Seriously Funny              

Okay, all. Here it is: the link to the compiled and de-duped list of research-driving questions. Go nuts.

Two parts to this 750.

Part 1 (mandatory): Come up with a bunch of questions for your subject. What do you want to know about it? What are some different lenses you can use to look at its history (e.g. etymology, through the news, etc.)? Come up with at least five candidates.

In class, we’ll synthesize our questions and lenses to create a master list, kind of like we did with subjects and genres, so that when you go into the library, you’ll know what you want to know.

Which brings me to the other thing I wanted to talk about, which is why we’re doing this essay. How is it relevant to your life as a college student, and your larger life as a smart person loose in the world?

The first reason has to do with writing. After writing a ten (or so) page essay, you’ll probably think of yourself differently. I know I did after my first long essay in college. You’ll know that you’re capable of more than you may have thought back in September. Your idea of your intellectual capacity and your writing prowess will grow.

The second (and bigger) reason has to do with research. Coming up with good questions and understanding how to find answers is an important skill. Ten years ago, the challenge in research was in finding answers; now the big challenge is understand how to evaluate sources and sort through the massive junkpile of internet crap to figure out which of the million answers are factual and reliable.

This skill is not only relevant to any career, but to any life, as you’ll find out the first time you have a really sick kid and you’re up at midnight, scared out of your mind, sorting through page after page of Google results, trying to figure out what to believe.

Oh, and I almost forgot–

Part 2: Pick another couple of genres from the list (or come up with a new one), and write another creative tile or two.

This 750 is dedicated entirely to mudpit work for your upcoming essay. We’ll start digging into research soon enough, but for now I’d like you to access your existing knowledge about your subject. Lead off with a brain dump—what do you know about your subject already?

What’s your connection to it (why did you pick this subject)?

What are your feelings and opinions about this subject (it would be a good move to come back to this at the end, too, to see if your mind has changed at all)?

What stories do you have or know about this subject?

By the way, here’s the list of the list of possible genres your brains stormed up the other day.

Oh, and here’s a short clip from an interview with Daniel Nester, author of the mooning essay. What he says below might be useful to you in thinking about your own essay.

Why mooning, a short cultural history? And in the acknowledgments, you thank Operation Moon. How’d that work? How’d you choose your team? What was the editing process? Where there any close contender variations that didn’t make the final cut. Like, say, “Boon”: Somebody mooning while simultaneously booing, e.g., a referee, a local politician, that guy from Creed.

The initial impulse to write about mooning came from reading, rather randomly, an article on JSTOR, a scholarly database. I forget what I was researching, but when I came across Jeffrey S. Ravel “The Coachman’s Bare Rump: An Eighteenth-Century French Cover-up” (Eighteenth-Century Studies, Winter 2007: 279-308), an account of how, on on January 21, 1763, a coachman for a French nobleman mooned the audience after an opera performance, I just got lost in the whole mooning business. And I liked the idea of an essay being a collection of Real Knowledge, the whole notion of authorship really being that of a collector of other’s thoughts, not just personal musing yadda yadda yadda. I knew there were several nicknames for varieties of mooning — the pressed ham, for example, or the plumber’s crack — I sent out an email asking for different kinds of moons. I got a whole bunch from several corners of my life. Some passed along the email to people whom they knew would have names for different moons. Thank god for email, no matter what that John Freeman says. I wanted to give them all credit, so Team Moon it is!

Okay, guys, I just finished going through the list of potential subjects for your upcoming MRE. I weeded out any duplicates between classes, and any topics that I thought might set you up for research failure in this project. What’s left is still an impressive list: over 60 potential subjects.

By Friday, you’ll need to pick a topic (in addition to your other homework, which is on the assignment sheet). It doesn’t have to be from this list, but please consult with me if you start freelancing. You’d also do well to pick a backup topic, in case your first choice turns out to be too recent or too small to really research.

After you turn in your essays tomorrow, please schedule a 30 minute conference with me through http://tungle.me/furuness —which is also available through the Furuness Facetime link on the blog. During the first fifteen minutes, you’ll write a guided reflection letter while I read your essay, making ominous groans and tsk tsk sounds. During the second half of the conference, we’ll have a conversation about your work and put together a plan for revision.

Here’s what you’ll need to bring to our conference in JH305:

-pen & paper
-copy of your essay

For your reference, I’ll post this message on the blog, but I won’t chase you down with any begging reminders to schedule your conference. If you don’t schedule one, I’ll assume you don’t want to hear what I have to say, so I’ll just grade your essay without any comments.

Best of luck finishing up your essays tonight!