Reflection: Prep for Final

Directions: in 200 words or less, describe one aspect of the semester (the blogs, the quizzes, group exercises, pre-writing, writing a particular paper, etc.) that helped you the most in understanding how to write better compositions. Your most significant moment during the semester could be as simple as what you learned from speaking to one of your classmates or to the professor. You will use this blog as a jumping off point for the final. You can print out and bring your blog response with you to class on the day of the final. The blog response is due before class on May 7th, and is worth 10 points.

Research Questions

Directions: List one or two possible essays that were interesting enough to generate questions about their meaning or the events surrounding the creation of the text. List three questions that you have about the essay(s). Remember, if you choose the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," and you also choose to use the original letter from the eight clergymen in your research paper, you will still need two additional sources to support the potential answers to your questions. You will also need to read and inquire into the full letter under Unit VI, rather than using the truncated Unit III essay. Post due before class on Wednesday, April 9th.

Reply: No reply necessary, but read the questions of your fellow classmates if you find yourself at a loss for questions to ask the text(s) you chose.

Thesis and Reasons

Direction: Write your final thesis in a post, and then state three (or four) prospective Reasons/topic sentences that support your thesis. The Reasons should support your thesis, and also should be supportable by evidence from "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Your evidence will be posted/explored later, however. In this post, there should be no citations or quotations, unless you quote single words.

Example:

In his response to the clergymen, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King answers their accusations and criticisms in order to create a call to end segregation. He uses his credibility as a civil rights leader and religious figure, as well as his extensive education, to prove sound judgment and successfully show why he belongs in Birmingham. 

Reason 1: In his letter, King immediately offers his credentials, explaining that he is the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and in Birmingham at the behest of The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.

Reason 2: In addition to his position as a leader in the civil rights movement, Dr. King’s vast religious education and upbringing aid him in responding to the clergymen’s accusation that he, as an "outsider," has no place in Birmingham.

Reason 3: King shows that his conscience and his comprehension of justice enable him to distinguish between "just" and "unjust" laws.

Reason 4 (optional): In response to the clergymen’s call for diplomacy, King concedes that this course of action is the ultimate goal of his movement.

Initial post due according to the date you workshop your thesis in class.
If you workshop your thesis on the 17th, your thesis and reasons will need to be posted before class on the 19th. If you workshop your thesis on the 19th, your thesis and reasons will need to be posted before 11:30am on Friday, the 21st.

No immediate reply to a classmate is due.

Rhetorical Appeals

The video is a eulogy performed by Maya Angelou for Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr's widow, "The First Lady of Civil Rights." Please click on the link above, and read what King did for human rights, because it will help you to better answer the questions posted after the video.

Directions: Watch the video below, and answer the questions.

1. Who is the target audience for this eulogy (think about the target audience for any eulogy, but, also, who Angelou identifies as her audience)?
2. What is the Occasion/Situation? Think about what makes this situation different from any other speech honoring someone.
3. What is the purpose of this eulogy (regard all the different ways that Angelou talks about King; how do the different approaches she takes reveal the multiple aspects of King's life and mission?)? 
4. What are some of the rhetorical appeals in this eulogy, and why are they necessary? (Think about how she connects to the audience emotionally and logically. What is her credibility, beyond the fact that she is Maya Angelou?)
5. Do you see any logical fallacies? If so, what are they?

Initial blog post due before class on March 12th. Try to keep your post as succinct as possible.

Reply to classmate: Find a classmate who does not already have a response, and note one aspect of the response that you feel was particularly effective in its identification of either Audience, Occasion, Purpose or Rhetorical Appeal. Tell your classmate why and how his/her approach to that aspect was effective (what appeals does s/he use for his/her audience: you?)

Reply due before class on March 17th. Be clear, detailed and succinct in your reply.

Revising

Directions: Rewrite your blog, "Determining Arguments." Look for any elements we have so far discussed that you could improve, and also perform a read-aloud with your blog. Eliminate spelling errors, make sure that your blog is in the form of a paragraph, and take any of your peers' constructive criticism into consideration that you think would help improve your argument. Also, now that you can identify logical fallacies, please fix those errors as well.

Check points 2, 3, 5, and 7 on page 14 of Inquiry should help. Also, check out the LBH revising section of the LBH guide posted on D2L.

If you did not perform this blog, then this will be your opportunity to do so. Write a single draft first, and then check for editing points (perhaps share your intended post with a friend, family member or co-worker for assistance).

Due February 26th before class.

Reply: Free pass. No reply. The initial response will be worth the full 4 points of the week.

Audience and Building Connections

Directions: Read the Inquiry pages on ethos and pathos.

Review your chosen text and:

1. I will give you further instructions in class tomorrow, February 19th.

Due before midnight on Friday, February 21st.

Reply: Try to comment on a blog that has no other comments yet.

You finally have the chance to compliment your classmate on his/her success at capturing the essence of the original author's approach to the audience. Yay. Try to comment on a blog of someone whose article you have read.

