Email your final portfolio to me at cdeaver@citytech. cuny.edu by Monday, Dec. 23
Peer workshop draft of Unit 3 Due Weds, Nov 27
Hello Writers!
Please bring a draft and copies of Unit 3 for peer workshop on Wednesday, Nov 27.
The final draft of UNIT 3 is due on MONDAY, December 2.
Use this peer worksheet for Unit 3
If you are not composing in one the the genres of one of your Unit 2 sources, you also have the option of doing a one of the three genres we discussed in our last class. Follow the genre conventions and rhetorical choices noted in the margins of the mentor texts posted on Blackboard in the “Content” section for 1. a researched argument, 2. an editorial or opinion piece, or 3. a news article.
(These links may work, but if they don’t, you all should be able to sign on to Blackboard to access course content.) D351: Blackboard: Content for the 11:30 am class: OR D382: Blackboard: Content for the 1:00 pm class.
HW for this Weds, Nov 13
Hi folks.
Please write a brief proposal for your Unit 3 assignment (~150 words). (Informal, for credit. May be hand-written or typed, but please bring copies for peer workshop.)
You’ll get your curiosity reports back on Wednesday, too.
If you have not handed in your report yet, or are missing a lot of classes, please be in touch at cdeaver@citytech.cuny.edu if you need help, or just to let me know where you’re at with Unit 2.
See you then!
Research Report Due tomorrow
Each analysis of each of your four sources should:
1. Identify the source. Start with a description of the source, including what genre it is and kind(s) of media it is, its title (if it has one), the title of the larger source it may be contained within, and any other identifying physical features you can describe in 1-3 sentences. (These are the formal constraints)
2. Next, explain the purpose/argument/message. Refer to either its purpose, it’s argument, or it’s message, depending on what kind of source it is and how you prefer to explain it.
3. & 4. Explain the speaker and audience, in any order:
Who/what is the speaker/rhetor/source/writer(s)/organization/or
producer, and How and Why is that significant? How does the
originator of the source affect the message? What is the credibility
of the source (its ethos).
How can you tell what audience the source is directed to? What are
the signs and cues? Describe the audience. Do not simply say that
the audience is “everybody.” You must be more specific in your
description of the audience.
5. etc. To the extent and in the order your please, consider the following:
—What rhetorical appeals does the source make? Logical and rational (logos)?
Trustworthiness, reputation, and credibility (ethos)? Emotional? (pathos)?
—Occasion/rhetorical situation
—Tone
—Style
—Exigence
—Social constraints (religious, political, historical factors that help shape the source and limit what it can do, say, and present).
Introduction = ~ 3 sentences.
Introduce your research topic, research question, and what the reader should expect in your report: a rhetorical analysis of four sources in a variety of genres that help answer your research question. That’s it.
Conclusion = ~ 3 sentences. Summarize what the reader has just read. You do not need to state your thesis or argument. It’s okay if your do, but really, this is not a research paper or traditional college essay, as you know from having read and gone over the assignment several times and participated in classes and peer workshops.
PRINT AND STAPLE YOUR PAPER TO RECEIVE CREDIT FOR IT.
Today, Weds Oct 30: Library Orientation
Meet in front of the Library today (Weds, Oct 30) on the 4th Floor of the Library Building for the regular hour class (either 11:30am or 1pm)
10am Lab Hour meets in N-804 as usual.
If you missed class or would like an extra, here is the peer worksheet for the Curiosity Report.
Monday, Oct 28 peer workshop. Bring 2 copies of your draft.
Hi folks. Bring 2 copies of your draft of the Unit 2 Curiosity report for peer workshop on Monday the 28th.
Also, a reminder that we’re meeting for our library orientation on Wednesday the 30th. We meet in front of the library entrance on the 4th floor of the Library Building and the librarian will greet us and take us into the library. I will be there, also. And I’ll be taking attendance. (The Ursula C. Schwerin Library is located on the 4th floor of the Library Building.)
HW for Wednesday, Oct. 23
Bring in your paper topic and a list of 3 or 4 sources for the UNIT 2 project. Cite your sources as well and fully as you can, including basic information about the source such as the title, date of publication, location of item, publisher, and any other information you might need for source citations. For discussion and topic approval.
Write and type up a 300-word rhetorical analysis of one individual item of rhetoric within one of the categories of genre for your UNIT 2 paper. Use two rhetorical triangles in “What is the Rhetorical Situation…” article and the Soapstone worksheets to cover all the points in your analysis. For credit.
HW for Wednesday, Oct 16 (fyi, classes follow a Monday schedule)
Read the article “Backpacks Vs. Briefcases”
Write (informal, typed, for credit) a rhetorical analysis of one, individual item of rhetoric. Use this list of genres to get ideas, or just pick an item of text, media, or other rhetorical moment that sparks your curiosity. If you are not sure about how to do a rhetorical analysis, use the soapstone guidelines and add the genre’s argument (see page 52 in the article for a definition of argument). And then reread “Backpacks Vs. Briefcases.”
For Monday, October 7
Do a SOAPSTONE rhetorical analysis of one individual item of writing (or mixed media) that falls under the category of GENRE as defined on page 113 of the reading we did for this (and last) week, “What Is the Rhetorical Situation and Why Should I Care About It?”
Type up your answers to hand in on Monday, Oct. 7
Also print and read: Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward a Rhetorical Analysis By L.B. Carroll
HW for Weds (9/25)
For Weds:
1. Read the chapter handout I gave you on Monday (“L. McMillan-RhetoricalSituation” by Laurie McMillan), using the K-W-L reading strategy.
2. (1pm class) Review the points below (from the second half of the chapter handout) on John Swales’ defining characteristics of a discourse community from 1990 and then his subsequent revision of those criteria.
3. (1pm class) Jot down ideas about a discourse community that you would like to explore further for Unit Two. Write out a list of several possible discourse communities, or a paragraph about one (Informal writing, for credit).
from CHAPTER TWO: WHAT IS THE “RHETORICAL SITUATION” AND WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT IT? Review Copy – Material Under Copyright
- A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
- A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
- A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
- A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
- In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specic lexis.
- A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise. (Swales,Genre, 24–27)
Recently, John Swales revisited his thinking about discourse communities and he created a slightly new list. I paraphrase his revisions in italics just below. Part of the reason I share the versions published in 1990 as well as 2017 is to show that even ideas published, read, cited, and used by a lot of people can undergo revision.
- A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of goals; these goals may or may not be explicitly stated, and there may be sets of diering goals for dierent segments of a single community.
- A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members; these mechanisms may be digital; some kind of communication is necessary for a set of people to be dened as a “community.”
- A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback; members communicate in order to keep the community functioning or help it grow; communication helps things to get done.
- A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims; the word “possesses” is unnecessary, though a particular community might rene a genre in a particular way.
- In addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specic lexis; the lexis of a community develops over time and often includes abbreviations.
- A discourse community has a threshold of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise; the newer members of a discourse community gradually advance into full membership.
- A discourse community develops a sense of “silential relations” (Becker 1995); some things can go unsaid because they are assumed.
- A discourse community develops horizons of expectation; the community develops a value system to evaluate work, and a history and ongoing patterns lead to expectations of when and how things will happen. (Swales, “Concept of Discourse Community”)”
