DWRL Lesson Plans - Word Choice

Teaching Ethos Using Online Dating Profiles

Cate Blouke — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 02:53:14 +0000

Author:

Image Credit:

Screen shot of the plan author's faux OkCupid profile, taken by the author

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students analyze portions of profiles excerpted from the free online dating site, OkCupid, in order to talk about ethos, values, ideology and goodwill. The exercise, in turn, encourages students to consider their own online presences, their values, and the ways in which rhetoric has “real world” applications.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

In-class Exercise

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Single Class Period

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Cultural Context

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Style

Summary

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Creative Commons

Social Media

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

To introduce the concept of ethos in a rhetoric classroom. To introduce students to the implications of online writing and the ways in which our writing reflects a particular image of ourselves to different audiences. To encourage students to reflect on their own online identities, as well as the ways in which they shift their self-presentations based on their perceptions of audience and genre.

Media Requirements:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Media Console/Projector

Required Materials:

Internet access would be ideal, but this could easily be implemented using simple hand-outs prepared in advance.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

Perhaps more so than any other piece of writing, and even more so than my students' facebook pages, the self-summaries presented in online dating profiles are fundamentally arguments of ethos. Regardless of specific rhetorical aim (a casual hook up, a future spouse, or something in between), at heart, each of these texts is saying to readers, “this is who I am, accept me.” So they seemed like a great source text to get my students really thinking about how and why they evaluate people: what sort of snap judgements they make, how they read into things without even realizing it. And it also served as an excellent talking point about the public nature of the internet - how just because we don’t anticipate particular audiences doesn’t mean our intended audience will be the only readers.

As I pointed out to my students, the internet is very much so a public place, regardless of the sometimes flimsy, sometimes more strict privacy settings of a given website. We never really know the uses to which our words will be put, and especially when asking students to share and compose in digital spaces, it’s important to get them thinking about how online identities and compositions might be read.

OkCupid profiles offer a glimpse of more pragmatic, everyday ethos: how a person's general presentation or demeanor reflects an image back into the world. Looking at their compositions encourages students to focus on how people generate (or fail to generate) goodwill, and how they convey particular values through their writing.

After students break off into groups to assess the ethos presented in the profiles they are given and write short descriptions of their candidates, then we discuss their assessments as a group.

As a follow up assignment, I ask students to go home and write their own self-summaries to be posted on the class blog. To encourage students to think about audience, you might give them different audiences for which to compose these summaries. For example, how would they summaraize themselves on a job application versus a student-body election? For their parents versus their friends? For their classmates versus their teammates?

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

The site requires that you create an account in order to search for users, but the account is free, requiring nothing more than an email address. So, if you would prefer to find example profiles on your own, you'll need to open an account. However, I will include a number of potential sample profiles below in the "additional resources." As my students discovered, these profiles can be easily found by "googling" phrases from the excerpts below (at least when I initially used them - users may have since set their profiles to private). I didn't use the full profiles as part of the class discussion, though I'm toying with the idea of doing so next time around.

Should you seek out sample profiles to excerpt, here are my suggestions:

seek outside of your geographical region (to avoid selecting someone that your students could possibly know)
avoid using profiles that are overtly outrageous (this might be difficult as there are some ludicrous profiles on the site, but it will help to keep the exercise less unruly if the examples are more "reasonable")
try not to select profiles which you expect your students to respond to in a particular way (they will inevitably surprise you)
select profiles that have enough writing to afford a fair bit of analysis, but not so much that they students get lost (a good-sized paragraph should suffice)
double check to see if the profile is set to "public" by copying and pasting the url into a separate browser (in which you are not logged into the site)

Instructions For Students:

There is, perhaps, no clearer instance of an argument based on character than online dating profiles. Each person's profile essentially makes the argument that "you should date me because of who I am." On the free online dating site OkCupid, users are asked to write a "self-summary" which is the first thing people see when visiting their profile.

For this exercise, you will analyze a person's ethos based on their self-summary. You'll then play match-maker, deciding amongst four candidates who would make the best match with your bachelor or bachelorette. However, you'll need to justify your choice based on both parties' presentation of ethos.

In groups of three, you'll be assigned to a particular bachelor or bachelorette below. You'll first analyze your bachelor or bachelorette's ethos, writing an evaluation of their values and character based on evidence from their self-summary. Once you have a clear sense of your person, you will make an argument as to why they "fit" with one of the matches provided - again, based on character and shared values. Here are some questions to consider:

What makes this person a "good" dating candidate?
What kind of person are they?
What do they value?
What do they like to do?
How do they address their potential matches?

For any of these questions, you will want to provide a specific example/quote/evidence to explain your assessment. If you have an immediate reaction to the person's profile, try to identify what sparked the reaction. Think about word choice, tone, and level of formality. How does this person generate (or fail to generate) goodwill? Is anything in their profile alienating? What is it and why do you think you have that reaction?

Evaluation Suggestions:

The in-class discussion was not evaluated, though it may require some careful moderating. Students will likely have a lot of fun with the exercise, but both times I've implemented the plan, I have had to work to keep the conversation from devolving into making vun of the profile in question. It's important to remind students that these are "real" people.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

My students love this exercise. They find it thoroughly memorable and enjoyable, although I'm not sure that makes it the most pedagogically valuable lesson I've taught. So I would love feedback in the comments section if you try this plan in your classroom.

Additional Resources:

Here are a few of the sampels I used in my class - at the time of the exercise, all of these profiles were publicly viewable. Summaries have been excerpted verbatim (all spelling errors and grammar issues are original). I would recommend formatting them into some sort of chart (so as not to impose a vertical hierarchy), but for accessibility's sake, I'll simply post the text here.

Here are the options I gave to the first group:

---

Bachelor #1

Well I’m one of the good guys, a sweet heart that’s only here in hopes to find that awesome someone to share in life's sweat adventures with. No really it's true, not all guys are dumb assholes...Surprise. but lets be real, most are. Ha

They are some strange people out there that much is curtain so lets not think it's only you ladies that get weird messages from people. The first person to contact me on this site, turned out to be a homeless stripper. O_O Gross! Anyways I'm just saying I'm not like that or here for that.

I'm not to serious a person, more carefree and laid back if anything so being able to make fun of people without hating on them is a must. I'd much rather do sometime fun than sit an complain all day about how messed up the world is.(Cause we all Know it is.) I do like to have intelligent conversations, deep discussions, and learn how to connect with the earth and universe more but I don't let things bother me that are out of my control if you know what I mean.

What I’m really interested in is someone that can love me for who I am and not try and make me out to be someone else and that's how I treat people in return.

I live alone and love it, my house is my sanctuary but like everyone else it gets lonely and I can use a best friend to hang with me and have some fun.

My heart and spiritual well being is very important to me, that being said I take good care of myself and my relationships with others. Having a negative attitude about anything isn’t worth my time and its just not my style.

I’m in no way a pacifist as I love a good debate and would jump in a second to save someone from a robber, bully or zombies. Fuck War! But sometimes even the monks must fight and stand up for the weak. That’s me.

