English 250: Advanced Oral and Written CommunicationFall 2013

Policy Statement – 2 Schedule – 5 Assignments – 7

English 250: Advanced Oral and Written CommunicationFall 2013

Professor: Matt KingEmail: mrking@sbu.eduPhone: 716.375.2457Office Hours: MW 2:30-4:00, and by appointmentOffice Location: Plassmann D6

Class Website: http://mattrking.com/courses/e250_fall2013

Program ObjectivesOutcome 1:  The student is able to evaluate literary works in terms of their background, structure, and meaning.Outcome 2:  The student is able to appraise central elements of literary language.Outcome 3:  The student is able to discuss relationships between literature and media.

Course DescriptionThrough communication, we do more than transmit information and ideas. Communicating allows us to make connections with other people and the world around us, connections that foster different sorts of relations – creative, intellectual, and personal. As we work toward developing our oral and written communication skills, we will focus on our own academic fields, how they communicate and circulate ideas, and how they engender creative, intellectual, and personal connections. We will also be interested in digital technologies, both in terms of how our academic fields have responded to them and how they might shape the nature of communication. Through the course, we will become more effective communicators and thus better prepared to engage with and respond to the world around us intellectually and creatively.

Course goals: Develop a productive and effective composition process that focuses on production

of text, multiple drafts, revision strategies, and editing and proofreading strategies; Effectively and productively critique your own work and that of your peers; Study and analyze significant events and debates in your academic field and the

relationship between your field and technology; Reflect on your relationship to your academic field and your professional goals; Attend to concerns of delivery so that you can effectively communicate in written,

oral, and digital contexts; Produce text and presentations that meet accepted standards and conventions for

academic and professional communication.

These course goals do not correspond to specific program objectives, but they do address writing concerns relevant to English majors and to students from across the university.

Coursework and GradingYou will be graded on the following assignments this term:• Paper 1 15%• Paper 2 15%• Presentation 1 10%• Presentation 2 10%• Presentation 3 10%• Podcast 15%• Short Assignments 10%• Reflection Papers 15%

+/- Grades. Plus and minus grades will be used in awarding final grades for this course. The letter-to-percentage conversion is given below.

Paper GradesA+ = 98.5  A = 95   A- = 91.5B+ = 88.5  B = 85   B- = 81.5C+ = 78.5  C = 75   C- = 71.5D+ = 68.5  D = 65   D- = 61.5F = 55

Semester AverageA = 93-100 A- = 90-93B+ = 87-90 B = 83-87 B- = 80-83C+ = 77-80 C = 73-77 C- = 70-73D+ = 67-70 D = 63-67 D- = 60-63F = Less than 60

Late Work.  I tend to be pretty flexible concerning late work as long as you let me know ahead of time. I would rather you spend the time you need to in order to succeed with your writing, and if you need an extra day or two beyond the deadline to achieve that, I would rather you take advantage of that time. That being said, excessive or unexcused late work will not be acceptable, and I reserve the right to penalize late work in such circumstances (generally, such penalties will be a letter grade for every day an assignment is late). If circumstances prevent you from being able to submit an assignment on time, you should discuss the situation with me ahead of time. The exception here is presentations; on presentation days, you need to be on time and ready to go.

Attendance/Tardiness.  You should arrive to class on time with all assigned readings and papers for the day completed. Every absence after 3 will result in a 1/3 letter grade deduction from the final grade. As a common courtesy to all, you should not be late to class. For every 3 instances of tardiness, you will incur 1 absence. If you arrive more than 10 minutes late to class, you will be marked as absent. Coming unprepared to class (forgetting textbooks, notebooks, workshop materials, etc.) can also result in an absence. If your attendance is influenced by hospitalization, family emergencies, or religious holidays,

please contact me as soon as possible. Please note that you are responsible for making up any work that was missed during your absence from class.

Scholastic HonestyOne goal of this course is developing an understanding for the responsible use of other people’s words and ideas. Plagiarism, or the irresponsible use of these words or ideas, will result in anything from a failing grade for a particular paper to a failing grade for the course, or university discipline, which may mean more severe ramifications, up to and including expulsion. A list of unacceptable practices, penalties to be assigned, and procedures to be followed in prosecuting cases of alleged academic dishonesty may be found in the Student Handbook.

