Ramiform Reading #6
Redux and reduced: January 18, 2016
The original purpose of these Ramiform Reading posts was to give you a predictable way to strengthen your understanding and emulation of good writing. Every two or three weeks, I’d post a few articles, attach questions and prompts, and fold whatever resulted into our grade-abated process. It was important enough to the overall ramiform nature of what we do to land on the first page of our course overview/calendar.
That prescribed schedule faltered in November and December. One post was absorbed directly into a Sisyphean High unit; another was bumped entirely. I hope we’ll get back on track in February. For now, my suggestion is that you sign up for the following:
When an essay resonates with you, spend some time breaking down its construction — its use of detail, its arrangement, its central meaning and approach, etc — and asking yourself what rhetorical elements you might emulate in your own writing. Record what you learn in some sort of metacognitive writing, and use the interstitial parts of the course to share what you gather with peers.
You can also keep an eye on our course Twitter feed. It has evolved to serve much the same purpose as the Ramiform Reading posts, minus the ETA questions and prompts. For example:
If these Ramiform Reading posts don’t return, it will be because Twitter is more effective at meeting our needs. That’s possible, I think, if you have internalized the universal languages for learning and writing; then you might not need prompts and context to analyze and emulate good writing.
One more thing: Two of the articles originally intended for this weekend’s Ramiform Reading post have been converted into assignments on our course website. Be certain you’ve read them:
Instead of focusing on what you might emulate from the essays contained in those posts, your job is simply to respond to the posts. Leave comments. Engage your teacher and your peers in a discussion of the lessons and structures of our class.
If you’d like to revisit any of the desultory efforts to build this part of the course, you can load the collection below:
