Please note that this calendar is designed to be flexible: we may make changes along the way, depending on your interests and the needs of the class. Should you miss a class, you are responsible for finding out what you missed from a classmate and for knowing about—and adjusting for—any calendar changes. Professional protocols and collegiality ask you to alert us if you’ll be missing on a day when we’re having a workshop or when you are scheduled to present materials.
 Week 1“We Are What We Find, Not What We Search For” |
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| Tuesday March 27th |
In class: Introductions, key terms, course goals:
Test-driving our Rhetorical Analysis skills: Brooks, Speaking as a White Male … Advice: For most of us, college is the only time in our lives when we get to read and write and talk about ideas. Don’t squander it while you’re here. |
| Thursday March 29 |
Reading: Jamison, Mark My Words. Maybe.
Due: Dialogic Journal Entry #1 — handwritten rhetorical analysis on Jamison’s Mark My Words. Maybe. — 250-350 words
Background:
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| Week 2 Summary & Integration |
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| Tuesday April 3 |
Reading: NYT , Dyson: “We Forgot What Dr. King Believed In”
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| Thursday April 5 |
Reading: NYT, TBA Dialogic Journal Entry #3: Page One, the film reflection; we’ll discuss details in class |
| Week 3 Is Reading an Act of Composing? |
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| Tuesday April 10 |
Reading: Sunday NYT: TBA Due: Dialogic Reading Journal #3 Our shared article for hypothes.is and for Tuesday’s class discussion: “Choosing Animals Over People?” (Kristof, SR 9): https://hyp.is/48CZ-DtTEeiwUVsSHQ3p8w/www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/opinion/sunday/wildlife-central-african-republic.html Part 1: For your generative, additive annotations, due before class on Tuesday:
Part 2: Then, find an annotation from a classmate and respond to it:
Remember to post to our hypothes.is group — see attached screen capture — or we won’t see it, and you won’t get credit for it 🙁 Be prepared to give us a 60-90 second summary & overview of an article from the Sunday paper that you thought was interesting & significant, telling us why it is significant to you and why it should/could be significant to the rest us; we’ll do this in class. |
| Thursday April 12 |
Reading: NYT — 1:00 section: “‘Big Brother’ in India Requires Fingerprint Scans for Food, Phones and Finances” (Sunday Business section, p. 1) 2:40 section: “How to Level the College Playing Field” (Sunday Review, p.1) Both good choices on your part. No hypothes.is, but it would be great if you could show up Thursday with some generative questions and observations! In class: Previewing the Contextual Analysis Project Journal entry #4: we’ll talk about this in class: Video Tutorial: How to Search Academic Search Complete (3:08 video) — watch and test-drive video tutorial by applying it to two of your three annotated problems: comment/reflect on both the video tutorial and what kinds of sources you find, especially in terms of the problems’ potential & possible causes: interesting? Not interesting? Helpful? Not helpful? Include some journal and article titles; no need to be comprehensive — just some notes are fine. Reviewing critical thinking vocabulary & concepts Active & Empathetic Listening
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| Week 4 From Text to Context Individual Conferences: reading journals and inquiry questions |
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| Tuesday April 17 |
Reading: NYT, “The Warrior at the Mall” Due: Inquiry questions for workshopping
Background: review in St. Martin’s Handbook
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| Thursday April 19 |
Reading: NYT, “The Warrior at the Mall” continued In class: Workshopping Proposals and posting to Digication |
| Week 5 Argument & Advocacy |
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| Tuesday April 24 |
Reading: NYT TBA Due: posted to your Digication:
Due: Journal entry #5: How would you characterize your intellectual contributions to our class thus far? Provide specific examples. |
| Thursday April 26 |
Reading: NYT “The Soul-Crushing Student Essay” Review in St. Martin’s Handbook:
Dialogic journal #6: Your Contextual Analysis: what part(s) are you most looking forward to and about which you feel confident? What part(s) concern or worry you? 250 words +/- (Post-library workshop reflection) |
| Week 6 Truth-seeking behavior vs. Bullshit: Writing with a Method, Perspective, and Authority — Ethos & Exigency |
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| Tuesday May 1 |
