Tweeting Maxims (150 points, or 15% of total grade)
OverviewIn this assignment, you will study a genre of writing called "Maxims," which will require you to begin with defining what a maxim is (its substance and style), its context, and what purpose this genre serves.
After collecting and tweeting a number of existing ("found") maxims you will analyze them into networks of controlling values using Prezi, with the purpose of developing and writing your own maxims, which you will then tweet as "original" pieces of writing. |
The finished assignment will be displayed on a webpage on your site. It will include the following elements (in this order): |
Getting Started with Tweeting Maxims: the steps
1) Utilizing a variety of media, locate at least 15 to 20 already written (what we will call "found") maxims. You are permitted only up to 3 commonplace maxims ("just do it"; "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," etc.); the rest need to be substantial in meaning and form and ideally attributable to an actual author. If you can entirely avoid cliche maxims, please do so.
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A maxim is an expression of a general truth or principle, especially an aphoristic or sententious one; a principle or rule of conduct.
An aphorism is a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation.
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2) Tweet these "found" maxims. These maxims should vary in terms of content and form (while remaining a single sentence). Each maxim needs to be under 140 characters, including the author if there is one, and including the hashtag: #wrtm. If you cannot fit the entire maxim or the author, make sure to include the excluded information beneath the embedded tweet on your webpage for this assignment.
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3) Set up a group of three columns for each found maxim. Embed each tweeted maxim in the left-most column. Just below the embedded tweet, explain why you selected the maxim and share the author's name if you could not fit it in the tweet.
4) Select 10 of your favorite "found" maxims, and place these at the top of your embedded tweets. List the general sentence types in the middle column next to each embedded tweet (subordinating or additive--see the Prezi to the right here called "What is a Sentence").
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In the third column on the right, provide more specific categories for the sentence types present in the selected maxim. For instance, is the sentence simple? Compound? Complex? Antithesis? Antimetabole? Asyndeton or polysyndeton?
Provide good reasons for categorizing each maxim.
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Check out "Shit my Dad Says."
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5) For each of the 10 maxims you will illustrate a network of controlling values, using a prezi presentation:
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6) Don't just copy the maxim while stating the contexts and purposes for each controlling value in the network. Instead, during the process of developing the network of controlling values, restate the maxim in your own words, adding an explanatory statement or statements to amplify its meaning, while also lengthening the statement by converting the maxim into different sentence types. Practice particular sentence types (from Copy and Compose) you would like to get good at writing.
7) For each network, strive to compose at least one to two "original" maxims that you deem as worthy to be tweeted: the ideal is to tweet 10 or more (#wrtm). Add your "original maxims" to your "Tweeting Maxims" page (at the top) as embedded tweets. Each embedded tweet should be in the left-most of a three-column element; identify sentence style (additive or subordinating) and types (from Copy and Compose) for each in the middle column, and explain the choices you made to make the maxim "original" in the right-most column--how is it distinct from the "found" maxim, even though it still bears some relationship to its meaning?
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"Do what you love" is a maxim that expresses a dominant controlling value in our culture. Below, Alan Watts presents a compelling argument for pursuing what you love, and Tokumitsu contextualizes such a value in a negative light in order to argue that we need to value work as labor, so that people who work can avoid being exploited. Isn't it likely that when given the opportunity to "do what you love," you would accept little in return for your efforts?
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The prologueIn your prologue (200-400 words), you are to reflect on your growing understanding of the genre of maxims (the situations that call for maxims and what principle organizes the substantive and stylistic features to answer those situations). Reflect on the challenges you encountered as you rhetorically adapted to the conventions of this genre, the impact of writing technologies on you as a writer, and what you learned in the process. Refer to core values 1 and 6 of the Writing Arts major, and use embedded tweets to illustrate the stages of your rhetorical adaptation to the genre.
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