Assignments

This is the thread in which all assignment prompts will be posted.
For your response, please go back to the "Reading Response" area of the forum and use the "New Topic" button to create your post.

For your first assignment, please respond to the following prompt after reading the assigned sections of Ch. 3 in the Academic Writer. Your response should span two paragraphs. Thanks!


Consider the terms "rhetorical situation" and "rhetorical analysis." How would you explain them to a friend?
When you write online do you think you appeal most to pathos, logos, or ethos?

Please write three robust paragraphs on the following:

Imagine a time in your life when you had to discuss a “big issue” with someone else. You may look to the Templeton Site to help you think about the six big issues that they list. These six are:
What’s the relationship between ethics, morality, and reason?
What is the relationship between evolution and human nature?
Government and economic structure
Can God and Science coexist?
What is the usefulness of charity?
Is there a purpose of the universe?

These are big questions, of course, so if a moment comes to mind that doesn’t quite “fit” with any of these topics, that’s okay. I would like you to tell the story of the moment you found yourself discussing a big issue. Preferably, this will be a moment that is memorable because the interaction changed how you perceived the topic.

After telling this story for three or more paragraphs, please spend just a little time identifying your story’s rhetorical situation.

Because I want you to do a good job on this and spend some time thinking about it, I am not going to have you read the website blip that I’d planned to have you read. Spend some time freewriting, and try and tell this story! ^_^

For your assignment over this long weekend you have two tasks.

First, please provide constructive criticism to your group mates on the big questions post. In one thoughtful paragraph, please offer advice on how your group mate may improve his or her story moment.

Second, please write a three paragraph post in which you 1. Identify the audience or audiences you’d like to write to about your topic and 2. Either outline or free write on how you might persuade this audience as well as how you might organize an essay.

Your watching for next class:
[Only admins are allowed to see this link]
Please be attentive through the first 45 minutes or so.

Prompt for response:
While watching this Q&A, analyze how the politicians use evidence. What do the politicians ask Obama (and what do they leave unsaid)? Consider the tones of different speakers. Consider the use of logos, pathos, and ethos, and find specific examples. You might not be able to identify speakers, but you can use the time that has elapsed to couch your claims.

I will be grading you on specificity and the originality/thoughtfulness of your response. Thanks!
Also, I am not interested in any political opinions. Rather, a critical look at how those opinions are expressed.

For this assignment, please find two essays to use as sources for your future paper. These essays should come from the big questions website: templeton.org/signature-programs/big-questions-essay-series

If you have chosen to discuss a question other than the six big questions listed, please find two sources online. (Also, email me or make a time to meet with me if you have chosen this option.)

After choosing your essays/sources, please write three to four paragraphs that quote and analyze your sources. You should consider this a start on writing your paper, though your paragraphs will change as you craft the entire paper for Friday.

Thanks!

For this response to the handout, please write about two paragraphs in which you:

1. Summarize the arguments that you see each making
and
2. For class, I had asked you to print out and bring a couple of websites that discuss literacy. Link to these here and discuss how your websites define literacy.

Directions:
Read literacy narrative example #1 and consider our discussion of introductions as well as what you think good storytelling is. Critique this example. Does it make a good introduction for a four page paper (assuming this is the first page)? What could be improved upon?
Then, read literacy narrative example #2. How might the author improve his/her use of detail?
Finally, read the key features of a literacy narrative. Bring a printout of this and be prepared to discuss for class.

