Joe Alter's English 161 Spring 2001: Assignments

Assignment for MONDAY 2/26:

Complete Narrative Bibliography for first source:

CITATION: put the source into the correct MLA format. Follow the guidelines on the Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format web site from the Purdue University On-line Writing Lab. BOOK MARK THIS SITE!

EVALUATE YOUR SOURCE. Use the criteria found HERE.

SUMMARIZE YOUR SOURCE -- CLAIMS and EVIDENCE. IDENTIFY THE LIMITATIONS -- STAKE OUT A POSITION.

Check out Greg's first narrative bibliography for a good example.

Research Worksheet #1: Defining the field ASSIGNMENT FOR 2/23/01

Research Worksheet #1: Defining the field -- Finding your anchor source(s)

THESIS DEVELOPMENT: As of today, what are your research questions? How do your research questions take up the ideas of this class? What are some of the claims that you want to make about cities or community? Use the back of this sheet to complete your answer.

Based upon your research questions, what are 5-10 key words you will use to conduct your preliminary searches:

______________ ______________ _______________ _____________ ________________

According to the nature of your research question(s), which academic disciplines or general subject areas are likely to deal with your topic?

Go to http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/reference/resources/subject.shtml on a UIC networked PC. Identify and search 3 electronic indexes and databases that cover your subject area. Find at least 5 records from each index. Don't forget to write down the essential citation info about each record, such as…

INDEX 1:

RECORD:

INDEX 2:

RECORD:

INDEX 3:

RECORD:

Joe Alter's English 161 Spring 2001: Assignments

Assignment for Monday 2/19:

Find an on-line article on your topic. Write a 1 paragraph summary of the article. Email me the URL of the article so I can add it to the class web site links page.

Here are a few places to start your on-line browsing for articles your paper topics:

1. Cyburbia: Internet Resources for the Built Environment -- this is an amazing site full of (sub)urban topics and links.

http://cyburbia.ap.buffalo.edu/pairc/

For instance, here's a funny article I found there. You can definitely see Jacobs' influence in this urban experiment, although she probably wouldn't be crazy about it:

"City Mouse: Disney's Experiment in Urban Living"

http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id=1603

2. Try "findarticles.com": Here's a focused search engine that searches ONLY on-line articles from journals and magazines:

http://www.findarticles.com/PI/index.jhtml

Midterm Essay Assignment: Is city culture ordinary

Midterm Essay Assignment: Is city culture ordinary?

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs argues that the key to understanding how American cities work, or don't work, is to look at "common, ordinary things" (3). She contrasts her street-level approach to the perspective of orthodox urban planning. The orthodox urban planners' understanding of how cities work, she argues, is based on the unlikely combination of 19^th Century utopian fantasies -- "garden-cities" -- and space-age engineering technology -- Le Corbusier's "Radiant City."

Your assignment involves three separate, but closely related stages:

Summarize Jacobs' argument in the "Intro" and "The Uses of Sidewalks: Contact"
Take a position: you can agree, disagree with, or raise complications to Jacobs' argument after you've summarized it.
Use evidence from our readings* and your community to support your position.

*This might include CITY 2000 and Jon Lowenstein's work as well.

mon 5

draft #1: summary of Jacobs' argument

course packet reading: Rob't Park "Human Migration"; "ethnic" OED; Castillo's "Golden Cockroach"

wed 7

draft workshop #2: taking a position

course packet reading: Raymond Williams. "Culture is Ordinary"

fri 9

draft workshop #3: rounding up supporting evidence

course packet reading: Judith Ortiz Cofer "American History" and "Patterson Public Library"

mon 12

draft workshop #4: bring 2 copies of rough draft to class