Conversations in the Burkean Parlor

written by Connor Chang

FADE IN:

EXT. BURKEAN PARLOR - NIGHT

It's a perfect night.

FADE IN:

3 MEN: PARK, BAEPLER, CARLITOS AND 2 WOMEN: ELIZABETH &

JENNIFER ENTER THE BAR

CONTEXT: FIVE CO - INTERNS FROM GOOGLE GO TO BAR TO DISCUSS

THEIR THEIR FINAL RESEARCH TOPIC STUDIES.

Seated in booth left to right: Carlitos, Elizabeth, Park,

Baepler, Jennifer.

PARK
Man these weeks are the longest
things in the world.

ELIZABETH
For real, I feel like each day
is like such a movie with the
morning being so different from
the night.

PARK
(stares at Elizabeth
with poker face
then glances at
Carlitos)
Oh em Gee everyday is such a
movie lol (mimicking Elizabeth)

Elizabeth smacks the back of Park's head

PARK (CONT'D)
Ayo chill out I let that slide
this time (serious tone)
 2.

BAEPLER
It is actually crazy how we are
2 weeks away from finding out if
we get this job, like this shit
has been going on for way too
long.

CARLITOS
Yea for real I cannot wait till
I actually get paid for working
instead of just slaving around
for some old heads.

JENNIFER
Hey those guys we are "slaving"
for are Google gods who earn
about hmmmm... lemme think ten
gabillion dollars per year more
than us.

CARLITOS
Exactly so why cant they just at
least give each intern $100k
just for making the internship?

PARK
(nods profusely in
agreement)

JENNIFER
Stop looking for a bailout. All
you have to do is work hard and
you will earn what you want to
lazy ass.

PARK
(eyes are filled
with shock, looking
like 30 nukes were
just launched)

CARLITOS
Hmmmm... so who copied someone's
research topic?

PARK
(in even more shock)
 3.

JENNIFER
You can ask Liz I thought of my
topic before we were even given
this assignment fucking dipshit!
(at the top of her lungs)

PARK
(dead in shock)

Baepler and Park enter extreme laughter

ELIZABETH
Ok, OK guys chill the fuck out.

Carlitos glares at Jennifer with disappointed face

JENNIFER
(rolls eyes)
Stop fucking looking at me
weirdo Do not fucking talk to me
or look at me for the rest of
the night.

CARLITOS
Damn chill out you're gonna
dirty up the Taj Mahal with your
bad mouth.

PARK
Taj Mahal? (bursts in laughter)
alright alright everyone chill
out let's take a shot

Park calls over waitor

WAITOR
Hello Hello! How are you guys?

PARK
Good good, you?

WAITOR
I am greaaat thank you for
asking (smirking) what can I get
started for you guys today?

PARK
Hahahaa (very artificial laugh)
We'll take 10 tequila shots.
 4.

ELIZABETH
Can we get that with limes and
salt please?

BAEPLER
(glances at Liz
disappointingly)
Still can't take a shot straight
up huh?

ELIZABETH
(rolls eyes, shakes
head)

WAITOR
Ok, you got it ten tequila shots
coming up.

Waitor leaves

BAEPLER & CARLITOS

(begin laughing
hysterically)

BAEPLER
Aye Park, when's your first date
with bro? (smiling menacingly)

PARK
Chill out. So guys how have your
research assignments been going?

JENNIFER
It's actually been going pretty
well. I was able to create a
class and find out the most
important aspect of teaching
these kids how to be confident
in their writing.

CARLITOS
Woowwww that crazy I also made a
class, but I used a computer
based progress system where-

BAEPLER
(cuts off Carlitos)
Ok explain it after the shots I
am not trying to hear this
sober.
 5.

In comes waitor with shots

WAITOR
Ok here you guys go, enjoy!

PARK
Thank you so much

WAITOR
Of course! Let me know when you
guys want more!

PARK
Alright for sure.

Waitor leaves

PARK (CONT'D)
Alright c'mon let's go. (lifting
glass) To finishing this
bullshit ass internship and
finally getting paid some adult
money!

All cheers and take shot

ELIZABETH
Alright who wants to go first?

PARK
So similar to Carlitos and Jen,
I created a complement class to
my main Composition class in
order to assist students who
were tested into the main ENG
101 class. I was prompted to do
this since most developmental
writers were not able to pass
ENG 101. So, in order to change
that I created this class which
occurs straight after ENG 101 in
the same classroom with the same
professor. This allows these
struggling students to go over
the covered material in ENG 101
whether it be assignments,
having workshops for essays, or
just receiving overall
additional instruction.
 6.

BAEPLER
So is this complement class
using digital workshops for the
students to work on themselves
or is it more like a tutoring
session?

PARK
Mmmmmm no not really, it's not
supposed to be a tutoring
session. It is more like an
extensions of ENG 101 where
students work on skills that
enhance their performance as
college students. It is also a
safe place of support and
collaboration. Collaboration is
the main aspect I focus on since
that working with your fellow
students and instructor allow
the kids to gain confidence in
their writing.

JENNIFER
Wow I'm really surprised that's
actually pretty simple idea that
improved confidence directly.

