I usually try to write my blog way before the day before class, but a much needed mini-vacation got in the way of that. Now that I’ve had a chance to read everyone else’s blogs, I really, really wish I would’ve lugged my laptop to West Virginia and wrote it over the weekend. I feel like everything I have to say just echoes my classmates:

– The format was difficult to navigate. check.
– I kinda skipped over the questions. check. (Well, I read the first ones and then eventually stopped when I realized that they were all intended for students and not necessary for my understanding of the text.)
– I was confused about who the intended audience was. check.
– The examples were too long. check.

I have to agree with Alicia that some of the examples are a bit antiquated. The whole section about commercials (no offense to your years spent in advertising, Alicia!), seems irrelevant. I wrote one comment in the margin, “DVR!” It won’t be long before commercials are not watched by anyone. I did have to laugh that the one “current” example the authors added to the excerpt from Esslin’s essay was a commercial about AIG.

Do I have anything good to say? Sure. Why not.

I liked the way that the authors included example pieces that reflected other fields of study (psychology, biology, sports and business). For students who may not be English majors, it might be refreshing to encounter a text that is about something that may be familiar and interesting. Although I have to say that an essay that applies football terminology to business is possibly the most uninteresting thing you could ever ask me to read.

I liked Erving Goffman’s concept of character contests and the two examples given of the crimes. Imagining a woman attacking her boyfriend with frozen chicken was funny. I think that those two examples and the writing prompts following them would be a productive assignment to give to writing students.

I am hoping that the rest of the book proves to be more useful than these first two chapters.