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Introductory Writing Course

Analyzing Visual Arguments

A doctor's body inside large, bleeding ears with large money bags against a blood-red backdrop seen behind the mirror images of the enlarged close up of a man's ears.

Students practice closely describing and analyzing an image for its argument and rhetorical impact.

Pre-Writing: Surveying Expectations on the First Day of Class

The Writing Process Diagram with arrows showing the interrelationships between prewriting, writing, and revising.

On the first day of class, students think about the course topic and document their personal definitions of and understandings of the topic.

Introducing iMovie

Film reels

This activity introduces students to iMovie software and reveals the range of rhetorical possibilities and effects that the program provides.

Rebuttal Sparring

image of two people fencing

Students pair up to practice rebuttal. Partners present their position on their chosen controversy and have to fend off arguments for other positions that their partner comes up with. Partners change frequently and in quick succession.

Using Mind-Maps to Make Modular Arguments, MASS EFFECT Style

Nova Mind Map with Many Arms

This lesson is best used in conjunction with “Using Mass Effect 1 to teach critical situations," which can be found under that title on this site.

Using MASS EFFECT 1 to Teach “Critical Situations”

Three characters converse using the dialogue wheel in Mass Effect One

This lesson plan uses the interactive video game Mass Effect 1 (BioWare, 2007 for XBOX 360) to teach students about making situated speech acts that effectively address a certain audience in a particular rhetorical situation.

Using TV Tropes to Teach Narrative Devices

Using the wiki TV Tropes encourages students to think about how issues arise across media

Incorporating TV Tropes (a wiki that catalogues narrative devices used across a variety of media) into your discussion of literary devices and encouraging students to talk about how narrative techniques across different genres and forms of media can assist in making these concepts intelligible and "real" to them. 

Collocating and Word Choice Using Madlibs

students generate a template for a game in which they learn new words and collocations from their partners

Students use an online resource to learn some common ways that writers use a few "hard words". Then, with the children's game Madlibs serving as a model, students generate a template for a game in which they learn new words and collocations from their partners.

Google Docs - Crowd-Sourcing an Annotated Bibliography

Using Google Docs, students create a bibliography page to practice summarizing

Using GoogleDocs, students create a group bibliography page to practice summarizing and evaluating a source. They then engage in an informal presentation of their source to the class.

Audience Appeal - Making Commercials with Animoto

blank billboard

Using the extremely user-friendly online video creation tool, Animoto, students create short commercials pitching (potentially) odd combinations of products to target audiences (pianos to businessmen, running shoes to retirees, etc.)

Mapping Memorials: Research and Public Advocacy on Campus

Chavez statue on UT Austin campus

Through this assignment, students learn to close-read (critique) monuments on campus and consider the rhetorical nature of memory.

Becoming-Imperceptible, or How to Disappear Completely

Teach students about managing their online presence

In this assignment, students learn about the importance of protecting their information and image online, and in turn, take measures to delete themselves from the myraid places where they are visible/vulnerable.

Diagnosing Digital Literacy via Student-generated Avatars

class avatars

This assignment is purposefully simple because its serves as a diagnostic for students' levels of functional digital literacy in programs like Photoshop and Jing. It also serves to familiarize some students with these programs, and with the processes necessary for maintaining their class blogs.

Wordle as a Tool for Research and Invention

sample wordle

This is a short assignment using the free text visualization software, Wordle, to help students find keywords for researching their chosen topics.

Prototyping Procedural Rhetoric

Atari joystick

Using procedural, verbal, visual and aural rhetoric, students work in teams on a multimedia presentation that outlines a video game prototype and the ways it makes arguments.

Tracing Memes in Storify

A man pins pages to a white wall. To his right, "Storify" is defined.

In this assignment, students use the free online program Storify to track the life of a meme by combining elements pulled from social and news media sources. 

Revising/Drafting/Editing With Wikis

Students engage with and revise each other's texts using a wiki platform

Students engage with and revise each other's texts using a wiki platform. Allows students to consider the various ways of composing a summary of a single text.

End of Semester Reflection on Political Rhetoric

Students consider an ostentacious example of political rhetoric, then consider the other side's analysis of said rhetoric.

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