This is just a reminder to myself. We are going to have the "blink-writing" exercise, and then we will begin the process of having you respond to / edit a classmate's "blink-writing."
I also want to include a workshop focused on two skills that almost every student in the class needs to improve, based on my experience reading the first essay: how to insert quotations grammatically, and how to create transitional sentences between paragraphs.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Homework for Class #6 (Wednesday, 4月28日）
Read: Blink 176m-179b, 183t-186b, 189t-229b, 232m-244m, 266t-270t (t means top, m means middle, b means bottom). I must apologize, I've deleted the 'happy ending' from the book. It's about a 小提琴手 who can't find a job because her profession discriminates against women, but then the 交響樂隊 devise a new 'blind' selection method to thin-slice only for musical ability, and not for other applicant characteristics like gender, ethnicity, etc.
Read: They Say / I Say 78-90 (you might also watch this video, which makes a similar point)
29 (都學生!!!). Create a reply to my comments on the final draft of your essay #1, using one or more of the 'partial concession' templates on They Say - I Say 90頁. Write this in red text below my comments on the Google document. Yes, really.
30 (Esther). Search G&B's They Say - I Say book (1-90頁) for at least three instances in which they actually use the same 'internal naysayer' move that they discuss in chapter six. (You needn't search far; I count at least two in chapter six itself.) Do you find it annoying that they use their own recommended writing methods inside the textbook, or helpful?
31 (Jenny). Gladwell is, according to one of his reviewers, "an omniscient, many-armed Hindu god of anecdotes" (inside front cover). However, he has a tendency to cherry-pick his anecdotes to suit his central thesis, as well as a tendency to be overly impressed by certain kinds of professional expertise. Think of two examples of 'false expertise' that might lead us to question the model of expertly-trained thin-slicing that he describes on Blink 176m-179b & 183t-186b. How can we tell true expertise from false expertise? Are there certain kinds of questions/problems/domains that are more likely to produce false expertise than others?
32 (Ting). Is a writing teacher a false expert (see previous question, #31)? Where does a writing teacher's method of gathering knowledge map against the ones we've discussed in the class so far? (As in Moneyball, Blink, your previous question #20, etc.)
33 (Peter). Go to this website and watch the featured video. Compare to the Diallo case discussed in Blink. Do you feel this is a tragic failure of thin-slicing, or is there some other explanation? You may want to do a quick Google search to survey the controversy the video has created.
34 (Aaron). Pay close attention to the large paragraph at the bottom of Blink 267頁. For one thing, you may notice that Gladwell is using an 'internal naysayer' - not to make a concession, but in fact to make an amplification of his argument. For another, you may agree with the naysayer in this case! Summarize his point and explain why you agree or disagree with it.
Read: They Say / I Say 78-90 (you might also watch this video, which makes a similar point)
29 (都學生!!!). Create a reply to my comments on the final draft of your essay #1, using one or more of the 'partial concession' templates on They Say - I Say 90頁. Write this in red text below my comments on the Google document. Yes, really.
30 (Esther). Search G&B's They Say - I Say book (1-90頁) for at least three instances in which they actually use the same 'internal naysayer' move that they discuss in chapter six. (You needn't search far; I count at least two in chapter six itself.) Do you find it annoying that they use their own recommended writing methods inside the textbook, or helpful?
31 (Jenny). Gladwell is, according to one of his reviewers, "an omniscient, many-armed Hindu god of anecdotes" (inside front cover). However, he has a tendency to cherry-pick his anecdotes to suit his central thesis, as well as a tendency to be overly impressed by certain kinds of professional expertise. Think of two examples of 'false expertise' that might lead us to question the model of expertly-trained thin-slicing that he describes on Blink 176m-179b & 183t-186b. How can we tell true expertise from false expertise? Are there certain kinds of questions/problems/domains that are more likely to produce false expertise than others?
32 (Ting). Is a writing teacher a false expert (see previous question, #31)? Where does a writing teacher's method of gathering knowledge map against the ones we've discussed in the class so far? (As in Moneyball, Blink, your previous question #20, etc.)
33 (Peter). Go to this website and watch the featured video. Compare to the Diallo case discussed in Blink. Do you feel this is a tragic failure of thin-slicing, or is there some other explanation? You may want to do a quick Google search to survey the controversy the video has created.
