It's Friday -- We made it! (Blog post 4)

Source: Google Image Search

Friday August 28

I have enjoyed our meetings so far as a class, and I look forward to learning and growing and writing together! Remember to email me the url of your blog if you haven't done so: mebell@email.arizona.edu

Today's class discussion:

1. Syllabus discussion: 
1. Weekly Deadlines: Saturday 11:59 PM
2. The importance of blogging to your grade 
2. The National Institute for Civil Discourse
3. Aspects of Rhetoric: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

[source: pinterest.com/katie_mccrary/classroom-2014/]

Homework:

1. Go to http://nicd.arizona.edu/research_briefs
2. Read “Rhetorical Traditions, Emotion, and Modern Discourse”
3. Write Blog Post 4: In your judgement, what role should emotion play in civil discourse? Use information from the above research brief to support your view. Using examples from either The Atlantic article and comments you discussed in Blog 2, or the controversy article you posted in Blog 3, describe how emotion is used to either support or undermine
1. the argument of the writer or commenters (logos)
2. the credibility of the writer or commenters (ethos)
3. the values of the writer or the (other) commenters

A Note on Deadlines

http://comps.canstockphoto.com/

NOTE: All blogs posts and other assignments for the week are due by the weekly deadline posted on the syllabus (usually Saturday midnight unless otherwise specified).

Public Speech and Controversies (Wed. 8/26)(Blog 2-3)

Angry Man Fist
Openclipart.org

Wednesday's Class discussion: 

• Public Speech: What are the boundaries between public and private speech? Those boundaries can depend upon the rhetorical situation. What is the message? Who is the intended audience? What is the purpose? What is the context?
• Controversy:  What is a controversy? What controversies are you aware of that are taking place in public speech recently? For example: anchor babies, birthright citizenship, “#BlackLivesMatter, PlannedParenthood, the Ashley Madison scandal, Hilary Clinton's emails (note how controversies are often given a tag line or hash tag to refer to them)

Controversies are often argued publicly (why?). As an example, we looked at the online magazine The Atlantic, and as groups examined an article, including the comment threads. In discussion we noticed that these comments are often hostile, threatening, disrespectful, or dismissive.


Homework:

1. Examine the website for the National Institute for Civil Discourse. Familiarize yourself with what's there: especially click through the Programs and Research tabs. Then read this research study about the effect that comment sections have upon readers of articles.  

2. Blog Post 2: Write a blog post (remember to follow the conventions) with your reactions to the Atlantic article and comment sections that you read [Remember to include some sort of image and to cite its source.] Analyze the rhetorical situation of comments on that article. Who is writing the comments? Who is their intended audience? What is their purpose? What is the context of the controversy? Consider these questions as you write: 

• How would you describe the fears and anxieties being expressed in these comments? What are these commenters afraid of, specifically?
• How would you characterize the kinds of values and beliefs being expressed in the comments?
• Which commenters came across as the most reasonable? What made them seem reasonable?
• Which commenters came across as lacking credibility or trustworthiness? Why didn’t they seem trustworthy?
• Did the comments affect your assessment of the validity of the article's argument?

3. Blog Post 3: Begin the process of picking a controversy to write about for your controversy analysis.

• Go to Google and search “2015 controversies.” Scroll through the first 5-to-6 pages of results and click around to get a sense of what kinds of things people are arguing about. Decide on one of these controversies that interests you personally in some way. Maybe it is a controversy that is taking place in your field of study (as you will see, even ophthalmologists have controversies!) Maybe it is about a subject that is of particular interest to you. Whatever the reason, the controversy should be reflective of a personal interest of yours. Take this opportunity to branch out. Do not fall back on the general topics you may have debated in high school….abortion, legalization of marijuana, ….unless you are taking a discipline-specific approach.
• Choose an article you found that talks about the controversy. Take a screenshot of the article and insert the screenshot into a new blog post. Use the website URL you took a screenshot of as the citation for the image. Title the blog post after the controversy the article represents.
• Underneath the screenshot in your blog post, write 2-or-3 sentences that explain what the article is about, why it interests you and the name of the website where you found it. Turn the name of the website into a hyperlink that will bring readers to the article itself.

First day of class! (Mon 8/24) (Blog 1)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/

Monday 8/24/15  First day of class!!

We have several tasks to accomplish the first week to set up the course. Some of these must be done on d2l, so we'll put those aside for now. But here are some others I would like you to do in preparation for our Wednesday class:

1. Read the Course Syllabus & Schedule of Meetings over carefully- there will be a quiz on the syllabus.
2. Read Section 9.1 of A Student's Guide to First-Year Writing (p.177-184) "Rhetorical Analysis." Pay attention to the main aspects of any rhetorical situation (see illustration on page 178).
3. Create a Course Blog - all of your work in this course will be posted to your blog, and you must use Google Blogger to create and post your blog (instructions below). Please email me the link to your blog when you have finished setting it up. 
4. Read “Anatomy of a Blog Post.”  You've now been introduced to your first writing genre for English 109H: blogging. Any genre of writing is going to have its own conventions.  So in order to write effective blog posts, you'll need to observe and practice the conventions of blogging. Carefully read Michael Hyatt's "Anatomy of an Effective Blog Post" to learn about the generally agreed upon standard and norms in formatting a blog post.
5. Write your first blog post (Blog Post 1): a reflection on today's (MONDAY'S) class activity [NOTE: if you can't get your blog working before Wednesday's class, print out your reflection and bring it to class. Once your blog is up, for your first post rewrite the reflection using the blog conventions described in the links above].

Contrast the three rhetorical situations we discussed in class, and explain how your group was able to differentiate between them. Was the idea of analyzing the rhetorical situation new to you? Analyze the rhetorical situation of a recent attempt from your life when you were seeking to persuade someone. Describe the Audience, Context, and Purpose of your communication, and analyze its effectiveness. 

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOW TO CREATE YOUR COURSE BLOG:

Create a Course Blog by going to your Google Drive homepage. To access Blogger (Google’s blogging platform) click on the square icon in the upper right corner of the page. A menu of Google platforms will appear:

• Click on “More” and additional features, including Blogger, will be visible:

Read over the "Blogger Getting Started Guide” to learn how to Create a blog and learn about the basic features of Blogger.

Create a blog for English 109H. You'll be posting all of your coursework to this blog, so it's central to the class.

Feel free to personalize your blog - be creative and tailor the blog’s style to suit your personality. Give it a title that reflects you.

Always remember the audience that your blog is written for. Your creative choices should be appropriate for your potential audience of professional peers, mentors, professors and advisors. And your blog should be easily readable!