assignments

Please make an account on this site.  Then, read David Foster Wallace's commencement speech. There is no reading response but please bring a print copy of the reading to class. Thanks.

online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB122178211966454607

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

Rhetorical situation analysis, as stated in the reading is the most effective way to connect to the reader. You can do this in many different ways such as asking yourself questions, (i.e Why are you writing? What do you hope to accomplish with your writing, etc.). you need to be able to analyze your writing and appeal to yourself, your readers,your text and the medium. Doing all o this will help you write better.

When I write online i think i try to write more in the logos. I want something to be more logical to me and be backed up by reasoning than just hearing someones opinion on a subject. so i wold prefer that what i am writing about is full of information and that I understand completely what is being said during m writing than just putting stuff I hear without being fully informed.

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. This is a somewhat difficult read, so take your time with it and if you need to look up words, do so! But, it's okay if you're not quite with the reading when you get to class. If there's something you don't understand, bring a question about it. We will work through it together.

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.

*Note: When you post your response, please find your first reading response post and respond to it rather than creating a new thread. Thanks!

This is your reading material, due Monday. Stop at the bolded “Defining the blog as genre.” This should be about 5 pages. This is a somewhat difficult read, so take your time with it and if you need to look up words, do so! But, it's okay if you're not quite with the reading when you get to class. If there's something you don't understand, bring a question about it. We will work through it together.

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.

*Note: When you post your response, please find your first reading response post and respond to it rather than creating a new thread. Thanks!

For Wednesday, please read the section "Defining the blog as genre."

There will be no reading response, but please find a blog that interests you and print one of its posts. Bring it to class along with your printed comic from last week. Thanks!

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

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 thoughtfulness of your response. Thanks!
Also, I am not really interested in any political opinions. Rather, a critical look at how those opinions are expressed.

The politicians ask Obama basically when change is going to happen. They asked him questions why is the unemployment rate rising when he promised that it would stay at 8% and even go lower but at the time it had risen to 10%. They ask Obama to change some things and to here them out. One of the politicians tries to take up the emotional side of it. He brings up how a little boys father is unemployed and how they are struggling to make ends meet. They state how they have seen how the suffering continues to change and bring up logical explanations on how the president can change his plans. I feel like Obama kind of blew some of them off by saying that he will get back to them later on it and that the recession was way worse then they had expected and how it started when he was not in office. He basically says that things will change and that plan will work but will take time

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 web-comic 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 web-comic or blog works with its audience.

Author's note:

Please attach a short author's note to the back of your paper. In this note, write 1. what improvements you made to your paper, 2. how you made those changes, and 3. whether you are satisfied with your work overall.

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. Try using 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

In advance: Sorry this is a wee bit late!

Pre-writing assignment: Literacy story

A literacy story, for our purposes, requires the following:

* Is a story about you
* Is a story about a discourse/literacy you engaged with (either successfully or in a troubled fashion)
* Is a narrative (meaning it is not an essay - it tells a story involving description, characterization, and narrator)
* Covers a short span of time (because we've got only 3+ pages to tell it)

For this pre-writing exercise, please decide on a story to tell. This story may be a success story or a problematic one. It may be about pretty much any literacy - from sports to college to video games or niche communities. But, it must be about practicing literacy - which is about communication, ideology, and as Gee would say, an identity kit.

You will write four paragraphs. These need not be polished, but should attempt to tell your story.

For your first paragraph, please write an introduction to your story. Rather than writing a "front porch" introduction that tells your reader the background of your story, try to start with the beginning of the moment/experience itself.

For your second and third paragraphs, think of any conversations or internal thoughts you had in your experience. Write them out in an attempt to collect the communicative element of your story.

Your final paragraph will be more of a list: think of your five senses: touch, smell, sight, hearing, and maybe even taste. What perked your senses - what in your experience was significant to you visually, audibly, etc. Jot them down.

See you all in class!

Please read Hills Like White Elephants:

massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Colleges/College%20of%20Humanities%20and%20Social%20Sciences/EMS/Readings/139.105/Additional/Hills%20Like%20White%20Elephants%20-%20Ernest%20Hemingway.pdf

For your reading response, post your favorite lines of dialogue from the reading and write a few sentences on your opinion of Hemingway's style of writing in Hills Like White Elephants.

For Wednesday, 11/5/14, find one additional source to help your research. Use either scholar.google.com or Mizzou's library site to search for any article that deals with your literacy topic. For example, if your literacy story deals with being literate in Star Wars, you may begin your search by using the terms "Star Wars" and "literacy." You may find you have to narrow your search in one of several ways. You may have to narrow your search to academic articles (strongly suggested) or by field. If your search does not produce results, you may have to broaden your search parameters by using more general search terms.

In any case, once you've found an article that seems to address your literacy topic, skim through it, and post in two paragraphs 1. what your article attempts to accomplish and 2. what use value it could have to the paper you're writing.

For Friday the fourteenth, please create a bibliography of seven scholarly sources that will help you address your research question. The bibliography should be MLA formatted.

Print one copy for class and post your bibliography with your reading responses. Thanks!

Also, a few students requested the sample research paper be linked here:

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/pdf/hacker-orlov-mla.pdf