34 (Aaron). Pay close attention to the large paragraph at the bottom of Blink 267頁. For one thing, you may notice that Gladwell is using an 'internal naysayer' - not to make a concession, but in fact to make an amplification of his argument. For another, you may agree with the naysayer in this case! Summarize his point and explain why you agree or disagree with it.
Homework for Class #5 (Wednesday, 4月21日）
Read: Blink 52m-69t, 72t-86m, 96t-111m, 117t-119t, 124-142m, 143m-146t, 155b-174t (t means top, m means middle, b means bottom)
Read: They Say / I Say 68-75
22 (Cathy). Give an example of the "priming" effect (Blink 52m-59t), from your personal experience or acquaintance. Use either an "implied I" template from G&B 73, or an "embedded voice marker" template from G&B 75 to shift from Gladwell's general concept to your specific example.
23 (Alice). Give an example of "rational overshadowing" (Blink 124t-139t... i.e. "too much information" or "paralysis by analysis"), from your personal experience or acquaintance. Use either an "implied I" template from G&B 73, or an "embedded voice marker" template from G&B 75 to shift from Gladwell's general concept to your specific example.
24 (Doll). Take a few of the association tests at the Project Implicit website, and explain your results as examples (or counter-examples) of the "Warren Harding effect" (Blink 72t-86m). Use either an "implied I" template from G&B 73, or an "embedded voice marker" template from G&B 75 to shift from Gladwell's general concept to your specific example.
25 (Elsa). Using one of the "yes, but..." templates from last week, explain some potential problems with Gladwell's analysis of the Aeron chair (167m-174t). He is using this as a further example of the "transference bias" effect discussed on 155b-166b, but it seems different in some ways from cola and margarine.
26 (Tiara). Using the summary and quotation techniques we learned previously, read Gladwell's story about automobile sales (88b-96t) and explain it to your classmates, so they don't have to read it!
27 (Kim). Using the summary and quotation techniques we learned previously, read Gladwell's story about improvisational comedy (111m-117t) and explain it to your classmates, so they don't have to read it!
28 (Catherine). Using the summary and quotation techniques we learned previously, read Gladwell's story about 消防隊員 (122t-124t) and explain it to your classmates, so they don't have to read it!
Read: They Say / I Say 68-75
22 (Cathy). Give an example of the "priming" effect (Blink 52m-59t), from your personal experience or acquaintance. Use either an "implied I" template from G&B 73, or an "embedded voice marker" template from G&B 75 to shift from Gladwell's general concept to your specific example.
23 (Alice). Give an example of "rational overshadowing" (Blink 124t-139t... i.e. "too much information" or "paralysis by analysis"), from your personal experience or acquaintance. Use either an "implied I" template from G&B 73, or an "embedded voice marker" template from G&B 75 to shift from Gladwell's general concept to your specific example.
24 (Doll). Take a few of the association tests at the Project Implicit website, and explain your results as examples (or counter-examples) of the "Warren Harding effect" (Blink 72t-86m). Use either an "implied I" template from G&B 73, or an "embedded voice marker" template from G&B 75 to shift from Gladwell's general concept to your specific example.
25 (Elsa). Using one of the "yes, but..." templates from last week, explain some potential problems with Gladwell's analysis of the Aeron chair (167m-174t). He is using this as a further example of the "transference bias" effect discussed on 155b-166b, but it seems different in some ways from cola and margarine.
26 (Tiara). Using the summary and quotation techniques we learned previously, read Gladwell's story about automobile sales (88b-96t) and explain it to your classmates, so they don't have to read it!
27 (Kim). Using the summary and quotation techniques we learned previously, read Gladwell's story about improvisational comedy (111m-117t) and explain it to your classmates, so they don't have to read it!
28 (Catherine). Using the summary and quotation techniques we learned previously, read Gladwell's story about 消防隊員 (122t-124t) and explain it to your classmates, so they don't have to read it!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Homework for Class #4 (Wednesday, 4月14日）
Reminder: Final draft of Quantitative vs. Qualitative essay due to Google Docs at 21:00 on Monday, 4月12日. Please title the document as follows so I know it's finished. And feel free to email any questions between now and then.
