1. Wrt 205: critical research
Dr. Rusty Bartels
Friday, February 1st, 2019
Week 3, Day 3

2. Overview
This powerpoint contains a series of freewrites and exercises in lieu of our class meeting today. Please do them in order as much as you are able to. Please compose your freewrites in a google doc that is uploaded to your shared google drive folder with me where you turn in all of your other assignments. You have until the beginning of class on Monday to finish these tasks. All in all it should take you about minutes.

3. The Reading – Glenn & Ratcliffe
Be sure to read closely the first section (pages 1-3). We will come back to the three arguments later.
Read quickly (try to skim, don’t worry about the details) the second section (pages ) to get a sense of how the field talks about “silence” and “listening” as concepts
Engage however deeply you wish pages 10 and on — this is less important to our work today.

4. Freewrite
For the free writes, treat them like you would in class. Set yourself a timer for minutes and write as much as you can in that time frame in response to the prompt.
PROMPT:
What does “silence” mean to you? “Listening”?
What does it mean to practice them? How are they similar to and different from each other?
Are you the kind of person who is naturally quiet/silent, or is “silence” more difficult for you?

5. Exercise
As you hang out or work with friends, roommates, club/organization, co-workers, teammates, etc. over the next few days, at some point I want you to think about these elements of “silence” and “listening” in those moments.
Make a plan for yourself about when you can take 10 minutes or so to kind of sit back in your group and really try to listen at the conversations, dynamics, what’s being said and what’s left unsaid. What do you hear? Not hear? What stands out to you? 
As you are listening, what happens to your silence? How do silence and listening reinforce each other? Does one require the other? What happens when you don’t enter a conversation when you otherwise might?

6. Post-Exercise
After you feel you have done this exercise, set yourself a timer for 3-5 minutes and reflect on the experience.
What was it like?
What did you learn about yourself?
What stood out to you?
What was difficult or easy about it?
Feel free to reflect on this with a group and take notes as a group.

7. Notes The goal of discussing this reading today is to:
[a] put it in conversation with strategic contemplation; and
[b] in doing so try to open up space in each of us to reflect on what can happen we take a moment to pause and listen before diving in to a conversation — whether it’s a face-to-face conversation with our peers, or an academic conversation engaging with questions in our field, or a conversation in class over a reading or concept.

8. Freewrite
On pages 2-3 Glenn & Ratcliffe present three major arguments pertaining to “the arts of silence and listening.”
Pick one of those arguments and spend 3-5 minutes in a free write to discuss:
[A] what you understand it to mean
[B] connect it to ethics and/or civic discourse
[C] write why you agree/disagree with it and why