I live by one simple truth that “The focused mind is the most powerful force in the universe, meaning what the mind can conceive and truly believe by will alone it shall achieve.”

However, the mind can only take so much and sometimes needs help form others. Everybody needs somebody sometimes. Sometimes its a shoulder you need and sometimes its a slap in the back of the head. I guess that’s why I’m here, no ones perfect even though I see a lot of people trying to be. So hit me up if you feel like I do.

---

Bachelorette #1

My name is Josephine, I studied fine arts at France and then moved to South America to finish a post-graduate program on Linguistics.

Nowadays I work as a drawing teacher and occasionally as a model for the faculty students. I have acted on the past too, I have always been very passionate about filmmaking, I even ended up making a film about five years ago. But that passion I left it behind to replace it with music.

I am very much into exotic instruments. Koto, tabla, sitar, harmonium, buzuq, etc etc. These interest of the exotic came to me through my Romanian origins. I have a strong Gypsy bloodline on my family. I have played in several Manele bands during the late two years (since I re-established in England).

Hmm... what else could I tell you? Vegetarianism is very important to me. I work hardly everyday to become a vegan and I'm expecting to totally achieve it by this year. That is why I have had to learn to cook vegan, which I succesfully achieved. I have the best Romani vegan dishes you'll ever taste (if we ever meet).

I like psychedelic sixties bands. I love The Doors, I think the ultimate party would be dancing around a pyre drinking sake to the rythmn of Five To One. I also love, of course, popular 'gypsy' music like Goran Bregovic, he did a great song with Iggy Pop called In The Death Car, for the film Arizona Dream, you should check that out.

Ok, I guess I already did this too long. Excuse me.

---

Bachelorette #2

Me, well, I'm a fat-bottomed girl and I make the rocking world go 'round.

I'm a woman. I enjoy womanly things like getting my nails done and putting makeup on. I do these things because they make me feel great, not because I'm high-maintenance or girly.

I'm pretty smart in my mind. I read a lot, enjoy a good movie often and listen to music all the time. I hate that I say "like" so fucking much, but it's one of my adorable quirks.

I'm a tactile person. I show affection by touch. However, I'm not a touchy feely person. Which is pretty fucking odd, I know.

At this point, I'm looking for someone I can actually do stuff with. Go to a play. Rock out to a band at a bar. Try a new restaurant. Drink!!

<*If all you're looking for is a bang buddy, I am not the girl for you.*>

So essentially, I'm looking for someone who is fun, outgoing, and mature. It's odd looking for female friends, but I'm really trying to meet new PEOPLE not just men.

Likes:

SHORT Beards (on men)

Tattoos

Dancing

Men who play a musical instrument...I get so weak in the knees!

A man with some meat on his bones (and if you decide to be a smart ass and message me with, "I got meat on THIS bone," I will hunt you down and smack the shit out of you.)

A nice smile

Brazilian Fart Porn. Funniest shit I've ever seen.

A good, open sense of humor

Chivalry

Dirty minds

Dislikes:

Mindfuckery (Can you feel my dick in your mind right now?)

Aloofness

Facetiousness

Too much gook in a guys hair

Men who wear flip flops, eeeew

People who lack ambition and imagination

LIARS- I know that sometimes you have to wait until a precise time to mention something...just don't lie.

---

Bachelorette #3

I am very family oriented. So I would start off by saying that I am most passionate about my family and friends. Beyond that, I love traveling, reading and learning foreign languages. I think that these things can open doors to new people, cultures and better understanding of the larger world. I also am passionate about learning new things. I love taking goofy classes, or reading up on something I don't know about. I think that knowledge really is power, and I love using my imagination and creativity to explore different aspects of the world. I pride myself on being street smart. Though formal eduation is very important, arming oneself with useful everyday knowledge can sometimes be even more valuable (aka I am thankful that I possess common sense!) I am a quick thinker and believe myself not to be naive. And while keeping an open-mind and an open-heart, I love that I am comfortable relying on my independence.

On a less serious note, I love laughing and I LOVE Steelers football! I'm always up for a road trip and love to go anywhere warm (especially during the winter months!) Oh yeah, and I have started to train for a Triathlon Sprint coming up this summer. (I'll let you know how that goes... it's early yet, so I'm still quite optimistic!)

Lastly, some things i believe:

* Everything happens for a reason.

* That there is a heaven. I'm not so sure however, about hell. ... I'll get back to you.

* That no talent ass-clowns should not be glorified on MTV, VH1, E! or otherwise.

* "Beauty is only skin deep" is said only by people who have never been ugly.

* Accents and foreign languages are sexy.

* Singers and musicians are sexy.

* Happy-endings do exist.

* There is a lid for every pot.

* Everyone needs to know how to laugh at themselves.

* Life's too short to sweat the small stuff.

* There is no such thing as an accident or a mistake.

* Boy Meets World could have been and may always be the best show to grow up watching.

* We never stop learning.

---

For the second group, I gave them these options, and it was interesting to see if the two groups paired up the same bachelor and bachelorette.

---

Bachelorette #1

My name is Josephine, I studied fine arts at France and then moved to South America to finish a post-graduate program on Linguistics.

Ok, I guess I already did this too long. Excuse me.

---

Bachelor #1

The a geek, and proud of it. When I get passionate about something, I can't shut up about it (which is either endearing or extremely irritating, depending on your point of view).

I'm left-wing. A sceptic (in matters of science, although I'm sorry to say I'm quite gullible on a personal level). A militant atheist. It must be said though, that I'd like to think I have a pretty good sense of humour about those topics, even if I am passionate about them.

I'm an artist (I draw and paint). I love the English language, although my own writing talents are somewhat lacklustre. I like learning. There's nothing better than discovering something new and fascinating and being able to share it with other people.

I think Stephen Fry is God.

I think Batman and the Doctor are perhaps the greatest fictional characters created by man.

I think music was perfected in 1879 withGilbert and Sullivan's Major-General Song.

I think comic books and cartoons are perfectly legitimate artforms, capable of producing genuine human drama and emotion. On the other hand, I can't resist a good Talking Gorilla vs. Killer Robot fight.

I seem to think a lot of pretty silly things, huh?

I am geeky, smart...ish, and quirky

---

Bachelor #2

I have a yearning to explore different territory. To frolic in a refreshing mist atop the Yellow Mountains of Mainland China. To play with other great musicians. To watch shows in the opera house of Lyon, with an intermission of French kids break dancing outside the hall. To cook my own recipe in a Paul Bocuse culinary. These are things that most of my homies won't touch. Lest we forget, I am an abnormal guy; and I am looking for an extraordinary girl.

I want a girl who can be fun and adventurous. The kind of girl who isn't too afraid to suddenly break out of a three-day isolation and take a road trip across the country on a 1987 Vespa which I am convinced can take at least another hundred thousand miles.

