Benvenuti a Writing Rome!

Dear Roman Writers,

Welcome to the official launch of the Writing Rome blog. Despite all of the hoopla, you'll find it looks and feels exactly the same as the Reading Rome blog. (That's not a bad thing, actually.)

This means the URL for the blog is the same as it ever was: http://readingrome.blogspot.com/

While we're on the subject, the URL for the official course website is: http://www.skidmore.edu/~dcurley/writingrome/

Currently the site contains a spare syllabus and the tentative (but likely) itinerary for our trip. As noted in class, we'll be adding to the website in the coming days, and we'll alert you to major updates and changes on the blog (and, hence, via your Skidmore email).

Do note that the website and the blog are interlinked: you can reach one from the other, and vice versa.

Finally, one new item on the blog is the blogroll, or list of your and your peers' blogs, on a long menu on the left side of the page. The index consists not of your first names, but of your initials (more or less). The motivator is a semblance of privacy, but it's a lot of fun to say, for example, "ATHoc" and "EASto." Try it at home!

Those of you who have yet to send us a URL, we've sent an email pestering you. Please set up a blog as soon as possible.

Onward,

DC/gs

Extra-credit Quizzes for the Exam Period

Dear Roman Readers,

Welcome to what might be the last post before this blog changes its name to Writing Rome.

Appropriately, this post is about the extra credit quizzes Dr. Spinner and I have decided to offer from now until the end of the exam period. Please read it carefully so that you can make an informed choice about whether or not you want to participate.

We've looked at the averages for all the multiple choice quizzes this term. Not counting the tragedy that was quiz 25, which is too fresh to permit any kind of retake, these three quizzes had the lowest overall averages:

• Quiz 7: Advanced Roman Topography (avg. 27 pts. / 32 total);
• Quiz 20: Popes & Pilgrims (avg. 20 pts. / 25)
• Quiz 21: Medieval & Renaissance Rome (avg. 29 pts. / 34)

If you're interested in earning bonus points toward your quiz total, which was sent to you by email this morning, you can take any or all of these quizzes by 11:59 p.m. on May 8, the very end of the spring exam period.

However, to earn the points, you have to beat the class average on any given quiz. So, if you take quiz 7, you need to score a minimum of 28 in order for the points to count; quiz 20, 21 points; quiz 21, 30 points. We've put this condition in place to help ensure that the retakes are thoughtfully done.

When you take the quiz, all protocols and procedures are the same as they were during the regular term. You may access any quiz as often as you like, but you may only submit one set of answers; and you'll get an email confirming your score.

If that score beats the class average, your total will be increased by that number of points. If your score meets or falls below the average, the points will not be counted.

Note that there will be no penalty to your current totals for wrong answers. You can only earn points, not lose them. And, this opportunity is optional: if you're happy with your current totals, you needn't do anything at all.

Good luck, and please let us know if you have questions.

www.skidmore.edu/~dcurley/rome/login-only/quizzes/

DC/gs

Practice Presentations: Revised Guidelines

Dear Roman Readers,

This is the first of our posts outside of class to alert you to important developments.

We're happy to announce that the revised guidelines for the site report dry runs are now available on our website. You'll find them at the very bottom of this page under Milestones > Practice presentation:

http://www.skidmore.edu/~dcurley/rome/sites.html

Please read them and follow them scrupulously: to do so will significantly increase your chances of success on the site-reports portion of your grade in Reading Rome, not to mention in Writing Rome, too.

Please let us know if you have questions.

DC/gs

Quizzes for Week 15

Dear Readers of Rome,

Our last round of quizzes — due Tuesday, April 28, at 11:59 p.m. — are now up and running:

• Quiz 1: Basic Roman Topography (17 pts., 90 seconds)
• Quiz 25: Modern Rome (37 pts., 8 min.) 

Quiz 25, multiple choice, synthesizes material on modern Rome (the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries). Reviewing the timeline of modern Rome will very important, but other presentations and readings should not be neglected.

Quiz 1 brings us back to the start, now with a timer at 90 seconds. Can you do it?

https://www.skidmore.edu/~dcurley/rome/login-only/quizzes/

Please remember that the due date is Tuesday, the last day of classes, not Wednesday.

Good luck!

DC

Assigment for Monday, 04-27-15

Dear Readers of Rome,

For our last Reading Rome class on Monday, April 27, please do the following:

(1) Download, print, and read Alessandra Bava's poem, "In the Shadow of Giordano Bruno." In lieu of a factsheet about Alessandra, who is too modest for such things, I'll say a few words about her in class. For now, it's enough to note that she is a Roman passionate about Rome and that we'll spend some time with her during our residency in the city.

(2) (Re)download, (re)print, and (re)read "City Imaginaries" by Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson, the essay with which we began the semester. IMPORTANT: As you revisit this piece, write down one way in which you feel Rome has fit into the Bridge-Watson range of imaginaries in any of our four units. We will invite everyone to share their examples in class on Monday.

(3) If you haven't done so already, create a blog and share the URL with all three members of the instruction team. Guidelines for doing this have already been published previously.

(4) If you missed it in class, download the narrative timeline of modern Rome. As I noted yesterday, you should read it at least twice: once, just to get a sense of its scope; a second time, after a break but before before taking the quiz to be based on it (on which more in a follow-up post).

