audience (both real and imagined) to the rhetorical situation of your exhibit, help them understand the main purpose of the collection, and situate your work inside of a larger conversation about the arts.


Invention:

As you research and begin to draft, ask yourselves the following questions:

• What is the historical/cultural lineage of my art piece? Out of what tradition(s) does it emerge?
• What changes has it undergone between the moment of inception to its current, contemporary iteration? 
• What forces--cultural, political, social, economic, etc.--helped to shape its trajectory and make it into the piece I am showcasing in my project?
• Were there major players other than the artist--stakeholders, critics, community members, etc.--whose influence helped shape or guide the making of the art? 
• What/who are the artistic "peers" of my art piece? That is, are there other, similar phenomena with which my piece shares commonalities? In what important ways does my piece differ from those other phenomena?
•  Why have I chosen these particular pieces to appear together? How does each function on its own? How does its function change when placed into the larger context (rhetorical situation) of the exhibit? 
• Who are the artists responsible for these pieces? What can you say about their careers? What artistic vision do they claim to follow? What have they said about their own work?
• Why is the art in my exhibit worthy of attention, study or celebration? 

   Note: You may not address every one of the above questions, but you should be considering many of them as you research and decide which are most compelling to include in your introduction. 

    Composition:

Consider the best way to begin: the introduction to the introduction, as it were. How will you set the scene for your audience? How will you make them understand the importance of your exhibit and suggest to them why they should care about it early on?

Consider organization: how will you arrange the information from your research in such a way that it flows logically and persuasively for your audience? Will you follow a chronological order, for instance? Or will you instead seek to organize around central themes? Will you begin by discussing the critical reception of the work or the controversies surrounding it or will you focus first on the stated vision of the artist? 

Consider how to end: what do you want your audience to take away from your introduction? How will you leave them with a full understanding of what they have just learned? How can you conclude so that your audience wants to immediately go to your exhibit to learn/experience more? 

Consider how to create consistency of voice and tone. See this resource for good tips about how to approach the drafting, writing and editing process for collaborative work.

Format:

Introductions should include the names of all group members, the date, the section # and the project name/title. 

 Consider using headings and sub-headings in your paper as a means of transitioning where applicable. This can be helpful to both writers and readers alike.

The critical introduction should adhere to standard MLA formatting, which uses in-text parenthetical citations. Please visit this site for comprehensive instructions. 

 Your annotated bibliography should include at least five sources, some of which MUST be secondary in nature. That is, you must include information that other people (critics, academics, etc) have written about your subject. 

 Presentation:

 All critical introductions must be uploaded as a .doc or .docx file attachment in an ANGEL drop box by the due date. 

They may also appear, either in whole or part, in your actual exhibit.

Assignment: Art Captions

For this part of your Curated Art Exhibit Project, you will be required to write eight captions (previously referred to as "Art Statements") to accompany each of the chosen exhibit pieces.

Purpose:

The purpose of the caption is to offer the viewer the following vital information regarding the piece during their visit to your exhibit:

1. What is the title of the piece?
2. Who is the artist? When were they born? When did they die? Where are they from?
3. What is the medium of the piece? That is, is it a photograph? A sound recording? A painting? A mixed media collage? Be as specific here as you can be. For instance, "Mixed-media collage using filament, bed springs and bird seed." "Turtle Pecan Brownie Bars with Cream Cheese Filling." "Excerpt of Email Interview with Dr.Lionel Peachy, Associate Professor of Speech Communications, Penn State University." (*Note: many of your pieces will be photographs of the artwork itself. In that case, there is no need to say "Photograph of ceramic sculpture." Just say "Ceramic Sculpture.")
4. What year was the piece created?

Beyond the above "vitals" of the piece, your caption should go on to provide some relevant context for the piece. What do you know about the piece's genesis? Why did the artist make it? How was it received by the critics and the general public? Why was/is it important to the larger world? 

Finally, why did you, the curator, decide to include this piece? Here is where you can use the pronoun "I" and reflect on your choice in a more personal way.

Scope:

The scope of the caption should be large enough to provide an immediate grounding for the viewer and a rationale for the inclusion of this piece in your exhibit, but it should not be exhaustive. That is to say, it should touch upon information that your critical introduction will then make more elaborate. 

Length:

Each caption should be between 300 & 500 words. Word count includes vitals.

