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.

Grades and Attendance Reports Posted

Two spreadsheets that show grades for sections 37 and 44 through our group inquiry assignment have been posted to drop.io:

• moreno_co150_37_grades.pdf

• moreno_co150_44_grades.pdf

You can find the row that displays your grades by way of the last three digits of your nine-digit student ID number.

Update: two similar spreadsheets that show attendance records have also been posted to drop.io:

• moreno_co150_37_attendance.pdf

• moreno_co150_44_attendance.pdf

Look for a column called "Effect on Final Grade" to determine whether attendance will lower your overall percentage, and by how many points. Also note that the deadline for our extra credit assignment has been extended.

Calendar Post for December 2 and 4 + Interview/Survey Forum

• Meet in Morgan Library Classroom Two on Friday and bring materials to support your Local Inquiry/Public Essay writing process (newspaper articles, books, interview notes, survey findings, et cetera).

• As a team, be prepared to profile the person you spoke with during a lightening interview on Wednesday. If your team wasn't able to reach someone during class, tell us how and why your interview failed.

• For Friday and Monday, study one of the following admired essays: Chuck Klosterman's "Crazy Things Seem Normal, Normal Things Seem Crazy," about actor Val Kilmer; Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Truthteller," about scientist James Hansen (it appeared in print as "The Catastrophist"); Charles Komanoff's "Whither Wind," about the aesthetics of wind turbines; or Coco Henson Scales's "The Hostess Diaries, My Year at a Hot Spot," whose title says it all (an alternate version features illustrations). All four essays can be found at drop.io.

• For Wednesday, please read David Boerner's "Our Town (Music) Superhero" as an example of how to profile a local personality.

• In preparation for field research this week, based on what you know about your topic, draft a set of interview or survey questions. Then, by Wednesday night, post them to a Writing Studio forum along with a one-paragraph explanation of your specific purpose in conducting this type of inquiry. (Why do you feel you need to talk to this professor, for example, or ask people in Old Town Square these questions?) As you draft your questions, consider our handout on field research, PHG pages 320-322, and the following guidance.

Interviews:

- Are the bread and butter of field research.
- Can be formal or informal, arranged or impromptu.
- Don’t always lend themselves to recording, but recording allows you to be most accurate.
- Provide you with more control because you’re there to guide the discussion.
- Allow you to ask for more elaborate answers.
- Allow you to clarify confusing questions for more accurate responses.
- Allow you to adjust your purpose in light of your interviewee's knowledge.
- Provide a more comfortable atmosphere for raising personal questions.
- Lend themselves to witnessing body language.

Surveys and questionnaires:

- Allow you to gauge information from large groups of people.
- Are easier to tabulate numerically.
- May lead to more honest responses since writing is more anonymous than talking.

Effective interview questions will:

- Start with objective or factual questions, or at the beginning of a chronology.
- Gradually approach more subjective or controversial questions.
- Almost always invite more than a yes or no answer.
- Avoid assumptions about what the interviewee will say, but reflect some knowledge of his or her situation.

Effective survey questions will:

- Be clear and focused.
- Avoid confusing or ambiguous language.
- Be shaped for a target audience.
- Be respectful and objective.
- Avoid skewing responses or leading respondents.
- Take into account different uses for open-ended and closed questions.
- Not take more than a few minutes to answer.

Most importantly, effective questions will address the writer’s purpose, which is generally to find out what people know and think about the topic at hand. Interviews and questionnaires, in other words, will give you a sense of the conversation surrounding your essay.

• There will be no further news quizzes, as you should have an essay topic in mind by now.

Calendar Post for November 30

• Prepare for our third local news quiz. These in-class writing prompts encourage us to study local news sources for essay ideas. In particular, between now and Monday, browse:

The Coloradoan

The Rocky Mountain Collegian

The Denver Post's coverage of Denver and the West

Our #CO150 Twitter feed

• Read again one of the essays you were assigned in class on Friday, November 20 (by Orlean, Malone, or Maddocks) and prepare for a group discussion and presentation of the text on Monday by reviewing questions shown in class (now at drop.io). Reading each of these essays will be helpful in understanding the Local Inquiry/Public Essay, but if you weren't in class on November 20, focus on either Orlean or Malone's text.

• Continue pursuing field research in support of your Local Inquiry/Public Essay. Samples of previous essays posted online should also inform your writing process. A first draft of the essay will be due in class Monday, December 7.

Enjoy the Holiday, Everyone!

We'll see you back in class on Monday, November 30.

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