Due Monday, October 27

Post a comment of 250 words minimum in response to the following prompt:

Chapter Five of NextText explores the idea of making and remaking history. In the introduction to the chapter, Kress and Winkle write:

...the field of history is wider and more complex; it includes biography, autobiography, graphic narrative, and texts written from competing theoretical perspectives (for example, feminist, conservative, libertarian, etc.). At base, all histories relate and interpret information about the past. Interpretation is critical because once historians move beyond simply providing a chronology of dates, they begin to shape our understanding of events by creating a narrative, a causal chain...History, then, is not a static field; rather, it is an ongoing dialogue with the past that is always informed by the present.

Discuss how three of the following Chapter Five selections illustrate the idea that history is subjective and constantly changing.

• Clayborne Carson, "Malcolm X" (405)
• Sarah Vowell, "1776: A Musical about the Declaration of Independence" (413)
• "Frontlines: Dispatches from U.S. Soldiers in Iraq" (420)
• John Hodgman, "The States, Their Nicknames and Mottoes, and Other Facts Critical to Safe Travel" (432)
• Anne Scott MacLeod, "Rewriting History" (440)
• Ian Mortimer, "Revisionism Revisited" (450)
• Robert Brent Toplin, "Judging Cinematic History" (457)
• Lynn Neary, "The Mixed Reviews of the Museum of the American Indian" (464)
• John Leo, "Googling the Future" (471)
• "A Portfolio of Graphic Novels" (476)

Research Exercises

Please visit the New Century Handbook Companion Site to complete the exercises for today's lab.

Due Wednesday, October 15

Part I: Post a comment of 250 words minimum in response to the following prompt: Jessi Hempel and Paula Lehman refer to the generation of students in college right now as the "MySpace Generation." For this response, serve as a representative of your generation and respond to some of the ideas in Chapter 3 of NextText. Are the writers accurate in their portrayals of the relationship you and your peers have with technology and online communities? Refer to at least three of the essays in Chapter 3 in your response.

Part II: In a separate comment, write a brief response to another student's post, expanding, questioning, or clarifying his/her ideas. Indicate the post you are responding to by referencing the student's name.

Due Monday, October 6

Post a comment of 250 words minimum - in paragraph form - in response to the following questions about the New York Times editorial you have chosen. Make sure to identify the author, title, and date of the editorial.

• What is the editorial writer's thesis?
• What do you think the writer hopes to achieve (the purpose) by publishing this editorial?
• Describe in detail how the writer makes his point.
• Do you locate any logical fallacies in the editorial?
• What would the writer's opposition argue?
• Do you agree with the writer?