Finally, please bear in mind that Monday's class will be packed to the gills with both concluding  remarks about Reading Rome and reminders about Writing Rome. I urge you in the most violent and animated language possible to be on time.

We look forward to receiving your giornali by noon on Sunday.

DC

Setting up Your Writing Rome Blogs

Dear Readers of Rome,

As mentioned in class today, between Friday and Monday please set up your Writing Rome blogs, which you will use to submit your writing assignments during the travel seminar.

Below I'll offer some guidance on setting up a blog, if blogging is new to you. But no matter what your level of experience, your blog should observe the following requirements:

• It should be, at the very least, accessible to those with the URL (no passwords or special accounts required for access). We'll be posting the links to your blogs on a sidebar of the Writing Rome blog, so it's important that access be open.
  
  
• If you already have a blog, make a new one just for Writing Rome -- a nod to our blogging as an educational endeavor.
   
• Email all three members of the instruction team with the name and URL of your blog once you have it.

That's it. Watch for Friday's assignment, coming sometime tomorrow.

DC

*                   *                   *                   *                   *

First of all, the term blog is an abbreviation of web-log, or a diary kept on the web. Now you know.

The three most common blogging services are Blogger (which hosts this blog), WordPress, or Tumblr. All are free, though you will need to register to use them; if you already have a Google account, then you can begin using Blogger. Generally speaking, neither one of these services is far superior to any other, though each has its advantages and disadvantages -- and its own loyalists and detractors.

All of them permit a high degree of personalization, but don't worry about perfecting the look and feel of your blog just yet. You can tinker with it after the semester is over and before the trip begins.  The important thing is to get your blog set up so we can create our blogroll (roster of blogs) in preparation for Writing Rome.

You will, however, have to name your blog. For all sorts of reasons, it's probably advisable not name it something like, "[Your name] Spanks Rome's Booty," not least because a future employer might find it. But do be appropriately creative. And no, "Roman Roaming" and its variations are NOT creative, in case you were wondering.

As noted, make sure that your blog is publicly viewable on the web. It's up to you whether you want comments to be enabled. We will not use them to offer feedback (we'll do that by sitting down and talking with you in Rome). If you do allow comments, take care to guard your privacy and to set some restrictions on who may comment, lest your posts get spammed.

If you need help setting up a blog, your instructors or your peers will be delighted to help you.

Assignment for Wednesday, 04-22-15

Dear Roman Readers,

On Wednesday, April 20, we move into the 1980s with two Roman essays from esteemed travel writer, Paul Hofmann. Please do the following:

(1) Read Hofmann's 2008 obituary in the New York Times, which will also serve as a factsheet.

(2) Download, print, and read the two essays from Hofmann's 1983 memoir, Rome: The Sweet, Tempestuous Life: "Coffee and Ice Cream" and "Time in an Eternal City." Not only will you enjoy these, but they'll offer you something aspirational for your own writing in May and June.

DC

Quizzes for Week 14

Dear Readers of Rome,

Our quizzes for next week are now up and running. Due Wednesday, April 22, at 11:59 p.m., they are:

• Quiz 19: Basic Roman Basilica (11 pts., 3 min.)
• Quiz 23: Grand Tourism (15 pts., 4 min.) 
• Quiz 24: Women in Rome (10 pts., untimed.)

Quiz 23, multiple choice, synthesizes material on the Grand Tour, Nightingale, Petigru Carson, and Piranesi.

Quiz 24, a short-answer quiz, asks you to select and discuss two paragraphs from the Roman letters of Nightingale and Petigru Carson.

https://www.skidmore.edu/~dcurley/rome/login-only/quizzes/

Good luck!

DC

Assignment for Monday, 04-20-15

Dear Readers of Rome,

For Monday, April 20, please do the following:

(1) Read the last section of the Historical Sketch in the Blue Guide, "Rome, the Secular Capital" (pp. 29–30).

(2) Download, print, and read the excerpts from Borden Painter's excellent book, Mussolini's Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2005).

(3) Download, print, and read Alexander Stille's essay, "The Double-Bind of Italian Jews."

All of our readings will speak to both the continuing transformation of Rome into a modern capital, and the costs that come with that transformation.

DC

Assignment for Friday, 04-17-15

(NOTE: This assigment is missing one of the readings, which will be available tomorrow. You can expect to see this post again in completed form.)

Dear Roman Readers,

As noted, Friday's class was to have been a Skype conversation with previous Romekids about travel in Rome and Italy; but it's been posponed until next Friday, April 24.

For April 17, please do the following:

(1) Read the following sections of the Blue Guide:

• "Revolution" in the Historical Sketch (pp. 27–9); and
• "History of the Vatican City" (p. 472).

(2) Download, print, and read the factsheet on the Great Synagogue of Rome, which includes a description of synagogue rituals.

(3) Download, print, and read the annotated timeline, From Napoleon to Mussolini, which will take us from the 18th to the 20th centuries. (Coming soon!)

(4) Download, print, and read the packet on Albany, the Empire State, and the Nelson E. Rockefeller Plaza in preparation for our trip on Saturday.

As noted, the reading for item 3 will be available tomorrow, along with a new version of this post.

DC