Wednesday 1/29: Introduction to Major Concepts

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**Please grab your name tent from the table by the door**

**If you were not here on Monday, please grab a piece of paper to make a name tent and a copy of the course schedule**

Writing Into the Day (10 min)

When has a piece of writing, either something you wrote or something you read, made a significant impact on your life? What qualities or context made that piece of writing so significant?

Sharing (5 min)

Overview:

  • What is Rhetoric?
  • Introducing Rhetorical Devices Assignment
  • What are WMDs? Why are they important?
  • Questions we have about either topic
  • Previewing next week

What is Rhetoric?

  • Collective brainstorm of prior associations/meanings
    • tool to help you write an essay
    • a way to get your point across
    • a way to make your speech better, better = more informative and not boring
    • a way to reach your audience
    • to make an emotional connection with the audience
    • to persuade somebody
    • “empty rhetoric”
  • Main ideas from the reading
    • Writing is not an inherent talent– it is a skill that can be studied/learned/improved through rhetoric
  • 4 Purposes of Rhetoric
    • To persuade
      • Having a strong argument– running for office, being a lawyer
      • Bring up/address counter arguments
      • Use quotes that are relevant — on topic, accurate, who is it from?
    • To inform
      • Enunciate, be clear
      • Use facts, back up your opinions with evidence
      • Having data (reliable data!)
      • Use simple/easy to understand language
      • The news
      • Teaching! Student presenting on topic (teaching!)
    • To express
      • Getting your ideas to shine, have your ideas stand out, stick with people
      • Know your situation– use appropriate tone
      • Use emotions and details– emphasize the important parts
      • Be respectful– or deliberately disrespectful
      • Giving personal examples (either from yourself or from someone else)
      • Giving a eulogy– you’re not trying to persuade people that the person was good/bad, you’re just talking about their life
    • To entertain
      • To not be offensive (or to be deliberately offensive)
      • Turn dark humor into comedy
      • Choose your level of seriousness appropriately
      • Volume
      • Tone
      • Variety
      • Comedic timing
      • Read your audience– what kinds of things are they entertained by?
      • To invoke emotion
      • Fiction more often than nonfiction — build suspense
      • Keeping audience’s attention– cliffhangers, surprises, plot twists, dynamicness,
      • Know when to stop
      • Hanging out with your friends
  • Work together in pairs to come up with general rhetorical rules for each Purpose of Rhetoric
  • Then also come up with some situations in which each purpose might be useful/important

Sharing/Compiling

Discussing Rhetorical Devices Assignment

What Are WMDs?

  • Share out main ideas from the TED Talk
    • The way they grade teachers– the algorithm doesn’t actually measure whether someone is a good teacher, and people are losing their jobs because of it
    • We are being scored by secret formulas
    • Different people get different sentences for the same/similar crimes because of the algorithm used to determine sentences
    • Algorithms are never going to be fair if we don’t make them fair
      • Question them
      • Algorithmic audit– check the data, check the definition of success that is programmed into the algorithm
      • Who does it fail?
      • Be open to feedback, always work to improve the algorithm
    • Consider longterm effects
    • Algorithms can be used to reinforce segregation
      • Prison algorithms are racially biased
      • Different policing of different areas
      • Where is the data coming from????
    • Data scientists should be translators of ethical conversations that happen in the world
      • Data scientists should explain to others when we can trust data and for what
      • Most people are mystified by statistics!
  • Create beginning working definitions
  • When do we already know we encounter algorithms in our day to day lives?
  • Preview Table of Contents from the book

Questions? (either to answer now or to be thinking about /discussing in the future)

If We Have Leftover Time: How do we want to do political issues this semester?

Previewing Next Week:

Monday (2/3): Introduction to Propaganda + Principles of Academic Writing

Readings Due:

“Propaganda is Everywhere”

“Name Calling”

Bandwagon Illustration

Bandwagon Description

Assignments Due:

None!

