Daily Themes - Revision history

Eric Rasmusen: /* My Summer Project with Faith */

2023-07-29T20:12:52Z

‎My Summer Project with Faith

Manson Lilian: /* One Week's Plan */

2023-07-18T17:27:37Z

‎One Week's Plan

Manson Lilian: /* The Yale Course */

2023-07-18T17:27:03Z

‎The Yale Course

Manson Lilian: /* One Week's Plan */

2023-07-18T17:21:43Z

‎One Week's Plan

Manson Lilian: /* My Summer Project with Faith */

2023-07-18T17:18:48Z

‎My Summer Project with Faith

Manson Lilian at 17:16, 18 July 2023

2023-07-18T17:16:04Z

Manson Lilian at 16:53, 18 July 2023

2023-07-18T16:53:07Z

Manson Lilian at 16:01, 12 July 2023

2023-07-12T16:01:56Z

Manson Lilian: Created page with "Daily Themes is a writing course that has been taught at Yale since about 1907. I'm going to start working with Faith on writing. I'll set it up with Faith in mind, but t..."

2023-07-12T16:01:03Z

Created page with "Daily Themes is a writing course that has been taught at Yale since about 1907. I'm going to start working with Faith on writing. I'll set it up with Faith in mind, but t..."

New page

Daily Themes is a writing course that has been taught at Yale since about 1907.

I'm going to start working with Faith on writing. I'll set it up with Faith in mind, but the rest of you are very very welcome to join us. We'll start tonight. Here's how I envisage it:

Each weekday, you will write a 1/2 page, 250-350-word piece on some theme I will give you. it will be non-fiction, I think. I attach part of my Substack as a 320-word length sample. The first two themes, for Thursday and Friday, are:

Thursday, July 13: An email requesting a recommendation letter from someone.
Friday, July 14: How to make some sort of food, such as banana bread or ramen. Not a recipe--complete sentences only.

Note that 350 words is a tight maximum. We should find some software that shows word count as you're writing, but we don't need that to start.

Each weekday, I will meet with Faith and anyone else on Zoom for half an hour. Anyone in 2810 Dale Court will have laptops open, and we'll solve the feedback problem by having the sound turned off on one of them. You can come to these even if you haven't written the daily theme. Faith and I will work out how to schedule these and will tell everybody else. Currently the only one scheduled is

Wednesday July 12, 10:30pm Eastern. https://bit.ly/3IWyiPf, passcode: 1U9ygu .

Usually we'll go over the previous assignment, but the first two days we'll probably go over some of https://rasmusen.org/GI/reader/writing.pdf or talk about the Yale Daily Themes course. You don't need to read it in advance.

Back in 1979 I took Daily Themes at Yale. It is the oldest course on the books there, going back to 1907. We had to write five one-page papers per week on an assigned theme. A professor gave one lecture a week, and we each had a session with a grad student in Machine City, the sterile underground coffee corridor of the library where he would go over our writing in detail.

"I had never had the singular importance of something impressed upon me by so many people unexpectedly. The recent Yale graduate sitting next to me on the plane. My friends. Acquaintances. Classmates. Guest speakers. Professors. Nebulously, in the air, whispered in my ears by the lingering ghosts of Yale alumni. Constantly, in both distinct memories and vague recollections, I recalled Yalies telling me to take one class: Daily Themes. As an aspiring English major and someone who (only sometimes!) buckles under peer pressure to do something really cool, I decided to take the (literally) storied class this spring." (https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/logan/2020/03/01/daily-themes)

https://aarongertler.net/daily-themes/ Aaron Gertler's blogpost with a link to a list of the year 2015 themes.

https://artieisaac.com/blog/2008/11/daily-themes/ Good.

https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/3491-the-class-ill-i-never-i-forget-p-span-span (I took Daily Themes, Kakutani's Real Analysis, and Scully's History of Art

http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/96_07/writing_well.html
https://www.chronicle.com/article/yale-writing-course-is-focus-of-power-struggle/?sra=true&cid=gen_sign_in

