Calendar Post for December 7 and 9 + Workshop/Visual/Analysis Handouts Posted

• Meet back in class on Wednesday for a discussion of visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis. In preparation, please read a handout on analyzing and presenting the Public Essay (at drop.io).

• By Wednesday evening, as your last Writing Studio forum post, practice analyzing a text rhetorically by applying what you know to one of four essays we read last week. In at least 100 words, propose and analyze just one relationship in the essay you chose to read––writer and audience, purpose and context, text and genre, or a different combination of rhetorical elements. Additional elements and questions to guide your analysis can be found here.

• For Wednesday and Friday, review PHG chapter six, "Analyzing and Designing Visuals." Pay particular attention to pages 214-222 and 231-235. A handout on designing visual rhetoric has also been uploaded to drop.io.

• Instead of holding class on Monday, we will continue drafting the Public Essay and participate in the Google Docs workshop discussed elsewhere on our blog and at the library on Friday. At drop.io you'll find a guide to commenting on the Public Essay. Please note that first drafts and invitations to collaborators are due online Monday by noon and that second drafts and invitations are due Thursday evening.

• Guidance on submitting your Public Essay online or via e-mail will be posted later this week.

Google Docs Handout + Groups for the Public Essay Posted

A handout discussed in class, "Google Docs Workshop: How and When to Post Essay Drafts and Comments," has been uploaded to drop.io. Please take note of steps in the workshop due today, Monday, Thursday, and next Friday. Google Docs can be accessed via Gmail or Google Apps for Colorado State University.

You can find e-mail addresses for collaborators in a class e-mail and on the "Classmates" page of the Writing Studio. If you don't see your name listed below, follow step three in the workshop. And please remember: In order to receive points for participation and preserve access to comments, revisions to the Public Essay should take place on your desktop, not online. See the handout above for more details.

CO150.37:

• Eric S, Stephen G, Jack H
• Jason L, Branden K, Amanda D
• Kayla T, Cyndi H, Kassi M
• Rachel S, Kelly T, Valerie B
• Brian R, Alex H, Jesse S
• Cooper O, Senite T, Mark K

CO150.44:

• Regan G, Dan P, Chris N
• Adrienne K, Michael W, Jill H
• Kaylynn A, Robbie O, Sam S
• Sean W, Justin S, Derek W
• Amanda K, Rachael C, Kelsey C
  
• Jonny S, Zach H, Sal B
  

Update: a guide for commenting on the Public Essay has also been uploaded to drop.io. Previously posted handouts on field research and the Local Inquiry/Public Essay can also be found there, along with essay samples.

Local Inquiry/Public Essay Assignment + Samples Posted

"Joining the Conversation: Local Inquiry and the Public Essay" has been uploaded to drop.io. In addition, below, six sample essays composed by fellow students and published online by The Coloradoan are available for download. Some appear as two files: one is suitable for printing, the other shows the text displayed alongside visual rhetoric and comments from readers. Note that while these samples generally achieve the purpose of the Local Inquiry/Public Essay, they do have shortcomings and should be read in the context of the assignment handout (above).

• essay_sample_evers.pdf
• essay_sample_evers_comments.pdf
• essay_sample_mckenna.pdf
• essay_sample_mckenna_comments.pdf
• essay_sample_mesereau.pdf
• essay_sample_kvols.pdf
• essay_sample_kvols_comments.pdf
• essay_sample_watanabe.pdf
• essay_sample_watanabe_comments.pdf

Calendar Post for November 11 + Argument Handouts Posted

• Follow steps in our Google Docs workshop handout, especially the part about creating a document and inviting raulmoreno@gmail.com as a collaborator by noon on Wednesday.

• Bring a full rough draft of your Academic Argument to class on Wednesday as a hard copy.

• Read about revising arguments and logical fallacies on PHG pages 577-582.

• Download and bring to class the following handouts (at drop.io):

- argument_appeals.pdf

- argument_fallacies.pdf

- argument_workshop.pdf

Rhetorical Analysis + Google Docs Handouts Posted

• For those attending a speaking event and drafting a rhetorical analysis that will compensate for an unexcused absence, three additional handouts at drop.io will be useful:

- handout_rhetorical_questions.pdf

- handout_soapstone.pdf

- handout_rhetorical_situation.gif

• This rhetorical analysis should be at least two pages and follow MLA guidelines. Further guidance can be found elsewhere on our blog.

• A handout discussed in class today, "Google Docs Workshop: How and When to Post Argument Drafts and Comments," has been uploaded to drop.io. Please take note of steps in the workshop due Wednesday and Friday by noon. Google Docs can be accessed via Gmail or Google Apps for Colorado State University.