Plassmann Writing CenterRevising and responding to feedback will be an invaluable and necessary part of your development as a writer this semester. Toward this end, you are strongly encouraged to visit me during office hours, and you are also strongly encouraged to visit the Writing Center in the basement of Plassmann Hall (6A). There is a sign-up sheet on the door of the Center and, while occasional walk-in appointments may be available, you will likely want to sign up for an appointment ahead of time. You must drop off a copy of your essay in advance or bring it with you when you come to your appointment. You are welcome to attend the Writing Center more than once for any assignment.

EmailEmail will serve as an official means of communication for this class. You are therefore required to check the email account you have registered with the university regularly. Please feel free to email me with your questions and concerns. It may take me up to two days to respond, so please do not expect an immediate response. If your question is a lengthy one (about writing, etc.), I may ask you to visit me during office hours instead of responding to you on email.

Students with DisabilitiesStudents with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Support Services Office, Doyle Room 26, at 375-2066 as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. Documentation from this office is required before accommodations can be made.

Schedule

Date Major Due Dates; Homework (due day listed); In class

   

M 8/26 Introduction to Course

W 8/28 Read Gee and Burke

F 8/30 Academic Reflection Paper due

M 9/2 Innovation Paper due

W 9/4Read sections of Pitt's "Introducing Public Speaking" (The Basics, How to Give a Public Speech: A Chart, Informative Speaking, Persuasive Speaking, and all of Writing the Speech); Presentation workshop

F 9/6 Read section on Delivering the Speech from Pitt; Peer reviews for Presentation 1

M 9/9 Presentation 1

W 9/11 Presentation 1

F 9/13 Presentation 1; Reflection Paper due

M 9/16 Debate Proposal due; discuss research

W 9/18 RS 1 due; Discuss RS sample

F 9/20 RS 2 due

M 9/23 Controversy Paper due

W 9/25 Peer reviews for Presentation 2

F 9/27 Presentation 2

M 9/30 Presentation 2

W 10/2 Presentation 2; Reflection Paper due by Friday

F 10/4 RS 3 due

M 10/7 Annotated Bibliography due; Citations exercise

W 10/9 Paper 1 Peer Review Draft due for peer reviews in class

F 10/11 Paper 1 due (first submission)

M 10/14 Midterm Break

W 10/16 Conferences

F 10/18 Conferences

M 10/21 Paper 1 due (second submission); Reflection activities

W 10/23Skim selections from Critical Situations - Ch5, Ch6, Ch7, and Ch8; Analyze The New Yorker, covers, type face

F 10/25 Analysis Paper due

M 10/28 Begin drafting Presentation 3

W 10/30 Workshop Presentation 3

F 11/1 Peer reviews for Presentation 3

M 11/4 Presentation 3

W 11/6 Presentation 3

F 11/8 Presentation 3; Presentation Reflection due

M 11/11Read Shirky chapters: Chapter 2 (skim to p.39; read all from "Making the Trains Run on Time" to end of chapter) and all of Chapter 3

W 11/13Read BWH handouts, blog posts on CVs (1 & 2), Purdue OWL on Job Letters and Resumes (all sections), and expert advice; Discuss job postings 1 and 2

F 11/15 Resume and Cover Letter drafts due; Paper 2 workshop

M 11/18 Podcast Script due

W 11/20 Revised Podcast Script due for feedback; Podcast workshop

F 11/22 Paper 2 Peer Review Draft due for peer reviews in class

M 11/25 Paper 2 due (first submission) for conferences

M 12/2 Discuss final assignments

W 12/4 Paper 2 due (second submission)

F 12/6 Podcast due (suggested)

W 12/11 Final Reflection and Podcast due

Academic Reflection Paper

In this short paper (one page, single-spaced, 1" margins, 12 pt font), you should reflect on the field you wish to enter and your relationship to it. Your thoughts here need not be fully developed, but you should be as thorough as possible. We will return to this paper throughout the semester as our understanding of our given fields develops. Your paper should address the following prompts and questions:

What questions and problems will you encounter as you move into the specific section of the world you set for yourself? What issues are important to your field? How has the field responded to these questions, problems, and issues?