Format:

Each caption must adhere to this format:

"Title"

Artist Name, Country of Origin, Dates

Medium

Year of Creation

BLANK SPACE

Paragraph about context and critical/public reception.

BLANK SPACE

Paragraph about your choice to include the piece in the exhibit. 

Other considerations:

Remember that writing for the internet/blogosphere can and should be more casual than writing you would find in an an academic journal. The tone and voice in your captions should be engaging, conversational and inviting, while at the same time, informational, lucid, well-organized and completely error-free.

Blog Journal #5: In the Red and Brown Water

Due Friday, November 16th by 9pm


For your fifth blog journal, you will write a response to your experience of attending a showing of the play, In the Red and Brown Water, at the Playhouse Theater on Penn State Campus.

In a post of about 500 words, please provide answers to the following:

1. Summary. Who were the main characters and what was the main plot of the show?

2. What struck you as the most important thing about the story for the main character(s)? What was at stake for her or him? Did she/he achieve what she/he set out to achieve?

3. Who/what were you most compelled by in the performance? Why? Provide specifics.

4. Do you have any critiques of the performance? What are they?

5. Was this your first time seeing a live theater performance? If so, what did you think? Did it meet/exceed/fall short of/change your expectations? If it was not your first time seeing live theater, how did this performance compare to others you have seen?

Assignment: The Project Update

Due Wed, 11/7 by 9pm

Each group must create a document that persuades the teacher that they are on track with their Curated Arts Exhibit Project. Please answer the following questions THOROUGHLY and THOUGHTFULLY.

1. Who are your group members? List them here.

2. What is the TITLE for your project? Don't have one yet? Time to get one. Remember that titles are the first key we give our readers for comprehension. If this is the only thing they see while surfing the web, would it make them want to stop and visit? Would it tell them enough about the work that they would have an idea of what they were likely to encounter there?

3. What research have you completed? What research do you still have planned? You MUST be able to list sources in the "done" column at this point. 

4. Who is responsible for what part of the project? How are you dividing the tasks at hand?

5. Has anything in your research or work so far taken you into new territory for your project? If so, what is it? Be specific. 

6. What are your plans for production of this project. At this point, you need to be able to say more than, "probably a blog." Be specific. 

7. What is your timeline for completion of the following tasks:

* annotated bibliography
* 750 word "art statements" about each individual piece that will speak specifically about the art, the artist and the reasoning for its inclusion in the exhibit. 
* 6-10 page introduction to the project that will orient your audience to the rhetorical situation and help them understand the main purpose of the collection, and situate your work inside of a larger conversation about the arts.

8. Is there anything specific you need from me? What is it? 

Assignment: The Annotated Bibliography

Due Wednesday, 11/14 by 9pm

Each group is required to prepare and submit an annotated bibliography with the textual materials for their project. You will hand this document in twice; one version on 11/14, and a possibly revised version with the final project itself.

So what is an annotated bibliography?

It's a document that lists all the research sources you've used for your project but it's more than just a works cited page.

The annotation part of this bibliography calls for you to summarize and evaluate each individual source (book, article, website, interview, etc.) you called upon during your research and writing.

What is a summary?

What is the main argument of this source? What is the book/article/interview about? What topics are covered? If someone asked you what it was about, what would you say?

What is an evaluation?

How does this source fit in with your research? Why are you using it? Has it helped you formulate your argument in important ways? Has it inspired you to change directions?

What's the point of writing one of these?

From Purdue's OWL: 

To learn about your topic: Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you're forced to read each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically instead of just collecting information. At the professional level, annotated bibliographies allow you to see what has been done in the literature and where your own research or scholarship can fit. To help you formulate a thesis: Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis. So a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being said about your topic. By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you'll start to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you'll then be able to develop your own point of view.

How long do these things need to be?

Each source in your annotated bibliography, you will begin with an official MLA works cited entry and then move on to dedicate one paragraph toward summary and one toward analysis. Paragraphs can be anywhere from three to many sentences long, depending on how detailed the individual source is.

For this project, you are required to list at least five sources on the version due 11/14. You may include more than that on your final version.

Can you give me an example? 

Of course! Go here and see the top example. Also note that you can click on a pdf link at the top for more.

Isn't there an online tool that can help me do this? 

YES!

So You Wanna be a Zombie!

THE STATE THEATRE NEEDS YOUR HELP!