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 Note that 350 words is a tight maximum. LibreOffice shows word count as you're writing.
-Each weekday, I will meet with you and with anyone else on Zoom who wants to join for half an hour. We in 2810 Dale Court will have laptops open and we'll solve the audio feedback problem by having the sound turned off on one of them. You can come to these even if you haven't written the daily theme. You and I will work out how to schedule these and will tell everybody else. Currently the only one scheduled is
+Each weekday, I will meet with you and with anyone else on Zoom who wants to join for half an hour. We in 2810 Dale Court will have laptops open and we'll solve the audio feedback problem by having the sound turned off on one of them. You can come to these even if you haven't written the daily theme. You and I will work out how to schedule these and will tell everybody else.
 Usually we'll go over the previous assignment, but the first two days we'll probably go over some of my [https://rasmusen.org/GI/reader/writing.pdf" "Aphorisms on Writing, Speaking, and Listening"] or talk about the Yale Daily Themes course. You don't need to read anything in advance.

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 Usually we'll go over the previous assignment, but the first two days we'll probably go over some of my [https://rasmusen.org/GI/reader/writing.pdf" "Aphorisms on Writing, Speaking, and Listening"] or talk about the Yale Daily Themes course. You don't need to read anything in advance.
-==One Week's Plan==
+===One Week's Plan===
 '''July 17. 9pm'''
 ::Discuss: How to make banana bread.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ==The Yale Course==
-Back in 1979 I took Daily Themes at Yale with poet [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hollander John Hollander] (father of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Hollander Martha], Class of '80 like me). It is the oldest course on the books at Yale, going back to 1907. We had to write five one-page papers per week on assigned themes. A professor gave one lecture a week and we each had a session with a grad student in [https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/1962-i-this-i-is-ccl Machine City], the sterile, brutalist, underground coffee corridor of the library where he would go over our writing in detail.
+Back in 1979 I took Daily Themes at Yale with poet [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hollander John Hollander] (father of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Hollander Martha], Class of '80, like me). It is the oldest course on the books at Yale, going back to 1907. We had to write five one-page papers per week on assigned themes. A professor gave one lecture a week and we each had a session with a grad student in [https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/1962-i-this-i-is-ccl Machine City], the sterile, brutalist, underground coffee corridor of the library where he would go over our writing in detail.
 *"I had never had the singular importance of something impressed upon me by so many people unexpectedly. The recent Yale graduate sitting next to me on the plane. My friends. Acquaintances. Classmates. Guest speakers. Professors. Nebulously, in the air, whispered in my ears by the lingering ghosts of Yale alumni. Constantly, in both distinct memories and vague recollections, I recalled Yalies telling me to take one class: Daily Themes. As an aspiring English major and someone who (only sometimes!) buckles under peer pressure to do something really cool, I decided to take the (literally) storied class this spring." [https://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/logan/2020/03/01/daily-themes Logan] (2020).
-*[https://aarongertler.net/daily-themes/   Aaron Gertler's blogpost with a link to a list of the year 2015 themes.
+*[https://aarongertler.net/daily-themes/ Aaron Gertler's blogpost] with a link to a list of the year 2015 themes.
-*[https://artieisaac.com/blog/2008/11/daily-themes/ Good.
+*[https://artieisaac.com/blog/2008/11/daily-themes/ Artie Isaac blogpost] (2008).
-*[https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/3491-the-class-ill-i-never-i-forget-p-span-span (I took Daily Themes, Kakutani's Real Analysis, and Scully's History of Art
+*[https://yalealumnimagazine.org/articles/3491-the-class-ill-i-never-i-forget-p-span-span  A ''Yale Alumni Magazine'' article on "The Class I'll Never Forget"]  I took  Hollander's Daily Themes, Kakutani's Real Analysis (well, audited), and Scully's History of Art.
-*[http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/96_07/writing_well.html
+*[http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/96_07/writing_well.html "On Learning to Write Well,"] Yale Alumni Magazine (1996).
 ==My Summer Project with Faith==