What are the main social practices that your field engages in? How do these social practices contribute to the greater society?

What are the values and commitments of this field/discipline/vocation/endeavor? How would you describe its orientation toward the world and the problems it addresses?

What are the "trained incapacities" of your field and its orientation? What are you less likely to be sensitive to, less likely to consider, more likely to be blind to based on your training in the field?

How do you hope to participate in and contribute to this field? What role do you want it to play in your life?

Innovation Paper

This short paper gives you an opportunity to start doing research and organizing your thoughts for your first presentation:

For this presentation, you will focus on an important innovation in your field or discipline and how the innovation has shaped it. We can think of innovations like tools and technologies but also things like theories, concepts, or approaches to a particular problem. You should offer an introduction to the innovation itself, a sense for how this innovation has bettered your field, and a sense for how it has hindered your field. Put another way, what benefits has this innovation provided, and also what problems have the innovations produced for your field (we could think of this in terms of Burke’s notion of a trained incapacity)? Finally, you should make an argument as to whether the benefits outweigh the problems.

It might help to think of this as a rough draft of the presentation script (although it doesn't need to read like a presentation or speech). As with the presentation, start off with an introduction to the innovation itself. Then move on to a summary of your research and what it tells us about the benefits and problems of innovation. If you have room, begin to develop your argument as to whether the benefits outweigh the problem. For this paper, the most important aspect will be research. We're less concerned about exactly what your presentation will sound like and more concerned with having the information we need to talk about the innovation.

The paper should be one page, single-spaced, 12 pt font, with 1" margins. On a second page, include a bibliography (include any sources you might draw on for your presentation even if you don't directly cite them in your paper) in MLA format. You should email the paper to me before class the day it is due and bring a hard or electronic copy with you to class.

Presentation 1

For this presentation, you will focus on an important innovation in your field or discipline and how the innovation has shaped it. We can think of innovations like tools and technologies but also things like theories, concepts, or approaches to a particular problem. You should offer an introduction to the innovation itself and then a sense for how this innovation has bettered your field and/or how it has hindered your field. Put another way, what benefits has this innovation provided, and what problems have the innovations produced for your field (we could think of this in terms of Burke’s notion of a trained incapacity)? Finally, you should make an argument about the value of the innovation for your field (or lack thereof).

The presentation will require a decent amount of research – not the same as for an extended research paper, but more than just Wikipedia or a quick Google search. You will need to draw on some material from more academic sites such as JStor, Google Scholar, or Academic Search Premier. In this sense, we need more than general background information about the innovation; we also need a sense for how people in the field talk about it. It will likely be helpful to incorporate a specific example of the innovation in action or a specific source that gives us insight into the innovation.

The presentation should be 3.5-4 minutes, and it should include at least four PowerPoint slides, the last of which should be a works cited slide documenting your sources in MLA format.

Presentation 1 Peer Review

As we peer review a classmate’s presentation today, we’ll refer to the canons of rhetoric to help us address various concerns with the composing process. As you look over your partner’s work, you should write out (or type up) your thoughts in response to the following questions and prompts. Afterwards, you should have a conversation with your partner about these thoughts and possibilities for revisions.

Invention. Does the presentation offer enough specifics about the innovation? We want more than just a general list of positives and negatives. Does the presentation incorporate specific examples, anecdotes, and/or sources that illuminate the innovation and give us a sense for what it looks like in action? Where would you like to see more specifics?Keep in mind the question of purpose here as well. If the presentation aims to be informative, are you really learning something new? If it aims to be persuasive, do you find it persuasive? If it aims to move the audience, do you find yourself moved? If not, what advice would you give to make the presentation more effective?

Arrangement. Does the introduction effectively grab your attention? If not, do you see anything in the presentation that could be used to introduce the innovation? Does the conclusion offer a general but exact statement of the innovation’s value for the field? Does the presentation effectively offer signposts for and transitions between examples, benefits, drawbacks, etc.? If you see any limitations here, what advice would you offer?

