Best Collaboration Tools | A Partner Presentation for Business Writing

The first project I assigned to my Business Writing students this semester is a partner-collaborated white paper report with a number of deliverables. The first is a Professional Profile that helps the students get to know one another and (inadvertently) introduce them to resumes and the concept of personal branding. The profiles (which each include a list of skills, personality traits, preferred paths for the project, as well as professional photos)are posted to our course site for everyone to see. Students then contact each other via email requests, acceptances, and rejections to form partner-teams.

After teaming up, their second deliverable is a Collaboration Tool Presentation, described below:

Collaboration Tool Presentation | Inspired by the topic of social media and the collaborative nature of this project, your first team assignment is to give a 5-7 minute introduction and tutorial to an online collaboration tool. Entertain us! Convince us! Show us how this tool might be useful for other partner-teams in our class as they compose Project 1. Most importantly, keep us with you and help us feel confident in getting started with the tool. Your team will present on one of the following:

1. Doodle
2. Spaaze
3. Google Docs
4. PB Works
5. Skype
6. Facebook
7. Tumblr
8. WordPress
9. Scribblar
10. Prezi
11. Second Life
12. Wiggio
13. Meebo
14. Snipia
15. ProjectPier
16. The Brain
17. Chatter
18. Dropbox
19. Open Atrium
20. Convofy

An awesome resource to have students “play” with for homework is the “Best Online Collaboration Tools of 2012.” Enjoy!

Horkheimer and Adorno | Dialectic of Enlightenment

The first book of my Cultural Studies seminar with Thomas Rickert this semester is Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment, first published in German in 1944 near the end of WWII. The book was translated into English first in 1972 and again in 2002 (the edition I cite below). Here, I thought I’d share some class discussion notes, as well as my own reflections of their ideas, which surprisingly, shockingly and sadly, are still very relevant today.

History of Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School emerged from Marxism, with which they weren’t completely satisfied. They questioned Marx’s theory of the dialectic—the rise of the communist state—(if that doesn’t work, why not?), feeling that Marxist theory relied too much on objectivity.

Their major influences:

• Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents | Civilization automatically makes us repressed
• Nietzsche | Enlightenment will turn on itself and produce barbarism; 1800s
• Empirical Work
• Social Theory

Their major concerns:

• Economic Industry | Deregulated capital; slight shift with economic distribution; new technology that disseminate economic info differently, though we can’t get away from it. Domination is not just economic, but also cultural.
• Culture Industry | keeps us narcotized; digital soma for the masses. Culture is ideological; it teaches you that the way things are are the ways things ought to be. Theory itself is cultural.
• Historical Domination| The domination we see in our everyday lives are not contemporary alone, but go very far back. Pre-literate people (magic and animism—the idea that animals and things have souls; indicates that they read archaeology and anthropology).
• Reject Positivism | the idea that empirical, objective studies of reality simply render what reality is. i.e. a truck is a truck. In response, the Frankfurters say a truck is a concept/symbol/object within a system.
• Theory Itself is Cultural | This is why they attend to how their own theory can be commoditized or not commoditized; how can our theory disrupt an ideology of naturalism that says, “This is just the way the world works. Here are some rich people and everyone else suffers, and that’s just the way it is.”

Dialectic between myth and enlightenment | Most evident moment of the refusal of exteriority; myth is something that used to be true before people considered themselves “Enlightened”; myth is produced as a concept emerging out of Enlightenment (reminds me of Heidegger’s caution toward the concept and Toulmin’s view of concepts made possible because of Enlightenment). Where the ratinoal disenchantment of the world reverts to myth. Enlightenment emerges from our ability to experience the world through our work within it (24-5).

*How does myth become Enlightenment? What’s the relationship between the two? Myth becomes Enlightenment because of repeated referencing/touching-back of human understanding. Myth today is only understood as myth (in the fantasmic sense) because we have rejected it for new “Enlightened” reasoning, which of course also gets rejected with new “findings”: “But the myths which fell victim to the Enlightenment were themselves its products” (5). The problem of Enlightenment for H&A is that is rests too strongly on the ideal of clear and “natural” truth. Whatever is outside of this “magic circle” drawn by enlightenment is simply ignored:

“For enlightenment, anything which does not conform to the standard of calculability and utility must be viewed with suspicion. Once the movement is able to develop unhampered by external oppression, there is no holding it back. Its own ideas of human rights then fare no better than the older universals. Any intellectual resistance it encounters merely increases its strength” (3).

Adorno and Horkheimer | Style Their long paragraph styles play against commonly-accepted, sound-bited styles; they are working against commodified style as a performance of reaction and ; ideology is not simply a narrative; styles often project and forward commodities and A&H here attempt to encourage readers to question sound-bites and consumptive reading: “Intellect’s true concern is a negation of reification. It must perish when it is solidified into a cultural asset and handed out for consumption purposes” (xvii). Clarity is ideological; A&H want to develop a negative relationship to clarity. Conditions of production influence this as well: “We dictated long stretches together” (Preface to 1969 Edition). Adorno spoke into a dictophone (tape-recorder).

