English 1010, Spring 2008, O'Donnell
[ Syllabus ] [ Calendar ] [ Readings ]
READINGS
Last update: January 2008
This page contains links to various readings of interest on the web. Some, but not all, of these readings will be assigned during the semester. Click on "Calendar," above, for specific reading assignments and due dates.
I. "A" Essays by ETSU Students
Here are some of the better essays students have written for my courses, in the
past few years. I've arranged them here according to the assignment for
which they were written. All of these essays earned
"A's". -- KOD
A . Narrative/ Writing from Experience and Observation
- Bend Your
Knees: A Painful Lesson at the 1993 Grundy Wrestling Tournament, by Jasen
Bacon, 3130 S07
- Exploring
Atlantis: Mother and Son Bond While Traversing Santorini, by Jared Moffett,
3130 S07
- Dangerous Acts of
Stupidity: How Applying Makeup While Driving Can Paint Your Face with Injuries,
Rather Than Beauty, by Jessica Reagan [pseudonymn] 3130 S07
- Desert Sand
Blows Away Army Wife’s Dreams of Marriage: The Day Specialist Nixon Left for
Deployment to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, by Amber Nixon, 3130 S07
- A
Lifetime of Stories: My great-grandpa’s
life as told to me by my grandpa and my great-grandpa, by Elizabeth Bowman,
3130 F07
- Meet the Mo’s: My Trip
to China to Visit My Girlfriend and Her Family, by Dustin Hodge, 3130 S05
- Surviving Your First Night at Bonnaroo: One
Young Couple’s Odyssey, by S. W., 3130 F07
- Walking the
Dark Path: A Tour of Auschwitz in July 2006, by Rhonda Hoover, 3040 F07
- What
Your Lamaze Class Doesn’t Teach You: Survival Tips for Hosting a Party During
Childbirth, by C. R., 3130 F05
B. Review / Criticism
- The Blues from
the Shadows: Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick [review],
by Gary Harrison, 3130 S04
- Davy
Crockett Truck Stop: A Great Place to Eat, Anytime of the Day or Night, by
J. M., 3130 F05
- A
Great Book and a Powerful Vocabulary: Frank Portman’s King Dork, by
Kate Pierce, 3130 F06
- Intimacy
in a Strip Club: A Closer Look at "Closer", by Christi Jensen,
3130 S05
- Put
Something In: The Contributions of Shel
Silverstein, by Aletha S. Meyer, 3040 F07
- Revisiting
Nirvana’s "Unplugged in New York", by Jeremy Arnold, 3130 S05
- You
Are What You Eat: A Review of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma,
by Ashley Million, 3130 F06
- Supernatural
and Just Plain Super: How "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Has Captured the
Hearts of a Generation, by Lindy Russell, 3130 F05
- Working
for Peanuts: How Charles Schulz’s Characters Created a Holiday Tradition,
by S. W., 3130 S05
- Would
You Like Some Cheese With Your Whine?: "Sideways" Delivers, by
Mary Fortune (pseudonymn), 3130 S05
C. Academic Writing/ Writing from Sources
- The
American Dream: The Southside Chicago Origins of the Harlem Globetrotters,
by Chris M. Brown, 3130 F07
- Decadent
Disordering of the Senses: The Eccentric Life and Times of Arthur Rimbaud,
by Audrea Evans, 4057 S06
- Faking
It: The Fake Louis Vuitton Phenomenon, by Jewel Aldea, 3130 S05
- Following
the Prophet: A Comparison of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, by Bethany Mason,
4057 S06
- Halloween:
It’s a Scream! How a Superstitious Pagan Ritual Became a Quintessentially American
Holiday, by Megan Jewell Kerns, 3130 F06
- Will
the Circuit be Unbroken: Robert Moog and his Contribution to Modern Music,
by Denise de Ribert, 3040 F05
D. Expository/ Explanatory Writing ("How-to")
- Function
and Fashion Right in Front of Your Eyes: Choosing the Perfect Eyewear, by
Jared Moffett
- A
Camper’s Guide to Roan Mountain State Park: Helpful Information for Campground
Guests, by A.K., 4057 S06
- Cooter
Stew: A Southern Appalachian Family Tradition, by Carmen Brooks, 3130 F05
(republished in Now and Then: The
Appalachian Magazine 22, 2 (Fall/ Winter 2006).