Style. Which three sentences do you find most effective in terms of making a point, getting at the significance of the innovation, or just sounding good? Which three sentences do you find least effective? How so? Are there any sentences that will be confusing to hear aloud?

Memory. This will largely be your partner’s concern to figure out, but the two of you might discuss various possible approaches to preparing the speech, from memorizing to preparing note cards to adding notes in PowerPoint.

Delivery. We don’t have an opportunity to see an actual performance of the presentation today, but we do have an opportunity to look at our partner’s slides or their plans for slides. Are the slides visually appealing and/or easy to read? If there is a lot of information on a slide, what seems most important – what needs to be kept, and what could be cut? Do the images effectively capture the innovation? Are there too many or too few slides?

Reflection Papers

We will complete these short papers (one page, single-spaced, 12 pt font, 1″ margins) after each round of presentations. The goal is to reflect on your own presentation and those of your classmates. Your paper should address the following prompts and questions.

In terms of preparing for your presentation, where were you most successful? Where were you least successful? Consider your research, your development of the ideas and argument for the presentation, your organization and writing of the presentation, your work on slides, and your preparation for the presentation itself (revising, practicing, making note cards, memorizing, etc.).

In terms of the presentation itself, where were you most successful? Where were you least successful? What felt particularly good about the presentation? What would you do differently in the future?

In terms of other presentations you saw this week, what did you find most effective? Least effective? Which slide presentation did you find most effective, and how so? Who was the most interesting and engaging, and how so? What do you want to try to achieve with or incorporate into future presentations based on what you saw this week?

Debate Proposal

For our second round of presentations, and also for our first major paper, we will study and analyze a controversy in our field and the debate surrounding it. Our understanding of “controversy” can go a few different directions here: it could be a disagreement between members of the field over what should be done in a given situation; it could be a new idea, theory, law, or innovation that changed the field in some way and gave rise to different perspectives; it could be a criminal case or some other incident that involved a breaking of the field’s norms and expectations. Just about any important incident, event, idea, or innovation that generated a debate or different perspectives within the field will work for our purposes (as long as we can find sources talking about the controversy and offering different perspectives on it).

Also, our understanding of the relationship between our controversy and the field can be flexible here as well. For example, the economic crisis of 2008, caused to a large extent by the housing bubble and derivatives trading, was not mainly about accountants, but it involved larger concerns with finance, business ethics, etc., and could be a relevant controversy for accounting majors. Concern over concussions in the NFL isn’t only coming from psychologists, but this controversy could be relevant for psychology majors. Of course, if you want to explore a controversy that is firmly within the confines of your field, that will work fine too.

Again, you will have an opportunity to explore this controversy and the debate around it through the second presentation and the first major paper. For the Debate Proposal, your challenge is to identify a controversy and to begin thinking about the debate surrounding it. Your paper should be one page (single-spaced, 12 pt font, 1″ margins), and it should respond to the following prompts and questions:

What is the controversy? How did it arise? What are some of the key terms in the debate? Who are some of the main people in

the debate? How is the controversy significant for your field? How has the controversy affected

your field? Generally speaking, what are some of the ways people have responded to the

controversy? What are some of the main positions in the debate?

Research Summaries

These short assignments each focus on a single article that you discover through your research. The article should make an argument or offer a perspective in response to your controversy. The main goal of the Research Summary is to summarize the various components of the author’s argument and to show how these pieces fit together. This paper can also serve as an opportunity to begin reflecting on the debate overall and its influence on the field.

Overview and Formatting: Write a one-page paper summarizing a specific source you discovered in your research. Put your name and the name of the assignment at the top of the page. Just below this, give a full MLA citation of the article you’re summarizing. After the citation, skip a line and begin your summary. For the paper overall, set the margins at 1 inch, spacing at single, and font at 12 pt. Do not exceed a page in length. You should submit these papers to me via email as .doc or .rtf attachments. You should also bring either a hard copy or an electronic copy of these with you to class the day they are due.