Wednesday (2/5): WordPress Training and Portfolio Discussion

 Meet in 7th Floor Computer Lab (NB 7.68)

Readings Due:

None!

Assignments Due:

Your first rhetorical devices assignment! Post examples + analysis of the “namecalling” and “bandwagon” techniques as comments on the blog.

SpringStart English 101 Workshops

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John Jay’s Writing Program hosts a series of workshops designed to provide extra support to English 101 students in the spring. There are 4 topics, but each topic is offered multiple times so you can pick the session that works for you. You can sign up for sessions here or read more about the workshops and see the schedule below.

For each workshop you attend, you will receive 2 participation points.

Download

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Monday (1/27): Introductions to Each Other and the Course

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Bitmoji of Olivia waving and holding a backpack, with a chalkboard that says "Back to School!"

Each day, either shortly before class or shortly after, I will post the lesson plan for the class period here. This way, you will be able to catch up on anything you miss due to being absent or late, and review what we’ve discussed. You can also use these posts to access any links we use during class.

Writing into the Day (10 mins)

On a piece of paper or an electronic device, please freewrite on the following:

  1. What information do you want to know in order to plan for success in this course?
  2. What questions do you have about this class?
  3. What are your existing strengths as a writer?
  4. What areas would you like to grow in this semester?

Today’s Outline:

  • Overview Prezi
  • Introducing ourselves
  • Answering our questions (#1 and #2)
  • Course site/syllabus/course calendar
  • Previewing next week

Introductions

  • Your name/pronouns
  • Your major and/or interests
  • A fact about you that isn’t true about anyone else in the room

Sharing Responses to WitD (5 min)

Syllabus (Up to last 15 minutes)

  • Course group and site
  • Walk/talk through syllabus
  • Summarize course calendar

For Wednesday:

First Assignment: Yourself as Reader, Writer, and Researcher

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1-2 double-spaced pages on “Yourself as Reader, Writer, and Researcher” (Submit via the link on Blackboard OR post to our class blog if you want to share your response with your classmates too.) Due Wednesday, January 29th by class time (4:30pm).

Please submit as a .doc or .docx file, using size 12 font

Prompt:

We all have histories as readers, writers, and researchers, even if you hate these activities. For this assignment, help me get to know you by telling me about your history. Below are several questions for you to consider as you compose your answer. You do not need to address all of them, and feel free to talk about other things related to reading, writing, research, and English classes.

  • What kinds of things do you read? (Not just books!)
  • What kinds of things do you love to read or hate to read? Why?
  • What’s a really good memory you have about reading, or a really bad one?
  • What about writing?
  • How much writing did you do in high school, and what kinds of things did you write?
  • What kinds of research have you done in the past?
  • What do you find difficult or confusing about the research process?
  • What were your past English classes like?
  • How do you feel about starting this class? What would you like to learn? 

Welcome to English 101!

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Welcome to English 101!  Maybe you’re looking forward to this class, maybe you’re worried, and maybe you just want to get it over with. All of those things are okay.

Instead of using Blackboard, I will be posting most of our class information, assignments, and readings on this website. I will use Blackboard only to post your grades and for you to submit some assignments (like drafts). Why? Because you will also be able to post content to our site, which makes our classroom environment more collaborative and enables you to get some practice using WordPress if you haven’t used it before. This site is our space for writing, not just mine.

What is on this website?

Right now, you can find our course policies under the “Syllabus” tab, and the calendar with all assignments and readings for the semester under the “Course Schedule” tab.  Some resources you may find useful later on are in the “Resources” tab. As the semester progresses, I will add posts containing the lesson for each day to our “Class Notes” tab.

More will be added as we study writing and rhetoric together!

What do you need to do?

  1. Click around, familiarize yourself with the layout of the website and where to find different things. Look at the course calendar. Write down any questions you have so that you remember to ask them later.
  2. Fill out the “Getting To Know You” survey in the next post.
  3. Register for the CUNY Commons
  4. Join our Course Group (this will allow you to write your own posts here on the website)

It will also be helpful to bookmark this site for easy access!

