Writings 18 and 19: Essay Two

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I’ve already asked you to post the final draft of your second essay to Medium by 4:00 pm on
Tuesday, October 20, and to email me the link to your piece. (Otherwise I won’t be able to read and grade it!) But you’re not quite done yet. There are two more things I’d like you to do.

• The first is to make a brief post to this site that includes (a) the link to your piece on Medium, and (b) a brief description of, or “teaser” for, your essay, addressed to your classmates. This will count as Writing 18. It’s due by 4:00 pm on Thursday, December 3.
• The second is to read a few of your classmates’ essays and to post a brief comment on at least three of them. You can do this in the comments section under their post on this site. These comments will count as Writing 19. They are due by 4:00 p,m on Tuesday, December 9.

My hope is that knowing about Writing 19 will shape your strategy for composing Writing 18. That is, you want to interest people in reading your essay. Here are some strategies for doing so.

• The title of your post should be the title of your essay (which itself should be catchy and interesting).
• Find a striking and relevant featured image. (If you have a good one, you might use it for both Medium and WordPress.)
• Think about using two paragraphs to describe your essay. In one you might describe your project in writing—what you we’re trying to do in your piece and what it’s about. In the other you might include a really good quote from your essay.
• Come up with a couple of good tags for your post that describe your perspective on Odell. So “Jenny Odell” or “attention economy” would not be especially inspired tags. But “James Hetfield” or “valuable dead time” or “what-it-is” might be.

I will post a list of Essay Two titles and links on Wednesday morning. This should help you determine who has written about a text that interests you. Even still, though, for Writing 19, browse around a little bit before you commit yourself to commenting on a piece. Try to find pieces that you can say something more in response to than just “Good job!” (although that would be appropriate at this point). See if you can make some connections of your own to what the authors are writing about.

Essay Two

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

NOTE: The directions for posting your final draft of Essay Two are exactly the same as for Essay One. I have simply changed deadlines so you have them handy. Good luck!

Please post the final version of your second essay to Medium.com. Send me the link for this piece by Tuesday, December 1, at 4:00 pm. Then post a link to and a description of your essay to this site by Thursday, December 3, at 4:00 pm. This second post will count as Writing 18.

I will post a list of all Essay 2s to this site, so you can get a quick sense of who has written about a text that interests you. As with Essay One, I’d like you to read at least three of your classmates’ pieces on Medium and post some comments on them on this WordPress site. This work is due by Tuesday, December 8, at 4:00 pm. It will count as as Writing 19.

You can post your essay to Medium as an “unlisted” piece—which means that only those people to whom you send the link for your essay will be able to access and read it. Or you can make your piece public—available to anyone who happens to stumble upon it. The choice is yours.

In either case, I will expect you to present your essay as professionally as you can. (You may want to consult my brief piece on Formatting on Medium.) Think of a good title. Find an interesting header image. Be sure to document the texts you cite and to provide captions for any photos or videos you use. Select relevant tags. Edit your prose for clarity and style. Make thoughtful use of the formatting options (bold, italics, BLQ) offered in Medium. Use paragraphing and white space to make your piece more attractive on the screen. Proofread.

I’ll use the form at the bottom of this page in assigning and explaining your grade. I will try to have grades back to you within a week.Your letter grade is not negotiable, but I am always willing to talk more with you about your writing.

Once you have posted your second essay, description (W18), and comments (W19), you will have completed almost all of your work for this class. Congrats! The only thing you will have left required to do is to submit anonymous comments on this course (Writing 20). But please remember that you also have the option of revising one of your final essays for a higher grade. This revision will be due on Tuesday, December 15. If you’d like, I’ll be happy to talk with you on Zoom about your plans for revising. You can contact me later this week to make an appointment.

Good luck! I look forward to reading your work!