A. Freundschuh
Activities and Lesson Plans: Writing on French Orientalism
ACTIVITY: Visual Constructions of East and West: Maps. This first-day activity asks
students to view early European maps of the world as artifacts of visual culture. The
aim is to note their characteristics, paying attention to the ways in which “East” and
“West” were imagined (or not) in European depictions of the world. In passing, note
the etymological origins of the verb “to orient” (orienteering, etc.).
1. Take a close look at these early European maps. Begin by taking note
of what you see.
2. What can maps, as a form of visual culture, reveal about a culture?
How do maps “construct” ideas about East and West? Formulate
written questions about the maps. What has struck you here, and what
makes you curious for an explanation?
3. Share as a class.
ACTIVITY: Eye of the Beholder: Annotating a primary source. The aim of this exercise
is to practice annotating, and to demonstrate that a text contains many possible meanings
at once, depending upon what interests and foreknowledge a reader brings.
1. In groups, share and compare marginalia in the Declaration of the
Rights of Man. Make a list of any marginal comment(s) or passages
that were made by more than one person in the group.
2. Share in larger group. What do annotations tell us about our interests
as readers?
ACTIVITY (part I): Identify M. Jasanoff’s motive and thesis. (Share in small groups,
then collectively.) The aim of this activity is to use a scholarly text as a model for setting
up a motivating problem and argument/thesis. After coming to an agreement on
Jasanoff’s motive/thesis as a group, students move on to part II, where they turn to their
own drafts.
ACTIVITY (part II): Individually, sketch out a thesis that is a provisional response to an
actual problem for your own draft as it stands. Check that the thesis is (1) arguable
(self-check: could a reasonable person, looking at the same sources, possibly
disagree?) and (2) feasible (self-check: does my thesis find direct support from the
sources that I am examining?).
ACTIVITY: Messy Molly and source use (handout). This exercise is designed to
address numerous problems with source use. Students are given the “Messy Molly”
handout (a fictitious student draft) and asked to identify the problems it contains:
ratio between source material and author’s analysis/thought, plagiarism, over-long
quotation, cherry-picking from the sources, use of Wikipedia as an authoritative
source and the evaluation of a source’s credibility/currency, etc. A second, revised
version is then discussed, with improvements noted; this is the opportunity to deal
with academic integrity issues as a body of conventions.
ACTIVITY: Analysis to data ratios. Building on the previous exercise (“Messy Molly”),
this simple activity asks students to think again about the ratio between
data/fact/source summary, on the one hand, and author analysis on the other. With
revision, the latter should predominate, whereas in early drafts the opposite is often in
fact the case. Looking at the model of Said’s Orientalism, students should follow the
instructions and then discuss in the larger group.
1. Bracket sentences of Orientalism that convey data or fact; circle sentences
that have an analytical character. What are the ratios of factual summary to analysis?
ACTIVITY: “After the Fact” Outlining (see handout for details). This activity asks
students to look at their own drafts and assess the issue of structural logic, with the goal
of smoothing over odd wrinkles, filling gaps, and eliminating repetition. Ideally, students
bring a draft of their own to class. A model piece of writing that is short—I’ve found that
speeches work well—can be used to illustrate the importance of being able to see an
argument unfold in its structure.
ACTIVITY: “Entering the Conversation” (see handout/article by Mark Gaipa). The
point of this exercise is to ask students to make their writing part of an ongoing
conversation among scholars.
In-class Activity: Establishing my “intellectual context.”
1. Read Gaipa as a group.
2. Sketch out intellectual context in view of drafts currently being
revised.
3. Exchange in small groups. Ask someone else to write a label/caption
for your drawing.