My first assignment this term is to write two profiles of the same person, who is one of my classmates. I interviewed Mary during our first class session (incidentally, I have to take a moment to whine. The summer term is only eight weeks, the class meets twice a week, which means that each class is 2 hours and forty-five minutes long -- yeah, it's a week's work every day. Even with a break in the middle, it's too long for me.). Anyway, we went through the questions Dr. Toffee gave us, and I couldn't think of anything else to ask. This is my problem: I had no idea what kind of "angle" to take on either profile, and according to the assignment sheet, I have to have an angle. Things got worse, too, since Mary couldn't handle the long class periods. (this is funny--my Zemanta feed is giving me all kinds of pictures of the Virgin Mary; none of them look much like her, since she's kind of goth.) She dropped after the first class. So now I've written my profiles (I focused on how she wanted to work with children; yeah, I couldn't see it either), and I don't really know if they're anything like she really is. I wanted to email her to ask a few more questions, but she said she doesn't believe in email -- as if it's some kind of supernatural concept or something.
We did a peer review workshop on the profiles, and my reviewer didn't give me much help, but in a way, that made me realize that I wasn't sticking to a point the way I should. I'm afraid my essays came out sort of negative. But, she'll never know, so I guess it's okay.
My point here is that if I'd just been more alert during the first class I would have gotten more out of her, and I'd definitely have better profiles. Why is it that these things never occur to you when they could do you some good?
Well, the article below is an interesting profile, even if mine aren't.
Rhonda is back! This summer, she is taking the first course in the composition sequence, so you can consider these postings a "prequel." The course is not a research-writing class, but I always include a research component in every major assignment, though the students generally don't realize that. They think that it's only research writing if you are using books or articles. For her first assignment this summer, Rhonda had to interview a classmate and write two different profiles of him: one for the state department of education (for a needs-assessment study), and the other for a recruiting magazine the college wants to distribute. We'll see how she does this term.
"Dr. Toffee"
Image by Enokson via Flickr
