Cross-course announcements:

• J7A—I have submitted grades for this class. If I finish grading my EA105 class in time, I will post to bSpace Step 04 grades and perhaps category grades. If grading does not go well, I will post at Christmas, perhaps. Please wait for an announcement on the J7A web site before requesting specifics about your grades.
• J155—I have submitted grades for this class.
• EA105—I am grading Step 05 and Step 06 paper sets today and tomorrow and hopefully will submit grades late tomorrow. I am holding all emails about this until the grades are submitted. I will then send out to most or all students responses on their Step 05 and Step 06. Watch for an announcement on the EA105 web site. It will explain the grading process.

I have made live the Step 6 link for the essay process.

Below are several notes about Step 5, based on OH discussion and emails in the past few days:

Many students are asking about paper length for Step 5 (in that they want to write a longer paper). In general I prefer that you keep it short. This essay process is about generating interesting ideas and dialogue with your partner. It isn't a "real" term paper in the ordinary sense. It is a considered, thoughtful rolling out of some ideas to discuss with your partner. When the paper gets too long, your partner doesn't know what to focus on for Step 6 and the mechanics of Step 6 get ungainly. That being said, I understand the urge to write and I understand how small a box I've created for Step 5. You can go over if it is well written, tightly focused and so on but don't go over because you think it will score better.

Many students are asking about how much citation is necessary for Step 5. I want you to embrace Step 5 enthusiastically and put some thought into it. If a paper clearly has been well nourished and is thoughtful, not hurried, I will not be that concerned about citation. If a paper seems rushed, citations is one of the first things I look at as evidence that little effort was employed in writing the paper. This paper is about your ideas, not about practicing writing a term paper. So get interesting ideas out there unambiguously; don't hedge. Stay on topic. You can add additional ideas if you've taken care of your thesis, but make sure the thesis has been fully expressed. (Not necessarily iron-clad in argument, just interesting and plausible.)

Resources -- yes, I asked you to look at quite a few. That doesn't mean I want a big paper. I want you to learn from thos resources. Do NOT treat them as dictionaries that are a container of facts for you. They are the IDEAS of scholars. You do not need to read them cover to cover, of course, but you should be familiar with the basic ideas argued by the scholars who wrote them.

Don't forget my comment made about method. I haven't. This paper is an exercise in deploying method as discussed over the term, not just any old method. So review those notes! There is a lot of different paths forward, but don't make the obvious errors warned about already.

Nuanced conclusions are better than rhetorical flourish; be real not clever; speculate but admit the limits of your knowledge; be curious about your topic and make me feel the same way about it.

OH for Monday Dec 7 and beyond.

Monday OH are handled at doodle.com. Go here. I will not have office hours on Wednesday. I am on campus much of the week esp. Monday morning and Tuesday midday. I will have time later in the week, too, but when exactly is not yet clear. Try emailing me for an alternate time.

Item 1) Although I haven't posted the Step 6 directions, you can get a good sense of what Step 6 is supposed to be, if you're curious, by looking up "final joint segment" on the definitions page. This is for those who are wondering why type of written document is going to come due at the end of this class.

Item 2) I believe I have completed grading all Step 04 now, though I haven't lined them up to confirm. (That's next.) But I would like to mention to everyone: reading your sources is going to be one of the best ways to make Step 6 easy because it will generate differences, and you need that, and you also you will be able to contradict your partner politely (by saying "My sources suggests ..." instead of saying "I don't think I agree ....").

CLASS SCHEDULE NOW UNTIL END OF TERM (NOT ON OFFICIAL SCHEDULE): Our class schedule for today, Friday, and next week Monday / Wednesday, looks something like this:

• Today I return OA cards, make general comments, screen about 15 minutes of 3-Iron, then we do evals at the end of class.
• Monday will be just straight presentation of the film, no discussion.
• Wednesday will be completing the film (should be about 25 minutes left), then general course wrap up by me.

Monday and Wednesday at NOT required in terms of attendance. However, I would appreciate if you could hear my final comments via webcast if you cannot be in class. There won't be announcements or such, it will strictly be class concepts wrap up type of thing. Still, it is a bit frustrating this semester, because, regardless of whether there had been a strike or not (so that is irrelevant), the final day would have landed during the RRR period. I will need to restructure this class for next time to avoid this, but wasn't able to do so this time. It isn't that my final comments are that well formed, but it is nice to have a bit of closure and so, in my mind, I will imagine that I am speaking to the full class regardless of attendance, thinking that hopefully some of you will visit via webcast.