Academic Argument/Proposal Assignment + Samples Posted

"Academic Argument: Adding Your Voice to the Conversation" has been uploaded to drop.io, where you can also find "Proposal: From Inquiry to Argument" (offered in class) and a sample proposal (available as a download only).

As discussed, please note that the sample proposal runs too long as a text and does not conform to MLA guidelines or our assignment handout. Still, it does respond to many of the same questions that serve as prompts for your proposal, and it shows a student carefully researching and designing an argument in proposal form.

Remember that proposal conferences take place in Aylesworth 268 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday instead of class.

Update: five samples of the Academic Argument are now available (as three files at drop.io). Like the sample proposal, these arguments do have weaknesses and don't always adhere to MLA guidelines or our assignment handout, but they should serve as useful models.

• argument_sample_e.pdf

• argument_sample_l.pdf

• argument_sample_xyz.pdf

Sample Wiki Page Posted

A wiki page much like the ones we're drafting in groups this month has been posted to drop.io. It includes a critical introduction as well as an annotated bibliography, and its structure can largely serve as an example.

You'll notice that the sample's tone and length differ slightly from our objective. Near the beginning of the introduction, for example, the authors include a "personal frame of reference" that's not part of our wiki. The introduction's overall length also exceeds our 1,200-word limit. Finally, watch for missing parenthetical references and occasional first person pronouns––moments when the authors' "collective voice" disappears.

Open Letter Assignment Correction

Our original Open Letter assignment handout incorrectly listed its value as 150 points. A revised handout (at drop.io) corrects that point total to 100, which is reflected in our syllabus.

Group Inquiry Assignment Posted

"Inquiring Further: Researching a Question-at-issue as a Group, with a Wiki" is now available as a handout. The "research log" and "stakeholder matrix" described in the assignment are also available at drop.io, along with a sample annotation and sample wiki page.

Interview Questions and Annotation Example Posted

A list of questions seen in class today that might guide your interview with a fellow inquiry group member has been posted to drop.io. A link to the Writing Studio forum where you should post a summary of this interview (150 to 200 words) will appear later today on our blog. Recall that e-mail addresses for your fellow group members are available in the Writing Studio under "Classmates."

At drop.io, there's also a sample annotation by Student Y. Note that this annotation provides an MLA citation of the source text but does not use parenthetical references. For our inquiry project, we will be using parenthetical references that follow MLA guidelines in Diane Hacker's supplement (see "MLA in-text citations" on page two).

Handout Posted

The Open Letter workshop guide distributed in class today is now available at drop.io.  It should guide your written comments on your partners' rough drafts, which we'll discuss in small groups on Friday.

Open Letter Assignment + Texts Posted

A handout on our upcoming Open Letter assignment has been posted to drop.io:

• letter_assignment.pdf

Click here to browse some three dozen articles now available for consideration as "supplementary" or "outside" texts in your Open Letter. Look for the "text" tag in the list of files at drop.io.

If you're interested, examples of letters (by Raul Moreno and Student Doe) have also been posted to drop.io. (These examples address an author rather than a member of government.)

Recall that your Open Letter can address a member of the Obama adminstration's Cabinet, a member of a U.S. Senate or U.S. House committee, or a leader in the Senate or House.

Update: Guidance on how to address those officials, both on your envelope and within your Open Letter, is offered by the Executive Secretariat of the National Institutes of Health.

MLA Supplements Posted

Two supplements that detail the Modern Language Association's (MLA) 2009 style guidelines, to which most of our written assignments adhere, have been posted to drop.io. These supplements come courtesy of Bedford/St. Martin's:

• handout_hacker_mla_2009.pdf

• handout_lunsford_mla_2009.pdf

As the semester progresses we'll talk more about how to document sources using MLA guidelines. However, the sample papers that appear in the final pages of the Hacker and Lunsford supplements should provide you with guidance as to formatting assignments like the Academic Summary. Formatting guidelines are also detailed on page three of our syllabus.

Syllabus + Readings + Academic Summary Assignment Posted

Our syllabus, three articles distributed in class today, and a handout on our upcoming Academic Summary assignment have been posted to drop.io:

• moreno_co150_policies.pdf

• reading_lydersen_scientists_pace.pdf

• reading_bbc_global_warming.pdf

• reading_pollan_why_bother.pdf

• summary_assignment.pdf

PHG pages 176 to 187 ("Responses to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change") have also been posted to drop.io.