Interestingly, my most passionate relationships involved completely contradictory personalities. Speaking of character--unfortunately, not all of us can be satisfied with pixellated photos and interview format autobiographies. Call me old-school, but coffee and a heated intellectual conversation beats the hell out of a 9 day back and forth email chat marathon. If you want to get to know me, call me. Tell me about yourself. Talk to me about politics. What is really important to you? I never get tired of meeting new and inherently good people.

---

Bachelor #3

What I’m really interested in is someone that can love me for who I am and not try and make me out to be someone else and that's how I treat people in return.

I live alone and love it, my house is my sanctuary but like everyone else it gets lonely and I can use a best friend to hang with me and have some fun.

I live by one simple truth that “The focused mind is the most powerful force in the universe, meaning what the mind can conceive and truly believe by will alone it shall achieve.”

Course Type:

Intermediate Writing Course

Introductory Writing Course

Course Description:

I've used this exercise in both my introductory literary studies course (as a means to explain the "real world" implications/applications of close reading) as well as in my intermediate rhetoric course.

Tags:

Analyzing Visual Arguments

RMazique — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:56:44 +0000

Author:

Rachel Mazique

Image Credit:

somewhere on Facebook... Unfortunately, this is from a Facebook upload. I didn't keep track of where on Facebook I found the photo, and I can't remember now. I'm also unable to find this image on the web again.

Brief Assignment Overview:

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

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Visual Rhetoric

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Accessibility

Visualization

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

1. To apply the concepts from Everything's An Argument and practice closely analyzing an image for its rhetorical features

2. To practice analyzing the framing of an image

3. To practice writing a detailed description of an image in preparation for a "Research Summary" paper on a piece of visual rhetoric

Media Requirements:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Media Console/Projector

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

1. An image relevant to your course topic

2. Questions to prompt student analysis

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Full Assignment Description:

After reading selections from Chapters 1 and 15 in Everything's An Argument, and the section on visual rhetoric in Chapter 8 of Critical Situations (the University of Texas at Austin's Custom Edition) for homework, students discuss what they learned about how images can function as arguments, how the framing of an image can alter or shape our perception of it, and how to approach analyzing and describing such visual arguments.

Following this discussion, I explain that students will break into groups of 4 or 5 and practice summarizing and analyzing a visual argument in preparation for their second Research Summary, which must be a visual viewpoint source. I also explain that this in-class activity is preparation for our next unit on Visual Rhetoric in which they will analyze the visual rhetoric in a pop culture source of their choice. Because this unit focuses on the rhetoric of terminology, students are to pay special attention to the words that frame an image but to also analyze the relevant contexts and controversies that an image may evoke or speak to. Finally, I explain that students should spend a good amount of time summarizing the image with as much detail as possible--as if they were describing the image for a blind person. I encourage them to use the vocabulary from their reading assignment (i.e. foreground, background, etc).

Because I teach in a computer classroom and use the PBWorks platform, each group creates one wiki page in a public group activities folder and names it with all their group member's names. I explain that only one person can type on the page at a time, but if they save the page, another person may begin typing or "steal the lock" on a wiki page to begin typing.

However, this activity could be done in a room without technology if the image students are to analyze is projected onto a screen, or if each student has a paper copy of the screen. Students could then hand-write their summaries and analyses. With the benefit of a computer classroom, I'm able to read student writing once they save the page. It is also available for all students to see on the projector/read along on their own computer screen.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Instructors may decide to use any image--whether seemingly benign or provocative. The image on this page could be used in any class, or you may decide to choose an image relevant to your course topic and class discussions so that students are better able to analyze the social, political, and historical contexts. I had notes prepared to flesh out any gaps in the students analysis as I did not presume knowledge on cochlear implant surgeries, Deaf Studies, or Deaf culture and peoples. I also, however, did not want one group to be full of students who knew about Deaf people, so I asked in advance. In one class, I had four students who knew about Deaf people, so I had one person in each group. In another class, only one student professed knowledge, so I let students determine their groups on their own.

Instructions For Students:

Break up into groups of 4 or 5 people. Each group may have only one person knowledgeable about Deaf people/Deaf culture. You do not have to have a person who feels knowledgeable of this group to conduct this analysis.

1. What argument does this photo make?
2. How would you summarize (i.e. describe) this photo (without editorializing)?
3. Analyze the pathos, ethos, and logos of this photo. What rhetorical effect does the visual argument have?
4. Analyze the word choice in the title of the image. How does the title frame the visual argument?
5. What questions does this visual argument raise about the political, social, and/or historical contexts surrounding Deaf bodies? Or, if you have some knowledge of these contexts, where does it fit with regards to these contexts? What conversations might the image be speaking for or against?
6. Who are the stakeholders? Which audiences/stakeholders would be persuaded by this viewpoint? Which audiences/stakeholders might disagree with this viewpoint/choice of images and words? Why?

Evaluation Suggestions:

Since this activity is practice for future writing assignments, I give feedback on each group's summary and analysis as we read and discuss each group's work as a class. This way, the entire class has the benefit of knowing how to improve their summaries and analysis by listening to what each group did well and what each group could have improved upon.

Students also have this document as a piece of evidence of their collaborative work and can write an observation on the activity to use in their Learning Record portfolio at the midterm when they analyze their individual development along the course strands of argumentation and/or writing process and the dimensions of knowledge and understanding, skills and strategies, prior and emergence experience, and/or reflection .

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

I'm always impressed at students ability to analyze the image even without professing any knowledge of the historical, social, and political contexts surrounding Deaf people. Students also enjoy the shift from individual/whole class work and having the opportunity to do group work.

Additional Resources:

Critical Situations: A Rhetoric for Writing in Communities with Additional Material (Custom Edition for the University of Texas at Austin), Sharon Crowley and Michael Stancliff

Everything's An Argument by Andrea Lunsford and John Ruszkiewicz

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Intermediate Writing Course

Introductory Writing Course

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

Rhetoric and Writing (RHE 309K): Disability in Pop Culture

In this course, students focus on analyzing the relationship between pop culture and rhetoric. Their analyses examine public disagreements about various issues such as: How do popular (mis)representations of "the supercrip" convince us to make political decisions regarding accessibility, advocacy, education, and/or social policy? How can we evaluate arguments that not only depict (dis)abled people as "heroic" but also those that portray the converse: the "grotesque unfortunate" deserving of "pity" and "help"? How do these arguments address questions of basic human rights, needs, drives and "eugenics rhetoric"? Will children (and adults) make political decisions based on recurrent thematic representations of "disability" in pop culture, and, is that a good or bad influence?Beginning with a selection of readings that introduce disability theory, students conduct research to explore a controversy of their choice on (dis)ability in pop culture. Throughout, students engage with their controversy, analyzing editorials, print and video advertisements, and other contemporary portrayals of “the supercrip” or of (dis)ability in pop culture. The last unit focuses on multimodal arguments; students create a multimodal composition that takes a position on the representations of bodies and abilities.

Tags:

Blogging Research from the Oxford English Dictionary

Gulesserian — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:42:54 +0000

Author:

Lisa Gulesserian

Image Credit:

aznael on deviantart

Brief Assignment Overview:

In two short blog posts, I asked students to choose an interesting or perplexing word to look up in the books we'd just finished reading. After conducting their research, students blogged about their findings and made a quick effort at applying their research to a passage.

