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Wednesday 3/4: The Rhetorical Triangle

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Writing Into The Day

Find a memory of an argument involving a child and an adult. Maybe it’s an argument you got into as a child, or an argument you’ve had with a child you know (your child, a sibling, a niece/nephew/cousin, etc.), or an argument you observed between a child and someone else.

Using the principles in the reading for today, what advice would you give to the child on how to improve their argument, given the situation and their relationship to each other? What advice would you give to the adult? What could each person have done to persuade the other effectively?

Sharing/Discussion

Overview

  • Ways to participate reminders, checking in
  • Final drafts due!!!
  • Reflections on final paper
  • Intro to the Rhetorical Triangle
  • Looking Ahead

Reminders

  • Spring Start Workshops!
  • March Writing Center Workshops
  • Rhetorical Devices homework!! Participation in this is dropping.
  • Many ways to participate! Consider: writing a reflection on a reading, taking notes in class and posting them to the blog, completing all activities on the lesson plan (and sending them to me) for days you are absent, posting things related to our class in the Optional section.

Final Drafts Due TODAY: Turning Draft In On Time = 5 Points of Your Grade

Reflections on Final Paper

  • What did you learn about yourself?
  • What did you learn about writing?
  • What was easy, what was hard? What was new/different?
  • What did you gain from the assignment, or what did you hope to gain but didn’t?
  • What additional support would have been helpful for you?
  • How do you think our peer review process went? What should we change for next time?

The Rhetorical Triangle

Prezi Here: https://prezi.com/efmzivxn8ecr/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Looking Ahead

March 9 (Monday): Domains of Rhetoric

Readings Due:

“The Romantic Appeal”
“The Gender Appeal”
“The Sex Appeal”
“Predictive Policing”
“The Problem With Broken Windows”

Assignments Due: None!

March 11 (Wednesday): Rhetorical Analysis

Readings Due

“Are Workplace Personality Tests Fair?”
Optional: Take the Five Factor Personality Test, Myers-Briggs Test, or another psychometric test and research what this “means” for you as an employee (THIS IS ONLY FOR FUN and has no bearing on what career you should pursue). Post about what you found! (If you want to.)

Assignments Due:

Romantic, Gender, and Sex Appeal Examples
Analysis of an Ad Original Posts Due

3/2 (Monday): Targeted Advertising + Playing with Genre, Style, and Audience Day 2

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REMINDER: MEETING IN COMPUTER LAB–  NEW BUILDING ROOM 7.68

Writing Into the Day

Last week, we played with telling our creative nonfiction stories in different styles. Today, we’re going to do the same with Genres and Audiences! Please come grab an Audience slip from me, and begin rewriting your story again for the particular audience you got.

After 5 minutes or so, I’ll ask you to switch with someone near you and do it again, and then we’ll have optional sharing.

Notice how changing your audience also changes your style. How did you tell your story differently, with a new audience (not me) in mind?

Sharing

Overview:

  • Reminders and checking in (spring start, rhetorical devices homework, Testimonial, final drafts)
  • Talking about genre/playing with genre activity
  • Targeted advertising discussion
  • Exploring the Facebook Ad Library
  • Looking Ahead

Genre!

Same activity as with Style and Audience, but with genre cards

Targeted Advertising

Target article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#37223a6c6668

(Discuss together but also look at redirect cycle)

Facebook Ad Library

  1. Go to the Facebook Ad Library! (No account necessary)
  2. Spend some time experimenting and exploring. Type in some key words you’re curious about. See what comes up.
  3. Do you see what appear to be duplicates? That’s A/B advertising! (Companies create two very similar versions of the same ad and circulate both to see which one does better)
  4. Choose a search that you’ve found the most interesting. (For example, when I was playing with the library, I stopped and looked more closely at Joe Biden ads.)
  5. Look at the various ads in that search. Are they sponsored by the same organizations? What similarities and differences do you see? What do you think the effects of those differences might be? (I found a bunch that are essentially the same ad, but with the text phrased slightly differently. Which one do you think would be more effective, and why?)
  6. Click on “See Ad Details” for a couple of ads.
  7. Compare the “Seen By” data and the location data, as well as the funding information. What do you notice? What is surprising you?
  8. What do you think the specific goals of the ads are (so, not just “get people to vote for Joe Biden,” but “get elderly men in California to vote for Joe Biden because Super Tuesday is tomorrow and he thinks he could do well with that demographic”)?
  9. Do you think they are effective in those goals? Why or why not?
  10. If you use Facebook or Instagram (they are owned by the same company and share data), what ads from the database have you been seeing? What information do you think the campaigns used to target you?
  11. Post your answers to the blog, or as a comment on this post! Then continue to explore.

Looking Ahead

March 4 (Wednesday): The Rhetorical Triangle

Readings Due
“How To Teach a Child to Argue” 

Assignments Due
Testimonial Examples
“This I No Longer Believe” Final Draft

A Note About Flu + Colds + Coronavirus

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Many of us, including me, have been sick in the last week or are currently sick, so I wanted to write a few notes on how I want to handle illness in our class.