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Literacy Narrative Example #1
English as a Second Language It is a faint memory of mine, but I still remember learning the English alphabet for the first time at Kay’s Montessori, which was a daycare my parents had me attend at the age of five. Up until I started attending Kay’s, I only knew Vietnamese because that was the language my parents taught me as soon as I could speak. My journey to become literate in English began the day I first learned the alphabet at Kay’s. From this point on, I developed my abilities to read and write in English by attending American public schools. Although it was a struggle for me to become literate in English, these challenges motivated me to expand and improve my literacy skills. My kindergarten teacher at Boudreaux Elementary was very influential in advancing my literacy skills. She had a huge collection of basic to advanced-level reading books, and she challenged us by making a competition out of reading these books. Each student could take one book home per day, read it to our parents, and return it once we finished reading the entire book to add a sticker next to our name on the “You’re a Star” board. Since I was a competitive young girl, I was determined to get the most stickers at the end of the year by reading one book per night. Little did I know that my competitive nature would help me quickly advance my reading skills. Looking back on this, I realize that this helped me to become a better reader, and that this was one of the best things that could happen to me in my educational career. Another influence to the development of my current literacy skills was my participation in the English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) and Gifted and Talented (GT) Programs. In kindergarten and first grade, I was pulled out of class an hour each day to focus more on reading and writing in English. My ESL teacher was effective in building my reading and writing skills by assigning me various challenging yet fun activities that helped me to spell, read, write, and…

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Literacy Narrative Example #2
The first time I took the ninth-grade proficiency test was in March of eighth grade. The test ultimately determines whether students may receive a high school diploma. After months of preparation and anxiety, the pressure was on. Throughout my elementary and middle school years, I was a strong student, always on the honor roll. I never had a GPA below 3.0. I was smart, and I knew it. That is, until I got the results of the proficiency test.

Although the test was challenging, covering reading, writing, math, and citizenship, I was sure I had passed every part. To my surprise, I did pass every part—except writing. "Writing! Yeah right! How did I manage to fail writing, and by half a point, no less?" I thought to myself in disbelief. Seeing my test results brought tears to my eyes. I honestly could not believe it. To make matters worse, most of my classmates, including some who were barely passing eighth-grade English, passed that part.

Until that time, I loved writing just as much as I loved math. It was one of my strengths. I was good at it, and I enjoyed it. If anything, I thought I might fail citizenship. How could I have screwed up writing? I surely spelled every word correctly, used good grammar, and even used big words in the proper context. How could I have failed?

Finally I got over it and decided it was no big deal. Surely I would pass the next time. In my honors English class I worked diligently, passing with an A. By October I'd be ready to conquer that writing test. Well, guess what? I failed the test again, again with only 4.5 of the 5 points needed to pass. That time I did cry, and even went to my English teacher, Mrs. Brown, and asked, "How can I get A's in all my English classes but fail the writing part of the proficiency test twice?" She couldn't answer my question. Even my friends and classmates were confused. I felt like a failure. I had disappointed my family and seriously let myself down. Worst of all, I still couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.

I decided to quit trying so hard. Apparently—I told myself—the people grading the tests didn't have the slightest clue about what constituted good writing. I continued to excel in class and passed the test on the third try. But I never again felt the same love of reading and writing.

This experience showed me just how differently my writing could be judged by various readers. Obviously all my English teachers and many others enjoyed or at least appreciated my writing. A poem I wrote was put on television once. I must have been a pretty good writer. Unfortunately the graders of the ninth-grade proficiency test didn't feel the same, and when students fail the test, the state of Ohio doesn't offer any explanation.

After I failed the test the first time, I began to hate writing, and I started to doubt myself. I doubted my ability and the ideas I wrote about. Failing the second time made things worse, so perhaps to protect myself from my doubts, I stopped taking English seriously. Perhaps because of that lack of seriousness, I earned a 2 on the Advanced Placement English Exam, barely passed the twelfth-grade proficiency test, and was placed in developmental writing in college. I wish I knew why I failed that test, because then I might have written what was expected on the second try, maintained my enthusiasm for writing, and continued to do well.

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Key Features of Literacy Narratives

A well-told story. As with most narratives, those about literacy often set up some sort of situation that needs to be resolved. That need for resolution makes readers want to keep reading. We want to know whether Nichols ultimately will pass the proficiency test. Some literacy narratives simply explore the role that reading or writing played at some time in someone's life—assuming, perhaps, that learning to read or write is a challenge to be met.