PARK
Thank you, I appreciate it

ELIZABETH
So did you ever give specific
assignments or ever tell the
instructor a certain way to
instruct that complement class?

PARK
All the class ENG 090 was, was
the collaboration between fellow
struggling students and the
instructor to reinforce their
ideas and instill a relationship
where the students are confident
in what they submit.
 7.

ELIZABETH
Mmmmm I get it now well my
concept was sort of the same yet
I did it a little differently. I
created a model for instructors
to follow which helped the
students create Client Projects
for real clients. This enabled a
one on one connection with the
student and teacher. However,
instead of continuous lessons,
Client Projects allowed the
students to be more goal-
oriented which motivates them to
finish that single goal.

PARK
So are the kids not able to
collaborate with each other?
Or...

ELIZABETH
No, which is the point of the
client projects. The students
must be on the same page as the
instructor, who is teaching them
step-by-step how to do it, and
the client, who may shift ideas.

CARLITOS
Oh so you're still focusing on
collaboration like Park, but
with different people?

ELIZABETH
Yes, exactly, but with the
collaboration work my students
do, they are able to gain not
only confidence but also work
experience and flexibility.

JENNIFER
And similar to Liz, I focused on
attributing students with
certain skills to enhance their
writing. I introduce the
importance of metacognition
which is made up of two key
components: awareness of one's
knowledge and the ability to
control their thinking.
 8.

CARLITOS
And how did y-

JENNIFER
(cuts of Carlitos)
Well if you can just let me
fucking finish what I'm saying-

PARK
Woah woah woah OK guys maybe
let's take another shot to ease
down.

All take second shot.

JENNIFER
I made the students focus a lot
on practices such as reflective
writing and self-assessments.
This allows for students to
create their own relationship
with writing ultimately giving
them confidence in their own
writing style.

BAEPLER
How did the instructors react to
basing your course basically to
a single word? Especially since
it can be pretty broad.

JENNIFER
Well that was actually one of my
struggles. The concept was
pretty hard to grasp for some
instructors, so I just
recommended to not focus on the
word metacognition and its
meaning, but to understand that
it is a complex concept that
includes other concepts.
 9.

BAEPLER
That's crazy, well I also
focused on a certain genre of
assignments. However, I mainly
used digital video assignments
in which the students had to
peer review each others work.
This work instilled new
technological skills required in
editing and creating videos
which was a major builder in the
confidence of using technology.

CARLITOS
Wait, but you're saying it
created confidence in their
technology skills? I thought we
were focusing on building
confidence in their writing.

BAEPLER
Well yea, what do you think they
do to create those videos? They
have to write some sort of
dialogue.

CARLITOS
Well my work included actual
experienced writers rather than
developmental ones.

PARK
Ok, buddy way to be different

PARK (CONT'D)
So similar to mine you promote
collaboration, but is there a
need to include so much
technological instruction?

BAEPLER
I'm so glad you asked! In future
instruction I plan on
diminishing the instruction on
technology by using improved
software to make things easier.
 10.

CARLITOS
Well I had to since my class was
more challenging. So instead, I
wanted to provide the students
with a idea-oriented way of
thinking rather than most of
your guys' structured systems. I
mainly used documentation
assignments which adapted to
changes in academia trends.

ELIZABETH
Oh so since you chose more
experienced students and used
their prior knowledge to make
them more oriented on their
thoughts than completing a goal?

CARLITOS
Yes basically.

ELIZABETH
So my idea was more goal-
oriented, how did an abstract-
oriented mindset benefit the
student?

CARLITOS
It allows for the student to
exponentially learn by almost
building these layers that
stack.

Jennifer begins throwing up profusely.

CARLITOS (CONT'D)
Hated my research that much?

PARK
Shit I guess it's already time
to go.

(END SCENE)
 11.

WORKS CITED

Park, Charles. (2020). Building Trust, Confidence, and

Relationships From Afar: Teaching Web Based Developmental
Writing in a Pandemic. Double Helix: A Journal of Critical
Thinking and Writing, 8(1), 1-9.
https://doi.org/10.37514/DBH-J.2020.8.1.02. (Park)

Tomlinson, Elizabeth. (2017). Enhancing student learning

through scaffolded client projects. Business and
Professional Communication Quarterly 80.1, 1-23.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2329490616677045. (Elizabeth)

Zinchuk, Jennifer Eidum. (2017). Getting ‘Writing Ready’ at

the University of Washington: Developing metacognition at a
time of academic transition [program profile]. Composition
Forum 37.
https://compositionforum.com/issue/37/washington.php.
(Jennifer)

Baepler, Paul, and Thomas Reynolds. “The Digital Manifesto:

Engaging Student Writers with Digital Video Assignments.”
Computers and Composition, vol. 34, 2014, pp. 122–36.
Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2014.10.002.
(Baepler)

Evia, Carlos, et al. “Teaching Structured Authoring a+nd

DITA Through Rhetorical and Computational Thinking.” IEEE
Transactions on Professional Communication, vol. 58, no. 3,
2015, pp. 328–43. Crossref,
https://doi.org/10.1109/tpc.2016.2516639. (Carlitos)