Question of the Week 10 (last one!)

What’s one NEW thing you learned this semester in this class? Identify what you learned and how you imagine you’ll apply it to some other aspect of your life.

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Question of the Week 9 (5/2-5/8)

What is one world problem that you think needs a solution? Identify the problem and offer YOUR ideas for a solution. Describe what needs to be done, how the solution will be implemented and who will should be responsible for undertaking your idea.

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E-text Survey

Please take a moment (in your free time) to take this survey about the e-text. The department is trying to gather some data on the use and importance of the e-text. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ENGL121_etext_SP11

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Project Proposal and Audience Analysis

Here are two worksheets that will help you generate ideas for your projects. I will look at them if you want some feedback/help.

Project Proposal Worksheet (word doc) engl121proposalsheetProposalArg

Audience Analysis Worksheet (word doc) 121AudienceAnalysisSP11

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Question of the Week 8 (4/25-5/1)

What’s one thing you think most people should know how to do by the time they become middle-age? Why? How should/can they learn how to do that if they haven’t already?

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Questions of the Week 6 and 7

Question of the Week #6 (4/4-4/9) This one was done in class. Students chose a list of potential audiences to whom one might write a letter: professor, other students, boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse, parents, boss, government. I chose the theme: argue with your audience why you should  be the emperor/empress, king/queen, supreme ruler of your classroom, school, relationship, house, workplace, or state/country.

Writers needed to consider the rhetorical appeals that would be appropriate to their respective audiences. In class discussion volunteers identified their audience and which rhetorical appeals they attempted to use, then they read their letter aloud for the class to discuss.

If you missed the day of the class activity, choose one of the audiences listed above and write a letter arguing the same thing. Identify your audience, the appeals you are trying to use, and why they are appropriate to your audience.

Everyone has until 4/17 to respond to posts for Question of the Week #6.

Question of the Week #7 (4/11-4/17): Where is the best location to spend Spring Break? Somewhere warm (swimming, sunning, snoozing on the sand)? Somewhere cold (skiing, sitting by the fire, snoozing under the quilts)? At home (snacking from my own fridge, spending time with friends/family, snoozing on my own couch)? Your classmates are your audience. How will you convince them what is the “best?”

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More Resources for Researching Online

The Search Engine List http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/

Parts of a Web Address http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/community_tutorials/web/navigating/parts.html

A list of Domain Extensions (from Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains

Google Search Tips (from Google) http://search.ufl.edu/user_help.html

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Question of the Week 5

Question of the Week #5 (3/27-4/2): How do you (you specifically, not someone in general) conduct research online? How do you go about finding sources for a paper? How do you know if the source is good or not?

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Question of the Week 4 (in-class)

Question of the Week 4 (in-class) 3/20-3/26: This week’s question will be answered in class as a group activity. 

If you miss the day of the activity you must answer the question at the bottom of the page below (only if you miss class the day of the activity).

In class:

The argument I hand to your group is your position.

Identify an opposing argument to your position. It might be the opposite of your position or you might be trying to sort out “gray area” in the controversy.

Who is a potential audience for this argument? Identify them as concretely and specifically as possible.

What do you know about them already?

What do you need to know about them in order to understand how to argue with them? What arguments might they provide that you need to rebut?

Why this audience? What do you want them to do with your argument?

Why/how do they have the power to act? What can they do? Why should they do anything?

What kinds of arguments are most likely to be effective in creating an effective response (or win against) the opposition? If you can, name the rhetorical appeals you think will most likely work in  your favor/will convince your audience of your position.

Post your answers to the blog as this week’s Question of the Week. Tag your group members.

If you miss the day of the activity you must answer the question below (only if you miss class the day of the activity).

Write about a time when you lost an argument or were stumped by someone’s rebuttal to YOUR claims. What was the argument about? What was said? What strategies did your opponent employ? Why did her/his argument “win” over yours? Why were you stumped?

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Question of the Week (3/13-3/19)

This one’s a bit late getting to you, but I have absolute faith that you’ll all be ok. 🙂

Question of the Week 3 (3/13-3/19): Write about a time when you feel you were “defined” or “labeled” by someone else. You might choose an example where you feel you were inaccurately or unfairly defined/labeled. Often stereotypes do just this. Or you might choose an example when someone’s definition or label of you changed the way you thought about yourself. Perhaps someone showed you how your behaviors/thoughts/actions make you fit certain criteria.

What happened? What did you do? What was at stake for you or what was the outcome of this event? Did others take up this definition of you also? If so, what did you do? Did you argue? Did you try to change peoples’ minds? Did you embrace it? Did you make changes in your own life?

If this hasn’t happened to you, can you think of a time when you (perhaps) have defined, categorized or labeled someone else based on how you felt they fit the criteria of something? What happened? What did you do? Were you fair/not fair to do this? Did the person know? What was at stake/the outcome of your “defining” of this person?

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