Type of Assignment:

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

One-Two Class Periods

Multiple Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Historical Context

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pre-Writing

Research

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

I wanted students to get used to close reading and using the OED in a low-stakes environment. I also wanted students to start thinking about what kind of paper topic they might pursue if they were to use their OED research.

Media Requirements:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Media Console/Projector

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Computers with internet access. I use Wordpress as my course's blogging platform, but I can see a number of different sites fulfilling the same function.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

To prepare for their blog posts, students chose one important, unique, and interesting word used in the assigned text; located all instances of the word in the text and noted their initial opinion of how the word functions in these instances; looked up the word in the OED, paying particular attention to the word’s etymology, historical definitions, and examples of usage; and summarized the three most useful pieces of information they learned from their research in the OED. In their blog posts, students used their OED research to better explain at least one passage in the text that includes their chosen word; developed a sentence-long thesis; and listed possible Paper 1 topics that might stem from their research.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Before assigning these blog posts, I showed students how to find and use the OED by asking students to look up words as we close read the texts together in class.

Instructions For Students:

Your goal in these two blog posts is to analyze the use of a single word in eitherOroonoko or Heart of Darkness by referring to information from the Oxford English Dictionary. To complete this assignment, you will choose one important, unique, and interesting word used in the assigned text; locate all instances of the word in the text and note your initial opinion of how the word functions in these instances; look up the word in the OED, paying particular attention to the word’s etymology, historical definitions, and examples of usage; summarize the three most useful pieces of information you learned from your research in the OED; and write your blog post. In your blog post, you will use your OED research to better explain at least one passage in the text that includes your chosen word; develop a sentence-long thesis; and list possible Paper 1 topics that might stem from your research.

Choose one important, unique, and interesting word used in the assigned text: As you’re reading a text, you should underline or note interesting words in the text. Look specifically at words that are used frequently in the text, though you might also notice a word that is only used once but seems especially important because it is part of a crucial scene in the text. You might be drawn to words that are unfamiliar to you. You might be interested by words whose meanings may have changed since the time of the text’s publication. Make sure to choose a word that seems important, ambiguous, unique, or interesting. Even if the word you end up choosing seems “basic,” you’ll find that the OED’s entries could open up a world of possibilities!

Locate all instances of the word in the text and note your initial opinion of how the word functions in these instances: Identify passages in the text that include your chosen word. Try using a searchable, electronic version of your text to find passages.Project Gutenberg or GoogleBooks might be good places to check for searchable versions of your text. In your search, make sure to include variations (like “slaves” and “slavery” for “slave”). Examine these instances and make a few preliminary notes about how the word functions in each instance and what each passage means.

Look up the word in the OED, paying particular attention to the word’s etymology, historical definitions, and examples of usage: Navigate to the Oxford English Dictionary resource page at the UT Libraries website by visiting the “Reference Sites” page under the “Research Tools” dropdown menu. Choose “Dictionaries/Translation” at the “Reference Sites” page, then choose the “Oxford English Dictionary” link. Once you’re able to access the online OED, use the site’s search function to look up your chosen word. Click on “Full Entry” (not “Outline”) once you’re at the word’s page.
- Research the word’s etymology: What part of speech (noun, adjective, adverb, verb) is the word you’re looking up? Make sure you choose the right one, but remember that your chosen word might be interpreted as multiple parts of speech. What language is the word descended from? Is it French or Saxon, Greek or Latin?
- Research the word’s definitions: How many different ways has the word been defined over time? According to the date the text was published, how many definitions would have been available to the text’s author? Note all definitions—even conflicting ones—that were in use at the time of the text’s publication.
- Research the word’s historical usage: Look at the etymology and sample quotations listed. What is the earliest known usage of the word? Which usages are familiar to you? Which usages by famous authors or well-known texts might merit your attention? Keep in mind that some usages might have become popular after your text was published, in which case they aren’t as applicable for close reading your particular text. Are there any other words or allusions you need to look up to close read the text?

Summarize the three most useful pieces of information you learned from your research in the OED: As you’re researching in the OED, make sure to take notes on your findings. Write down the entry headings and definition numbers for information that might prove useful down the road. In your notes, summarize at least three pieces of information from your OED research. Remember to choose the most compelling and pertinent tidbits to summarize—what pieces of information might help you understand the text better?

Write your blog post: Draft a single paragraph that encapsulates your research. When writing your blog post, you must:
- Use your OED research to better explain at least one passage in the text that includes your chosen word: Earlier in your notes, you summarized your three main pieces of information. With these three main pieces of research outlined, reexamine the passages in the text that make use of your chosen word. Choose at least one of these passages to better explain with your OED findings. Describe the scene and cite its page number. Next, explain your preliminary hunch about the word’s usage—a sentence taken from your early notes should suffice. How did your OED research change your interpretation of this passage? What information from the OED has helped you understand this passage from the fictional text better? Do your chosen word’s origins matter? Which definitions of your chosen word apply in the passage? If the word is used more than once in the passage, do multiple definitions apply? Does the word’s meaning shift in the course of the passage? Are there any images or allusions to previous usages of your chosen word?   Quote from the OED and your text, making sure to cite your sources. To cite the OED, make sure to include the entry headings and definition numbers, like so:

According to the OED, the word “home” could also mean “the usual contents of a house; a houseful” (“home, n.” 2c).

Develop a sentence-long thesis and move this sentence to the beginning of your blog post: After you have written a paragraph about the use of your chosen word in one passage from the text, try summarizing your ideas about the word’s usage in one sentence. Your thesis should confidently state how and why the text’s author decided to use your chosen word.

End your post by listing possible Paper 1 topics that might stem from your research: Think about possible paper topics that might come out of your OED research. What questions about the text might be addressed by your findings?

Evaluation Suggestions:

I use the Learning Record, so I did not grade these assignments. I had students post comments on each others' blogs, and I also posted comments in a separate private file on PBworks. I mostly wanted students to practice close reading and researching using the OED, and that goal was definitely met by the end of these assignments!

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students loved this assignment because their blog posts could be used to build Paper 1. If I assign these blog posts again next year (which I intend to), I might have students only write one of these posts. My class is quite jampacked in the first unit, so it'd be a good idea to give students some more breathing room!

Additional Resources:

wordpress.com

oed.com

Course Type:

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

Cultural productions have been banned and censored for a number of reasons, some expected—profanity, lewdness, vulgarity, sacrilege—and some surprising—retelling the past. This course will attend to books, graphic novels, short stories, plays, and films that have caused public controversy because of their unique representations of historical events. Whether nostalgically revisiting “the good old days,” vehemently criticizing “the dark ages,” or merely telling a story that “is not a story to pass on,” many from England, South Africa, Iran, Antigua, Israel, and America have been banned, censored, or criticized for their historical imaginings. Through close reading and critical writing using formal, historical, and cultural approaches to literature, we will work to uncover some versions of the past that have gotten a few authors in trouble. The Oxford English Dictionary and other resources essential to literary study will aid us in this endeavor and will also help prepare you for upper-division courses in various disciplines. The stakes are high when representing difficult, forgotten, or unwanted stories from the past—in this course, we will examine why reimagining the past in cultural productions around the globe was, and continues to be, so fraught.