Rhetorical Devices Assignment

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Each weekend, you will read short passages online about two rhetorical devices/strategies. (Usually two, sometimes more, sometimes less.)  During the following week, you should either find examples of people using these devices in the world OR make up your own examples and post them as comments to the Course Site blog post corresponding with those devices.

Along with each example, you should provide one or two sentences explaining the context and how the rhetorical device affects the rhetor’s message. If you made up the example, make up a context in which it could be used. Write about at least two examples per device per week. You may miss one week without penalty.

Additional Guidance on Analysis:
Good analysis doesn’t just answer the question, “How is your example representative of the rhetorical device?”. To develop your analysis, consider the following questions: “What does this device add to the meaning? ” “What effect does it have on the reader/listener?” or “What does the speaker/writer gain from using this device”? “What makes it different than saying the same information without using the rhetorical device?”

For example, saying “This is an example of Bandwagon because the commercial says that “America runs on Dunkin, so they are saying that everyone drinks Dunkin Donuts coffee” does not count as analysis. What does Dunkin hope to achieve by using this technique? How do they hope the use of the Bandwagon technique will affect the audience? 

Although the rhetorical device readings are listed as being due on Monday, I strongly recommend you read them as early (e.g. the preceding Thursday or Friday) as your schedule allows. This will give you more time to find examples.

Grading for the rhetorical device examples will be as follows:

0 points if you did not post.

1 point if you only posted one example per device, or if you did not provide context/analysis.

2 points if you completed the assignment.

Although each individual post is worth a very small portion of your grade, habitually not completing this assignment will significantly impact both your overall grade and your ability to do well on other assignments. The purpose of this assignment is to get you into the habit of noticing rhetoric at work around you while also learning about a wide variety of rhetorical strategies beyond the rhetorical appeals.

Getting To Know You Survey

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Dear Writers,

Please fill out the form below when you have a moment. All of your answers will be private.

Thanks!

Olivia

Getting To Know You

While we will do group introductions on the first day of class, this form will give you the opportunity to share information you may want to keep private.

  • If your name in CUNYFirst is different from the name you go by, please provide your CUNYFirst name and the name you actually use. I will only use the name you actually use-- this is just so I know which person matches which roster name.
  • You can use IPA notation if you know it, but you can also use rhyming words or just spell out sounds as best you can. Example: Olivia Wood: O as in Ohh// Li as in Lizard// Vi rhymes with Bee // A like Uhh// Wood rhymes with Good
  • For example, I use she/her/hers pronouns. That means if you're referring to me, but not using my name, you would say "she." "My professor's name is Olivia. She sent us an online form to fill out."
  • This could include accessibility concerns and/or learning accommodations (no documentation required), life factors that may affect your ability to attend class or turn in assignments on time, etc.

Instructions for Posting

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  1. If you are signed in to your Commons account, you should see a menu at the top of the page that has a button reading “+ New” or maybe just a + .  Click on this button to write a new post.
  2. Write your post! You can write in either the Block editor or the Classic editor. I like Classic better, but choose whichever one you find easier.
  3. If you’re in Classic editor, find the “Categories” section of the righthand sidebar (not “Category Sticky”) and select the appropriate category or categories for your post. If you’re in Block editor, toggle to the “Document” tab of the sidebar instead of the “Block” tab and do the same thing. You should never select “Instructor Announcement” as your category, because that’s just for me!
  4. Add tags to your post if you wish.
  5. Choose privacy settings for your post. Our site is already semi-private; only people with the link can find it because it is not Google-able. You can choose from “public” (everyone in the class can see it) “private” (only me and you can see it) and “password-protected” (only people you give the password to can see it).
  6.  Check or uncheck the “send to group” option in the “Group Blog” part of the sidebar. If this is checked, everyone in our class will get a notification email about your post.
  7. You can choose to set a “featured image” for a post. That image will appear at the top of the post and be included in the “link preview” that appears when you share the link on social media. Only do this if you want to.