Week 3, 9/14–18, Overview

I was pleased to see the terrific work that many of you have done in reading and writing about a complex book like Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing. I hope you are enjoying it!

In the coming week I’d like you to continue on with Odell. You need to read Chapters 2 and 3 (pp. 30–126) to complete Writing 4 (due this Tues, 9/15), and I will expect you to have finished How to Do Nothing by the week after. I’m also asking you to read Chapters 2 and 3 of Rewriting. The good news is, though, that that is the bulk of the reading for the course. As we move through the semester, our focus will shift more and more to your own writing.

If you did not have a conference with me this past week (9/08–10), you should be scheduled for one during this coming week (9/15–17). Check the Conferences page to make sure. If you haven’t yet scheduled a conference, you need to contact me immediately.

As always, I’ll be on Zoom from 2:30–3:00 on Monday to talk about the work for the week and to answer any questions you might have. I’ll also be holding Student Hours afterwards, from 3:00–4:00, if you’d like like to chat with me one-on-one.

I feel I need to issue an invitation and a warning at the same time.

• The invitation is this: I’m eager to work with you, and to connect with you during my Student Hours, by email, and on Twitter. The harder I see you working, the harder I will work for you.
• The warning is this: On the What to Expect page, I wrote that, “The only way you can mess up in this course, really, is to fall behind”. I am worried that a significant number of you seem to have already done just that. Missing assignments will hurt your grade. More important, it will interfere with your learning how to do this kind of writing, since the writing assignments in this course build one on the other.

To Do Next Week

1. Mon, 9/14: Read How to Do Nothing (Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 30–126) and Rewriting (Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 35–73). This reading will form the basis of Writing 4, due the next day.
2. Tues, 9/15, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 4 (Forwarding or Countering Odell) to this site.
3. Thurs, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 5 (Comments) to this site.
4. Tues, 9/15, Wed, 9/16, Thurs, 9/17: Come talk with me on Zoom, if you’re scheduled for a conference this week! (See Conferences for some thoughts on what we might talk about.)
5. Mon, 9/21: Finish reading How to Do Nothing.
6. Tues, 9/22, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 6, a brief review of How to Do Nothing, to Goodreads.