Just a reminder if you missed class on Wednesday. Please do the following:

1. post your second paper rough draft to your weblog. If your weblog is not listed on the right side of this page, post the address in the comments below.

2. respond to the rough draft that is directly below yours in the list using the extended prompts on page 107 of allyn and bacon. Keep in mind how useful it is to get good feedback, and that feedback is 20% of your grade.

Please contact me with any questions!

posted by craniac @

gladwell dot com / Big and Bad: "Over the past decade, a number of major automakers in America have relied on the services of a French-born cultural anthropologist, G. Clotaire Rapaille, whose speciality is getting beyond the rational--what he calls 'cortex'--impressions of consumers and tapping into their deeper, 'reptilian' responses. And what Rapaille concluded from countless, intensive sessions with car buyers was that when S.U.V. buyers thought about safety they were thinking about something that reached into their deepest unconscious. 'The No. 1 feeling is that everything surrounding you should be round and soft, and should give,' Rapaille told me. 'There should be air bags everywhere. Then there's this notion that you need to be up high. That's a contradiction, because the people who buy these S.U.V.s know at the cortex level that if you are high there is more chance of a rollover. But at the reptilian level they think that if I am bigger and taller I'm safer. You feel secure because you are higher and dominate and look down. That you can look down is psychologically a very powerful notion. And what was the key element of safety when you were a child? It was that your mother fed you, and there was warm liquid. That's why cupholders are absolutely crucial for safety. If there is a car that has no cupholder, it is not safe."

posted by craniac @

One more reading!

Please have this essay read by class on Wednesday, July 14th.


gladwell dot com / Big and Bad: "Ford had planned to sell the Expedition for thirty-six thousand dollars, and its best estimate was that it could build one for twenty-four thousand--which, in the automotive industry, is a terrifically high profit margin. Sales, the company predicted, weren't going to be huge. After all, how many Americans could reasonably be expected to pay a twelve-thousand-dollar premium for what was essentially a dressed-up truck? But Ford executives decided that the Expedition would be a highly profitable niche product. They were half right. The 'highly profitable' part turned out to be true. Yet, almost from the moment Ford's big new S.U.V.s rolled off the assembly line in Wayne, there was nothing 'niche' about the Expedition.

Ford had intended to split the assembly line at the Michigan Truck Plant between the Expedition and the Ford F-150 pickup. But, when the first flood of orders started coming in for the Expedition, the factory was entirely given over to S.U.V.s. The orders kept mounting."

posted by craniac @

For class on Wednesday, July 14:

1. Be sure to have read chapters 19 and 20, and answer the questions that I'll post on this blog.

2. Be sure to email me a copy of your rough draft of your second paper before class. Use the secret code phrase, "cheese whiz" in your email subject so I can easily sort your papers out from my other correspondence

Unrelated to class (so far) but interesting: 3hive.com, free, legal mp3s.

posted by craniac @

Hi,

Forgot about chapter three discussion questions, just make sure you've read it and can answer a pop quiz if necessary.

Regarding chapter four: Take a look at pages 72-73. There are three sample essays. Answer the following questions in the "comments" link below (make sure you are logged into blogger, or if you post anonymously and want credit, put your name somewhere)

1. How would you describe differences in the length and complexity of sentences, in the level of vocabulary, and in the degree of complexity of each sample essay?

2. Based on differences in style, who is the intended audience for each piece?

3. Which of these samples seems most convincing or authoritative to you, and why?

Please respond to this entry before class on Wednesday.

posted by craniac @