We need additional volunteers for our Haunted Theatre next week! This is going to be a BLAST and we need cast members to play ghosts and zombies throughout the theatre. The Haunted Theatre runs Monday-Wednesday, October 29-31 from 6:30-11:30 pm and you can choose specific shifts. Most roles are non-speaking (but lots of grunting and groaning!), except for the Usher tour guides, who work from a script.

There is a training/rehearsal session this Sunday evening at 8 pm. It would be helpful to provide your own costume and makeup but we can help you!

If you are interested, please contact Richard Biever: Richard@TheStateTheatre.org or call 814-272-0606 ext. 307

Please spread the word-- and thanks!

Richard Biever, Executive Director

Memoir Assignment

Draft Due: Friday, November 9

Final Due: Monday, November 12

Length: 4-6 pages double-spaced

Purpose:

Recall, retell, and analyze a significant experience in your life, carefully choosing a sequence of events that supports a specific thesis and helps you fulfill your rhetorical purpose regarding a specific audience.

A narrative based on personal experience can serve to communicate some insight into our experiences, our feelings and our values. A meaningful narrative is more than just a list of things that happened: “I woke up, answered the ringing telephone, heard my mother’s voice tell me that my dog, Rover, was killed by a hit and run, threw the phone down, threw myself down and began to cry…” A meaningful narrative makes a point: “After my dog died,  I threw myself into the work of cleaning out my top desk drawer, culling and sorting through bits of love letters scribbled on angel-blue paper, red ribbons from swim team in seventh grade, a matchbook from Senior Prom at the Fireside Inn, a swatch of taffeta that was ripped from my dress as I clambered over the country-club fence to have a night swim with my date—the domestic energy and descent into living memory distracting me and pulling me through the grief of losing my beloved pet…” That’s the purpose of this writing: for you to draw upon your memory of a real, true experience that makes a point that all of us can learn from.

Invention:

Write about an experience that changed you. Think about a time in your life when something caused you to question or shift your perspective on life. This does not mean that it must be a tragedy or a death, though these are appropriately fertile options as well. A life-changing experience could very well be something that seems, at first, insignificant, boring or small: the summer you spent on your grandmother’s farm, the stranger you talked to at the bus stop this morning, how eating ice cream at the Creamery made you reconsider what it meant to be on your own for the first time. What did you learn from this experience? How are you different for having gone through it? In any case you will need to think of a moment which has stayed with you, one you know deep down had some real effect on you, and try to figure out what and why. Tell us the story so that we may feel what you felt, react as you reacted and learn what you learned.

Remember that you must limit your scope. You can’t possibly write about your entire life (Nor should you! That is autobiography, not memoir.), or even about your entire experience playing high school basketball in one essay. You must focus on some one thing: an experience within a larger context; a moment of change in a relationship.

Be sure that whatever you choose to explore in writing interests you and then write to interest readers and affect them in some way. As you decide what to write about, keep in mind:

* What do you want to say? What point are you trying to get across?

* Who are you writing to and why should they care? What do you hope they will do or feel as a result of reading your memoir?

In the end, you must work to evoke a powerful pathos response in your reader through the use of vivid, memorable, language, concrete details, plot, character and setting.

         

           

Expectations:

A successful personal narrative will:

• Focus on a significant experience;
• Use ample sensory details;
• Include dialogue that reveals information about your characters;
•  Employ transitions or a clear structure that will help your reader follow your narrative and/or logic;
• Showcase a personal narrative voice—your voice! (e.g, use a variety of sentence patterns and Lengths, don’t sound like you come from the bureau of statistics, and so on); and
• Provide reflection and analysis in order to help your audience understand the significance of the experience.  

Project Plan: Curated Art Exhibit

Due Wednesday, October 17^th, 9pm via email

Your subject line should read as follows: 

Group Project Plan/Section #/Last Names of Group Members

Instructions: Please answer the following questions as specifically and thoroughly as you can.

Group Members______________________________________________________________

1.       Describe the art you will be curating. Be very specific here. Not “photography,” but “photographs of Central PA barn doors from the 20^th century.” See the difference?

2.       Describe the medium in which you plan to work. (Podcast? Visual images? Written anthology? Etc.)

3.       Describe your vision for how to produce it. How do you imagine the final project will work?

4.       Explain your connection to this art. Why are you motivated to celebrate it?

5.       Who is your audience for this exhibit? Again, be specific. Not “everyone,” or “college students,” or “my teacher.”  How do you believe this project will help or connect with them? Why should they care about it?