Vivid detail. Details can bring a narrative to life for readers by giving them vivid mental images of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of the world in which your story takes place. The details you use when describing something can help readers picture places, people, and events; dialogue can help them hear what is being said. We get a picture of the only treasure Bragg has ever known through the details he provides: "a water-damaged Faulkner," "a paperback with two naked women on the cover," books "wrapped in fake leather." Similarly, we hear a three-yearold's exasperation through his own words: "I'd like to see a menu." Dialogue can help bring a narrative to life.

Some indication of the narrative's significance. By definition, a literacy narrative tells something the writer remembers about learning to read or write. In addition, the writer needs to make clear why the incident matters to him or her. You may reveal its significance in various ways. Nichols does it when she says she no longer loves to read or write. Bragg is more direct when he tells us he would not trade the books for a gold monkey. The trick is to avoid tacking onto the end a statement about your narrative's significance as if it were a kind of moral of the story. Bragg's narrative would have far less power if he'd said, "Thus did my father teach me to value books of all kinds."

Hello Class. For this pre-writing exercise, I’d like you to write three paragraphs.
First, please write one paragraph that gives a short overview of the entire story you’re planning on writing. Please include when and where this takes place.

Second, please write a one paragraph introduction in which you have your first attempt at writing the beginning of your literacy story.

Third, please write one paragraph in which you describe the personal importance of your literacy story and why you feel your literacy story might be interesting or important to others.

Please read:
Gee’s “What is Literacy”
Website:
ed.psu.edu/englishpds/Articles/CriticalLiteracy/What%20is%20Literacy.htm
(Or, you can use google to find "What is Literacy" by James Paul Gee.)

Please respond to each of the following:
1. Summarize Gee's definition of literacy. Use his terminology to illustrate his definition.

2. Did this change your understanding of literacy? If so, how? And, how might this affect your understanding of your own literacy story?

Please read:
Ong's Paper
Read part I (part one) and take a look at part II.

For this reading response, assess, from the beginning of Ong's writing, what his general argument is. Find to relevant quotes that help identify his argument in your response.
ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/temp/ong.pdf

For this prewriting exercise, I would like you to
1. collect 5 quotes from either Gee or Ong that most appealing to you or that best represent an argument. Please paste or write these here.
2. I'd like you to consider why literacy might matter to you. If you're having trouble seeing how literacy would matter at all, consider the field you hope to enter, your literacy story, or your acquisition of literacy as a child. You may also consider societal factors - what does literacy do for a society or its people? This should be composed as a paragraph.
3. I would like you to write a rough draft of an introductory paragraph. This should be a real go at an introduction complete with a thesis statement. Consider your audience for this piece your classmates and your instructor.

blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html

This is your reading material, due Monday. Stop at “Semantic content or substance”

For a post response:
Define Kairos (you may have to look up a definition).

Based on this reading, what do you see as modern concerns with the weblog? Do you agree? What are your concerns?

And, what is the importance of voyeurism to how we understand writing or reading?

Please read:
seyrix.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/prendergast-ch5.pdf

For your reading response, tell me what you liked and didn't like about HS X. Then, tell me what you think HS X has to do with literacy.

Thanks!

Please download the pdf at seyrix.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ch-6-academic-wrter.pdf

Please read chapter 6 of the Academic Writer.

For your reading response, please brainstorm three questions, no matter how strange, that you would like to explore through academic research. Come to class prepared to discuss Ch. 6 and to expand upon your brainstorming.

Note: This is NOT a short reading, but it is a pretty easy one. So, allot some time to read it!

For your assignment please refine three questions that you would consider answering in an academic research paper. For each question, format two MLA citations. If you need a resource to help you cite MLA, please visit owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

I suggest against using online formatting programs besides professional ones such as Zotero to format your citations. Even in these cases, it is good to double check a citation.

Hello students! For your last forum post save the final, please write a plan that you may use for your final project. This should be two paragraphs in length. Post links to other online sources you’re considering using.