I have completed grading all O&As, and uploaded those grades, including an O&A Category Grade, to bSpace. I will put this information later in the syllabus but for now I am recording it here:

I have regularized the grading scale for all O&A questions, so past assignments now have a new score. Remember that O&As try to measure your ability to find good directions for analysis within the themes of our class. Rarely do I try to measure the actual success of the analysis. I'm just trying to get a sense if you know what types of questions to ask and can avoid the obvious blunders.

Here is the a basic key for understanding the numbers on bSpace:

• 5 = exceptional work (strong "A" or "A+") and means in general you have answered in a very interesting way using credible argument
• 4 = strong work (basically "A" level, perhaps reading into the very high portion of "B+") and means that the answer is entirely reasonable but not too surprising, that many others took the same path, or that there is a little something not quite right
• 3 = marginal work ("B" to "C+")
• 2 = not right in some way ("C" or lower)
• 1 = for whatever reason your answer cannot be meaningfully graded ... this is a neutral designation that does not affect the category grade until a pattern begins to be suggested
• 0 = absent or the card was blank or such ... this does not negatively affect the category grade except that missing class tends towards weaker analysis later on. Absences, however, do affect the Misc Category grade.

I have also calculated Misc Category grades. If you would like to know this grade, please email me with "MiscCat" in the subject line. Don't ask any other questions in that email, please.

I will begin grading your Step 04 submissions tomorrow.

I also have projected final grades for everyone but these are very soft still, since the paper is 40% of the grade of the class and there are still outstanding assignments, attendance issues and such. Still, if you are interested in discussing this with me, please schedule an appointment. I don't enter into detailed discussions about grades via email.

A student told me today that he was unable to get the correct O&A card for tomorrow because someone had taken his card before the stack got across the room to him. SO, if you have a card that doesn't have your correct seat number on it, cross out the wrong number and put your number on it, please. ALSO, remember that you are to use the ppt to fill out the card ahead of time; there is no time during class to write down your name and so on. PLEASE pass the cards directly across the room, when finished, as the directions on the powerpoint will indicate (not on your version).

Katie: if students complain that they don't have the correct card, remind them please just to put their seat number on the card. If they say the don't know their seat number, tell them, please, just to get their name on the card. Thanks.

I have uploaded our new seating arrangement. It is on bSpace at Resources>Misc>late in the term seating. I will have a printout of the seating chart in class but will probably not be projecting it.

I have accommodated all requests for towards-the-front seating that arrived before the noon deadline. I realize that seating is below optimal in this room and regret seating anyone in a difficult to see location because of distance from the screen or having problems seeing the subtitles. Seating was set randomly, then adjustments were made so that no student was sitting within one seat distance of their partner in any direction, then further adjustments were made to accommodate the front of the room requests.

Please do not arrive late to any class but if you must because a class is just too far away, close the door quietly behind you and sit in your seat, not in the aisle. When students come late and sit in the aisles it is difficult for me to get a count in the room. (We have 8 rows of 10 seats and 87 students in the room; I calculate from that, then look for missing students.)

Students seem unaware that I am able to take roll in my head during the films. It isn't that hard, actually. Please keep this in mind.

OH for the week beginning Monday, Nov 23:

I have office hours on Monday, and I am using doodle.com to manage those. You can sign up for as many as 4 5-minutes slots. The link is: http://doodle.com/g446aeqvttdzrc7i.

I am available Tuesday before 11:30 for one 15 minute meeting. I will be at a coffeehouse on or near campus. I am available Tuesday between 2:30 and 3:00PM for one 10 minute meeting. I will be near Kroeber Hall.

I am unavailable Wednesday.

FOR WEDNESDAY NOV 25:

I will not be able to be at class on Wednesday for private reasons. I had various activities scheduled for Monday and planned only do film screening on Wednesday (knowing I would be gone), asking a student to do the screening for me. However, because I cancelled class on Friday, Monday's activities are now scheduled for Wednesday.

Wednesday is required attendance. As my syllabus states, I do not consider the days just ahead of and just after holidays as "clippable".

Wednesday begins a screening of "Dolls". However, ahead of the film there is an O&A exercise on "Three Times" and the required reading about the "Dolls" director Beat Takeshi (see below). The O&A on "Three Times" works better if you have seen all three segments but is manageable if you have seen two of them and is impossible if you have seen only one or none of them. You should view the film before that time; no excuses.