Essay 1f (Your Name): "Your Title Here"
A Recommendation: If you didn't read the chapter about using quotations in They Say / I Say last week, or you didn't read it carefully, I strongly suggest you read it this weekend. The templates on 46頁 are good, and the general explanation for how and why to use quotations is good too. (The one thing they don't tell you is how to change the grammar of the quoted sentences to fit better with the grammar of your sentences, but that's something I can help you with later this semester.) I think all of you could benefit by using a bit more quotation to establish your theys; as the chapter says, it makes it seem less like you're just having a dialogue with yourself.
A Clarification: I hope this was evident in the way that I've discussed the essay over the past two weeks, but this is my order of priority in judging your grade.
High Importance... organization of ideas, sequencing of sentences and paragraphs, logical coherence, orchestrating dialogue of arguments
Middle Importance... philosophical insight, research quality
Low Importance... style, correct usage of words and word forms, grammatical mechanics, etc.
Of course I cannot say that philosophical insight and research quality have no importance, because your paper must present a philosophical argument of a kind, and weigh various "they" arguments, the more specific the better. And I cannot say that style, mechanics, usage, and so forth have no importance, because I must be able to read your paper and understand what you say. But my major focus for this essay, and for the class in general, is helping you learn how to construct arguments at the sentence and paragraph level.
Read: They Say / I Say 55-67頁 (Read this as soon as you can... I think you will find the templates helpful for the final draft of your essay!)
Read: Blink 3-47頁
17 (Peter). Moneyball is clearly better than traditional baseball scouting for analyzing certain phenomena. But it leaves many areas of baseball un-analyzed, and some of these areas will therefore require traditional scouting methods to complement quantitative analysis methods
(at least until better Q.A. methods are developed). Give a couple of examples of scouting techniques in Lewis' book that sound rather like Gladwell-style "thin-slicing." (But don't repeat the "Billy at his trading desk" example.)
18 (Jenny & Aaron answer separately). Describe one personal experience in which you used thin-slicing successfully, and another in which you used thin-slicing unsuccessfully.
19 (Cathy & Catherine answer separately). Describe a (non-baseball!) situation/phenomenon for which the thin-slicing technique in Blink would never/rarely work. Use one of the disagreeing templates on They Say / I Say 60頁, or one of the "yes, but..."templates" on 65頁.
20 (Ting). In our discussions of Moneyball, we used "quantitative" to describe the method of broad-sample empirical analysis, like Billy Beane uses for baseball, and "qualitative" to describe other methods of deriving knowledge. But in fact there are many different types of qualitative methods. We dismissed some of them as being purely stupid or self-protective, but some may actually be useful in certain situations, especially those where reliable quantitative methods are unavailable. I will list a few, and you need to take them one by one and explain whether or not they could be seen as thin-slicing. In other words, what we are trying to do is see if all cases of intuition (that are not nonsense) can be covered by the thin-slicing concept, or if there might also be other reliable types of intuition: a) intuition from long experience, b) intuition from expert/technical/specialized knowledge, c) intuition from "common sense" or popular consensus, d) intuition from tradition, e) intuition from perception of beauty or ordered pattern, f) intuition from religious/mystical/supernatural/transcendental experience.
21 (Esther). I want you to do a miniature version of the SPAFF analysis discussed in the first chapter of Blink. Here's what to do. First, you need two friends who are dating to be your volunteers. Second, you need either a video camera or a webcam with a recording feature. You need to record one of the two faces for 5 minutes, and the other of the two faces for 5 minutes. (It might have to be a different five minutes depending on your camera set-up.) Don't start the recording right away... give them a neutral topic to get them warmed up, like what food they love to eat or something like that. When you are ready to gather your "data," ask them one or both of the two key questions Gottman uses (what do 你們 tend to fight about? and how did 你們 meet?). A full explanation of the SPAFF codes is here, and a shorter list of codes here. But for your analysis, you only need to use three codes that we will call by colors: green for positive or neutral emotion, yellow for weakly or moderately negative emotion, and red for strongly negative emotion. Make a chart that divides the 10 data minutes (5+5) into 20 segments of 30 seconds each, and analyze by marking a color for each segment depending on the most negative emotion that you observe during this segment. (So even a single moment of yellow within a 30 second period that was mostly green would still count as yellow.) Bring a copy of the video to class if you can.