- Delicious
Deer: A Guide to Preparing Some Tasty Venison Dishes, by Ashley D. Million,
3130 F06
- Following
the Prophet: A Comparison of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, by Bethany Mason,
4057 S06
- How
to Go Flea Marketing In the Tri-Cities Without Going Broke: Having a plan and
knowing how to bargain will save you money, by Suzie Bargain (pseudonym),
3130 F06
- Romance
in a Glass: Selecting Wine, by Anita Shell, 1010 S04
- Trace
Unseen: A very simple, easy-to-perform card trick that will get a great
response, by Devin Marston, 3130 F06
II. Professional
Writing
Arranged by assignment mode.
A . Narrative/ Writing from Experience and Observation
- "Girl
Meets Bluegill: How I (Nearly) Taught My Daughter to Love Fishing." Bill Heavey. Field and Stream 2005.
(Click here
for a cached version.)
- from "Life
in a New-York Market", one of Walt Whitman's New York Aurora
Editorials, 1842.
- "Worms,
Germs, and Christmas," by David Sedaris, The New Yorker, 1
August 2005.
- "Of Smels and
Odors [Chapter LV]," from Montaigne's Essays, Florio's translation
(1603).
B. Review / Criticism
- "Absolute
PowerPoint: Can a Software Package Edit Our Thoughts?," by Ian Parker,
The New Yorker May 28, 2001.
- Ain't
No Mountain [review of Erik Reece's book Lost Mountain], by Ira
Boudway,Salon.com, February 15, 2006.
www.salon.com/books/review/2006/02/15/reece/ Also read the letters to the
editor associated with that article.
- "Brain
Candy: Is Pop Culture Dumbing Us Down or Smartening Us Up? [The
Critics: Books]", by Malcom Gladwell, The New Yorker May 16, 2005
[1800 words]. (Click here for the cached version.)
- "Know It
All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?," by Stacy Schiff, The New
Yorker, July 31, 2006.
- "Not Kids’ Stuff: 'Shrek the Third' and 'Paprika'" [The Current
Cinema]. David Denby. The New Yorker, May 28, 2007: 86-87
[1,500 words]. <http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2007/05/28/070528crci_cinema_denby> Access date: June 4, 2007. (Click here for a cached version.)
- "Can
Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?," by Brock Read, The Chronicle of
Higher Education 53, 10 (Oct 27, 2006): pA31 [4,000 words]. Click
here for cached,
printable version.
- "One
Stop a 'Super' Chicken Choice," by Fred Sauceman, GoTricities.com, Jan
8, 2004.
- Review of Blackwater
Chronicle, by K. E. O'Donnell, from Appalachian Journal 31, 3/4
(Spring/Summer 2004).
- "Deconstructing
Dinner" [rev. of M Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma] by David
Kamp, New York Times online, April 23, 2006.
C. Academic Writing/ Writing from Sources
- "Angels and Ages: Lincoln’s Language and its Legacy" [Annals of
Biography]. Adam Gopnik. The New Yorker, May 28, 2007: 30-37
[7,000 words]. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/28/070528fa_fact_gopnik> Access date: June 4, 2007. (Click here for a cached
version.)
- "There's
a Skeleton In A Trainyard In East Tennessee," by Joan Vannorsdall
Schroeder, Blue Ridge Country magazine's online edition, 2000.
- Excerpt from "City of New
Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan."
- The
Government Sanctioned Bombing of Appalachia, by Antrim Caskey, AlterNet.org,
Tuesday 09 October 2007.