Specifics: The first section of your summary (probably one or two or three paragraphs) should focus on the main argument(s) made in the article. You should identify the main claim(s) and the reasons and evidence supporting these claims, showing how these various pieces fit together. If the author addresses any counterarguments, identify these as well. Your summary should include quotes from the article to help clarify and support your account of the argument. Do not offer your own comments, opinions, or arguments about what the text says, and do not offer a rhetorical analysis of the writing. Stick to content: what is the author saying in this text? What position is s/he advocating?

The second section should situate this argument within the larger conversation around your controversy. What is the author’s relationship to the field? How does this perspective compare to others in response to the controversy? Is this perspective a commonplace one or an unusual one in the debate? How can we classify the argument drawing on stasis theory? Ultimately, we’ll want to be able to reflect on the points of intersection and divergence of different perspectives in the debate.

Like all short assignments for this class, Research Summaries will only be given a completion grade. If your submission does not meet the assignment requirements, I will ask you to revise it and submit it again. Otherwise, you will receive full credit for completing the assignment.

Controversy Paper

This short paper (1-2 pages, single-spaced, 1″ margins, 12 pt font) builds off of our debate proposals and puts more of an emphasis on mapping the various positions taken and arguments made in response to your controversy. You can think of this paper as a draft of a script for the second presentation, and I would encourage you to write it as such. The questions and prompts for this assignment are largely the same as those for the debate proposal:

What is the controversy? How did it arise? What are some of the key terms in the debate? Who are some of the main people in

the debate? How is the controversy significant for your field? How has the controversy affected

your field? How have people responded to the controversy? What are some of the main

positions and arguments in the debate? How do these positions intersect and diverge? How can we map connections between the positions using stasis theory or with reference to the chronology of the controversy or important stakeholders in the debate?

Even though the prompts and questions are similar, this paper will likely be substantially different from your debate proposal. Specifically, there should be much more emphasis on the last prompt. The first three areas of concern should function more as an introduction to the controversy, and your main emphasis should be on mapping the controversy in terms of its main positions and arguments.

Presentation 2

This presentation develops out of our work on the Debate Proposal and the Controversy Paper. Your goal here is to introduce us to a controversy that is relevant to your field and to offer an overview of the main positions taken in the debate around the controversy. Introducing the controversy and defining key terms in the debate will be an important part of the presentation, but the main emphasis should be on mapping the positions within the debate. In your discussion of the positions, you should describe the larger structure of the debate (in terms of stasis theory, the chronological development of the debate, and/or the stakeholders participating in it) and the main positions taken, and you should also offer specific examples of people taking these positions when possible.

In concluding your presentation, try either to point to the future of the controversy (where is the conversation headed? what events or changes might occur that will shape this controversy?) or to describe how/where the debate breaks down (if the controversy is unlikely to be resolved, why is that the case? what are the differing assumptions or perspectives that will keep different stakeholders from achieving stasis?).

The presentation should be 4 to 5 minutes, and it should include at least six PowerPoint slides, the last of which should be a works cited slide documenting your sources in MLA format.

Annotated Bibliography

This assignment is designed to help you organize your research as you prepare for Paper 1. As you are researching your controversy, you will likely find some articles and sources that are mainly informative and others that make an argument and advocate for a particular position. While your Research Summaries should focus on articles that make arguments, you are welcome to include sources that are primarily informative in your annotated bibliography, as both informative and argumentative sources will ultimately help you write Paper 1. Your bibliography should include at least four sources that make an argument in response to your controversy. Also, our understanding of “sources” here can be quite broad. Our main emphasis will be on articles, but you can also examine other kinds of texts – anything that can help you gain insight about your controversy (books, documentaries, pamphlets, websites, etc.).

Overview and Formatting: There is not a specific page length requirement for this assignment, but your bibliography should include at least six entries (you are welcome to include as many sources as you want and as you expect will help you in writing Paper 1). Each entry should begin with a citation of the source in MLA format. After the citation, skip a line before including your annotations. You should arrange your entries either in alphabetical order or in the order of their importance for your project (whichever is most helpful for you). You should put your name and the title of the assignment at the top of the first page. You should email the assignment to me as a .doc or .rtf attachment before class starts on October 8, and you should also bring a hard copy or an electronic copy with you to class that day.