If you cannot find a commentless blog that you agree with, then you may disagree with a classmate's conclusions. Please be specific as to why, and ask a question that will provoke thought in your classmate about audience, ethos or pathos.

Be academic and professional.

Due before class on February 24th.

Audience, Purpose and Occasion (APO)

Watch the video below and answer the proceeding questions. The direct link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QleRgTBMX88.

1. Who does the speaker identify as her audience? Does the speaker know her audience? Who is her audience (is she right, or is she wrong?)? Feel free to look up the audience.
2. What is the purpose of this video (i.e. entertainment, self-expression, explanation, and/or persuasion). Is she successful in her delivery and explanation? If so, how does the speaker's knowledge of her audience help her to deliver her message about wrongness? If not, why?
3. What is the Occasion (in Inquiry, they call it Situation)?

You will learn about the K in the ultimate acronym APOK next week.

Please keep your responses to less than 200 words for the sake of those who must reply to you.

Due before class on Wednesday, February 12th.

Reply: Respond to a classmate, and ask one of the questions on page 30 of Inquiry (choose a question that is appropriate to the blog you are replying to). Then give the student a link that can give them the answer, or the beginnings of an answer.

Example:

Initial response:

2. The purpose of the video is explanation. Schulz is successful in her delivery because she seems to know a lot about being wrong. She says she spent five years thinking about this. Her audience is a bunch of smart people, so they can probably relate to her message, and to thinking about things for a long time. She has a lot of real life examples and uses personal experience as her evidence, which is convincing.

Reply:

How do you know her data is correct or that she has legitimate evidence that would convince really smart people? Read this book review on Schulz: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/books/11book.html?_r=0. Do you think that her ideas might be more appealing because they are accessible and not overly scientific?

Look to LBH pages 75-78 for advice on both how to give and receive advice with equanimity.

Due before class on Monday, February 17th.

Determining Arguments

Directions: Watch the video (if you have trouble accessing the video from Blogger, go directly to YouTube address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSO_d1svtfU).

What is the main argument of the video? How does the introduction of the video support this argument? What about the main support (what types of main support are there?)? What would make the middle part more convincing, if you feel it does not effectively support the main argument? How does the conclusion of the video work to wrap up the whole argument?

Note: If you wish to comment on the video, please perform the assignment first, and then comment.

(You might think that listening to parts of this video is torturous, but push through).

Due before class on Wed. Feb. 5th.

Reply to a classmate: Find a classmate you can politely disagree with, and comment on his/her blog. 

Note: Disagree with what you think your classmate misdiagnosed or mislabeled as part of the argument, especially the evidence. If you wish to disagree with his/her opinion, do so, but please perform the assigned reply first.

Stay helpful and professional!

Reply due before class on Monday, Feb. 10th.

Integrating Quotes

Directions:  Perform exercise 3 on page 186 of Inquiry with the Malcolm X text, and write:

• One sentence that integrates a quote into the grammar of a sentence.
• One sentence that attaches a quote to a preceding sentence with a colon.
• One sentence that attaches a quote to a preceding sentence with an author tag (an author tag is where you give an author credit for his/her words--see LBH p. 644, Signal Phrases).

Due before class on Feb. 3

No reply will be necessary, but look at how your fellow students integrated their quotes. See what you think works and what does not, and use that to improve your own writing process.

Reading Like an Academic

Directions: Summarize your experience with the three-read process of the Malcolm X text (not what you learned, but how the process helped you read this text, and might help you read other texts in the future). If the process did not help your comprehension of the Malcolm X text, please state so, but summarize why you did not benefit from this method of reading, and reflect on what you might do in the future to help with text comprehension. The post can state emotion so long as the experience is first summarized, and the post should be free from emotional exuberance/ranting. (Due before class on Jan. 29th.)

Reply: Comment on your classmate's ability to relate his/her experience in the fashion of a summary. If you believe s/he wrote more of a narrative/analysis than a summary, make one suggestion for what s/he might do for his/her summary for the Malcolm X text. Your response needs to be at least three sentences long, and must contain constructive criticism. (Due before class on Feb. 3.)

As always, stay professional with your posts. Also, remember that this is a community forum. Take what your classmates say with a grain of salt, but also take advantage of the crowd-sourcing.

Welcome!

Each week, you will be responsible for posting to the blog. The blog is where you will show your homework and reflect on your papers. You will be required to interact with your peers, and to remain courteous at all times.

Blogs are graded as follows:

1. Participation: blogs must be posted on time.
2. Following directions: while you may contribute additional comments or links, your primary goal in posting should be to satisfy the assignment requirements.
3. Remaining respectful of your classmates.

Each blog will be different. You will receive feedback from the instructor, but the primary purpose of the blogs is to receive feedback from your community of students. Ask questions of each other, and be thoughtful in your responses.

For this week's assignment, simply reply to this blog so that I know you are ready to get started.