That exercise will run on a timed powerpoint because we have to move directly and quickly to the film. You must be in your ASSIGNED seat, settled, with index card in hand and pen ready to go in order to participate in the O&A. Otherwise you will be asked to wait until it is over and contact me about the possibility (no promises) of a makeup essay. You will be given an index card on Monday, you will use the powerpoint PREVIEW available on bSpace to complete it, and will bring it to class on Wednesday already filled out, ready to go. Don't forget it!!!!!

One of the questions on the powerpoint is based on the bio of the director of "Dolls" as provided here: imdb bio (this is the same link as is on the schedule for the first day of "Dolls" for the DIRECTOR not the film!

Because the powerpoint moves quickly, I am distributing it early so you can read everything on each slide except the actual question. I think it is very likely that the students who view this powerpoint ahead of time will score better on the O&A. The amount of time available to read instructions during the actual powerpoint is minimal. It is available from 4Pm Nov 21, in the Resources>OAs folder as OA04, both as a powerpoint and pdf file.

I NEED THESE VOLUNTEERS, FOR EXTRA CREDIT!!!

One student ("Powerpointer") who can arrive by 12:03 or so into the room, power up the multimedia panel and project, for his or her laptop, the powerpoint. We can practice on Monday after class.

One student ("Card collector") who can come to class on Monday and receive an envelop from me, then collect the cards on Wednesday after the exercise and place them in a sealed envelope and hand that envelope to another student in the room (the "Card delivery dude or dudette")

One student ("Card delivery dude or dudette") who can deliver that envelope to my mailbox at the department between 1PM and 4PM (but check to make sure the office isn't closing earlier) and, who, if there is a glitch in the process, can hold the cards over the holiday until Monday and give them to me then. (Take that as an emergency Plan B, not really an option.)

One student ("Won't lose it DVD player") who can come to class Monday, pickup the DVD "Dolls" from me, run the DVD beginning at 12:20 on Wednesday, keep the DVD over the holidays (without losing it! it is my only copy), and arrive to class a couple of minutes early on Monday after the holidays to give me the DVD so we can continue with it.

First: make sure to read these many 11/20/09 announcements ASAP. Just keep scrolling down ...

Yikes! Reminder! Essay partners are, for a while, to keep TOTALLY AWAY FROM EACH OTHER! No emails, so tossing back and forth of ideas. You work entirely in secret. Step 04 and 05 are both individual work assignments. You don't get back together again until Step 06. Communicating during the Step 04 and 05 stages is considered by me to be a form of cheating.

TO THAT END: I am shuffling seating assignments. I am going to create this seating chart over the weekend. If you email me that you prefer front-half of the room assignment because of vision issues, I'll try to honor that if you email me before noon on Sunday. (Put "cannotsee" in the subject line please.) Please check Sunday evening for a chart, because I want you to memorize the location before class and go straight to it. The third segment of "Three Times" is 45 minutes long, which means we don't really have time to fool around with seats. Those of you who arrive late: you will need to find your seat in the dark. And PLEASE if you must arrive late, close the door quietly behind you as you enter.

PLEASE READ THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CAREFULLY

All students should read ASAP the comments I made on their Step 03. These requested changes need not be reported to me but should be done immediately. The changes are meant to be in place BEFORE you write your essay, not after the fact. Changes should appear on Step 04.

The Step 04 template was updated today. If you had already downloaded it, please re-download it.

Please try to avoid small print in your emails. When I work on a reply, the font is not only small but it becomes light blue, adding a bit of a challenge.

Instances: you both MUST work with the same instances in your individual essays; however, you might find that other portions of the film are good places to go to build your paper. Just keep the instances as the center point; do NOT allow them to slip down to a lower place on the list of things discussed.

Remember that your NDT (narrowly defined topic) is a contract between the two of you. Honor it.

Step 04 film summaries and cultural background details will be graded a bit more strictly on Step 04. I have made comments to everyone I think needed comments but I might have missed a few. Go back a reread the definitions and instructions on these; they have been slightly updated to make more explicit my expectations.

Reread: Instructions>Step 02, begins "Before deciding the actual films". There are some new comments on the bullet list relevant to your essay and how it will be graded.

Reread: Definitions>cultural context. There are some new details requested there.

Please memorize your groupnumber and studentletter! I am getting some errors on the OA and quiz cards.

Released the instructions for Step 04. Please read these right away as you might find some portions of the instructions confusing.

