Hello everyone! First of all, for Thursday’s class, we’ll meet in front of the library at 10.

Second of all, I’ve posted comments on everyone’s Unit 2 proposals. Please read these ASAP. In a lot of instances, I’ve suggested slight tweaks to your topic. You don’t want to use a topic that I think isn’t going to work!! If you have not posted your proposal, you need to do this as soon as possible. This is our biggest unit of the semester and you really don’t want to fall behind.

And, for homework, you should

1.Find your first source for your RAB. Remember– you can find this anywhere– but it should be something useful to you! If you’re writing about the importance of music to human evolution, you might look for a TED Talk or an interview with a musician. You could use an article

2. start to work on your first source entry using the source you’ve found.  To do this, first write a summary of your source. It should be one (substantial) paragraph long.  Here is a resource on how to write a summary. 

3. answer the questions below (from the rhetorical analysis worksheet).  You’ll use these for your rhetorical analysis paragraph! (You can copy and paste the questions into your blog post)

  • Who’s the author? What do we know about this person? This  organization? How do we know that (figure it out from  the language they use, from the creator of the  website, from research and information from somewhere else)? What is their attitude toward the subject or the  world in general? How do we figure that out? What is their authority for writing this?
  • Who’s their audience? Who is the primary audience? What other audience besides a primary one might there be? What makes you say that? What audiences do you think the author is ignoring?
  • What’s the occasion? Why did the author create this text at this particular moment? What is the context? Where was it shown/published?
  • What’s the purpose?  What was the author trying to accomplish?
  • What’s the genre? Why use it? What made this genre the best one to address their audience? What are the conventions of this genre – the things everybody expects to find? How does this  author change some of those conventions? Why did they change them?
  • What is the tone? How can you tell the creator’s feelings by the words and phrases, or the visuals and audio, that were  chosen
  • Relevance: Does it help you answer your question?
  • Accuracy: Can you verify this information anywhere else? Is there evidence to support their position? Have they cited other authorities/experts?