Specifics: Your annotations should be 1-2 paragraphs, and they should focus on concisely summarizing the main point(s) of the source and reflecting on its use for your understanding of the controversy. If the source is argumentative, you should briefly outline the main argument of the article. If the source is informative, you should outline the main information provided by the article. In addition to this overview of the source’s main point(s), you can also use the annotations as a place to remind yourself about other helpful information from the article. For example, if the article offers helpful background information or quotes, you can make a note of this. If the article helps you map the conversation around your controversy using stasis theory or kairos, you might make a note of this as well. The goal of the annotated bibliography is to help you prepare for Paper 1 and to demonstrate that your understanding of your controversy is broad and thorough. (See the Purdue OWL for more information on annotated bibliographies.)

The Annotated Bibliography will only be given a completion grade. If your submission does not meet the assignment requirements, I will ask you to revise it and submit it again. Otherwise, you will receive full credit for completing the assignment.

Paper 1

This 6-8 page paper (double-spaced, 1″ margins, 12 pt font) asks you to map the conversation surrounding a specific controversy. Through your paper, we should get a sense for the main positions that people take in response to this issue and how they fit together to form a larger conversation. You should substantially incorporate at least three sources (although you will likely include more).

SpecificsYou should begin by introducing the issue and offering an overview that articulates how you will frame the conversation. (Remember our discussion of introduction strategies here: you might begin with a focusing incident, an exemplary source, a historical overview, or a conceptual overview.) The rest of your paper should include three main components: conceptual summaries of specific arguments (think of our Research Summaries here), an analysis of the conversation, and your argument in response to it. You could summarize different arguments and parts of the conversation first and then move on to a section of analysis, or you could offer analysis along the way. Either way, it will help to have an organizational strategy, most likely based around stasis theory, kairos (events and contexts), or stakeholders.

When you summarize specific arguments and sources, you should aim to note the main claim, supporting reasons and evidence, and any counter-arguments addressed. For the analysis of the conversation, we want a sense for the similarities and differences between arguments, points of intersection and divergence, core dividing issues, gaps or impasses, etc. The main question here is, what do we learn by looking at the conversation overall?

Further questions for analysis: Drawing on stasis theory, do these articles make the same or different types of

arguments? For those people making the same type of argument, how are their arguments similar or different?

Are there certain things that everyone agrees on? Are there certain things that people tend to disagree about?

What assumptions or beliefs are leading people to make different sorts of arguments? How would you characterize the reasons and evidence that people draw on? Is there a

correlation between the reasons and evidence offered and the arguments made? How does context shape the arguments that people make? Do people seem to be talking to one another or talking past one another?

Finally, your paper should make two different sorts of arguments. First, you should offer an argument as to how we can best make sense of the conversation (i.e., “This issue really comes down to how people define X, as this shapes what policies they work toward;” “The debate mainly occurs between stakeholder X and stakeholder Y and their disagreement over the question of Z”). You should also make a further argument about how to resolve the conversation, about which position is most reasonable or helpful, or something else along these lines. Stasis theory can be helpful here as well: you can make a causal argument, a definition argument, an evaluation argument, or a policy argument.

Analysis Paper

This short paper (one page, single-spaced, 12 pt font, 1″ margins) aims to help you develop your thinking for the third presentation. The analysis paper and the presentation both ask you to study and analyze a non-print based text – a website, image, video, advertisement, etc. You have some flexibility here in terms of the content and purpose of the text. Preferably, the text will be related to your academic and professional interests. An important aspect of the analysis will be considering how it works to achieve a sense of identification with a particular community, so if you do not focus on a text related to your academic or professional interests, it will help to choose a text that relates to another community with which you identify.

The first section of your analysis should focus on the main argument or purpose of the text. If there is an argument, identify the main claim(s) and the reasons and evidence supporting these claims, showing how these various pieces fit together. If the text does not make a specific argument, identify its specific purpose(s). The second section will focus on rhetorical analysis. Instead of focusing on what the argument is, here you will focus on how the author (whether or not this is one specific individual) achieves their purpose or makes the argument persuasive. This will involve identifying the author’s rhetorical strategies – appeals to commonplaces, ideology, ethos, logos, and pathos – and analyzing their effectiveness.

