Reading and Homework Schedule


 

(All readings or homework must be completed by the date they are assigned to below. This schedule will be updated rather often.)

 

Week 1

 

 

 

 

 

1/18 Come to Class!  

 

 

 

 

 

Week 2

1/23 

Purchase your class texts (See Syllabus).

 

Sign your plagiarism agreement and your Student Work Agreement and hand in to me.

 

Read pages 3-14 in the Course Reader.

 

 

1/25 

Set-up your Wordpress Blog. Your blog must include:

If you password protect your blog, be sure to send me the password. 

 

Read pages 28-37 in the Course Reader.

 

Week 3

 

1/30 BY 9 AM!
Read Johann Hari’s “The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think” and post your PACES rhetorical analysis to your blog. Use this handout to walk you through your blog post. (Also, I posted up the Powerpoint Slides from Thursday under Resources on the main page, if that helps...)

 

1/31
Come to class. Be prepared to discuss Hari's text.

 

2/2
Read pages 20-22 in your CR...and begin reading all of the "secondary sources" about Hari's text on the Course Materials page (I will expect you to have read them/visited the different pages/viewed the videos by 2/9). Review the Unit #1 prompt to see if you have any questions.

 

 

Week 4

 

2/7
Have your 5-minute presentation ready.

 

2/9 
Finish reading the "secondary sources" for Hari.

 

 

Week 5

 

2/13 BY 9AM

Post a 300-500 word post on your blog explaining how (or if) your ideas about what causes addiction have changed, from both reading Hari's article, and the responses to his article.

 

2/14
Peer Review: Bring (3) hard copies of the draft of your first paper. 3 pages minimum for your paper. 

 

2/16
Hand in your first paper!

 

Week 6

 

2/20 BY 9AM
Read Patricia Roberts-Miller's article, "Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric"

Write a 300-500 word (informal) response to the article on your blog. Do you agree/disagree with Roberts-Miller's text? What were your initial thoughts on reading the article? Can you identify elements of demagoguery in modern day rhetoric? What are your reactions to the idea of demagoguery? Feel free to be creative with your blog; you will be graded (0-3) on your ability to engage with Roberts-Miller's text but how you do that is up to you. Be prepared to discuss your response in class!

 

2/21
Come to class prepared to discuss Roberts-Millers' text.

 

2/23
Read Roberts-Miller's Characteristics of Demagoguery.

 

Be prepared to answer the 4 questions from the 2/21 PP slides.

 

Week 7

 

2/27 BY 9AM

In your blog, identify 2-3 characteristics of demagoguery that George Wallace used in his inauguration speech. Explain why you thought he might have used them, and/or any other reactions you had to his speech.

Also, on your blog, post the name of the text that you would like to analyze for Paper #2. Include a URL to the text if possible (or the actual text). Texts can be anything: essay, speech, book, etc etc etc.

 

2/28
Read Fallacies list.

 

3/2
Bring (3) copies of your Paper #2 Draft or (3) copies of an outline of your Paper #2.

 

Week 8

 

3/7 By 1 PM
Post your #2 Paper to your blog as a Word file or as text.

 

3/9 

Present your team's Rhetorical Fallacy Presentation!

 

 

Week 9

 

3/13 BY 9AM
Find an example of a rhetoric fallacy in an online discussion/argument: in a comment field, on a Reddit board, on a blog posting, etc...and post it to your blog, with a brief explanation (100-200 words) on which fallacy it is, and why the claim makes no sense.   

 

3/14

Read the first half of Maus (80 pages or so...) Bring your copy to class!

 

3/16
Finish Maus I
Bring your copy to class!

 

 

 

Week 10

 

3/20 BY 9AM

Post the question from the prompt that you will answer in your paper (your official blog this week will be due Friday.)
Make sure you have signed up for an instructor conference session through Doodle

 

3/21
Read first half of Maus II.

 

3/23
Complete Maus II.

 

3/24 BY 5PM

Post a PACES Rhetorical Analysis of Maus in 300-500 Words. Use this handout to walk you through it. Because Maus is an artistic work, your analysis might look different than an opinion piece or political text would (ie, the evidence might be limited to 1-2 types), that's ok, but still work through the exact, same process you would for other texts...

 

 

 

 

Week 11

 

 

 

Week 12

 

4/6

Post your Third Paper to your blog by 1pm. 

 

Week 13

 

4/10 BY 9AM

Think about a time when you heard or read an argument that completely changed your mind or opinion on a topic.

In 300-500 words, post to your blog what was so effective about the argument, and why it worked on you. Think in rhetorical terms, BUT if the reason you changed your mind had nothing to do with rhetoric, explain why. Keep in mind, too, that an argument could be anything; perhaps a work of art, a song, or even a video game drastically changed your perspective on something (again, every form of expression is making some form of argument).

 

4/11

Read the Preface, the Introduction and the first chapters of They Say/I Say (through page 41).

 

4/13

Bring your question answers to class! Read Chapters 3 and 4 in They Say/I Say (pages 42-67). 

 

 

Week 14

 

4/17 BY 9AM

Post to your blog a 300-500 word reaction to what we have read so far in They Say/I Say (feel free to include any reactions or thoughts from our class discussions.) You can write on anything you like about academic writing, just use Graff/Birkenstein's text as a launching pad for your thoughts. (For instance, you could write about: What do you think about the Graff/Birkenstein approach to academic writing? What do you think about academic writing? Does their approach make sense to you? Do you think learning this style of writing is actually useful? What do you think is awesome about their ideas? What do you think is total horseshit?)

 

4/18 BY 5 PM
Post your proposal for your final paper to your blog. Use the Final Paper Prompt to walk you through writing your proposal. 

 

4/20
Read Chapters 5, 6 & 7 in They Say/I Say (through page 102).

 

 

Week 15

 

4/24 By 9AM

Locate a text (in any form) that makes an argument online. Identify one explicit assumption in it, and one implicit assumption in it. On your blog, post a 300-500 word post about the article, what its main argument is, and the two assumptions you identified within it (include a link to the original text is possible). Need help with assumptions? Check out this excellent handout.

 

4/25

Bring a piece of paper to class in order to do the mock WPA Assessment.

 

4/27 
Bring (3) copies of your final paper to class for peer review!

 

 

Week 16

 

5/2  
Read through page 159 in They Say/I Say. (This is all that will be required in class, but the rest of the book has some fascinating info on there. Skim as you will.) [Teacher conferences, no regular class]

 

 

5/4
Post your final paper to your blog by 11:59 p.m. Remember to ask for feedback on your paper if you want it. Class is optional.  
[If you do attend this optional class workshop, the deadline on your final paper will be 5/5 by 11:59 (you get an extra 24 hours to make changes).]