In Short: If you’re sick, please stay home and rest if you are able to. Taking care of ourselves and limiting the transmission of germs/viruses is good for us, and good for the health of our community (campus and city). Just let me know if you expect to be absent– it helps with planning activities! 

I also want to remind you of one of our class Ways to Participate. If you’re absent from class for any reason, you can make up the missed attendance points by looking at the Lesson Plan for the class(es) you missed, completing all of the prompts/activities, and sending me your responses (as a comment on the Lesson Plan post, as an email, or submitting on Blackboard– doesn’t matter to me). If the instructions in the post are not clear because they rely on things I explained in class, just ask!

Some places like Japan and South Korea have been closing schools while dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. I have no idea how likely it is that that will happen here in NYC, but if it does, we will continue having class online unless John Jay or CUNY Central directs us to do something else. I’ll just write out in posts detailed instructions/information that I would normally say in class, and convert any activities to things you can do remotely.

Wash your hands extra often and extra well, use hand sanitizer, wipe down your phones with disinfectant, check in on the people you know who might be extra vulnerable– the elderly, immunocompromised people, babies, etc.

Optional: Data on ~60,000 Different Advertising Categories Facebook Might Put You In

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I’m doing some exploring on targeted advertising articles beyond our reading for today to figure out how I think we should go about discussing the topic together this afternoon. These spreadsheets are too enormous to print out and work with in class, but I wanted to share them with you in case you wanted to look on your own.

Download the datasets for free here: https://www.propublica.org/datastore/thanks?id=096b3c2eff44d226At9l

I used the Sort feature in Excel to order the items in ways that made sense to me (like alphabetical by Type of Category)– it’s a lot to even quickly scroll through!

The download link gives you two spreadsheets. One is a list of advertising categories based on data gathered from other sources about YOU (public records, credit card transactions, etc.). The other is a list of algorithmically-created and algorithmically-assigned categories based on your Facebook activity. It looks at what things you like and do on Facebook, and what some common patterns are for other people who like and do those same things, and then gives you ads based on what those similar people purchased or already own.

Optional: Dating App Algorithms

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https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/15/18267772/tinder-elo-score-desirability-algorithm-how-works

Since we’ve been looking at some dating app ads and also talking about secret algorithms, I thought I would share with you this article about how Tinder does and used to calculate matches.

The Elo Score is sometimes referred to as a “hottness score” because it matches people it thinks are attractive with other attractive people, but what it really does is match people who get a lot of swipe rights with other people who get a lot of swipe rights, and vice versa. It’s just that on Tinder, there usually isn’t a lot of information to judge someone on besides their looks.

Now, however, it looks like Tinder has stopped using this model. What model they DO use to match people, however, is still unclear…

Peer Review Part 2

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Welcome to your survey for Peer Review Paper 1 Part 2

For our second round of peer review, do you want to change the option you chose for the first round? If so, what method of peer review would you prefer?

2/19 (Wednesday): Writing Workshop 1

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  1.  Please grab your name plate as you come in
  2. If you have not already done so, fill out the peer review survey here: https://tinyurl.com/vfbtqr3
  3. And upload your draft to the submission link on Blackboard.

Writing Into the Day

  1. What have you accomplished so far in your drafting process?
  2. What questions, difficulties, or “sticky spots” are you having?
  3. Where do you see your draft going in the future?
  4. What aspects of your writing would you like feedback on at this stage? What aspects do you NOT want feedback on at this stage?
  5. If you have participated in peer review in the past, what was helpful, what was unhelpful, and why?

If you are participating in online feedback and would like to anonymously share the answers to 2 and 4 with your reviewers, please email them to me so I can add them to the corresponding post. 

Overview:

  1. Reminders and Review
  2. Discussing peer review practices
  3. Sorting people who didn’t fill out the survey into feedback groups
  4. Peer review!
  5. Looking Ahead

Reminders and Review

  1. Spring Start– less than half of you attended the first workshop!!!
  2. How to Post refresher
  3. Several past assignments now that you can still do late for partial credit
  4. Post your own optional posts to the blog!

Group Sorting

If you opted for in-person peer review with discussion:

You are in a group together.

If you opted for private feedback from me OR anonymous online feedback:

You will all be commenting on the drafts posted anonymously to the blog.

Leave comments on as many of the drafts as you have time for, but I would rather you spend time leaving thoughtful, detailed feedback on one draft rather than speed through multiple drafts. (Note: In-line comments feature is available!)

If you opted for anonymous in-person peer review:

Please choose whether you would prefer online anonymous feedback or to join the not-anonymous group. Not enough people chose this option for them to remain anonymous while also giving/receiving feedback in real life.

If you still have not chosen an option but do have a draft ready for today:

Choose an option now and either email me your draft so I can put it on the blog anonymously or join up with others who would like in-person discussion.

If you did not choose an option and have no draft ready for today:

Please leave feedback for your classmates online.

Peer Review Guidelines:

I will keep a timer running so we can try to distribute our feedback evenly/make sure everyone gets comments.

Here are some questions for you to think about as you write your responses to your peers.