In terms of identifying examples from texts, you might focus on words (phrases, sentences, or extended sections), images, audio, or design. For each example you identify, you should identify what sort of appeal it makes and how the appeal works. You should aim to identify at least 3-5 examples from the text. You should also analyze each appeal in terms of its effectiveness. To what extent will the appeals be effective and persuasive (or not) for different audiences, both within and outside of your field or profession? How will the text affect different types of audiences in different ways?

Presentation 3

This presentation develops out of our work on the Analysis paper and with rhetorical analysis more generally. The goal of the presentation is to offer insights about a particular community that is relevant to you through an analysis of texts produced by or for the community. This community can be your field, academic discipline, or expected profession, but you are also welcome to change your focus for this presentation. The texts you examine need to go beyond print-based materials (articles, books, etc.); they need to incorporate other media and modalities. So, you can look at websites, images, videos, advertisements, etc. In your presentation, you should achieve the following (not necessarily in this order):

Look at a specific text or texts produced by or for members of the community. You should identify the purpose or argument of the text and then make observations about aspects of the text that work to achieve this purpose. Your observations should be specific and thorough, noting important details and how they embody particular rhetorical strategies (appeals to commonplaces, ideology, ethos, pathos, logos, etc.). You should explain how these rhetorical strategies and appeals work and how/whether they are effective for this particular purpose and for this particular community. To give us a richer sense of the rhetorical appeals and their effectiveness, it would help to consider an audience that wouldn’t find these appeals effective, whether this be a subgroup within your community or a different but related community.

Define and describe your community, noting their main attitudes, values, beliefs, and orientation. What distinguishes this community and its members in terms of what is important to them and how they see the world? Also, make direct connections between the text(s) and the community. How does the text or texts work to promote a sense of identification between members of the community? What specific aspects of the community does the text work to reinforce? Does the text do anything that might create tension or divisions within the community? What do we learn about the community through an analysis of the text(s)?

Your presentation should be 4-5 minutes long. You should incorporate visual aids, but you have a few different options here. You can have the text(s) pulled up on a web browser and then navigate through the site/texts as needed, or you can take images or videos and work them into a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation. If you include a video clip, it should not be longer than 30 seconds (you are welcome to take screen shots of the video and incorporate them into your presentation to draw our attention to specific details). Part of the challenge here will be to keep our attention and level of engagement up as you make transitions and set things up, even if you have to wait for pages or videos to load.

Presentation 3 Peer Review

We will be peer reviewing our work on Presentation 3 in class today. In your conversations, you should address the following questions and prompts.

The main foundation of the presentation will be an analysis of texts. Does your partner have enough texts to sustain a 4-5 min. presentation? Are these texts interesting? Does your partner focus on relevant aspects of the text? Are there any other aspects of the text or any other texts you would encourage your partner to consider further?

The main thing we want to get from this analysis is a better understanding of or some sort of insight into a given community. Does your partner have a clear sense for what they want to say about the community? About its attitudes, values, beliefs, and orientation? About its relationship to rhetoric? Or some other argument or insight about the community that shows us something interesting about it? What other community could serve as a point of comparison for your partner’s community to give us a better sense for what makes each unique?

In terms of visual aids, we mainly want to focus on the texts themselves rather than our notes on them. In other words, the visual aid should primarily be grounded in displays of the texts – the websites, images, or videos themselves. There should be less of an emphasis on notes that you are making about these texts. How does your partner do in this regard? Do we get a clear sense for the texts and the details your partner is focusing on?

Paper 2

This paper gives you an opportunity to develop professional materials – a cover letter and resumé – and then to rhetorically analyze their effectiveness for a particular job posting, company, graduate school, etc. Generally speaking, the specifics are somewhat loose here. Your job letter and resumé should work from the thoughts and examples from The Business Writer’s Handbook and also from the sources and advice we looked at online. There are not specific requirements here other than trying to make these documents as effective as possible for your given purpose or application. If you want to submit multiple versions of these documents or specific parts of the documents to put different possibilities on the table, you are welcome to do so.

