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PROJECT ONE

250 POINTS AT STAKE.

+ UP TO 25 POINTS FOR RESEARCH

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ALL PROJECTS ARE DUE IN BLOG FORMAT ON THE P1 BLOG ON BLACKBOARD BY 1:30 P.M.

Basic requirement: an essay in blog format* of at least fourteen-hundred words that must include multimedia (at least two images), at least two of the required citations, and endnotes (*footnotes become endnotes).

PENALTIES FOR BEING LATE AND/OR NOT MEETING THESE REQUIREMENTS: -20 IF UP BY 2 P.M.9-28 ; -30 IF UP BY 2 P.M.9-29; -40 IF UP BY 2 P.M., 9-30. -50 IF UP BY 2 P.M.10-1. -60 IF UP BY 2 P.M.10-2 .

-100 IF NOT POSTED BY THEN. 

YOUR COLLEAGUES ARE RELYING ON YOU: DON'T LET THEM DOWN.

CRITIQUES OF OTHERS ARE DUE ON BLACKBOARD BY MIDNIGHT 10-4.IF ALL FIVE OF YOUR CRITIQUES ARE NOT COMPLETED BY THEN YOU LOSE THE CHANCE TO EARN 65 POINTS AND RECEIVE, INSTEAD, -50 WITH NO CHANCE TO MAKE THIS UP, BECAUSE YOUR CRITIQUES ARE OF NO USE TO OTHERS AFTER THEY HAVE WRITTEN THEIR PAPERS. YOUR COLLEAGUES ARE RELYING ON YOU: DON'T LET THEM DOWN.

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REQUIREMENTS

 

(“acceptable” means “college-level writing”: see below for what that means)

with an accurate word count of at least 1400 words (not counting quotations); and at least two images; and at least two of the required quotations:

[a] one from a scientific account of your animal (may be from the internet) or from pp.452-462, the anthology section of Animal Speak; and/or pp. 463-468, the anthology section of Spirit Animals and/or pp. 460-472, “Power Animals in Bless Me Ultima, Harry Potter, and Black Elk Speaks: A Few Examples” and/or pp. 470-472, “Totemism and Power Animals, some definitions.”

 

[b] and one from  a library book not available in any way on the internet. You may choosene of the books on reserve. (Needless to say, the quote from the reserve book can not be from pages reproduced in our course anthology. )

But you will earn more points for a different kind of book about your animal such as a scientific book, for example.

In any case, you must supply complete bibliographical information for the book[s]

Books on Reserve in the PCL for This Project:

Animal spirit guides : discover your power animal and the shamanic path / Chris Lüttichau. -- BF 1275 G85 L88 2009;

Power animals : how to connect with your animal spirit guide / Steven D. Farmer. -- BF 1275 G85 F37 2004 TEXT ;

Animal-speak : the spiritual & magical powers of creatures great & small / Ted Andrews. -- BF 1623 A55 A53 1993;

Power animals : how to connect with your animal spirit guide / Steven D. Farmer. -- BF 1275 G85 F37 2004 CDROM

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TOPIC

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1. Begin with the animal.

You can choose your animal any way you like and you can then draw on your memories and/or the scientific observations of others to establish the traits of the animal that interest you.

Here are three guided meditations to help you find your contemporary power animal:

Steven Farmer

Shamanic

Denise Linn

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2. Be the animal

To get a sense of the animal, in addition to your memories and your research, use your sympathetic imagination, trying to imagine what it is like to be the animal. At least 400 words must be devoted to helping us see, feel, hear, etc. as the animal does.

This of course is good practice for Project Two where you must write even more from the point of view of the animal.

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3. Learn from the animal (For example, what could you learn from the animal's ability to "be here now.")

Focus on the animal's traits and what you can learn from them: those that you would like to have more of yourself and those that you would like to see less of in yourself. It would be especially useful if you include traits that you need or don't need to be a better leader.

HOW COULD S/HE BE A LEADER FOR YOU?

HOW COULD S/HE HELP YOU DEVELOP YOUR OWN LEADERSHIP TRAITS?

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4. An optional, tertiary topic is to imagine not only what it is like to be your spirit animal but also what it would be like to be a Native American who identifies with this animal.

[Note: "Identifies with" us does not mean "worships". Like us, Native Americans usually "worshipped" one God, such as the Great Spirit, rather than animals in general or individual animals]

This way, you add another calisthenic of the sympathetic imagination, trying to imagine what it was like to be Native American, especially their connection to nature. And, of course, that way it is experiential learning, the kind that can stick with you later. All of this depends on your willingness to be an actor, to willingly suspend your disbelief long enough to play the part.

