Brilliant Rhet 105 ideas from the shower

I think while I'm showering. Today I thought about the DVD project idea I have for my Rhet 105 class. As a way to help my students understand meta-narratives, I want to show them the special features from Lord of the Rings extended edition DVDs (not all of them, just clips). It is so interesting to see how the director talks about his work, how all the other collaborators talk about their parts, how a movie can be split up into different components such as art, script writing, acting, etc.

Since the theme of my class is to be constructions of the personal in public spaces, I was thinking that since my DVD project will also be the research paper, my students might look at personal writing in academic spaces. As a way to do this, I might have them read part of Casanave's book Writing Games wherein she talks about the positioning of the personal in the academic writing of different students. I might also have them read two versions of a paper that I wrote about English majors working in a law firm. In the first version, I wrote a strictly academic piece with the intention of showing some of the benefits of a liberal arts education. In the second piece, I juxtaposed the academic writing with a version of the personal, intending to play with the idea of my own positioning as both an employee of the firm and a researcher. I wonder how my students would respond to reading my writing.