Tags:

Collocating and Word Choice Using Madlibs

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:48:39 +0000

Author:

Kevin Psonak

Image Credit:

"Canonyonlands - Needles Backcountry March 2011" via akeg's Flickr stream

Brief Assignment Overview:

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.

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

Single Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Ethos

Rhetorical Analysis

Style

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Style

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Open Access Software

Presentations

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This exercise teaches students how to use difficult words properly. The instructor can alter it for use in introductory linguistics, syntax, semantics, and lexicography courses.

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Computer classroom with internet access and printing functionality on every computer.

ForBetterEnglish.com

Optional: a Madlibs book, from Penguin group

Free online version of Madlib-type game is available on the Maglib website.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

Students use an online resource to learn some common ways that writers use a few "hard words". They use ForBetterEnglish.com, a database of common "word collocations," to compose a paragraph. The database resembles a list of dictionary examples of words used in text, but the most common word combinations are identified. The entry for "impeccable," for example, shows that "impeccable credentials," "impeccable timing," and "impeccable taste" are three word combinations.

Then, with the children's game Madlibs serving as a model, students generate a template for playing a similar game with a partner. This "game" stage helps the students to learn new words and collocations from their partners. A main lesson is that one way to improve one's English usage is to take the step from having a strong vocabulary to knowing how all the words actually fit into sentences.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

The instructor should hand out the student instruction sheet and introduce the collocation database in a class prior to the class set aside for the main exercise.

Students should experiment with the collocation database for five or ten minutes to get a feel for it.

On the day of the main exercise, students bring to class a list of three hard words (i.e., recently learned, frequently misused, etc.) with the words' definitions already in mind.

The instructor begins with a two-minute demonstration of Madlibs (or the computer version Madglibs), taking word suggestions from students. The use of the children's game can intrigue the students, and the references to parts of speech can get them to start thinking about traditional grammar.

Instructions For Students:

List three words that you are not sure how to use, but that you want to learn to use.

For each of your three words, use ForBetterEnglish.com to find one way that writers use it. List what you find.

Example:

elicit: "elicit a response"

effect: "investigate the effect"

affect: "affect the outcome"

Write a paragraph using all three of your words. Use the three words the way the "For Better English" website suggests, marking your words in bold.

Ex.: The election results elicited a response from the surprised political scientists. They decided to investigate the effects of political debates on election results. What they found is that debates affect election outcomes much more than they realized.

Save your paragraph as "Original.docx"

Create your "Madlib" paragraph:

Make a copy of Original.docx, name it "Madlib.docx", and open up Madlib.docx.
Keep your three "hard words", but replace the words that go with them with "blanks" and the part of speech of the word you removed.

Ex.: The election results elicited a _______ (noun) from the surprised political scientists. They decided to investigate the _______ (plural noun) of political debates on election results. What they found is that debates affect _______ (plural noun) much more than they realized.

Print a hard copy of your Madlib paragraph.

Play Madlibs with your partner:

Name a part of speech for your partner and write in the blank whatever word your partner provides.

You: "Give me a noun."
Partner: "astronaut"

Repeat this step for all three blanks.

Give the Madlib to your partner for review.

Switch roles and play Madlibs with your partner's paragraph.

Use "For Better English" to come up with better words to match up with your partner's "hard words".

Check your guesses against your partner's Original.docx.

Now, compose a new paragraph. Use all three of your own words, but follow different suggestions from "For Better English" (e.g., instead of "elicited a response", try "elicited sympathy"). Also, try using all three of your partner's words properly.

Save this final paragraph as "Final.docx" and email both your "Original.docx" and your "Final.docx" to the instructor.

Evaluation Suggestions:

9 points:

3 for correct usage of your three words in Original.docx

3 for correct usage of your three words in Final.docx

3 for correct usage of your partner's words in Final.docx

The exercise counts as a quiz.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

The database has its limits. Some words have few or no examples, so instructors might find that they benefit from getting a feel for how deep the database goes and then giving students guidance accordingly.

The title of the lesson and the accompanying image of puzzle pieces suggest that sentences are like puzzles. Individual words are like unique puzzle pieces in that they are governed by rules for combination with other words.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

An introductory writing course that includes instruction in practical reasoning and the principles of rhetoric. Also useful in a literary studies course.

Tags:

Mapping Poetic Word Choice to Discover Literary Themes

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:45:03 +0000

Author:

Dustin D. Stewart

Image Credit:

"Magnetic Poetry" via surrealmuse's Flikr stream

Brief Assignment Overview:

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Literary Criticism

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Poetry

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Presentations

Visualization

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Research

Organization/Arrangement

Close reading

Assessment of literary themes

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

In-class computers (optimal but not strictly necessary)

NovaMind Pro (or one of several freeware alternatives)

Student access to a web browser and a printer

Document camera and/or computer-linked projector for sharing results (again, optimal but not necessary)

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Mid-Semester

Full Assignment Description:

The assignment allows students to discuss their literary close-reading essays with each other, while also attempting to coordinate those close-readings with larger thematic issues discussed in class. The idea is to use individual words to learn more about global concerns in a literary text. In my case, the text was John Milton's Paradise Lost, and the activity asked students to use mind-mapping and word-cloud tools.

Each student has written a formal close-reading essay that focuses on a particular keyword in a passage from John Milton's Paradise Lost. Using a computer-connected projector or a document camera (a chalkboard will also suffice), the class creates a list of all the words used in their formal essays. (This should require no more than 5-10 minutes.)

Then, students are divided into smaller groups. Each group is assigned to articulate between three and five large thematic questions that preoccupy Milton's poem. The questions should emerge both from their independent reading and from our shared in-class discussion. (This will take some time, perhaps 10-15 minutes.)

Next, students are asked to arrange the listed keywords under the question(s) that best suits each term. They must coordinate the small-scale focus of their close-readings with the major themes prevalent in the poem. How does the local (an individual word) fit within the global (a big thematic question)? (This is the crux of the activity and requires the most time, probably 20-30 minutes.)

My class used NovaMind Pro mind-mapping software for this activity. Working at an in-class computer, groups of 3-4 students mapped the major questions around the title of the epic poem. Then, branching off of each such question, they listed the keywords relevant to it. Then, as time allowed, they used other features of the software to write short notes explaining why they located each keyword where they did.

As homework for the next class, to continue this emphasis on individual words (but to shift it to considering students' own writing practice), I asked students to use Wordle to create a word-cloud of their own close-reading essays. They brought the results to class and showed them to one another. We then discussed what the word-clouds revealed. Which words were larger than expected? Which were smaller or nonexistent? What can these findings tell us about what our writing is emphasizing (as against what we think it's emphasizing)? (This conversation took up around 20 minutes at the front end of my next class session.)