  1. Summarize the journey the writer is conveying and the major steps along that journey/their significance for the writer. Writers: Do these summaries match what you were trying to express?
  2. Make a comment on some vivid imagery or specific details that you found moving/powerful/effective
  3. Make a comment on some imagery or details that you want to know more about, or you think could be made more specific/evocative
  4. What questions do you have as a reader? (This can be things you found vague/confusing or just things you want to know more about)
  5. Where is the “center of gravity” of this draft so far? (That is, what seems to be the most important part?)
  6. Look back at the rubric/assignment sheet. Do you think there are any specific areas of the rubric the writer could improve on?
  7. If the writer has provided specific questions they would like feedback on, please try to address those.

Looking Ahead:

February 24 (Monday): Playing with Genre, Style, and Audience Day 1

Readings Due
“The Fear Appeal”
“The Humor Appeal”

February 26 (Wednesday): Writing Workshop 2

Assignments Due
Fear and Humor Appeal Examples (comment on post on blog)
“This I No Longer Believe” Full First Draft Due

Blog Assignment 2-Kamilla

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I learned about John Jay college myself when I was looking for a specialty for whom I can learn and go work in this area. And also study new subjects and develop yourself as a whole. But the most interesting thing is ahead.  I am transfer student. In 2013, I went to Kingsborough community college, but due to circumstances I dropped out.  And again it began to be submitted only in 2018, the process itself took me a very long time, it seems like all the documents came to college and I thought cheers, I’ll start studying and will be a student again. But unfortunately not all the documents reached and it was necessary to run around with the papers. And by this time, in 2019 had come, I often checked on the Cuny page and went to college many times, there is one problem then another, in general I should have been studying in 2019 in August, but they tell me that they say there are more documents  not in the system, so again I started fussing and running.  In 2020 has already come.  It seems that they had all the information and I started moving further and registering for classes, etc. But when the classes started, I just got lost in this John Jay college, I did not know where to go where the office for help is, etc., but I am very grateful to the good people  here in college for their help, who told me where and how.  I am very glad that there good, positive people in the John Jay college. I am very happy to study at John Jay college. And I really want to finish it.  I hope I succeed.

WMD Blog Assignment Response- Juan Marte-M.

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  • What data do you already track about yourself, or have you tracked in the past but no longer pay attention to? Why have you made these choices? What do you get out of it? What are the advantages/disadvantages of self-tracking? Of using digital devices to help us do it? What patterns do you think are present in your life, but don’t have the data to back it up? (For example, the person who found that coffee actually hurts his concentration, or the person who found that watching a bad movie made him feel negative about his own film career).

Since 2012 I started tracking my finances. I created a workbook in Excel to self-track my income and expenses. It has been eight years, and I continue with more rigorous monitoring. Now I have created a dependency on that data. I put everything, to be specific what I spend, what I buy, and what I have to pay. I compare my budget monthly, and it helps me to determine when I should reduce expenses. It is a great help for me to know the progress of my budget; however, it is stressful to track the data every single day. I can’t even make any payments if I don’t have the data available. I want to be more flexible with my financial situation and not depend on the constant and continuous monitoring of my finances.

  • Look up John Jay on the U.S. News and World Report, as well as any other colleges you may have applied to (and/or attended in the past, if you are a transfer student). What kind of picture does it paint of John Jay? Is that image accurate to your own experience so far? What information were you able to access, and what were you not able to access? Do the rankings/methodology seem fair? Why or why not? What would you change if you were in charge of the ranking algorithm, and why? What additional questions do you have about

This is my first time in college in the United States. I only applied for John Jay, which has the major I was interested in. I did not know about the acceptance rate or rankings, because in my country, the education system is very different. After reading all of the articles Weapon of Math Destruction: Chapter 3, College Rakings, and SAT selling student info, I can understand more about US college and its admission process. 

According to US News College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice is ranked #100 in Regional Universities North, #8 in Top Performers on Social Mobility, and #27 in Top Public Schools. It looks that John Jay has a good raking, and that image is accurate to my own experience so far. I was able to find out helpful information, such as the total undergraduate enrollment, tuition and fees, alumni starting salaries, and the acceptance rate. I was not able to access the data where the numbers came from and how they assigned those numbers. Something that I was surprised, it was the acceptance rate. John Jay has an acceptance rate of 41%. What does it mean? Was I lucky to be accepted? Did my application was good enough, or was a single number of the data? The article “For Sale: SAT-Takers’ Names. Colleges Buy Student Data and Boost Exclusivity” by Douglas Belkin, published at the Wall Street Journal, explains how colleges buy SAT scores to become a more selective college. The article brings out many problems because of this practice. Students do everything to be part of the “elite colleges,” even parents have done illegal things to put their children into them. 

Colleges buy SAT-Takers’ Names to offer fake admissions to students. The article cites: “Then the kids say, ‘well, why did you recruit me if you weren’t going to let me in?’ They do it to increase the number of applications; you’ve got to keep getting your denominator up for your admit rate.”

I do not think this methodology seems fair. Colleges accept students only if they have a good SAT or GPA score. Students’ applications are evaluated based on data (SAT score). What happens if the data goes wrong? Why  SAT score is so essential to determine the success of students?