Mass Culture | is commoditized into everyday life and therefore, it is limited in its emancipator abilities. Later, Hebdige and other cultural theorists will reject this as too cynical. H&A though see all things as part of massive systems (i.e. mass culture), and hope that dialectical thinking (what they call Critical Theory—yes, a precursory to the “thing” CT is today) can help us emerge from the system… later, Hawkhee and Bay will suggest that this occurs in “temporary autonomous zones.”

• I believe this gives a lot of support to the study of rhetoric, where we seek to understand how systems of representation influence or affect. I wonder also how this will relate to new materialisms?
• Later, Jameson will ask: Is critique really possible, or does it just perpetuate the larger system?
• Even in online communities, we can’t escape a forced division of labor; it simply repeats itself. Our classrooms too. Could relate also to subculture as a tech tool.

Best Rhetoric & Composition Books, Articles, and Experiences of 2011

Inspired by the Crunk Feminist Collective’s “Year in Crunkness,” I’m writing today about the things that get me crunk and keep me crunk in Rhetoric & Composition. Hope you can relate and enjoy!

1. The Affect Theory Reader helped me see how theories can be tangled, tied, and forwarded for multiple purposes. The book explains the in-between-ness of affect (in-between disciplines, materials, movements, acts, and states of being), which got me thinking excitedly about embracing and recognizing experiences that exist between boundaries of all kinds.
2. Gayle Solomon’s Assuming a Body offers one of the most fascinating gazes at the body in RhetComp so far. Moving theoretically out of Freud and Lacan, she understands bodies not only as holders, placers, and markers of categorization, but as uniquely fluid constructs and materials of action that function by felt senses. If you’d like to think harder about bodies and their immateriality, pick up this book.
3. Sherry Turkle’s book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other was also featured in a beautiful and engaging podcast for On Being. The podcast offers stories about Turkle’s personal arrival at her research, including her first recognition that younger generations see technology as uniquely “alive.” Check it out!
4. Two former grad students, Staci Perryman-Clark and Collin Craig pubilshed an excellent article on race and gender in WPA work titled, “Troubling the Boundaries: (De)Constructing WPA Identities at the Intersections of Race and Gender” in Volume 34 Issue 2 of The Journal of Writing Program Administration. Their article shares troubling and engaging personal experiences from graduate students of color as they face obvious discrimination in RhetComp work spaces. From classrooms and hallways, to one of our largest conferences, this article suggests methods for expanding our notions of who fits and belongs and makes up our field.
5. The Appalachian Studies Association Conference stands in clear contrast to the busy bustle of our beloved Cs. With folk musicians jamming in the lobby, a small silent auction where you can score rare artistic works and antiques, a cozy book fair, and a warm sense in conference presentations that attendants are in it together–to support each other in our various endeavors. This conference is warm and inviting, and if you have even a slightly extroverted personality, you’ll be sure to make new friends that will very likely lead to new collaborations at this conference.

So there you have it! A quick list of works and experiences that shaped my thinking-life in 2011. Feel free to comment with your own additions to the list!

Embodied Writing

I fell in love with Rhetoric and Composition upon first reading about the role of embodiment in writing. Writers like Patricia Dunn, Kathleen Blake Yancey, Malea Powell, and Jacqueline Jones Royster (among many others) engaged my attention by linking writing practices to bodily preferences, proximities, pressures, and possibilities.

Most of my early interest in embodiment arose from my digital practices; I started blogging about moving and writing, yoga and writing, Facebooking and writing. On Oct. 8, 2009, I ended a blog post by asking: “Do writers know/think to use their bodies in the process? What is the benefit of using movement when brainstorming and drafting? How can movement affect the revision process?” Today, I would expand that last question a bit to read: How can movement affect drafting, thinking, resting, collaborating, and revising? In this blog post, I want to make a few personal writing observations on embodiment.

For me, yoga is a constant metaphor for writing. Focus on breathe helps sustain bodily postures that otherwise seem impossible to maintain. This kind of focus also applies to stress maintenance necessary for grad school survival. I spent most of the first year of my doctoral program with a painful connection to my stomach. I lived in constant fear that my consistent stomachaches indicated my inability to handle grad school’s pressures. At the same time, I feared others would view me as apathetic or slacker-y if I didn’t run around stressed out all the time. Yoga helped me use breath as a safety net in these hectic multi-pressured situations (where stress comes from students, professors, what others think about me, what I think about myself, how I want others to see me, how those things affect my ability to collaborate, get excited about my work, or win departmental positions). The pain I faced was too overwhelming to ignore, and it required me to create new habits of mind and body around learning. During this time, my yoga teacher explained to our class that the pose called warrior two (pictured above) reminds us to live in the present moment. With arms stretched equally forward (toward the future) and backward (toward the past), the pose reminds us to turn our attention to the center of our bodies–our hearts and cores (the present). Posing here helped soothe my stomach pain (which existed in my core) and turn my attention to breathing as a way of handling pain and bringing my mind into immediate time and place with my body. This connection I experience between mind and body shapes my understanding of embodiment.

