Hyper Text Blog

Here is the link to Google Docs where you can see the assignment sheet for the Sticky Note Hypertext book review, which will be due NEXT WEDNESDAY.

Look at the "Hyper-Text Book Report Blogs" page at the top column of this blog for past examples.

Definition Tips

For the most part the drafts of your beauty definition have been less than impressive.  That's not true for everyone, but there are several that are just far too generic and vague (and to be brutally honest) just plain boring for serious college level work.

Advice:

Don't write in generalities.  Want to drive your professors nuts? Want to totally illustrate to them that you have no idea what you're talking about? Then keep your writing vague and generic.

Examples -

"Many people in this world find beauty all around them."  Really?  Why don't you tell us something we don't know.

"What is beautiful to one person may be ugly to another."  Really?  Thanks for the blinding flash of insight!


How to cure this:

Drill down to specifics.  Remember, this is ultimately a personal definition essay.  The main word their is personal.  SHOW ME WHAT YOU REALLY, PERSONALLY THINK.  SHOW US A UNIQUELY PERSONAL DEFINITION OF BEAUTY TAKEN FROM EITHER YOUR LIFE OR FROM YOUR UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD.

Examples -

*  I'm sorry that many PC junkies will hate this, but the truth is simple: every apple product is beautiful in that there is absolutely no wasted designing.  Everything on an iPad, iPod, or MacBook Air serves the function of making the product easy to use and aesthetically appeasing.

*  The is beauty in death.  I know this is hard to fathom, but the morning my father died from lung cancer was beautiful.  After his passing, the family gathered in the adjacent waiting room to wait for the funeral home director.  We began telling stories about Dad.  Soon everyone in that room had tears in their eyes.  Not because we were sad.  Rather because we knew we had been blessed to have Dad in our lives.

In fact, the funeral home director actually did a double take before entering the room.  He couldn't believe we were in as good of spirits as we were.  We were wrapped in beauty.  We were celebrating Dad's life.


Examples for beauty --

Definition essay 1.0 + assignments

Since our week is going to be so brief thanks to the unfortunate snow day, we will forgo the cell phone hiatus until Monday and Tuesday of next week.

For today and tomorrow, we will begin discussing our next essay, which will be a definition essay.  You will be asked to devise two drafts and then develop one into a fully developed essay (replete with at least two sources).  This will be due late next week.

To begin examining how to define something, today I will assign the essay Pearls Before Breakfast, which asks the question, "Can we recognize beauty when we see it out of context?"  Read this tonight and leave feedback on this post in the form of two observations from it and then two responses to classmates' observations.

Here is a video from the story -





Next, to explore the concept of beauty and how we might define it, I want you to create a "beauty blog."  There are several former examples from past classes in the menu bar at the top of the blog.  Below is the assignment sheet.  Include ALL of these on your blog, which will be due Friday.

Beauty Scavenger Hunt for College Comp 2 

Then - for your first draft of an essay seeking to define beauty, write a short research based essay around your personal definition of beauty.  To help you with this, I am embedding a list of quotes about beauty.  You may use one of these quotes (or one you find on your own) to write your first definition draft around.  For this rough draft, you do not need to include a works cited.

Beauty Quotes by

Your beauty draft will be due on Monday.

So to recap, there are three things due

1. Read and post two observations (and then another two responses to classmates' observations) regarding the article "Pearls Before Breakfast."

2.  Create a beauty blog and send me the url by Friday.

3.  Have a draft of a personal definition essay of beauty by Monday.

Everything Bad Assignment for Monday

Johnson is quick to note how the complexity of TV (and pop culture) in general is not as sophisticated as todays TV and pop culture.  On the site below, offer one example from the past that illustrates this point.  Then find a current example from our pop culture that shows how much more complex culture is today.
 

Created with Wallwisher

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Week Three Syllabus

Source: Uploaded by user via Kurt on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Kurt on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Kurt on Pinterest