Dear Students,
I had not realized that some of you might not know how to see my comments on your QRGs in the dropbox. Login to d2l, go to the dropbox, and you will see a link to your paper and the grade assigned. There is a small feedback icon that leads to my general overall comments about the paper. But there is also be a small icon labeled grademark. Click that icon and your paper will come up, with my comments marked in comment bubbles. If you mouse over the bubbles, my comments should show. I apologize for not explaining this, and I will demonstrate it in class on Friday as well.
Dr. Bell
WELCOME TO ENGLISH 109H!
I'm Dr. Mary Bell, and I'm your instructor for this course. I will conduct course communication via this blog. Please check daily! mebell@email.arizona.edu
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Monday, October 12, 2015
Week Eight Overview (Blogs 25-28)
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(U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
In-class work will focus on elements of rhetorical analysis. By a show of hands in class today you indicated that no one is choosing to write about Girl Culture or on a self-chosen topic, so the examples in class will be regarding HONY or #LikeAGirl.
Outside of class, you should be engaging in at least one of the pre-writing activities you found helpful in the last project (free-writing, idea map, outline). Also, you should have written a SOAPSTone, and an observation/inference chart for your text.
==>Timeline: By the end of the week you should have a thesis statement and an outline to at least 2 levels of detail. By next Monday in class, you should have a complete first draft ready to workshop.
We reviewed the rhetorical triangle:
- speaker/author
- audience (primary and secondary)
- message/purpose
Wednesday: Discussion of rhetorical strategies/appeals
- Ethos - appeals to credibility and character
- Pathos - appeals to emotion
- Logos - appeals to logic or rational decision-making
Friday: Introductions and rhetorical analysis thesis statement.
Google Document work: You should have two Google Documents going by the end of the week:
- By Wednesday: Your prewriting document. Copy all your prewriting activities about your chosen text (SOAPSTones, observation/inference chart, idea maps, etc) into a single Google Document called lastname_prewriting (substitute your last name). Make sure you've made it open for comments to anyone at the UA who has the link. Link to this document in Blog 26.
- By Friday: Your thesis statement and outline. Write your thesis statement and an exploratory outline at least 2 levels deep in a Google document called lastname_overview(substitute your last name). Make sure you've made it open for comments to anyone at the UA who has the link. Link to this document in Blog 27.
Blogs:
- Blog Post 25 (By Wednesday) - Personal Response:
- Explain which text you have chosen to analyze, and why. How do you personally react to the text you have chosen?
- Comment on two other posts suggestions about how the writer could use this reaction as a lens for writing the introduction or focusing the analysis.
- Blog Post 26 - (By Wednesday) - Prewriting activities: -
- write a paragraph describing what pre-writing activities you are using for this paper, and why.
- Add a link to the Google Doc lastname_prewriting that shows your pre-writing activity (see description above).
- Go to this link on at least two other blogs, and give helpful criticism about the pre-writing activity you see there.
- Blog Post 27 - (By Friday) -
- Post your thesis statement to your blog
- Include the link to the Google Document lastname_overview that includes your thesis statement and preliminary outline (see description above)
- By the Saturday night deadline, give helpful criticism on three classmates' Google documents.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Slideshow of QRG wordclouds
If you are curious how I did this:
- I used Google Slides and copied the image from each of your blogs onto a separate slide.
- Then I chose to share the slideshow by embedding; this provides a snippet of html code.
- I copied the html code provided, and pasted it into this blog post page (notice the HTML tab on the upper left when you are in editing mode).
- I adjusted the settings in the html code so the image would fit on the page correctly.
Note: Extra Credit is a separate grade category
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flickr.com/photos/twentysevenphotos/5349693235/sizes/s/ |
Friday, October 9, 2015
Blog Post 24: Outline Student's Guide essay
Complete the activity we began in class: Outline the sample student rhetorical analysis essay on sex-trafficking in the Student's Guide section 13.6 (pp. 277-280). Since it is a student essay, some paragraphs are better organized than others. Post your outline to your blog, and analyze how well you think the essay is organized.
- Point out a strong paragraph and explain why it's strong
- Point out a weak paragraph and explain how you would improve it
- Pay particular attention to the thesis statement, and how the topic sentences relate to the thesis
- Pay attention to how the writer uses evidence from the film she is analyzing to support her thesis
Link to Google DOC assignment sheet project #2
The Assignment sheet for project 2 is on Google docs here. Please go to the assignment sheet and comment: what is confusing, what questions you have, suggestions for making the assignment sheet clearer.
Monday, October 5, 2015
Week Seven Overview (Also Blogs 20-23)
Welcome to Week Seven! This week we rhetorically examine two more visual texts:
- The #LikeAGirl commercials sponsored by Always
- A photo essay blog, Humans of New York (HONY)
By the end of the week, you will need to decide which complex visual text you want to write a rhetorical analysis about for paper # 2:
- #LikeAGirl campaign
- HONY
- OR a complex visual text of your choice, with my approval.
By a complex visual text, I mean: a photo blog/essay, a series of commercials or an ad campaign, or a short documentary video, in which there are a variety of images and a complex message. You might even consider an Instagram or Youtube channel. But the text needs to be rhetorical in nature: meaning it seeks to influence or persuade its audience(s) in some way. The text should be complex enough that you can write a 6-8 page essay on it, but not so complex that you are unable to do it justice in that length (probably avoid full-length films for example). And while there can be text, audio, or dialogue, the visual component should be the primary mode.
Monday in class, we discussed the difference between summary and analysis, using an observation/inference chart to start looking for patterns in the texts. We also discussed the #LikeAGirl commercials.
Wednesday in class, we will look at Humans of New York (HONY).
Friday in class, we will discuss the rhetorical analysis assignment (paper #2) and look at two sample essays in the Student's Guide 13.6 (pp. 277-283).
This week's blogs:
Monday in class, we discussed the difference between summary and analysis, using an observation/inference chart to start looking for patterns in the texts. We also discussed the #LikeAGirl commercials.
Wednesday in class, we will look at Humans of New York (HONY).
Friday in class, we will discuss the rhetorical analysis assignment (paper #2) and look at two sample essays in the Student's Guide 13.6 (pp. 277-283).
This week's blogs:
- Revise Blog 20: Compare the paragraph you wrote from your outline of the Brumberg essay with the original. Notice that Brumberg's topic sentences refer to patterns she has noticed in the Girl Culture photos. Her paragraphs then give examples/details from the photos that show that pattern, and discuss why that pattern is significant. The WHY is rhetorical in nature: it has to do with the rhetorical context, the speaker's ethos, the desired effect(s) on the audience, etc. Rewrite your paragraph to improve it. Then add a paragraph about what you learned through this process of outlining Brumberg's essay, and then trying to re-create Blumberg's analysis.
- Blog Post 21: rewatch the #LikeAGirl commercials. Write a SOAPSTone about them.
- Blog Post 22: examine the weblog Humans of New York (HONY). There are thousands of photographs in the archive, but click around the website to get an idea what kinds of subjects he photographs. His latest photos, for example, are of refugees in Europe fleeing the Syrian Civil War. Write a SOAPStone about HONY.
- Blog Post 23: Post an observation/inference chart you made about HONY, then write a paragraph about what interests you most about HONY. What would you want to write about if you chose HONY as your topic for your rhetorical analysis paper?
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