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 ==One Week's Plan==
-July 17. 9pm
+'''July 17. 9pm'''
 ::Discuss: How to make banana bread.
 ::Turn in: Revision of Email asking for a recommendation letter
-July 18. 9pm
+'''July 18. 9pm'''
- Discuss:  Revision of Email asking for a recommendation letter
+::Discuss:  Revision of Email asking for a recommendation letter
-Turn in:  The meaning of the word "Experience".
+::Turn in:  The meaning of the word "Experience".
-July 19. 11am
+'''July 19. 11am'''
- Discuss: The meaning of the word "Experience".
+::Discuss: The meaning of the word "Experience".
- 	            Turn in:  A fraught memory.
+:: Turn in:  A fraught memory.
-July 20. 9pm
+'''July 20. 9pm'''
-Discuss:   A fraught memory.
+::Discuss:   A fraught memory.
-Turn in: Revision of The meaning of the word "Experience".
+::Turn in: Revision of The meaning of the word "Experience".
-July 21. 10am
+'''July 21. 10am'''
-:Discuss: Revision of The meaning of the word "Experience".
+::Discuss: Revision of The meaning of the word "Experience".
-:Turn in:  Queneau anecdote.
+::Turn in:  Queneau anecdote.
-July 18. Write a theme about the word "experience". Do you like it as a word? You can discuss the sound, the meaning, the etymology. Perhaps describe a time you   heard it or used it.
+'''July 18.''' Write a theme about the word "experience". Do you like it as a word? You can discuss the sound, the meaning, the etymology. Perhaps describe a time you heard it or used it.(adapted from the Yale list)
-July 19. Using plain, ordinary words, write a theme about someone or something you love passionately or about a particularly fraught memory. Write the theme so that it brings such things to life for a reader but use as spare and as sparse a style as you can. In fact, don’t use any word more than one syllable in length. Explore the tension between strength (and possibly complexity) of feeling and simplicity of expression. You may, if you want, even describe the difficulty of trying to convey that intensity within the given constraints. Let particularity, precision, understatement, and implication convey emotional power.
+'''July 19.''' Using plain, ordinary words, write a theme about a particularly fraught memory. Write the theme so that it brings such things to life for a reader but use as spare and as sparse a style as you can. In fact, don’t use any word more than one syllable in length. Explore the tension between strength (and possibly complexity) of feeling and simplicity of expression. You may, if you want, even describe the difficulty of trying to convey that intensity within the given constraints. Let particularity, precision, understatement, and implication convey emotional power. (adapted from the Yale list)
-July 21. The French writer Raymond Queneau wrote a book entitled Exercises in Style in which he represented the same basic event in ninety-nine different ways. Here is the anecdote:
+'''July 21.''' The French writer Raymond Queneau wrote a book entitled Exercises in Style in which he represented the same basic event in ninety-nine different ways. Here is the anecdote:
-"On the S bus, at rush hour. A chap of about 26, felt hat with a cord instead of a ribbon, neck too long, as if someone’s been having a tug-of-war with it. People getting off. The chap in question gets annoyed with one of the men standing next to him. He accuses him of jostling him every time anyone goes past. A sniveling tone which is meant to be aggressive. When he sees a vacant seat he throws himself on to it. Two hours later, I meet him in La Cour de Rome, in front of the Gare Saint-Lazare. He’s with a friend who’s saying: “You ought to get an extra button put on your overcoat.” He shows him where (at the lapels) and why."
+::"On the S bus, at rush hour. A chap of about 26, felt hat with a cord instead of a ribbon, neck too long, as if someone’s been having a tug-of-war with it. People getting off. The chap in question gets annoyed with one of the men standing next to him. He accuses him of jostling him every time anyone goes past. A sniveling tone which is meant to be aggressive. When he sees a vacant seat he throws himself on to it. Two hours later, I meet him in La Cour de Rome, in front of the Gare Saint-Lazare. He’s with a friend who’s saying: “You ought to get an extra button put on your overcoat.” He shows him where (at the lapels) and why."
 Rewrite this anecdote in two different styles.  You can even parody or emulate two different authors. How would Fitzgerald write it? How would Milton? See [http://monoskop.org/images/4/49/Queneau_Raymond_Exercises_in_Style_pp_1-26.pdf how Quneau did it] (you’ll need to skip the prefatory elements).
-Or write an anecdote of your own in two extremely different ways/styles. Make one tragic, for instance, and one comic. Again, you can emulate or parody other styles.
+Or write an anecdote of your own in two extremely different ways/styles. Make one tragic, for instance, and one comic. Again, you can emulate or parody other styles.(adapted from the Yale list)

