Assignments

Assignments

Below, you’ll find brief explanations of the major assignments, as well as links to the more descriptive guidelines posts. Remember that for each assignment, we’ll be doing peer review. Make sure you and your group have exchanged the correct email information, and that you follow the peer review rubric we will be working on collaboratively.

  • Personal Narrative: In this paper, you will explore your own experiences with a specific community or local issue. This assignment asks you to think about how or why we are connected to issues that matter to us, speaking from personal experience. What community matters the most to you? What role do you play in that community? And what issue or issues do you hope to tackle using rhetoric and writing during our time together in this class? Using descriptive writing to tell your story in a personal narrative, you will use this assignment to establish your direct connection to the problem you want to focus on in your future compositions this semester. You shouldn’t provide a broad overview here, but instead use storytelling elements to focus on one or two experiences within the community you choose that establish your credibility as a member and that you think shaped your communication practices within that community.
  • Rhetorical Analysis: This assignment takes your exploration of a specific issue or community a step further. In this paper, you will be expected to analyze a chosen text in order to explore how others are speaking about the community issue you are addressing this semester. What rhetorical choices do writers make when discussing the issue or community you’ve chosen? How can you use similar tactics to effectively take action through composing for your community?
  • Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review Assignment: In a further continuation of your inquiry, this third assignment will ask you to think about the conventions of research writing.  Instead of writing a traditional “research paper,” you’ll instead be developing an annotated bibliography for your final project as well as a brief review of the sources you’ve found. This assignment will require you to find sources in academic peer-reviewed texts using the library databases. Using properly formatted MLA or APA documentation (depending upon your major field of study), you will create a list of at least five sources. Below each bibliographic entry, you will offer a paragraph with a brief summary of the source, an analysis of the methodology and/or rhetorical choices in the text, and an explanation of how the source will help you in your final project. In addition to this list, you will provide a short literature review that compares and contrasts the different approaches to your topic and that explains the importance of each author’s work.
  • Strategy Project (Final Project): This is assignment asks you to put to use all of the rhetorical choices you’ve been analyzing this semester, and to try out a few of your own as well. In this paper, you will choose one of the different patterns of development from the McWhorter textbook (particularly argument, cause and effect, description, or narration) and create a multimodal project that utilizes that type of development.  This should be carefully constructed to address your topic effectively. You can create an informative video, an infographic, a podcast, a song, a public service announcement, blog post, etc.  If you choose something that is not on this list please be sure to talk it over with me first. You project should also have a corresponding 1-2 page reflection of the patterns you chose, your other rhetorical choices in the piece, and the difference that you feel that they made to the efficacy of your project.  Why did you choose the particular pattern/medium that you did? What is the effect on the reader/viewer?  Do you feel that a written paper would have been more effective than your multimodal project, or vice versa?  If so, why?
  • Oral Presentations: At the end of the semester, I’ll be asking you to present an overview of your inquiry this semester  to the class. (We’ll talk about what this might look like closer to the assignment date.) Your presentation will need to convey some background information about the community or issue you’ve been interrogating this semester, as well as the main idea of your projects, in a condensed amount of time (about 5-7 minutes). You’ll need to take into account the rhetorical principles and principles of composition we will discuss this semester as you develop the presentation.
  • Final Portfolio: This will be a digital representation of the work you’ve done over the course of the semester. You will need to include major assignments in the portfolio, as well as the shorter assignments that we worked on in class or for homework. Equally as important is the design and format of the portfolio. (We will discuss this closer to the end of the semester in relation to the rhetorical principles we’ve gone over this semester.) Your Final Reflective Narrative will be an integral part of the portfolio, acting as a guide for readers.
  • Final Reflective Narrative: As you design your final portfolio, you’ll need to create an audio, video, or text-based commentary describing the rhetorical choices you made in designing the portfolio, as well as your writing process throughout the semester. (Think of this as a sort of cover letter for your portfolio.) Details should be provided regarding each assignment included in the portfolio, as well as a reflection about your overall experience this semester. (More guidelines for this assignment will be provided as we get closer to the end of the course.)

(Semi-)Weekly projects:

  • Reading Response Blog Posts: Reading should never be a passive experience. In order to encourage active reading, I’m asking you to create an individual blog and post reading responses on it once a week throughout the semester. This will also be helpful as we consider what it means to think consciously about our writing practices. Your blog can use any platform you choose – just keep in mind that you’ll be working with it all semester long, so you should get comfortable with it. WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger are the most commonly used blogging tools out there, and most students find that they are easy to use and fit their needs for this class well. As you develop your blog, keep in mind that you’ll be developing this into your final portfolio eventually, so take some time throughout the semester to customize it. (We’ll discuss that in more detail as we approach the final weeks of the semester.) Each week I will post a topic or question(s) related to our readings our class discussions upon which I’d like you to reflect in a post on your blog. Prompts will be posted on the Prompts page). Please pay careful attention to the Course Schedule page of our course blog, as semi-weekly due dates for these responses will vary. All blog posts must be time stamped by the time indicated in the course schedule; all responses are due by 8am on the due date. (We will be reading and discussing these posts in class, which means late posts cannot be accepted.) I will assign twelve blog posts throughout the course. You are more than welcome to post something extra that is relevant and interesting to you, even if you are not assigned. (Extra blog posts can gain you a small amount of extra credit; see my comments in the grading contract for more detail.) Your blog posts do not have to be particularly long (600-700 words is fine), but I do want you to respond to whatever prompt I’ve posted thoroughly. This blog should be an outlet for analysis and conversation about readings and writings; keep in mind the typical genre conventions of blog posts, and feel free to write in a conversational yet appropriate tone. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about things you don’t understand, and certainly don’t hesitate to make connections to things we’ve discussed in class or things you’ve read outside of our class. Images, video, audio, and links to other pages are welcome in your posts. (Indeed, some prompts will ask you for these elements specifically.) The sky’s the limit, as long as you post on time.
    • EXTRA CREDIT – News Responses: Looking for an extra way of participating and contributing to the class in order to boost your contractual standing? This is it. Find a news article from a major print-based source – NY Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Economist, a local newspaper, etc. – that deals with a topic related to the one you’re addressing in your major assignments. Write a post on our class blog that links to the article, analyzes the article, and makes connections to what we’ve been talking about in class. Ask questions for your classmates to think about and possibly respond to.
  • In-Class Writing: Throughout the semester, we will frequently be writing together in class. Sometimes we will be reflecting on major assignments, other times we’ll be responding to a question we’re all struggling with during class discussion. We’ll also use the course textbook for weekly prompts based on writing practices we’re trying to cultivate during this course. All of these assignments should be saved in your Google Drive folder for the class. If you’ve typed the assignment, you can upload the document to the Google folder. If you only have a hard copy of the piece, simply take a clear photo of the page and upload the image to the Google folder. While I will not comment upon each piece, I will review them in order to make sure our class is on the right track and will consider them part of your participation in the class.
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