Still, there are historical links between learning and pain. Learning is often related to pain when some stressful or painful situation makes you remember something more vividly. I’ve heard professors explain that learning—to be genuine, effective, and meaningful—has to be painful. Some questions I have in response are:

Is it true that the pain of sitting too long, acquiring too much info at once, or stressful lifestyle choices really make us learn more or better?

What studies exist among graduate students to show the relationship between learning and pain? Is this relationship really beneficial? Or best? Or even effective?

Where does reflection/stillness fit into the simple equation that “real” learning is pain?

Wikis versus Blogs (Kennedy versus Nixon)

Quick Review of “Chore Wars” (TIME’s August 2011 Cover)

Some of the frustration Susan Bordo expresses in Unbearable Weight toward the feminist lack of organized anger today came out for me when I read the cover story in TIME Magazine’s August 2011 issue.  Essentially, this article encourages wives to stop complaining about their husband’s lack of effort around the house.  According to a national survey average, it looks like men and women “work” the same number of hours each week.  What the author of the article fails to acknowledge, however, is that the “work” described in the survey is still incredibly gendered.  Her interpretation of the survey is based on the average hours of work across the nation—all women versus all men.  As a result, women (who only work 20 hours outside of the home, according to the survey) shouldn’t complain about housework because the time they spend on housework and out-of-the-house work is equivalent to the average man’s out-of-the-house work.  Assuming all women work 20-hours-per-week, the author fails to acknowledge the lack of monetary value in housework, or the inner conflict many women experience when their homes are not organized, cleaned, and livable, or especially the many women who work as much as their partners but who feel more intense pressure to live up to the wifely standards set by generations before them.

To the Sound of Elevator Music: Elevator Pitches!

Next week, my business writing students will present elevator pitches for fictional companies, making specific suggestions about how the company should use social media for advertising, gaining client feedback, increasing brand recognition, obtaining internet pull research, or protecting the company through social media policies.  The project, which is part of a larger white paper report, is described in this prompt, in case you like this idea.

Elevator pitches are FUN to teach and enjoyable to listen to!  For homework, I assigned my students the following multimedia “readings” to introduce them to the elevator pitch genre and to get them thinking about which “moves” are effective in such a short presentation:

The Perfect (Elevator) Pitch (Read) http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/jun2007/ca20070618_134959.htm

CBS’ “Dragons’ Den” Intro to Elevator Pitches (Watch):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0tan49rmc

Univ. of Dayton Elevator Pitch Winner (Watch):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqIEE-g_-Uc&feature=related

Utah State Elevator Pitch Winner (Watch):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6O98o2FRHw

A Sales Pitch in 60 Seconds (Listen):  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89209786

In class, I was delighted by the conversation that happened around this media.  We started by breaking down the three student pitches (two video winners, and one an audio report from NPR).  I replayed their introductions and asked students to help me identify the specific, chronological moves the speakers were making.  They were able to identify the order of the speakers’ arguments, and draw specific advice from their speeches (i.e. memorize, begin with a problem statement or engaging bit of info, use stats that make your product/approach very important and urgent, etc.).  The Univ. of Dayton pitch in particular led to an interested conversation about audience and gender, and how to avoid upsetting particular groups.  After our conversation, I had them use the Harvard Business School’s Elevator Pitch Builder to inspire their preparation for the presentation.  But the best part was the elevator music I played in the background as they worked.  It set a fun, engaging tone in the classroom… and I’m pretty sure it lightened things up:

HBS Elevator Pitch Builder (Play):  http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/careers/pitch/

Elevator Music (Listen while building pitches through HBS):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8FCLT8S6A

The Layers of Reading

So I’m reading a white paper about keeping a business executive’s attention when they read your white papers (click here to read the article)… and I notice that the authors break reading down into three “layers.”

• The Skimming Layer:  In less than 1 minute, reader skims page by page to see if reading the paper will be a valuable investment of their time.  Graphics and layout can play an important role in inspiring readers to stay with it.
• Preliminary Reading:  In 15-30 minutes, readers get more details about the author’s points.
• Comprehensive Reading & Recommendations:  Actually reading the entire document and using it to make recommendations for your business.

