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?

Here is the link to the reading:
seyrix.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/ch-3.pdf

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 the bolded “Defining the blog as genre.” This should be about 5 pages. Take your time with it!

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?

Finally, I would like you to list 3 specific questions or confusions you have about the reading. Be prepared to bring them up in class.

Class, due to a problem with the forum yesterday, the assignment for Wednesday was not posted publicly. I'd like you to read the short section in Blogging as Social Action "Defining the Blog as Genre" and just the first three paragraphs of "Semantic content or substance." Also, please bring your two blog post findings.

There will be no reading response.

Your watching for next class:
msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35147797#35147797
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.

Prewriting Assignment #1

Your paper will rely upon you exercising several skills. You will have to be able to describe and use quotations, you will need to draw connections between the blog/comic and its audience, and you will have to assess who the audience is and how the blog/comic and audience fit together.

For this assignment, choose one webcomic or one blog that you wish to write about. I would like you to write at least four paragraphs in which you 1. Give evidence, via quotes and description, for how your blog or comic presents itself, 2. Describe who you think would be the ideal audience for your blog using both your own observations and rhetorical tools. 3. After finding the audience for your comic/blog (usually in forums or beneath posts) describe your audience, how they communicate, what they seem to value, and so on. 4. Try to make a claim for how the webcomic or blog works with its audience.

Prewriting Assignment:

For this prewriting assignment, you will write three paragraphs and write one list. Please print this out and bring it to class after you’ve posted it in our forums!

For your first two paragraphs, I would like you to write two tentative introductions for your paper. First, please write a “traditional” paragraph with a thesis that lays out arguments that you might use in your paper. If you are having trouble thinking about how to structure a traditional essay introduction, check out:

owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/index.php?category_id=2&sub_category_id=2&article_id=58

Please use the forum tools to underline the thesis for your first paragraph.

For your second paragraph, please write an alternative introduction. Your goal for this version is to try out a non-traditional form. Try to write a creative intro without using a formal thesis. Try and creatively position your paper using ideas that you’ve gleaned from previous readings in your schooling. Have fun with this one, but make sure it’s still an attempt at a solid introductory paragraph.

For your third prewriting paragraph, please write about where you had trouble with the first two paragraphs, where you got hung up, and what inspired you.

Finally, please create a list of “tools” that you can use to analyze and consider blogs and webcomics. In class we discussed:

logos
Pathos
Ethos
Rhetorical situation
Etc.

I would like you to come up with a list of ten additional tools or “things to notice.”

Thanks!

For this reading response you have two tasks. First, skim en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word for the main ideas/themes. Then, read the below essay sample. Like we did in class, please assess in two paragraphs 1. what you like or think is done well and 2. questions that you have, problems in the text, or any other issues you find relevant.


Reiki Healing Therapy

Reiki healing therapy is a type of complementary medicine which has its origins in Japanese traditional medicine. Reiki is derived from the two Japanese words Rei means God and Ki means force energy in life (InternationalCenterfor Reiki Training).
Traditional healers who practice Reiki healing therapy believe that they are moving energy from their hands to the parts of the body of the patient that needs healing. The practitioners believe that every now and then, the universe is in a state of imbalance and it can be brought back to a state of equilibrium through energy. Reiki healing therapy is used to treat the body through triggering the immune system to fight of any disease causing micro-organisms. Personally, I believe that Reiki healing therapy can be a useful non-evasive from of boosting an individual’s immune system and activating it to naturally conquer any pathogens. Reiki healing therapy is a revolutionary form of healing.
Reiki healing therapy is used together with meridian energy lines by using hands and applying pressure to these areas. It is said that secret symbols are also used during the healing process to help heal the individual of their ailments. The degree of pressure applied is appropriate for the specific area and most practitioners who have been trained in Reiki healing therapy are usually aware of the degree of pressure that should be applied (Barnnet, Chambers & Davidson 87).
The hand positions are usually used on positions of the body that have great energy known as chakras. Human beings have seven distinct chakras. Reiki healing can concentrate on one specific area or it can be holistic. Traditional Reiki healing practitioners believe that Reiki healing should be holistic. Traditional Reiki practitioners stroke, massage, or lightly tap the parts of an individual’s body that are diseased, and transfer energy to them. Reiki provides am means for the body to balance its energy forces to be in line with those of the universe.
There has been controversy about the effectiveness of Reiki healing therapy and some institutions like the Catholic Church has at one time forbidden the practice from being used in its retreat centers citing that the practice has no religious or scientific basis. Critics of such views have cited that the practice has a Japanese origin and should be used to help people improve their health and reduce their suffering from ailments (Rand94).
Organizations like American Cancer Society,NationalCenterfor Complementary and Alternative Medicine have not yet approved the Reiki healing therapy, but they have not disapproved it either.