Reading: NYT Bruni, “The Extinction of Gay Identity” (SR 3) Preview Contextual Analysis Scoring Guide |
| Thursday May 3 |
Reading: NYT TBA
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| Week 7 Proofreading, Editing, and one-on-one conferences |
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| Tuesday May 8 |
Reading: NYT — TBA Due: Dialogic Journal entry #7: credibility and “little leaps of faith” |
| Thursday May 10 |
Reading: NYT TBA Workshop: From editing to proofreading
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| Week 8 Persuasive Essays |
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| Tuesday May 15 |
Reading: NYT “Delusions of Kanye” Due: Contextual Analysis Project, digital version |
| Thursday May 17 |
Reading: NYT 9:40 section — “His College Knew of His Despair. His Parents Didn’t, Until It Was Too Late.” (SR) In class: Persuasive Writing Workshop:
Arguing to convince: claim + support More often than not, out-and-out defeat of another is not only unrealistic but also undesirable. Rather, the goal is to convince other persons that they should change their minds about an issue. A writer must provide reasons so compelling that the audience willingly agrees with the writer’s conclusion. Such is the goal of advocates of assisted suicide: they well know that they cannot realistically hope to defeat or conquer those who oppose such acts. Rather, they understand that they must provide reasons compelling enough to change people’s minds. Arguing to understand: stasis & truth seeking Often, a writer must enter into conversation with others and collaborate in seeking the best possible understanding of a problem, exploring all possible approaches and choosing the best alternative. The Rogerian and invitational forms of argument both call for understanding as a major goal of arguing. Argument to understand does not seek to conquer or control others or even to convince them. Your purpose in many situations—from trying to decide which job to pursue to exploring with your family the best way to care for an elderly relative—will be to share information and perspectives in order to make informed political, professional, and personal choices. Arguing to change yourself: Exploratory Essay Sometimes you will find yourself arguing primarily with yourself, and those arguments often take the form of intense meditations on a theme, or even of prayer. In such cases, you may be hoping to transform something in yourself or to reach peace of mind on a troubling subject. If you know a familiar mantra or prayer, for example, think of what it “argues” for and how it uses quiet meditation to help achieve that goal.
“But, as we’ve already suggested [invitational rhetoric], arguing isn’t always about winning or even about changing others’ views. In addition to invitational argument, another school of argument-called Rogerian argument, after the psychotherapist Carl Rogers-is based on finding common ground and establishing trust among those who disagree about issues, and on approaching audiences in nonthreatening ways. Writers who follow Rogerian approaches seek to understand the perspectives of those with whom they disagree, looking for “both/and” or “win/win” solutions (rather than “either/or” or “win/lose” ones) whenever possible. Much successful argument today follows such principles, consciously or not.” — From Andrea Lunsford, Everyone’s an Author
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| Week 9 |
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| Tuesday May 22 |
Reading: Dialogic Reading Response #9, 5/20 Sunday Review P.1 — Kristof, “Framed for Murder?” David Foster Wallace: “This is Water” audio (22:00 minutes) |
| Thursday May 24 |
Reading: NYT 1:00 section: Lynn Andrea Stout Obituary (A 23) and “Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Beat Poet and Author, Dies at 87″ Obituary (p. A22) 2:40 section: “The Myth of Conservative Feminism” (SR 9) Due: Dialogic Reading Response #10 |
| Week 10 |
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| Tuesday May 29 |
Reading: “Aristotle’s Wrongful Death” (SR, 3) In class: Digital Writing Portfolio Workshop Due: Advocacy project final draft, with audio version |
| Thursday May 31 |
Reading: “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.” – Arthur Miller, 1961 Or, if you prefer: “The mission of a modern newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” |
| Finals Week: Portfolio & Self Assessment |
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Final Exam Week We will meet during our assigned Final Exam time for the final, official delivery of your WRD104 Reading Journals & Portfolios Section #329: June 07, 2018, from 11:30 AM to 1:45 PM |
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Due: Portfolio Draft