Though this is, of course, over simplified, I find that I do follow this kind of approach to reading when I’m working on a larger, self-designed (usually end-of-term) project.  It allows me to quickly rule-out irrelevant articles and focus on the ones that offer the most support for my approach, methodology, or idea.

However, when I’m reading on a weekly basis for grad seminars, I jump directly to the third layer:  comprehensive reading.  Although comprehensive, it is draining and tends to make me feel like I’ve taken a beating afterward.  What about you?  How you read as a graduate student?  Do you, like me, feel guilty when you don’t get to the third layer of reading?  How do you “use” these kinds of layers (or approaches)?

Finding Balance and Joy after Year 1 (and after a spouse writes his dissertation)

Now that my first year is over, I have some new goals and hopes for the coming year.  A great friend told me recently that transitions are particularly vulnerable times for us; times that require more understanding, more calm, and more sweetness towards each other.  Trying to start my PhD program–and simultaneously support my husband as finishes his–has been the most challenging time of my life so far.  Add to it a new location, new people, and a new program and I had myself a down-right tough and tedious 2010-2011.  Now that Stephen’s final PhD presentation is a week away, and the fall semester begins for me the week after, I want to take some time to reflect on what I’ve learned and how I’d like my life to change (for the positive).

Feeling forced.

The first major lesson I’ve learned is that spouses need A LOT more warning about what the dissertation (sometimes referred to here as the “baby”) year is actually like.  I frolicked into dissertation times with the mentality that things would be hard, but not all that bad–and definitely not this long.  I simply was not prepared for how long the process takes (for us, a year and a half) or how much focus it requires.  This baby has been the primary thing upon which our world turns for the past year.  Add my own entrance to a PhD program to the mix, and I see why last year was a sort of hell for us.

What is most difficult about being the spouse in the dissertation situation is figuring out how to see through the awfulness and recognize the spectacular amount of growth the dissertation-er experiences.  I’m not talking about growth in our relationship, but rather growth in his ability to think and understand impossibly challenging concepts–and answer impossibly challenging questions.  There is so much to be discovered and understood in a dissertation project… and discovering those things is incredibly rewarding for him.  Since I love him, it’s also rewarding for me (but in a different way… a kind of “I can appreciate that” way).  It is a love-hate relationship, where he is drawn in by the pride he feels in learning this much and at the same time overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.  There were many times that I wished he could say, “This sucks” or “I hate this” and he simply couldn’t.  To say those things would make his task of completing it infinitely harder.

Couples who go through a PhD understand how difficult it is to work together as equals–because basically for more than a year, everything has to be devoted to the “baby.”  What have I learned from this?  It brings out the deepest insecurities in yourself.  While I was a generally happy person before this started, I’ve learned that much of my happiness was dependent on Stephen.  That’s not a bad thing, but rather an unbalanced thing.  Where does my joy come from?  What makes me feel alive?  What defines my life?  When you’re the one who is sacrificing your relationship for your partner’s life goal, these questions arise.  At least, they did for me.

Taking a break.

Now that it’s coming to an end, I’m focusing back in on myself again.  My hope for Fall 2011 is to develop a deeper understanding of myself–and then commit strongly to the lifestyle I know makes me happy (without conceding to a lifestyle someone else thinks I should have).  Part of my success in school, I believe, rides on the fact that I get a lot of joy out of pleasing my teachers.  I’m a people-pleaser.  But what I find at the bottom of people-pleasing is a lack of personal reward or self-motivated accomplishment.  I want to do my work because I find it worthy–not because someone else will be impressed by it or find me unstoppable.  I just want to enjoy what I do–whether it’s work or play or extra-curricular.  If I can’t find my own personal joy in this lifestyle, then I’ll fall into resentment and unhappiness–a place I’ve seen enough in the past year.

Part of the problem with getting to a place of self-motivated accomplishment is the classroom itself.  It’s difficult to be in control of my work when I mostly have to function by receiving orders from professors (i.e. read this by X date… write this by X date).  Since this should be my last year in the classroom as a student,  perhaps these feelings are completely natural and helpful in getting me ready to do research and write a dissertation.  Now that I’ve seen what a dissertation can be like, at least I know what I’m getting myself into.  And I think there are many rewards to having done it… I’ll inform you of them sometime in the next few months when my life achieves a more satisfactory balance.  Until then, know that I am working on fulfilling myself and choosing my own path.  I believe that is what takes to write a dissertation anyways.

One of the most joyful writing moments of my life. Alone on a weekend night in the English department. Working with multiple resources to complete a project that I loved. I pray that I find this kind of joy more.

 

Naming Affrilachia selected for Enculturation

My article is now live on Enculturation‘s site.  Be sure to view it in Chrome or IE, as the videos might not work in other browsers:

http://enculturation.gmu.edu/naming-affrilachia