JOT+Essay+Development

1) Read the following example of a JOT and prepare questions/comments about the sample for class discussion. Be sure to comment on both paragraphs, the second of which is a body paragraph. (Be sure to write these question/comments in your journal.)

There I sat in the dean’s office being charged for an infraction that another had committed, and there I first faced and pondered the concept of forbidden knowledge. Dean Bitta of Maine South High School sat before me taking on his typical tone of suspicion, questioning my whereabouts, my friendships and inevitably my worship of Satan. Neither had I felt, nor would I feel so powerful, nor so persecuted during my entire four years of high school as I did that drowsy afternoon as Bitta pressed me for my interest in Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica and the almighty hell fires of Slayer! Clearly I had interests in the worship of Satan, even if it was news to me. The paradox of that moment obviated itself all the more I considered it. On the one hand I was being persecuted for some unknown knowledge of Satan I allegedly had; while on the other hand, I felt all the more powerful because this omnipotent man of the Saturday detentions actually appeared a wee bit scared—scared of me? As I read the novel //Frankenstein// by Mary Shelly twenty years later, I found myself pondering the very same age-old phenomena, the peculiar nature of knowledge better left unknown. More specifically, who should designate knowledge as forbidden when any single judge has a limited perspective on which to make judgments?

Shelly’s //Frankenstein// personifies this problem in the character of the monster and never allows her audience to settle its mind on a particular perspective because of the turns the plot takes. How often in life we want things to be simple, so we can be comfortable. Enter Frankenstein’s monster. Frankenstein creates him and immediately grows fearful of what he has done and abandons him as an orphan, helpless in a cruel world. Frankenstein should be amazed with his awe-inspiring creation, and yet he shrinks in fear of it. At once we, as readers, are faced with a murderous brute and a sensitive citizen of the world, not unlike a child newborn, but born of forbidden knowledge. Here Shelly reminds us that once we have allowed such knowledge into our consciousness, we cannot simply claim ignorance and act naïve about the complexities we have brought about. If forbidden knowledge presents us with such disparity within ourselves, what perspective are we to take?

2) Trade JOT introductory paragraphs with two people you trust to critique yours well. Do this in google docs; if you did not submit it in google docs, please do so now by typing it up. [Don't even start complaining about the typing. It's only a paragraph! :) ] Afterwards, critique in the following way: a) annotate the parts of the introduction that appear (e.g. text quote, anecdote, rhetorical question) and state which do not appear but should b) peer edit for quality and provide your opinions about why you think something is strong or weak c) peer edit for grammar, spelling, etc.

3) Begin writing your first body paragraph of your JOT essay. Keep in mind that the first body paragraph or two or three of a JOT essay should explore your subject in some new territory, i.e. a different place than in your introduction. This is your first try, so all I ask is that you try and also be sure to use specific examples to support your paragraphs. Complete this first attempt for tomorrow's class.