... Also, I have updated the instructions for the OA01 on Genji so please don't be surprised if they don't look as you remember them. This update is not for you; it is for the next time I teach the class.

Hi everyone. I've sent the below reply to a request by an organization to visit our class on Friday. You can check them out ahead of time through the Princeton web site, which also includes their own web link: Princeton announcement. Organization's web site. I know nothing about this organization, so I didn't want to grant class time until I have a better sense of who they are and, anyway, we just don't have a lot of class time to share right now.

Hello Hui Hong Shi,

I am unable to give you any class time -- we are in the process of screening films and I use the precious few minutes before or after screening for discussion. However, you are welcome to hand out flyers informally before class on that day. Most students usually arrive a few minutes early because there is no class in the classroom ahead of ours and because they know I start class PROMPTLY at 12:10. You will need to be finished completely by 12:10, or 15 seconds ahead of 12:10, actually. The room is Moffitt 101, it is several floors down into the basement so allow plenty of time to locate the room.

John

On Nov 8, 2009, at 11:10 PM, 石慧虹 wrote:

Dear Mr. Wallace,

This is Hui Hong Shi. I have sent you an e-mail, asking to briefly introduce our program in your 105 classes on Wednesday. However, I just found out that it is a holiday. Instead, could we come to your class on Friday?

Sorry for causing you any inconvenience. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Hui Hong Shi (lead campus coordinator)

I have uploaded the Category Grade for the Early Exercise in Comparative Analysis. I really enjoyed your submissions! This is a very strong group.

In your gradebook comment box you will see either "Strong Pass" "Pass" or "Redo". I graded these based on your ability to identify interesting topics to consider, and present them in a credible, logical manner. Sometimes a submission raised the letter grade that was the quiz. Sometimes it did not. As you know, this was a credit/no credit assignment only. For those of you who need to resubmit, please do so and your grade will change from "zero" to your quiz grade or better. A "Strong Pass", very generally speaking, had about a B+ to A+ range to it.

Below are some of the notes that I began to attach so frequently to student submissions that I made a palette and cut-pasted from it. They are probably good points to review before the next written submission.

Just this one thing: remember that all comparisons in this class must have a fairly direct relevance to the topic "romantic love", so, in the full paper, please make sure that I can easily see the connection between what you compare and your conclusions to this general topic.

... Hi xxxxx. Could you figure out a way to deliver larger font? There is going to be a lot of on screen reading for me for this class, and your font is pretty, but a tad tiny.

This is basically all one block of text onscreen. Please paragraph a bit more to highlight the stages of your ideas, main points, conclusion, whatever. There will be a lot of onscreen reading my me in this class, and it is helpful to be able to pick up the main ideas quickly.

In general passive sentence structures (things just happen/appear rather than having been done by someone) can generate "Who exactly is thinking/doing that?" questions on the reader's side, and lead quickly into lack of clarity. Try to be specific about who is doing what and use passive when really accurate. ("The sun rose."--that is better than "God rose the sun" but "there is less poetry in the film" is not as informative as "Director Im seems to have decided to remove some of the poetry from the premodern text for his film." This is a better grounded statement, and cuts through some of the fog of passive structures.) Not EVERYTHING has to be active rather than passive, but try to be specific, informative, precise in your descriptions. In this class we go slow and deliberate and take on one issue at a time. Sentences that say "X and Y are ..." or "A is X, Y and Z" clutter the table too much. Keep it more on the simple side. This is ESPECIALLY true when XYZ are not of the same category. That is pretty much disaster.

I have now posted the instructions for the submission due soon. See the link on the schedule at the due time notice, this Friday.

Please note that late penalties are possible on this assignment.

Please note carefully my odd due date/time. This submission is due VERY EARLY FRIDAY MORNING, not Friday afternoon, not Saturday morning. It is due at 1 AM, that's 1 AM!, on Friday morning.

Created a link to Confucianism web sites (see sidebar). Please use these for thinking now and for analysis as you begin to dig into your paper topics.

Posted extra credit to bSpace for those who submitted useful sites. Please read the note on the syllabus about "Category—General Extra Credit Events" if you haven't already.

Posted two different grade reports to bSpace regarding the quiz given on "Chunhyang". The first is number of questions missed; t should match with the quiz card that was returned to you. The second is the letter grade; it should match with the grade scale that is on the key provided earlier. (However my error rate on converting raw scores to letter grades is near zero so you shouldn't need to recheck this.)