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 Friday, July 14: How to make some sort of food, such as banana bread or ramen. Not a recipe--complete sentences only. (Faith chose pizza with home-made crust dough.)
-    Note that 350 words is a tight maximum. LibreOffice shows word count as you're writing.
+Note that 350 words is a tight maximum. LibreOffice shows word count as you're writing.
- Each weekday, I will meet with you and with anyone else on Zoom who wants to join for half an hour. We in 2810 Dale Court will have laptops open and we'll solve the audio feedback problem by having the sound turned off on one of them. You can come to these even if you haven't written the daily theme. You and I will work out how to schedule these and will tell everybody else. Currently the only one scheduled is
+Each weekday, I will meet with you and with anyone else on Zoom who wants to join for half an hour. We in 2810 Dale Court will have laptops open and we'll solve the audio feedback problem by having the sound turned off on one of them. You can come to these even if you haven't written the daily theme. You and I will work out how to schedule these and will tell everybody else. Currently the only one scheduled is
-Wednesday July 12, 10:30pm Eastern. https://bit.ly/3IWyiPf, passcode: 1U9ygu .
+Wednesday July 12, 10:30pm Eastern. https://bit.ly/3IWyiPf, passcode: 1U9ygu.
 Usually we'll go over the previous assignment, but the first two days we'll probably go over some of my [https://rasmusen.org/GI/reader/writing.pdf" "Aphorisms on Writing, Speaking, and Listening"] or talk about the Yale Daily Themes course. You don't need to read anything in advance.
-  July 18. 9pm: Discuss:  Revision of Email asking for a recommendation letter
+==One Week's Plan==
- 	           Turn in:  The meaning of the word "Experience".
+July 17. 9pm
- July 19. 11am: Discuss: The meaning of the word "Experience".
+July 19. 11am
   	            Turn in:  A fraught memory.
- July 20. 9pm: Discuss:   A fraught memory.
+July 20. 9pm
- 	           Turn in: Revision of The meaning of the word "Experience".
+Discuss:   A fraught memory.
 July 21. 10am
@@ Line 50: / Line 55: @@
 :Turn in:  Queneau anecdote.
 July 18. Write a theme about the word "experience". Do you like it as a word? You can discuss the sound, the meaning, the etymology. Perhaps describe a time you   heard it or used it.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 Daily Themes is a writing course that has been taught at Yale since about 1907.
-==DI'm going Doing to start working with Faith on writing. I'll set it up with Faith in mind, but the rest of you are very very welcome to join us. We'll start tonight. Here's how I envisage it:
+==My Summer Project with Faith==
-Each weekday,  you will write a 1/2 page, 250-350-word piece on some theme I will give you. it will be non-fiction, I think.  I attach part of my Substack  as a 320-word length sample. The first two themes, for Thursday and Friday, are:
+Each weekday, you will write a 250-350-word piece on some theme I will give you. They will be non-fiction, I think. I attach part of my Substack as a 320-word length sample. The first two themes, for Thursday and Friday, are:
-Thursday, July 13: An email requesting a recommendation letter from someone.
+Thursday, July 13: An email requesting a recommendation letter from someone. (Faith chose an email to her cello teacher.)
-    Note that 350 words is a tight maximum. We should find some software that shows word count as you're writing, but we don't need that to start.
+Friday, July 14: How to make some sort of food, such as banana bread or ramen. Not a recipe--complete sentences only. (Faith chose pizza with home-made crust dough.)
-Each weekday, I will meet with Faith and anyone else on Zoom for half an hour.  Anyone in 2810 Dale Court will   have laptops open, and we'll solve the feedback problem by having the sound turned off on one of them. You can come to these even if you haven't written the daily theme. Faith and I will work out how to schedule these and will tell everybody else. Currently the only one scheduled is
+    Note that 350 words is a tight maximum. LibreOffice shows word count as you're writing.
 Wednesday July 12, 10:30pm Eastern. https://bit.ly/3IWyiPf, passcode: 1U9ygu .