For next class, please search for and find two websites that attempt to explain what “literacy” is. Try to find different sources than your classmates!

After you find and read two sources, post their links in your response with one paragraph in which you attempt to define literacy yourself and summarize what you’ve found.

Thanks! Keep warm!

We’ll be reading two documents by James Paul Gee. The first is:
jamespaulgee.com/sites/default/files/pub/Olson%20Handbook%20Paper.pdf
Please read from the introduction through the bolded “Augmented by Reality.” This will give you a taste for how one scholar talks about literacy, and while the language is academic, it should be fairly accessible as long as you’re willing to look up a few words!

For your reading response, I’d like you to 1. Tell me how Gee uses literacy in this paper, 2. Tell me what you think of his argument and any difficulties you had in understanding him, and 3. Discuss what forms of communication you feel yourself to be literate in. You may make a list.

For next class, I would like you to:

1. Think of a moment where you were engaging in what Gee calls specialized language. This moment may be about you learning, succeeding, failing, or otherwise engaging in a specialized language. It should be a moment that while maybe not life changing, may still have been memorable.

2. I would like you to write two paragraphs about this moment. In your first paragraph, describe yourself, the language and words you used, and so on. In your second paragraph, I'd like you to think about where this happened, why it happened, and your physical surroundings at the time.

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 II.

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

For this assignment, please use quotations and arguments from Gee and Ong in addition to your own newfound understanding of literacy in order to discuss both how you now see literacy working, AND how you see literacy as important socially.


Note:
By socially, I mean within a culture, within groups, or something of the sort.

Please print off and bring this double spaced one page paper. As the paper is exploratory, I am not looking for perfect grammar or organization. I do want you to prove to me through your writing that you understand and can make use of elements from both Ong and Gee’s arguments.

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

Please read chapter 6 of the Academic Writer.

In lieu of a regularly scheduled reading response, please bring to class a two page paper in which the first half is your "what is literacy" paper you've already written and the second page is about an issue in the wider world or in society that you think a discussion or application of some of our literacy could meaningfully affect. This was the assignment assigned the class before spring recess.

Ps: print both out. And, if you have a laptop handy, bring it to class as well! We may be doing a bit of an in class hunt.

Please read Academic Writer Chapter Seven.

seyrix.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ch-7.pdf

For your reading response, I would like you to come up with two questions you'd like to potentially research. As discussed, they should be well defined and narrow. (Instead of asking "is evolution a legitimate theory" narrow it - "What evidence do we have for modern evolution?" then narrow it further after doing a little research - "Does the micro-evolution of E.Coli in laboratory settings predict that the same changes could occur in the wild?" This will help you delve deeper and find more interesting answers!)

Also, based on the reading, identify what fields of research may address each of your questions best.

Thanks!

Hello, class. This is a two part reading response. If possible, try to do these prewrites a day or more apart.

Prewrite 1

Type up the best version of your question you’ve got. Search for a relevant Wikipedia article and read up on your topic. After your typed question, summarize what you learned about your topic from Wikipedia. This should be in paragraph form. Next, do a few Google searches based on your question and the wiki information. Look for websites with perspectives on your topic and note anything interesting that you find.

In all, this prewrite should be about four paragraphs in length and include all of the above elements.


Prewrite 2

For this prewrite, you will be preparing sources for your paper. Visit mulibraries.missouri.edu. Once there, I would like you to search for information relevant to your question. Please limit your search to journal articles at this point. Find and list five articles that provide arguments or studies that would help answer your question. To do this, you do not need to read the whole article. I would suggest reading the abstract or summary that precedes most articles. You may also look at a results section or discussion section for those articles that have them or do a very quick skim. For this prewrite, create citations in MLA format for each article and in a sentence or two beneath each citation, note what the article contributes to your question.

For next class, please create an outline or conceptual map. This should be about one to one and a half double spaced pages of text.

Within this, organize quotes you want to use and ideas and personal thoughts you would like to include.

Here is a website that discusses two types of outlines. If you choose to make an outline like this, take inspiration from the “sentence outline.” lavc.edu/library/outline.htm

You may also choose to create a concept map, which uses bubbles and lines to display connections between ideas. This can be either rigid in its organization or very free-form, allowing the author to jot down ideas and then make connections. udel.edu/chem/white/teaching/ConceptMap.html

Whatever option you choose, please use quotes from your readings, specific ideas and statements you’d like to make, and any other relevant information.