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Given the reliance on a former assignment (the close-reading essay), this particular version of the assignment will require some advance planning/integration into the course schedule. Additionally, you will want to familiarize yourself with the available mapping technologies.

Instructions For Students:

[Class's list of at least 15 keywords, presented on a projector screen, would appear here.]

Write out at least three or four of the major thematic questions that Milton raises in Paradise Lost. Then use these words (as many of them as possible) as ways to illustrate or to answer the different questions. Think of the questions as umbrellas under which you can place the different words.

Once you're ready, log into a workstation (one per group), and I'll come around and show you how to begin in NovaMind Pro.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I evaluated students' work on this task on a credit/no-credit scheme. I awarded credit on the basis of participation and completion, which thus required students' attendance and involvement over two consecutive class meetings.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

My students seemed very engaged with the assignment, which provided an opportunity for coordinating out-of-class writing with in-class discussion. They also responded positively to the group dynamics required to complete the task.

As so often, I didn't allocate enough time to the mind-mapping activity. Rather than give it half a Tuesday/Thursday session (as I did this time), next time I will apportion the majority of a class session for this exercise.

Additional Resources:

Here is an example of what one of these might look like:

Milton-Mindmap.jpg

Course Type:

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

E 314L (Honors): Reading Poetry. Topic: Origins after Milton. “A good book,” wrote John Milton, “is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.” Many poets have come to see Milton himself as a daunting master spirit. Indeed, Milton has inspired an entire tradition of criticism that sees all poetry as caught up in the quest to conquer one’s forebears. This honors section of E 314L: Reading Poetry will explore the kind of mastery poets (and also critics of poetry) try to attain by preceding their predecessors. Designed for potential English majors who are involved in Plan I Honors, the course will begin with Milton’s Paradise Lost. We will consider the work as experimental poetry, meant to contribute to an epic tradition by predating it. Even though he arrives later, Milton wants to come first.

The class will then trace this paradoxical struggle for primacy--pressing farther ahead by reaching further back--through a variety of experimental verse written over several centuries. British poetry will be central, but we will also look at some American and (in translation) European and Asian poems. Readings will move from Milton to antiquarian and spiritualist poetry of the 18th century, then to Romantic and Victorian originalism of the 19th. (This last group will allow us to consider connections between Darwin and poetry.) The course will culminate in 20th-century modernist poems, particularly canonical works by Eliot, Pound, and Stein.

We will read primary poetic texts carefully, cultivating sensitivity to their formal features. We will also enlarge our vision by examining works through such critical lenses as those provided by feminism, psychoanalysis, New Historicism, and theology. Secondary readings will be extensive and ambitious for this honors class, as will be our efforts to place each work in its historical context. Also distinctive about the honors section are its expectations for student research. Enrollees will learn to use electronic tools like the OED, the MLA Bibliography, and the DNB, as well as databases such as ECCO, C-19, and LION. These tools will help students to fulfill the course’s writing requirements and will prepare them for further study in the field of English.

Tags:

Wordle as a Tool for Research and Invention

Scott Nelson — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 20:57:22 +0000

Author:

Scott Nelson

Image Credit:

Scott Nelson

Brief Assignment Overview:

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

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Commonplaces

Invention

Visual Rhetoric

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Visualization

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

The goals for this assignment are to use a data visualization technique to focus students' attention on common terms in a controversy.

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

The necessary materials are computer and Internet access for all students. The application being used is free online.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

This assignment asks students to freewrite and use a online data visualizaiton to find common words in a controversy. This list can then later be used to narrow their searches in online public and provate databases.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

There isn't much instructor preparation for this assignment, aside from familiarizing him- or herself with the Wordle interface.

Instructions For Students:

1. To prepare for this activity, I had students freewrite for fifteen to twenty minutes on the topic they chose. Students were to type anything that came to mind about the particular topic, ignoring grammatical mistakes. I stressed that the form didn't matter (lists, bullets, phrases, complete sentences) as long as they got their thoughts down.

2. After the time limit, I gave students another five minutes or so to clean up any spelling mistakes. Grammar didn't matter.

3. We then went to the Wordle website and plugged their text into the box provided under the "Create" tab.

4. Each student was encouraged to randomize the results until they found a visually appealing layout. (This step isn't necessary, but students enjoy it.)

5. We then discussed the wordle results as a class, using students' examples. Using one example, we looked at all of the largest words (the most frequent), and used those to generate synonyms to include in an "or" column on the whiteboard. Different words from the wordle were used to populate other columns.

6. The end result is a map of possible word combinations they could use to research their topic. Combining words in the same column would mean the student would need an "or" operator in the search box; combining words across rows meant the student would use an "and" operator in the search box.

7. Students could print the map to pdf and email it to themselves for later reference.

Evaluation Suggestions:

This was an ungraded assignment, as it was designed to be a fun way to begin research.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students seemed to like the exercise. While they could conceivably use just the freewrites without the wordles, the introduction of the visual element kept may of them attentive to the assignment. Plus, since they emailed the final pdf to themselves, they could use it for reference later.

When I do this exercise next time, I will probably make the freewriting time longer, or possibly give the freewrite as a homework assignment. This will produce more text and search options.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Course Description:

This course is designed to prepare you for the academic writing you do at the University of Texas and writing you will do in your careers and personal lives beyond UT. It is a course designed to teach you not what to think, but how to think on your own. Ultimately, you should learn to be a better thinker, who is able to think critically about topics, other people, and yourself; a better rhetor, who is able to analyze a specific situation and adjust your writing to fit accordingly; and a better communicator, who is able to express ideas effectively.

It will include three units with each unit culminating in a composition and including writing instruction that supports the drafting of that composition. Composition is a broad term including symbolic efforts in a variety of media (including video, audio, and web-design, to name just a few). Many lower-division RHE courses (such as RHE 315 and 312) encourage or even require composition outside of the traditionally imagined prose essay. Nevertheless, the written component of every lower-division RHE class must meet the writing flag requirements as stipulated by the college. These written assignments may include a variety of genres, including narrative, argument, analysis, or critical reflection. (“Creative” writing assignments—plays, fiction, poetry—are not suitable genres for formal writing assignments.) As required by the college, each major writing assignment includes a peer review process. You will also complete informal writing exercises that prepare you to do the writing necessary in your formal assignments.

Tags:

Wordle

Visualization Software

Oral History Group Podcasting Assignment

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:41:56 +0000

Author:

Amanda Moulder

Image Credit:

"Microphones"via Sue Langford's Flikr stream

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students conduct oral history interviews, write papers narrating the interviews, and then work in groups to create a multi-segment “radio show."

Type of Assignment:

Major Course Project

Assignment Length:

Multiple Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Organization

Synthesis

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Invention, style, multimodal composition, digital literacy.

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

A way to record digital audio files for each student in the class

GarageBand software

Access to “This American Life” and “RadioLab” podcasts to discuss with your students as sample “papers”

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Late in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

Students do oral history interviews, write papers narrating the interviews, and then work in groups to create a multi-segment “radio show."