That willingness also enables you to FREE yourself from the world views that you may have inherited without conscious thought or decision on your part.* Trying out the worldviews of other cultures is the humanities equivalent of a scientific experiment. When you adopt, however briefly, another Weltanshauung, and see and feel as a member of that culture would, you test out whether any part of that philosophy of life is one you want to adopt and/or, by contrast, what part of the worldivew you inherited you may consciously want to embrace.

*William Blake called them your "mind-forged manacles"

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(*A.K.A. Your "Patronus"* for Harry Potter fans) *Expecto Patronum:"The conjured Patronus protects the witch or wizard that summoned it, obeys his or her commands, and fades away shortly after it is no longer required.....A full-fledged (or corporeal) Patronus takes on a fixed animal form that is often significant to the witch or wizard casting the charm......Suggested etymology: Expecto Patronum is correct classical Latin for "I await a protector". It is related to "pater" (father) and Harry's Patronus indeed takes the same form as that of his father's animagus form (a stag)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spells_in_Harry_Potter

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SUGGESTION

Once you have identified a possible power/spirit animal, if the eat-or-be-eaten aspects of the animal bother you or do not seem appropriate for you, you can imagine your aninmal, along with all other animals, in the Garden of Eden or some such state where there is no murder, eating of each other, etc. [If you re-read Genesis, for example, you will discover that all were vegetarians until The Fall.]

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Examples from 603A11, which had a different organization, beginning with the self: 

 Bottlenose Dolphin Butterfly  Cheetah   Deer Dolphin   Elephant   Firefly Great Blue Heron  Monkey   Panda  Raccoon    Sparrow Spider  Tiger  Vulture  Wolf Wombat

 

 

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College-level Writing

is basically, first of all, the writing of a well-read native speaker of English with no grammatical errors and no egregious errors in punctuation and mechanics.

See the relevant sections of your required handbook, Lester Faigley's The Little Penguin Handbook. (Prof. Faigley has the class right after ours in Par 104). That handbook is your primary guide to college-level writing. It also provides you with our documentation system, the CMS, Chicago Manual of Style. The CMS system focuses on footnotes rather than bibliographies or works cited at the end. he Little Penguin Handbook also will help you with your research for this assignment, including how to avoid plagiarism.

In the course anthology begin with pp. 12-13, "The Importance of Reading Directions in This Class."

See also the relevant pages of your course anthology for the aspects of writing I focus on the most: pp. 281-286, 297-301, 304-319, and 341-357. 

However, assuming you can write English with no grammatical errors and no egregious errors in punctuation and mechanics, what I look for the most is writing as evidence of discovery learning, of connecting new thoughts together, of hammering your thoughts into unity.

The key to this kind of writing, like all good writing, is time management, the exact opposite of doing the assignment the next before. The more time you can let lapse between different drafts of your essay the better chance you have a writing a good one. (See pp. 157, 188 of the course anthology on this subject.) If you let enough time elapse, you will be able to return to the latest draft and see it with new eyes, make new discoveries, and new connections. In other words the key to writing is rewriting. (See p. 343 of the course anthology on this subject.) To get a high grade from me, keep especially pp. 145-152 before you as you rewrite.

But you must begin writing now and sustain good time management. Review our unit on this subject, including pages 48-60 of our anthology.

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THE FIRST STEP: BEFORE WRITING YOUR FIRST DRAFT, GET A SENSE OF YOUR INTENDED UNIFYING THEMES, YOUR INTENDED PROGRESSION OF THOUGHT, AND THE STEP-BY-STEP ORGANIZATION OF THE ESSAY.

Aside from your writing from the animal's point of view, this is primarily an autobiographical essay, you might, say, begin with your memories of this animal, whether the real animal or a cartoon version or whatever, and then move to your current age of emerging adulthood, a time when you are trying to create a new self, and state that now you wonder what that animal might have to teach you, how that animal might help you develop the character traits you want to be a more ethical person, to be a leader, or whatever your goals are.

Then FOCUS ON SOME UNIFYING THEMES, YOUR INTENDED PROGRESSION OF THOUGHT, AND THE STEP-BY-STEP ORGANIZATION OF THE ESSAY.

To help you do that you might want to look ahead at the criteria that your peers will be using to evaluate your essay, especially the first two: UNITY, COHERENCE, AND FLOW + Organization and Logical Order of the Prose,  

The criteria for these and the rest of the rubic is available HERE

 and in your anthlogy, pp.108-188

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