6.       What research (if any) have you done at this point? What research do you have planned?

7.       Describe your plans for the division of labor among group members.

8.       When do you plan to meet again to work on this? Give me an actual date that has been agreed upon by all group members.

9.       Is there specific help you need from me at this point? What is it?

Blog Post #4: A Movie Review

DUE  Friday, October 12 at 9pm

300-500 words

For your fourth blog post, you will write a review of one of the "college" films you saw during the IAH Film Festival weekend.

Follow the guidelines we discussed in class, and refer to this list of "review parts" for help and reference. Remember to read (and re-read, as necessary) the reviews I posted in the schedule.

I will be looking to see that your criteria are stated clearly ("A great college movie includes, X, Y & Z") and that you use specific examples from the film to support your evaluation.

As always, I am expecting clean, error-free text, and thoughtful writing in your own voice. 

Have fun!

The Parts of a Review

Parts of a Review

1.    Hook. How to begin so the reader wants to keep reading?

-->   Quote, description, interesting fact, background, witty tone

2.    Establish specifics: When did the movie open? Who stars in it? Director? Awards? 

3.    Reviewer establishing their own ethos by showing they understand the broader context/seen all the movies, had a similar experience, etc.

4.    Move from evaluative claim to general/plot summary to specific evaluation, using concrete, specific imagery, sometimes figurative language. No spoilers! No rants!

5.    Includes quotes, specifics of many kinds. 

6.    Often includes brief discussion of how this THING fits into a broader context.

7.    Includes weaknesses, critiques, often situated between praising moments.

8.    Tone is often very casual, familiar. Depends on audience, of course.

9.    Often includes jargon or other insider details, depending on level of audience knowledge.

10.                       Ending--sums up, possibly suggests the best audience for the film, closes contract with reader established in beginning.

Arts/Cultural Opportunity: The Great Insect Fair!

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

Saturday, September 29th
10am-4pm
Bryce Jordan Center
FREE!

The Great Insect Fair is our annual extravaganza celebrating insects with lots of activities, games, crafts, tasty treats and fun for everyone!

Activities include:

• Build-A-Bug Contest: Bring your homemade insect for judging and prizes
• Moth & Butterfly Tent
• IPM/Pesticide Safety Putt Putt
• Cockroach Races!
• Honey Tasting
• Bee Observation Hives
• What Is in a Beehive?
• The Insect Deli
• Insect Zoo: Live exhibits of many insects!
• Bug Collectors and Collections
• The BugMobile Talking Car
• The Bug Doctor Is In! Ask your pest questions
• The Insect Construction Co.: Arts and crafts
• Face Painting and Games
• Vendors selling a variety of insect arts and crafts, books, and  T-shirts

Do we have food, you may wonder? You bet! Hungry folks at the previous Insect Fairs had the option of stopping by the Insect Deli to sample Wax Moth Larvae on Baba Ganoush (eggplant/tahini dip), Garlicy Red Bell Pepper Dip with Pita Bread, Potato/Rosemary Frittata enhanced with Meal Worms or the always popular "Chocolate Chirpies" (chocolate-covered crickets). Previous years have offered such tasty treats as fresh Vietnamese eggrolls with meal worms, barbecued vegetables and wax moth larvae, Meal Worm Roll-ups: Smoky Black Bean/Cream Cheese and Asian Pear, or meal worm bruschetta.
For the less adventurous, a food stand will be available with hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks, and ice cream!

For more information, contact the Department of Entomology, entomology@psu.edu.
The Department of Entomology
The Pennsylvania State University
501 ASI Building
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: 814-865-1895
FAX: 814-865-3048

Arts/Cultural Opportunity: Poet Geoff Goodfellow

Kalliope Literary Journal is proud to help host 

A CONVERSATION WITH GEOFF GOODFELLOW
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1 from 4:00 – 5:30 PM 
in the Grucci Room in Burrowes’ basement

"Geoff Goodfellow writes to the detail of recent experience. Of work and workers, of fathers and sons, of unemployment and the unemployed, of families and personal strife, of the ordinary and sometimes extraordinary struggle of working class Australians. And he does it in their language. Be assured he can be hilarious yet disturbing... familiar yet affronting... heart-warming yet in-your-face. He's likely to serve up words that will make you laugh, cry and ask for more" - read more about him here! He turned to poetry after being sidelined from boxing and construction contracting by an injury. Come to learn more about him, his poetry, and his work in prisons, rehabs, and schools. 

