Final paper reiteration

Hi all,

this reprises what I said in class, but adds a few angles or points you might think about, if you want a structure to work with:
Final paper topic:
in five pages (roughly 250-300w/page), use ideas and texts that you have encountered in your readings on Japan, gardens and food history/politics/cultivation to suggest contributions to the USC Master Plan’s approach to feeding students. You may focus on a specific topic–even one that does not appear, per se, in the Master Plan–or you may suggest an overall approach or methodology (shizen nōhō, for instance, or localism, or if you like, pro-industrial food supply…).
The form and format are open-ended, but you may want to consider:

• –genre. Do you want to write a manifesto (with manifestary narrative with problem to solve and open-ended future), a thought experiment (like Tanizaki or Miyazawa), a parody (like Ozeki), etc.?
• –voice and audience. Are you addressing policy-makers, or fellow students? How does this affect your choice of language and tone? Would you like students to be involved in a particular way?
• –examples. You might suggest that the Plan learn concretely from your own research.
• –etc. The goal is to develop broad recommendations, connecting book/film learning to the world through your translation of language and concepts–i.e. the basic goal of a liberal arts education! If there are areas that need further research, either in your document, or in the Plan (many blind spots or blank spots may be found), feel free to say so.
• –do you want to include images, to illustrate the current state of things, or an ideal? Be sure to document your sources, establish that they are credible (i.e. the result of someone’s concrete research, and not just “floating” scholarship plucked from cyberspace), and give captions to your photos or images.

 

Schedule for rest of semester; paper description

Schedule

Schedule + prompt

Nov 23            meet in garden

(pop) quiz on garden how-tos—review blog posts

wrap up garden, tend beds

brainstorming on paper—books, resources, groups

Nov 25            no class—Thanksgiving vacation

Nov 30            finish Vibrator

Dec 2              meet in ORL kitchen (same space as where we made soba)

Cook + eat lunch

Revisions due

Dec 7 and 9            NO office hours (I’m in Madison)

Please make appointment via email for paper consults

Dec 14                     Tuesday by 12 noon—paper due in my mailbox. E-copy due by 5pm.

~~~~~Final paper

Write a paper of 7-10 pages (@250-300 w/p=1750-3000w) in which you draw up a plan for the garden for one season (one round of harvesting). Using both practical how-to knowledge you have gained throughout the semester, and drawing on critiques of food we have read, explain the process and the concepts that guide you.

Start your paper with ONE image, and an interpretation of that image. You may use any further images you like from the ‘net or print media. Make sure their relation to your narrative is clear, and that they are captioned.

You have a budget of up to $15,000 (to build things), but you need not use all or even any of it.

Some issues to address:

–do you want to spend most of your time philosophizing (a la Fukuoka)? Or most of your time telling “how-to” and designing a space? Be clear about your expectations so your reader can follow your ideas.

–are there things to take from the current garden?

–what will you plant? What are the reasons you selected these things (ease of growing, deliciousness, demand in community, etc.)?

–how do you define community in the community garden? What needs do you want to serve?

–how will it be maintained?

Final paper deadline

Rejoyce! Your paper is not due until we are scheduled to have our final, which, says the SoC, is Tuesday, Dec. 14.

Noon–in my mailbox. Also, an e-copy by the end of the day.