Students must work together to discover the best possible way of combining their individual papers into a podcast. They must also learn to use GarageBand. Finally, recording their papers gets students to think about concerns such as word choice, syntax, and overall style.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Familiarity with the rechnology and podcasting genre will help. See "Instructions for Students" below for detailed explanation of how the assignment was implemented.

Instructions For Students:

STEP ONE - Writing Assignment Description:

Paper III Assignment Sheet: Analyzing Culture/Oral History. (1500-1750 words)

This assignment requires you go out into the world and find a story worth recording. It’s a difficult task, really. Your first step is to conduct oral history research and make a record of interviews you conduct. You need to listen closely to how individuals process and frame their beliefs and/or respond to what you ask. You will nee to determine the overall purpose of your essay and make the stakes of the essay clear. Why is this story worth telling? To do this you will place the interviewees’ experiences and/or perspective within a larger historical, social, or political context OR you use the interviewees’ experiences and/or perspectives to make an argument about a larger historical or social context.

Prior to this assignment, we will read Paul Thompson, “The Voice of the Past: Oral History,” The Voice of the Past: Oral History (1988) and Hugo Slim and Paul Thompson, with Olivia Bennett and Nigel Cross, “Ways of Listening,” Listening for Change: Oral History and Development (1993). We will also have an expert in oral history research come in to talk about how to conduct interviews.

Although this particular assignment is a 6-8 page paper, it will also require that you record and save the interview(s) you conduct as mp3 files because you will use sound bytes from these interviews in your Unit IV podcast assignment.

STEP TWO - In-class Exercise:

Student “speed-dated” their papers. I put them into groups of three and they talked about how their papers were related for seven minutes. After 7 minutes, the groups rotated so that each students was in a new group. We repeated this exercise as many times as class time would allow, so that by the end of class, each student had an idea of who they might want to work with for the podcast assignment.

STEP THREE - Paper revisions:

I wanted my students to think about sentence structure in their revisions. I spent one class day talking about the following grammatical forms that their papers used and we talked about how they might revise their papers at the sentence-level. The following sentences were some of the examples that I used in class (the first two are adapted from in-class exercises that Patricia Roberts-Miller has done in her own classes):

Passive Voice, Nominalization, and Verb Choice:

Hubert was bitten by Chester. (The agent is the predicate). Biting happened between Chester and Hubert.

It seems as though the writer does not know which dog bit the other. So, she turns the verb into a noun through the process that grammarians call nominalization. This happens to your sentence when you really don’t know the agent.

Biting happened on the part of Chester toward the dog of Hubert.

The writer of this sentence knows the agent of the action, but doesn’t show the action in a concrete way, which makes the sentence unclear. If you are Chester’s attorney, this is your sentence, but it’s not rhetorically effective if you want your audience to understand what happened.

Using Punctuation Rhetorically

The family held a reunion on the Fourth of July, and everyone had a great time. vs. The family held a reunion on the Fourth of July; everyone had a great time.

Both sentences are grammatically correct according to standard rules, but the semicolon produces a tighter connection and give emphasis to the second clause.

My favorite activities are skiing, playing golf, and bowling; unfortunately, they cost more than my budget can stand. vs. Unfortunately, my favorite activities—skiing, playing golf, and bowling—cost more than my budget can stand.

The second sentence is tighter, and the dash acts as an attention-getter. It tells the reader: “Pay attention. This is important!”

STEP FOUR - Podcast Assignment:

(45-60 minutes total)

For this assignment, you will work with two or three of your classmates to create a podcast in the style of the radio shows (“This American Life” and “RadioLab”) we have listened to this semester. Initially, you will work as a group to discuss the pieces you wrote during the semester, decide on a target audience (or audiences) for your podcast, play with how to frame one piece per group member together in a cohesive way, and create a schedule and series of task assignments for group members.

Your next step will be to revise (dramatically) your chosen piece of writing so that it more clearly reflects the theme or idea that your group has chosen to explore in the podcast and the target audience for the podcast.

Then, your group will write a title for your podcast, a short introduction to your show, short transitions between the pieces in the show, and a conclusion to your show. You will be allowed some class time for the planning, but should use this time to create a schedule of deadlines for these parts of the assignment and divide up the labor evenly between group members.

You will use personal audio recorders and the GarageBand software in the DWRL lab to record and edit these audio stories. The podcasts will incorporate sound bytes from interview. You may want to include other sound effects that add depth, dimension, affect, or comic relief to your stories.

Evaluation Suggestions:

Rubric for Paper 3 (I had the students read “The Transom Review” and they created this rubric based on that reading):

The story you tell must:

Give background, as well as consider carefully where to start and how to give background.
Make clear the stakes of the story.
Either build up central conflict so that the point of the story is apparent, or directly state the point.
Strike a balance between the big ideas (reporting) and the personal narrative (interview, quotes)

Students will get two grades for the podcast, one for their individual contribution and the quality of their revision, and a group grade for the overall cohesiveness of the podcast, the quality of the transitions, and how well it addresses the target audience they selected.

Additional Resources:

Ira Glass' "The Transom Review"

The DWRL's Guide for Podcasting in Pedagogy written by Kevin Bourque

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Intermediate Writing Course

Course Description:

This assignment was implemented in an intermediate rhetoric and composition course.

Tags:

Revising/Drafting/Editing With Wikis

detweiler — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:19:32 +0000

Author:

Eric Detweiler

Image Credit:

Eric Detweiler

Brief Assignment Overview:

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.

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Software

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

For my RHE 306 (introductory composition) course, I created a course wiki to which students posted numerous in-class activities and homework assignments. I find wiki particularly advantageous for group activities, as students can create pages that all group members can edit/revise/view/etc. (which GoogleDocs can also allow, but in a different manner). A wiki can thus be a useful space for foregrounding the collaborative nature of writing. Also worth noting is the “page history” feature of PBWorks, the wiki platform I use, which can allow both students and you, the instructor, to see how a particular page developed.

This lesson plan provides a way for students to think carefully about the rhetorical choices they make when summarizing a text by collaborating on the creation of a trio of wiki pages. The lesson plan is also designed to help students learn the difference between drafting, revising, and editing—three stages of the writing process we have already discussed as this lesson plan unfolds.

Media Requirements:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Required Materials:

Computers with internet access, preferably one per student; a course wiki (as mentioned above, I use PBWorks).

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

I divide students into groups of 3.* Each group is assigned one chapter from the RHE 306 first-year forum book, and each member of that group is responsible for composing a “research summary” (RS) of their assigned chapter. (RSs are one-page summaries of a source’s argument, and are ideally free from the summarizer’s opinion about that argument.) I have students compose their RSs as Word documents, then copy and paste them into the body of a wiki page. I also ask them to choose a distinct color for their wiki-page summaries. Below is a screenshot of a student’s RS. The student has turned it blue using the bottom-left button in the formatting toolbars above the text window.