It's a great chance to talk with someone who is outside of academia and working in the arts world! This is open to everyone, so please feel free to bring friends and classmates.

Curated Art Exhibit Assignment

25% of final grade (15% group; 10% individual)

Project Plan DUE: 10/10

Project Update DUE: 10/31

Final Project DUE: 11/30

For this major project, you will work in groups of four to curate an exhibit in the arts for an interested, relevant audience.

This “exhibit” can take many forms. For example:

·         A collection of photographic images

·         A series of paintings or sculptures or other types of visual art pieces

·         A podcast of music

·         A selection of videos

·         An anthology of writing

·         Other? Sure! Come up with something.

Invention

Before you decide which medium you want to focus on, though, you need to decide what the purpose of your exhibit will be. What is the exigence for this argument? Do you want to showcase local student work at the elementary level? Focus on art that supports a particular political or social stance, like LGBT or women’s or worker’s rights? Illuminate an audience to hip hop or country music artists with a political platform? Introduce your audience to poets or fiction writers from your home state or a particular region? Investigate “performance artists” who trouble the line between taboo and socially accepted art?

The possibilities are numerous, but you must agree upon a rhetorical exigence that will drive the decisions you make about what to include in your exhibit. You must also consider a possible audience. Who needs to understand this art presented in this way at this time?

Once you decide what kind of art you want to showcase, then choose the medium that will best showcase the artwork. It might seem obvious that writing is normally displayed on a page or a screen, but maybe you want to record writers reading their work. You can create a website or a podcast or work in paper and ink. Whatever medium you choose, however, remember that the end product must be impeccably designed and professionally (or at least, very cleanly) produced, and that it must engage and enlighten the audience.

Some Sample Exhibits

These podcasts could be considered a curated look at pop music of the 1980s.

And this program features the work of poets just from Pennsylvania, printed on posters and distributed for free.

Here is an online exhibit of cat art. Meow.

This tumblr celebrates football…or, what we call soccer.

The Museum of Modern Art in NYC offers some video exhibits that might be of interest.

We’ll look at other examples in class together.

Penn State has resources to help you create all kinds of media-rich presentations, and based on your specific group needs, I will help you get connected with the appropriate services.

Production

Whatever medium you choose to work with, your exhibit must be contained. That is, it must exist someplace—either virtually or actually—as a whole that I (and possibly other audience members) can view all at once.

Probably the best venue will be a website or a blog that will showcase your exhibit. The Blogger platform we have been using for class would be an adequate space for such a project, but there are other options open to you as well, which you will learn about when visiting with the media librarians.

If you have other ideas for places or ways to show your work, come talk with me early on and I will help to facilitate.

Group Expectations

You will collaborate with your group members to:

·        --Decide upon the kind, purpose, audience and appropriate medium for your presentation;

·         --Meet regularly to work on the project inside and outside of class as needed;

·         --Research  and select the art;

·         --Arrange the individual pieces in a rhetorically interesting and persuasive way;

·        --Create the actual exhibit in the chosen medium;

·        --Assemble an annotated bibliography that details the sources you use in your research;

·         --Write a 6-10 page critical introduction to your exhibit that will orient your audience to the rhetorical situation and help them understand the main purpose of the collection, and situate your work inside of a larger conversation about the arts.

Individual Expectations

Each group member will be expected to:

·       -- Contribute two individual pieces to the overall exhibit;

·        --Write a coherent statement (around 750 words) about each of their chosen pieces that will speak specifically about the art, the artist and the reasoning for its inclusion in the exhibit;

·        -- Do their fair share of research and offer input and ideas freely and cooperatively;

·         --Complete both self and group evaluations of the process to be turned in with the final project.

Grading

Group Grade= 15%

·             2%--Annotated Bibliography

·             5%--Critical Introduction

·             8%--Final exhibit

Individual Grade= 10%

·             5%--2 Art Statements

·             5%--Overall contribution to group efforts

Each group will also create a Project Plan by Wednesday, October 10^th that details your ideas for the exhibit and seeks permission to go forward, and a Project Update by Wednesday, October 31^st, in which you detail your progress to that point. These documents will be sent to me via email, and I will provide more specific guidelines for each in class.

Arts/Cultural Blog Post #3: The Arboretum at Penn State

Due: Friday, 9/28 at 9pm
500-700 words


For your third blog post, please spend time reflecting on your experience wandering around the H.O. Botanical Gardens at the Penn State Arboretum.