The rhetorical analysis section of the paper does have more specific requirements. It should be about a page (single-spaced, 12 pt font, 1” margins), and it should draw on the terms and questions we used in our discussion of rhetorical analysis. In this case, there will be less of an emphasis on purpose or argument (your purpose is to get an interview) and more of a focus on audience. Your rhetorical analysis should begin with an overview of your audience. Following the recommendations of the Purdue OWL and other sources, you should articulate an understanding of your audience based on the job ad and any other information you can find about the company from online resources, people who work there, job fairs, etc. What is this company or school looking for? What is important to them? What are their values? What are their needs?

Once we have a more thorough understanding of your audience, the rest of the paper should focus on explaining how specific aspects of your materials are designed with this audience in mind. How do you establish your credibility? How do you appeal to the company’s values? Are there any lines of reasoning you employ, any assumptions you work from as you describe yourself and present yourself as a viable candidate? More generally, why did you make the choices you did in terms of what you included, what information you prioritized, how you designed the documents, etc.?

Podcast

This assignment asks you to address our concerns with oral presentations through a digital lens. You will still be asked to explore a given topic orally, but the end result will be a recording rather than a presentation. Along these lines, instead of incorporating visual aids into a presentation, you will be asked to incorporate multiple voices and audio sources.

Your podcast should be 3-6 minutes, and it should incorporate at least four audio sources. One of these will be a recording you make of your script. The other three will likely be some combination of clips from brief interviews that you conduct, audio from other relevant sources (interviews, news clips, documentaries, etc.), and background music. At least three of your sources should provide substantial content (rather than just background music). For the assignment overall, you are required to write the main script and to do the audio recording and editing yourself. To produce the podcast, you will likely be working with Audacity (available on SBU computers) or GarageBand, and you can find specific instructions on creating podcasts with this software here and elsewhere online.

In terms of content, you have a few options. The main options ask you to draw on our readings from Clay Shirky. Shirky helps us consider how digital technologies radically reframe our understanding of communication, organizational structure, and professions. So, one possibility for the podcast would be to explore Shirky’s thinking with reference to your academic discipline/chosen profession: are there ways that your field is shifting from a hierarchical model of organization to a distributed, network model? How so? What aspects of your field have been or can be technologized and made available to amateurs? How will this shift the nature of your profession over time? Will it still be a “profession” 100 years from now, or will it go the way of scribes? Why?

Another option would be to consider Shirky’s thinking at the level of education: are there ways education is shifting from a hierarchical model to a distributed, network model? How do you see education changing in light of digital technologies? What aspects of education can be technologized or run by amateurs? To what extent does education depend on professionals? What do you think education will look like twenty years from now?

Another option would be to consider Shirky’s thinking at a personal level: how have the shifts that Shirky describes affected you or things that are relevant to you? How has your life been shaped by digital technologies when it comes to sharing, collaboration, and collective action? What groups do you belong to by means of digital technologies, and how do these groups inform your thinking and your experience? Have these influences been positive or negative? How so? How have they shaped your understanding of the world?

The final option would be to take a previous presentation and translate it into a podcast. This might seem like the easiest approach since you have already generated this content, but your podcast would need to incorporate revisions and improve upon your earlier work. You would also still need to incorporate outside audio sources and find ways to cover the earlier work without relying on visual aids.Final Reflection

This assignment asks you to reflect on a few different aspects of your experience and work from throughout the semester. The paper should be 3-4 pages (double-spaced, 12 pt font, 1″ margins), and it should address the following prompts and questions.

Revisiting our Academic Reflection Papers from the beginning of the semester, how has your understanding of your field or discipline changed this semester as you have looked at relevant innovations, controversies, texts, etc.? How has your understanding of your field’s attitudes, values, orientation, and trained incapacities shifted?

Between the papers, the presentations, and podcast, what were your most effective and successful efforts this semester? Least effective and successful? How so? Which type of composition and communication did you enjoy most?

How has your understanding of writing and presenting changed this semester? What similarities and differences do you see between writing papers, giving presentations, and making podcasts?

What are the three main insights you want to take from this class regarding your writing? What are the three main insights you want to take regarding presentations?