background, exhibit, argument, theory

My Intro CNF class met in the library to talk about using research in personal essays. 

We were introduced to useful framework to think about sources, with a handy acronym for source types:

BEAT (Background, Exhibit, Argument, Theory/Method) from “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing,” Joseph Bizup. To help understand, what kind of information am I looking for? What kinds of sources do I need? 

I don’t recall learning how to approach academic research, and it was useful to consider what kinds of tools can be incorporated into the intro class.

And we got a few tips for using Zotero!

In Rhetoric of Social Change, we talked about how critical engagement and theories of progressive thought and politics have been co-opted to serve neoliberalism. An agenda that ignores or dismisses complexity or difficulty as “elitist” and embraces likability, e.g., “have a beer with,” etc. It’s chilling to think about how the idea of “lived experience” can become distorted to mean because I feel this way, it is true. 

Our discussion was a bit subdued. It’s hard to tell sometimes whether students are overwhelmed, bored, or simply have so many other things on their minds. I suppose it can be a bit of all those things. 

Took some notes on an essay about walking that I’ve promised. Cleared away a few administrative tasks. Made dinner for a very dear friend I had not seen since summer. 

I’m thinking about B., who is on tour in Europe. About catching up with a few people I’ve not spoken to in some time. About the season, the insistence of its remarkable beauty in the long shadows of decomposition. 

Of working, what work is, what it could be.

Of all the intricately woven threads that hold us.