- "Search
and Deploy: The Race to Build a Better Search Engine," by Michael
Specter, The New Yorker, 29 May 2000: 88-100.
D. Expository/ Explanatory Writing ("How-to")
- 36 Hours
in Asheville, North Carolina, from the New York Times, Sep 30, 2007
- "Big and Bad:
How the S.U.V. Ran Over Automotive Safety ["Commerce and
Culture"]," by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker January 12,
2004: 28-33. (Click here for the cached version.)
- "Death of a Mountain:
Radical Strip Mining and the Leveling of Appalachia." By Erik
Reece. Harper's Magazine, April 2005: 41-60. Reece expanded his Harper's
article into a book, Lost Mountain -- a Year in the Vanishing Wilderness:
Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation of Appalachia, New York: Riverhead
(Penguin), 2006. Click here to read a
review by Ira Boudway, published Feb 15, 2006 at Salon.com
- The
Government Sanctioned Bombing of Appalachia, by Antrim Caskey,
AlterNet.org, Tuesday 09 October 2007.
- "The
Moral-Hazard Myth: The Bad Idea Behind Our Failed Health-Care System,"
by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker 29 August 2005.
- "Night
Out in City Ends in Slaying of Woman, 18" [with map and timeline], by
Al Baker, NY Times July 28 2006
- Our
oceans are turning into plastic...are we? b
- "Red Mike
(Lost and Found New York)," by James Stevenson, from New York Times
Online, August 2005.
- What
Love's Got to Do with It: Joba Chamberlain has taken New York in a blaze of
glory, his success traced to a nurturing father who used his own tortured
youth, Native American roots and some lessons in humility to fan the flame
inside his son, by Gary Smith, Sports Illustrated online, Oct 7, 2007,
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/10/03/joba1008/index.html
III. On "Borrowing"
- "Bob
Dylan: Henry Timrod Revisited -- When Bob Dylan lifted lines from an
obscure Civil War poet, he wasn't plagiarizing. He was sampling" [2300
wds], by Robert Polito, Poetryfoundation.org, the site of the Poetry
Foundation, based in Chicago Illinois, 2006. Accessed December
2006. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/feature.html?id=178703
- Letter to Helen Keller
from Mark Twain, St. Patrick's Day, 1903, on plagiarism. [Posted at
an American Foundation for the Blind website.]
- "Something Borrowed:
Should a Charge of Plagiarism Ruin Your Life?" by Malcolm Gladwell, The
New Yorker Nov 22, 2004: 40-49.
- "What
Helen Keller Saw" [review], by Cynthia Ozick, The New Yorker
June 16/23 2003. (This article explains the circumstances surrounding the Helen
Keller plagiarism controversies. Click on title to see the article as
posted on the New Yorker website, or click here for
cached version.)
IV. Writing about Writing
- "Rules
No-one Teaches But Everyone Learns," by Ruth Walker, posted on the
"Verbal Energy" blog at the Christian Science Monitor online, May 17,
2007. 700 words. Click here
for cached version.
- "The
Fine Art of Getting It Down on Paper, Fast" [editorial], New York
Times, May 15, 2005.
- Style guidelines from "Wikipedia: Manual of Style":
Neutral
Point of View
Avoid
"Weasel Words"
Avoid
"Peacock Terms"
Captions
- Handouts from The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/index.html
- From California-based web-design and writing consultant, Ron Scheer:
"Web
Writing Workshop: How to Make Writing Come Alive"
- From writing consultant and business management teacher, Michael Harvey:
"Style:
Unlearning"; "Style: Clarity";
"Style: The Plain
Style"; "Style:
Concision"
"Plagiarism";
"Effective Quoting"
- "SCIgen - An Automatic CS
Paper Generator." This is a computer program, written by
computer science students at M.I.T., that automatically generates
computer-science academic essays.
