Homework for Monday, April 30, and other dates

Write a draft for a short piece that responds to one of the following prompts:

1. Look at the last paragraph of Didion's "On Morality" (it's a long paragraph) and write a (long) paragraph about morality in the post-9/11 world. Like Didion, start your paragraph with a sentence that begins,"You see I want to be quite obstinate about insisting that we..."

2. As Ericsson categorizes and defines lies in "The Ways We Lie," categorize and define at least three kinds of facts.These facts and their definitions must have some bearing on 9/11. Your examples don't have to come directly from something related to 9/11, but you should make connections between your examples and 9/11. You may open and close your piece with two or three sentences that provide a context for understanding the nature of facts after 9/11.

If you have any uncertainties about either topic, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

The final version of this piece will be due on Wednesday, May 2.

In class on Monday, April 30 (day 1; last block) you will write a synthesis essay on 9/11. There is nothing you can do to prepare for it except to put yourself in the right frame of mind for writing it. You will have fifteen minutes to read the sources and forty minutes to write the essay. During the reading period, you may take notes and organize the essay, but you may not begin writing the essay. After the essay, we will discuss the argumentative essay on Thomas Paine and America.

On Wednesday, May 2 (day 3; second block), you will write both a rhetorical analysis essay and an argumentative essay. Be sure to arrive early for class so you have the benefit of the full eighty minutes.

On Friday, May 4 (day 5, first block), you will complete another hour-long set of multiple-choice questions.

Additional Resources for 9/11 and Loose Change

If you're trying to sort through the various issues raised by reading The 9/11 Commission Report and viewing Loose Change, the resources below may be of some help to you.

New York Times Interactive Feature: Inside the Towers
New York Times Interactive Feature: How the Towers Stood and Fell (heavy on engineering and design)
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Final Report on the Collapses of the World Trade Center Towers 
Screw Loose Change (a blog whose title describes its raison d'etre)

Homework for Tuesday, April 24

In "On Dumpster Diving," Lars Eighner takes a term that has certain connotations and explains what it really is. In light of your reading of The 9/11 Commission Report and viewing of Loose Change, write a short essay (two to three pages) that explains what terrorism is. Like Eighner, try to use a variety of strategies (personal, ethical, analytical, and so on) to make your point. The final version of this essay will be due Thursday, April 26.

In class on Tuesday, you will finish viewing Loose Change and we will review your first drafts of the Eighner-like essay.

Homework for April 18 and April 20

For April 18, begin working on a two-page Swiftian response to 9/11. After completing The 9/11 Commission Report, you may feel some outrage and dismay. Consider Swift's approach to expressing outrage and dismay about poverty in Ireland, and write a satirical piece about a solution to the anxieties generated by 9/11. Keep in mind how Swift remains serious despite the extremity of his proposal, and only injects his actual view on the topic toward the end of "A Modest Proposal." A rough (but typed) paragraph or page is sufficient.

For April 20, complete the Swiftian essay described above.

During Wednesday's class, you will write an essay asking you to analyze a passage; after writing the essay, we will discuss The 9/11 Commission Report and your Swiftian response to it.

During Friday's class, you will write an essay asking you to formulate an argument; after writing the essay, we will begin viewing a documentary about 9/11.

In-Class Work on Monday, April 2

Since many of you don't have much information about 9/11, I thought it would be a good idea for you to acquire more background on that day and it's aftermath prior to reading the narrative presented in The 9/11 Commission Report. The Report was published in 2004, almost three years after the attacks, so its early readers experienced the report with the events fresh in their minds. While you cannot recreate that state of mind, I thought it might be helpful to read accounts of those days and months of the early post-9/11 world.

First, spend five-to-ten minutes writing down your memories of September 11, 2001. I want you to do this so you don't confuse your memories with the words and images you are about to read and view. Next, go through as much of the material below as you can in forty-five minutes to an hour.  Then spend ten-to-twenty minutes putting together a response that tries to make sense of that time, a little more than ten years ago. Whatever you don't finish writing in class, you can finish before starting the homework for Wednesday, which is described in the post below.

Don DeLillo: The Terror of September 11
The Onion Responds to 9/11
9/11 and Language
The 9/11 Decade--Oral History
9/11's "Most Controversial" Photo
10 Events "More Important" than 9/11
9/11 Found Objects
Where Was I: An Interactive Map of 9/11
James Nachtwey's 9/11 Photographs
The 9/11 Decade--Artists Respond