Engl 1010 Critical Reading and Expository Writing, sec 5, O'Donnell, Fall 2019

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[ Policies ] [ Calendar ] [ Readings ] [ Best Student Essays This Term ]

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Readings
last update: August 8, 2019

This page pulls together in one list all the online readings we'll be doing this semester. For reading assignment due dates, see the course calendar.

I. Open-Access Textbook

- You, Writing! A Guide to College Composition. By Alexandra Glynn, Kelli Hallsten Erickson, and Amy Jo Swing. Text 2.0: 24 April 2019. Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/you-writing-a-guide-to-college-composition

II. Student essays

A. Narrative based on first-hand experience

- "An Adventure I Will Never Forget: Grandfather Mountain." By Katie Chafin. November 30, 2016. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2016fall/engl3130/student_essays/grandfather_mountain.pdf

- "Histoplasmosis Syndrome: My Experience with an Ocular Injection." By Kelsey Grubb. January 2016. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2016spring/engl3130/student_work/histoplasmosis.pdf

- "Dancing with the Dead: Recalling My Granddaddy, A Cemetery Caretaker in Webb, Mississippi." By Jaden Erbs. December 2012. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2012fall/engl3130/student_essays/woodlawn_cemetary.pdf

- "Is It Too Late to Start Drinking? Dealing with My Parents’ Divorce." By A. N. Barnes. November 2017. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2017fall/engl3130/best_essays/parents_divorce.pdf

B. How-to (tech writing)

- "Cooking Like Mamaw: A Guide to Cooking Biscuits and Gravy; Boston Roast with Brown Gravy; and Blackberry Cobbler." By Kayla Welden. December 2017. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2017fall/engl3130/best_essays/cooking_like_mamaw.pdf

- "A Five-Day Guide to Climbing in the High Country of North Carolina." By Andrew Miller. April 2017. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2017spring/engl3130/best_essays/north_carolina_climbing_guide.pdf

- "Abingdon's Hidden Gem: Barter Theatre." By Greta Burgess. December 2014. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2014fall/engl3130/student_essays/barter_theatre_abingdon.pdf

C. Review/ criticism 

- "I’ve Waited a Long Time for This: A Review of a Marilyn Manson Concert (October 23, 2018 at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium)." By Cheri Barnes. December 2018. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2018fall/engl3130/best_essays/marilyn_manson_knoxville.pdf

- "Dawes’ Most Dawes Record Yet: A Review of All Your Favorite Bands." By Kayla Hensley. April 2016. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2016spring/engl3130/student_work/dawes_allyourfavoritebands.pdf

- "Eastwood's Sully: Investigations of a Pilot's Forced River Landing." By Terri Cornett. April 2017. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/2017spring/engl3130/best_essays/sully_movie_review.pdf

III. Professional essays, available for free on line

A. Narrative based on first-hand experience

- "Active Shooter: A trip to the firing range in a time of gun violence." By David Sedaris. The New Yorker, July 9 & 16, 2018. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/active-shooter

- "How it Feels." By Jenny Zhang. Poetry Magazine, July/ August 2015. www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/70231/how-it-feels

- "Girl Meets Bluegill: How I (nearly) taught my daughter to love fishing." By Bill Heavey.

Field and Stream, August 1, 2005. https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/bill-heavey/2005/08/girl-meets-bluegill/

- "Why Do Humans Talk to Animals If They Can’t Understand? The tendency to converse with dogs, cats, and hamsters ultimately says more about people than it does about their pets." By Arianna Rebolini. The Atlantic Monthly, August 18, 2017. www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/talking-to-pets/537225/

- "Ticket to the Fair." By David Foster Wallace. Harper's Magazine, July 1994. harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1994-07-0001729.pdf

- "Total Eclipse." By Annie Dillard. Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters. 1982. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/dillard_eclipse.pdf

B. How-to (tech writing)

- "36 Hours in Asheville, N. C." By Shaila Dewan. The New York Times online, Oct 13, 2016.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/10/travel/what-to-do-36-hours-in-asheville-north-carolina.html

- "How to Pack a Suitcase." By Shivani Vora and Michelle Higgins. The New York Times online, no date. Accessed August 2019. www.nytimes.com/guides/travel/how-to-pack-a-suitcase

- "How to Make LEGO Gummy Candy!" The King of Random YouTube channel. Posted May 2015; 34 million views as of July 2019. Running time--6:18. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_dV-e4d9c

- "How to Do What You Love." By Paul Graham. January 2006. http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

- "Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide." By Tim Ferris. May 6, 2015. tim.blog/2015/05/06/how-to-commit-suicide/

C. Review/ criticism 

- "Lead Us Not Into Debt: Finance guru Dave Ramsey wins followers with a simple message: find God and lose your credit cards." By Megan Mcardle. Atlantic Magazine, December 2009. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/12/lead-us-not-into-debt/7751/

