Welcome to Play | Make | Write | Think

Hello and welcome to ENG101.09: Play | Make | Write | Think.

This post will be updated very soon with more information, but in the meantime please make sure you read over this website very carefully as it constitutes the syllabus for this course. Note that the Syllabus page includes a number of subpages, covering such topics as: how to contact me; the course learning objectives; the texts you need to buy; attendance, participation, and other policies; and how you will be graded. There is also a calendar of reading and assignments; and pages describing the major and minor assignments this semester.

Add this site to your bookmarks. Make certain that you can find your way back here, because you’ll be spending a lot of time visiting these pages over the course of this semester.

31 comments

    1. I am looking forward to all of these texts, to be honest. But probably Spinning is the one that I’m most looking forward to re-reading and seeing how you react to it.

    1. There will be other texts, mostly ones that are available online or that will be available on electronic reserves in the library. Next week you’ll read a chapter from Understanding Comics and then not too long after that, I’ll have you read a chapter from another book by the same author, Making Comics. I’ll also scan and place on reserves a short piece by Dan Roam on drawing to understand and communicate ideas: Draw to Win.

  1. After reading the syllabus and having our first class this past week, I am very excited for what this semester will bring for this class. I was curious as to when you would like us to begin having the individual conferences?

    1. The sketches and major projects will all be under the sssignments tabs. David’s posts is for any other communication from me to you. Sometimes I’ll put up questions to think about or prompts for in class exercises there. But significant assignments will all be described in the assignments tab.

  2. I am very excited for this class I was wondering how you would like the homework assignments to be submitted? Will we be uploading all of our sketches and writings to our own websites? Thank you! 🙂

  3. I wonder: what is one thing you’d like to see from us or the work we’ll hand in?
    The syllabus seems very clear!
    I am curious: is there any comic or author that we won’t be reading in class that you would recommend?

    1. I want you to develop your own theories of writing — to explore different strategies for approaching different writing tasks and to develop confidence that your writing can be insightful and engaging for a range of audiences.

      We’re not reading Alison Bechdel, but I highly recommend her work, especially Fun Home.

  4. I am excited to delve into the assigned reading for the course and was particularly intrigued by your description of David Small’s memoir. Most of my questions were answered by the syllabus–though I am curious as to how much of each class meeting will consist of peer editing versus discussion of the assigned reading. I am definitely looking forward to this class!

    1. It will vary a lot class to class. You’ll do some sort of writing in class almost every time we meet, though what that looks like will be different class to class.

    1. Cool that you’ve done some analysis of comics before! I’ll be interested to hear from you how the sorts of analysis we do in this class are similar to and different from how you’ve talked about comics in the past. There will be some assignments that are particularly analysis heavy and others that will be creative — but hopefully for most of the assignments in this class you’ll be both creative and analytical at the same time.

  5. The syllabus is really clear and most questions I had were answered during class, but I am curious as to how drawing-heavy the assignments will be. Anyways, I’m really looking forward to what this class has in store!

    1. I’m curious too! I assigned a similar literacy narrative assignment last spring and it seemed to be interesting for most of the class.

    1. You’re not late! These things that seem complicated and confusing to you right now will all seem simple and easy by December.

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