Essay 1f (Your Name): "Your Title Here"
A Recommendation: If you didn't read the chapter about using quotations in They Say / I Say last week, or you didn't read it carefully, I strongly suggest you read it this weekend. The templates on 46頁 are good, and the general explanation for how and why to use quotations is good too. (The one thing they don't tell you is how to change the grammar of the quoted sentences to fit better with the grammar of your sentences, but that's something I can help you with later this semester.) I think all of you could benefit by using a bit more quotation to establish your theys; as the chapter says, it makes it seem less like you're just having a dialogue with yourself.
A Clarification: I hope this was evident in the way that I've discussed the essay over the past two weeks, but this is my order of priority in judging your grade.
High Importance... organization of ideas, sequencing of sentences and paragraphs, logical coherence, orchestrating dialogue of arguments
Middle Importance... philosophical insight, research quality
Low Importance... style, correct usage of words and word forms, grammatical mechanics, etc.
Of course I cannot say that philosophical insight and research quality have no importance, because your paper must present a philosophical argument of a kind, and weigh various "they" arguments, the more specific the better. And I cannot say that style, mechanics, usage, and so forth have no importance, because I must be able to read your paper and understand what you say. But my major focus for this essay, and for the class in general, is helping you learn how to construct arguments at the sentence and paragraph level.
Read: They Say / I Say 55-67頁 (Read this as soon as you can... I think you will find the templates helpful for the final draft of your essay!)
Read: Blink 3-47頁
17 (Peter). Moneyball is clearly better than traditional baseball scouting for analyzing certain phenomena. But it leaves many areas of baseball un-analyzed, and some of these areas will therefore require traditional scouting methods to complement quantitative analysis methods
(at least until better Q.A. methods are developed). Give a couple of examples of scouting techniques in Lewis' book that sound rather like Gladwell-style "thin-slicing." (But don't repeat the "Billy at his trading desk" example.)18 (Jenny & Aaron answer separately). Describe one personal experience in which you used thin-slicing successfully, and another in which you used thin-slicing unsuccessfully.
19 (Cathy & Catherine answer separately). Describe a (non-baseball!) situation/phenomenon for which the thin-slicing technique in Blink would never/rarely work. Use one of the disagreeing templates on They Say / I Say 60頁, or one of the "yes, but..."templates" on 65頁.
20 (Ting). In our discussions of Moneyball, we used "quantitative" to describe the method of broad-sample empirical analysis, like Billy Beane uses for baseball, and "qualitative" to describe other methods of deriving knowledge. But in fact there are many different types of qualitative methods. We dismissed some of them as being purely stupid or self-protective, but some may actually be useful in certain situations, especially those where reliable quantitative methods are unavailable. I will list a few, and you need to take them one by one and explain whether or not they could be seen as thin-slicing. In other words, what we are trying to do is see if all cases of intuition (that are not nonsense) can be covered by the thin-slicing concept, or if there might also be other reliable types of intuition: a) intuition from long experience, b) intuition from expert/technical/specialized knowledge, c) intuition from "common sense" or popular consensus, d) intuition from tradition, e) intuition from perception of beauty or ordered pattern, f) intuition from religious/mystical/supernatural/transcendental experience.
21 (Esther). I want you to do a miniature version of the SPAFF analysis discussed in the first chapter of Blink. Here's what to do. First, you need two friends who are dating to be your volunteers. Second, you need either a video camera or a webcam with a recording feature. You need to record one of the two faces for 5 minutes, and the other of the two faces for 5 minutes. (It might have to be a different five minutes depending on your camera set-up.) Don't start the recording right away... give them a neutral topic to get them warmed up, like what food they love to eat or something like that. When you are ready to gather your "data," ask them one or both of the two key questions Gottman uses (what do 你們 tend to fight about? and how did 你們 meet?). A full explanation of the SPAFF codes is here, and a shorter list of codes here. But for your analysis, you only need to use three codes that we will call by colors: green for positive or neutral emotion, yellow for weakly or moderately negative emotion, and red for strongly negative emotion. Make a chart that divides the 10 data minutes (5+5) into 20 segments of 30 seconds each, and analyze by marking a color for each segment depending on the most negative emotion that you observe during this segment. (So even a single moment of yellow within a 30 second period that was mostly green would still count as yellow.) Bring a copy of the video to class if you can.
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