Course Calendar

• Key rhetorical contexts: purpose, audience, and occasion; reader-based writing that accomplishes something
• Key terms: rhetoric, ideology, analysis, assumption, assertion, claim, argument, context, critical thinking
• New York Times [+subscription info]
• St. Martin’s Handbook: 
  • 1d Becoming an engaged reader and active listener
  • 7a Reading print and digital texts
  • 8b Thinking critically about argument
• Digication and my example

In class: NYT, as assigned — I’ll email Sunday

Due: #1: post your revised initial, first summary in précis form, and keep both versions; we want to be able to see your original summary and the revised version, in précis form. Here’s one possible organizing principle for that.

Due #2: Rhetorical précis — you have a choice:

Crispin’s “St. Teresa and the Single Ladies,” Sunday Review, pp. 7-8 or Brooks’s “To Be Happier, Start Thinking More About Your Death,” SR 12.

Background: St. Martin’s Handbook — 

• 8e Identifying elements of an argument
• 8f Identifying fallacies
• 13b ”Working with quotations”; note how some of the signal verbs are rhetorically active verbs (“claims”) and some are not (“says”). Can you tell the difference? Samples.

For class discussion, we’ll focus on p. A1 and the Sunday Review section — come prepared to discuss.

In class: NYT, as assigned
In class: For class discussion, we’ll focus on p. A1 and the Sunday Review section — come prepared to discuss.
Due: Rhetorical précis #3 — 

• 9:40 section: It’s Payback Time for Women
• 1:00 section: The Joy of Psyching Myself Out­

In class: NYT, as assigned
Due: Rhetorical précis #4: Why Cartels are Killing Mexico’s Mayors
Everyone should read the front section and the Sunday Review section; you should also be seeking out sections that tend to interest you more than others — Sports, Business, Arts, Style & Fashion — try to note stories, trends, and writers that interest you.

In class: We will begin class by going around the room and hearing an informal 60-90 second overview of an interesting article that you read in the Sunday NYT — any section, any topic — why it was important and relevant to you, and why it should be important and relevant to us. It’s a great way to get a tour of the Sunday paper, and to find out what people are interested in.

Page One: Inside the New York Times — no longer on Netflix, but is available via Hulu and Amazon Prime — free trials are available for both.

In class: Rhetorical précis #5 & NYT as assigned

St. Martins Handbook PART TWO—Critical Thinking and Argument

7. Reading Critically
8. Analyzing Arguments

Reading: NYT, as assigned:
Due: 

• Rhetorical Analysis test drive with Turkle’s Stop Googling. Let’s Talk. posted to your Digication
• Annotated copy of a NYT article for your Rhetorical Analysis

In class: Writing Center Presentation; moving from summary to rhetorical analysis

St. Martins Handbook PART TWO—Critical Thinking and Argument

7. Reading Critically
8. Analyzing Arguments

In class: NYT, continued; peer reviews
St. Martin’s Handbook: 4b Reviewing peer writers’ work

Due: Rhetorical Analysis draft #1

Reading: Douthat’s “Trump, Sanders and the Revolt Against Decadence” (SR11) and come prepared to apply and to discuss these questions to Douthat’s argument:

Questions of fact and conjecture

• Did/does something happen?
• What is its origin?
• Is there an act to be considered?
• What produced it?
• What changes can be made?

Questions of definition

• What is its nature?
• How can the issue be defined? 
• And once you’ve defined it, can you imagine any common ground on the issue between people who might want to take persuasive positions on it?

Due: Rhetorical Analysis, draft #2
Previewing the Op-Ed essay project

In class: NYT, continued

Due: Rhetorical Analysis, draft #3; add your project reflection to the bottom of your final draft, like this. 

Preview Letters to the Editor:

• Procedure: How to
• Background: Tips for getting your letter published
• Successful examples from DePaul students

Last names A-L: submit to the NYT by Thursday 2/18, and post to Digication and BCC (not CC) Michael
Last names M-Z: submit to the NYT by Thursday 3/10, and post to Digication and BCC (not CC) Michael

Reading: NYT, as assigned
Due: Op-Ed Inquiry Question, posted to Digication

In class: Op-Ed Inquiry Question Workshop

Reading: NYT, as assigned
In class: Persuasive Writing Workshop
Due: Op-Ed inquiry question & your 350-500-word exploratory essay; yellow-highlight your best, or most interesting, or most compelling, or most intense sentence:

• Connect & Analyze
• Contextualize
• Imagine & Design
• Act & Socialize in an Op-Ed Essay

Reading: NYT, as assigned and Albright’s My Undiplomatic Moment
Due: Op-Ed project 2nd draft

Reading: NYT, as assigned; U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 2

Due: Op-Ed Draft #3 (and made available to Peer Reviewer)

In class: 

• SoundCloud
• Phenomenology — sense 1c.
• Phenomenological, adj.

What we’re looking for is your experience reading the essay — how it made you feel, not making corrections or arguing back. A phenomenological-reading peer review is a description, so we expect to hear you saying things like,

• “This made me feel …”
• “I felt swept right up in the rhythm of that paragraph …”
• “I’m confused here. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to get from this”
• “That made me laugh”
• “This made me a little sad”
• “This reminds me of …”
• “My essay is on a similar topic, and this made me think about …”

Post your SoundCloud link to Digication.

Reading: NYT, as assigned
In class: Proofreading workshop

St. Martin’s Handbook:

• 4h: Revising titles, introductions, and conclusions (SMH)
• 4i: Editing paragraphs and paragraph transitions
• 4l: Proofreading the final draft
• CMOS: Proofreading
• SMH Top 20
• Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos

Due: Op-Ed, final draft with project reflection

Preview: Remix the New York Times

Reading: NYT, as assigned 

In class: Remixing the New York Times workshop
Due: Remix worksheet

Reading: NYT, Brooks: The Movement Mentality
In class:

• Remix Workshop
• Portfolio preview

Reading: NYT, as assigned
In class: Digital Portfolio Workshop

• Section 215: Thursday 3/17, 8:30-10:45 AM
• Section 217: Thursday 3/17, 11:30-1:45 PM

For portfolio feedback or for early submitting, I’ll have these extra hours:

• Wednesday 3/9: 10:00 a.m.-noon, in my office, 362 SAC 
• Saturday 3/12 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. in 300 SAC 
• Sunday 3/13 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. in 300 SAC
• Monday 3/14 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., in my office, 362 SAC
• Tuesday 3/15 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., in my office, 362 SAC
• Wednesday 3/16 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., in my office, 362 SAC

You can locate your final exam times for you all your classes here.