We will likely come back to this experience later in the term when we've got arguments of definition and evaluation more firmly under our belt, but for now, I just want you to write freely about what you thought.

Was this your first trip to the Arboretum? Are you a nature-lover? Why or why not? Can you imagine coming here on your own? Bringing friends? What did you see? How did you feel? Did it remind you of something else in your life? Feel free to tell us about it. Please describe your experience in vivid, persuasive language and include pictures for visual interest if possible.

IAH Film Fest Schedule

Institute for the Arts and Humanities

Saturday, September 29, 2012 | 12p

Sunday, September 30, 2012 | 12p

PRICING: FREE ADMISSION

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On September 29-30, the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities will host its third annual film festival. This year’s theme is “College.”  Penn State is now in a process of reevaluating its educational mission, public face, institutional commitments, and defenses. This year’s film festival invites you on a filmic tour of various cinematic campuses in order to meditate on the meaning of higher education in America in our time. The IAH Film Festival will feature a number of films which offer a capacious understanding of the nature of College in all its promise, challenges, playfulness, sprawl, messiness, violence, ambition, pain, and spirit.   http://iah.psu.edu/about/

Festival Schedule / 2012

Saturday, September 29, 2012

12p – Breaking Away

2:15p – The Social Network

4:45p – Good Will Hunting

7:30p – The Big Chill

9:45p – Rope

11:30p – Animal House

Sunday, September 30, 2012

12p – Mona Lisa Smile

2:30p – Wonder Boys

5p – The Graduate

7:15p – Higher Learning

9:45p – Scream 2

12a – Old School

Arts/Cultural Opportunity: Susan Power to Read in Mary Rolling Reading Series

September 19
7:30 PM
Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library

Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and a native Chicagoan. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the author of three books: The Grass Dancer, a novel (Berkley, 1995); Roofwalker, a story collection (Milkweed, 2004); and the forthcoming novel Our Lady of a New World. The Grass Dancer was awarded a PEN/Hemingway prize in 1995 and Roofwalker a Milkweed National Fiction Prize in 2002. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous venues, including Best American Short Stories 1993, Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, Southern Review, and Granta. She has received an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a James Michener fellowship, Radcliffe’s Bunting Institute fellowship, Princeton’s Hodder Fellowship, and a United States Artists fellowship. She lives and teaches in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Upcomng Arts/Cultural Opportunities at Webster's Bookstore Cafe

Saturday September 15

Sizzle Stix 8pm - 11pm

About once a month, Stacy Glen Tibbetts' Sizzle Stix transform Webster's into the hot swing club of State College with their 30's style jazz.
Dancing is encouraged. $5 cover (kids are free). http://www.thesizzlesticks.com/

Sunday Brunch September 16

Richard Sleigh  Noon - 2pm

To call Richard Sleigh a harmonica master would, in fact, sell him short. As a soloist, he combines his fluid and highly developed rack-mounted harp playing with soul-filled vocals, intricate guitar, and soaring solo harp flights. Richard’s music is American roots - ranging from rural and urban blues, fiddle tunes, swing, country, gospel, to early rock and roll. He has performed with Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Bo Diddley, Dennis Gruenling, Steve Geyger and many others. His studio work includes award winning films, TV, radio, and theatre soundtracks and he has three solo releases - “Steppin Out”, "The Joliet Sessions”, and his most recent collection titled “Celtic Instrumentals”. You have to hear him perform Irish jigs and reels on the "harp" to believe it. On top of all that, he customizes harmonicas for some of the top players in the nation. He is a national treasure living right in our back yard.

Hear Richard's beautiful harp rendition of Over The Rainbow here.

Brunch starts at 10:30 - Music begins at 12:00
Please tip the artists
Parking in the Pugh Street garage right behind the store

Sunday Brunch Every Sunday we offer you a special brunch menu from 10:30am to 3:00pm made fresh while you enjoy some of the best performers from central PA. If you like them please put a few dollars in the tip jar. Rest assured, if we book them...they are gonna be good.

Find Us! Google Map to Webster's Sept 23rd Crawford & Buckalew from the Poe Valley Troubadours Sept 30th Chris Brown Crawford & Buckalew New blood Oct 7th Erin Condo Ruler of the Universe! Oct 14th Doug McMinn Blues Giant

133 E. Beaver Ave, State College PA   (814) 272-1410
http://www.webstersbooksandcafe.com/events