- "Five Books to Make You Less Stupid About the Civil War." By Ta-Nehisi Coates. Atlantic Magazine, November 1, 2017. www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/11/five-books-to-make-you-less-stupid-about-the-civil-war/544628/

- "How 'When They See Us' and 'Chernobyl' Make Us Look: These new true-story series manage to make depressing, traumatic material not merely watchable but mesmerizing." By Emily Nusbaum. The New Yorker, June 17, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/24/how-when-they-see-us-and-chernobyl-make-us-look Click here for a cached version: faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/whentheyseeus_chernobyl.pdf

- "Cancel All Your Weekend Plans and Binge-Watch Aziz Ansari’s Unbelievably Excellent Netflix Series ‘Master of None’." By Pilot Viruet. Flavorwire, November 6, 2015. flavorwire.com/546398/cancel-all-your-weekend-plans-and-binge-watch-aziz-ansaris-unbelievably-excellent-netflix-series-master-of-none

D. Op-ed/ viewpoint

- "The Enduring Power of Print for Learning in a Digital World." By Patricia A. Alexander and Lauren M. Singer Trakhman. The Conversation, October 3, 2017.

theconversation.com/the-enduring-power-of-print-for-learning-in-a-digital-world-84352

- "Consider the Lobster: For 56 years, the Maine Lobster Festival has been drawing crowds with the promise of sun, fun, and fine food. One visitor would argue that the celebration involves a whole lot more." By David Foster Wallace. Gourmet Magazine, August 2004. Pages 50-64. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/lobster_dfwallace.pdf

- "The Riddle of the Gun." By Sam Harris. January 2, 2013. samharris.org/the-riddle-of-the-gun/

- "Sam Harris Neglects The Most Important Evidence About Guns." By Sean Faircloth. Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, January 4, 2013. www.richarddawkins.net/2013/01/sam-harris-neglects-the-most-important-evidence-about-guns/

- "Black Exhaustion." By Pilot Viruet. Matter [the original flagship publication of Medium], April 28, 2015. medium.com/matter/black-exhaustion-eb90b87c4476

- "Putting Down Your Phone May Help You Live Longer: By raising levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol, our phone time may also be threatening our long-term health." By Catherine Price. The New York Times, April 24, 2019. www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/well/mind/putting-down-your-phone-may-help-you-live-longer.html

E. Essays that are hard to categorize

- "The Insect Apocalypse Is Here: What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?" By Brooke Jarvis.

The New York Times Magazine, November 27, 2018. 7,500 words. www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html

- "An Unbelievable Story of Rape: An 18-year-old said she was attacked at knifepoint. Then she said she made it up. That’s where our story begins." By T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong. Co-published by ProPublica and the Marshall Project, December 16, 2015. www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story

- "Unfriendly Climate." By Sonia Smith. Texas Monthly, May 2016. www.texasmonthly.com/articles/katharine-hayhoe-lubbock-climate-change-evangelist/

- "The Improvisational Oncologist: In an era of rapidly proliferating, precisely targeted treatments, every cancer case has to be played by ear." By Siddhartha Mukherjee. New York Times Magazine, May 12, 2016. www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/magazine/oncologist-improvisation.html

- "The Teen Whisperer [Profile]: How the author of 'The Fault in Our Stars' built an ardent army of fans."

By Margaret Talbot. The New Yorker, June 2, 2014. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/09/the-teen-whisperer Click here for a cached version: faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/john_green_profile.pdf

- "Most dominant athlete of 2018: Simone Biles--This was the year that the greatest gymnast of all time showed that not a damn thing will ever stand in her way." By Danyetl Smith. ESPN The Magazine [RIP!], December 11, 2018. theundefeated.com/features/simone-biles-most-dominant-athlete-of-2018/

- "The Really Big One: An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when." By Kathryn Schulz. The New Yorker, July 13, 2015. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one

- "Can the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Be Found in Cuba? A birder, ornithologist, writer, and photographer set off on an extreme adventure through the muck and memories of eastern Cuba." [Republished under the title, "Delusion is the Thing with Feathers."] By Mac McClelland. Audubon Magazine, May-June 2016. www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2016/can-ivory-billed-woodpecker-be-found-cuba

- "Annotation Tuesday! Mac McClelland and 'Delusion Is the Thing With Feathers': The writer talks about her hilariously awful trip with extreme birders for Audubon, and her bold choice of having a paragraph consisting of a single exclamation point." By Katia Savchuk. Nieman Storyboard (a publication of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard), June 13, 2017. niemanstoryboard.org/stories/annotation-tuesday-mac-mcclelland-and-delusion-is-the-thing-with-feathers/