Once each student's research summary (RS) is drafted and uploaded, I assign her/his RS to another group member to revise—for instance, if Jaime, Harold, and Terry are a group, Jaime is assigned to revise Terry’s RS, Harold is to revise Jaime’s, and Terry to revise Harold’s. I ask each student to make her/his revisions in a different color than the original draft of the RS.

Finally, I reassign the revised RS to the third group member, who is charged with editing (i.e., Terry drafts, Jaime revises Terry’s draft, and Harold edits the revised draft).

Since deletions obviously don’t have a color, I also have students record any removed phrases, words, punctuation, etc., at the bottom of the page.

The timing on this whole process can differ—you can assign it as homework and have each stage due on a different day, or you can have the revision and editing stages take place during a class meeting.

After the editing work is done, I have the original drafter look at her/his revised and edited RS. I then let the groups have internal discussions about how they made the choices they did at each stage: Why did Harold choose to quote different lines than Jaime during his drafting process? What led Terry to cut the first line of Harold’s second paragraph? If you want something tangible, you can have students write out their reflections: Where did their group members original drafts differ? What rhetorical choices did their group members make that led to these differences? What differences in opinion were revealed in what group members chose to revise about each other’s RSs, and did any revisions seem especially effective? Etc. Broadly speaking, I like these questions to get students thinking about writing—even summary—as a rhetorical process rather than a fill-in-the-blanks sort of task.

*If the total number of students in the class isn't divisible by three, I'll create groups of four, but each group member will only engage with two other group members' summaries as revisor/editor.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

At this point in the semester, my students are already familiar with the wiki and the process for creating wiki pages. We have also discussed the differences between drafting, revising, and editing, which I roughly define as the following:

Drafting: The creation of new written material—getting words on the page for the first time, similar to invention.
Revising: Working with the words you’ve already composed (moving paragraphs or sentences around, rewriting phrases for clarity, deleting extraneous sentences/paragraphs/pages), which can include some new writing (scrapping and recomposing your introduction, or adding a new sentence at the end of a paragraph to better establish that paragraph’s purpose).
Editing: Cleaning up/polishing your grammar, spelling, citation, etc. (removing commas, adding in-text citations, changing “th” to “the”).

We will have also already covered methods of forwarding a source’s argument, particularly the relative merits of summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation.

Instructions For Students:

Relatively similar to the full instructions above--mostly, assign the students the chapter summary as homework in advance, have them post it to the wiki before class begins the day of the activity, and put them into (ideally) groups of three. From there, instruct them to revise one of there group member's summaries using a particular color of text, the edit the third group member's summary with yet another particular color. At the end, have them discuss why they made the specific revision and editorial choices they did and discuss what they found particularly effective about the group's summaries.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I generally grade this assignment on a pass/fail basis—as long as the student completed all three stages, they get credit.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students do occasionally find the process tedious, especially by the editing stage. As an alternative, the original drafts could be shorter. Really, one paragraph of drafted material could be enough given how extensive this activity can become.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Course Description:

Rhetoric 306 is a course in argumentation that situates rhetoric as an art of civic discourse. It is designed to enhancestudents' ability to analyze the various positions held in any public debateand to advocate positions effectively. Students work in this course willhelp them advance the critical writing and reading needed to succeed in coursesfor their major and university degree.

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Workshopping Student Claims for Close Reading

Cate Blouke — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:46:13 +0000

Author:

Cate Blouke

Image Credit:

"Reading (30th/52)" by skippyjon

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students are given a passage to close read and asked to compose a short analysis paper. After submitting the paper, all claims/thesis statements are compiled anonymously and discussed in an in-class workshop.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This exercise is designed to introduce students to the skills of close reading and thesis/claim formation. It also eases them into peer review and provides the oppotunity to discuss what makes a strong thesis.

Media Requirements:

No Classroom Technology Required

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Media Console/Projector

Required Materials:

This exercise can feasibly be completed without any classroom technology. That being said, it works well with a media console/projector and a computer - so that the list of claims can be presented to the class. I did, nonetheless, make hand outs with all of the claims to give each student.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

After practicing some close reading as a class, students are given a short writing assignment requiring that they analyze a pre-determined passage of text. For my course, I used a speech from a Shakespeare play (The Tempest) as this offers a particularly rich source in a minimal number of lines. It's important that the passage be fairly short and that the students all work individually on the same passage. A short passage encourages them to read extremely closely, and having all of them analyze the same passage will help to highlight the varying ways of reading that each student will bring to a text.

After students have submitted their assignments, I then cull each paper for its major claim or thesis statement regarding the passage. For this kind of short writing assignment, I ask my students to directly begin the paper with their claims - which makes it easy to extract the thesis, and it encourages students to be direct and to the point. I then compile all of the claims into a hand out (keeping them anonymous), and we discuss the claims during the following class period.

While I have mixed feelings about workshops in general, this sort of focused and highly anonymous workshop allows students to see each other's work in a low-stakes and informative manner. I ask them to pick out some of the "stronger" claims and identify the characteristics of such claims. We also discuss how other claims might have been improved.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

It's particularly important to keep this exercise anonymous and not to favor particular thesis statements in the handout. I scatter the thesis at random - avoiding an alphabeticl (by student) recreation or a list that moves from "good" to "bad." I find it more useful to let the students evaluate the quality o the claims than to feed them my own thoughts. By pointing out to the class that we're looking at the work of their peers and that this is a learning exercise, I've found that most students are kind and thoughtful in their responses. It helps the students who are less certain of their writing abilities or less comfortable making claims, by giving them concrete examples from a text with which they are familiar. It also helps the stronger writers articulate what makes a thesis "strong" or "weak." (I try to avoid the evaluative labels of good and bad, in favor of strong and weak).

Instructions For Students:

Now that we’ve had some practice close reading in class, it’s time to apply these skills on your own. For this assignment you will write a 1-2 page single-spaced close reading of the passage below, offering your own analysis of the passage’s significance both on its own and in the context of the work as a whole.

Your reading should take the form of a mini-essay, or an excerpt from a longer work. Avoid a long general introduction, as that would come off as mere space-filler in this type of short assignment. Begin with a claim or thesis stating what insight your reading will provide into the work as a whole, and then offer evidence from the passage to support your claim.

The bulk of your paper should consist of a close examination of the passage given. It is not enough to merely note interesting syntax, images, tone, etc. You must connect these details back to your claim/thesis for your reader, and show how the language of the passage expands, contradicts, or otherwise complicates your initial insight.

In a paper this short there is no need for a summary at the end. However, you should try to say what the implications of your reading are in a manner that is more complex (because your reader knows more now) than your original claim/thesis. You may want to suggest other passages in the text that would be useful complements, or make a larger claim about the author's argument.

Papers should be MLA formatted (though single-spaced), with your last name and page numbers in the header, and with the passage included at the top of the page. Please see the student example for both formatting and content guidelines.

ANTONIO

Ay, sir; where lies that? if 'twere a kibe,

'Twould put me to my slipper: but I feel not

This deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,

That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they

And melt ere they molest! Here lies your brother,

No better than the earth he lies upon,

If he were that which now he's like, that's dead;

Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it,

Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus,

To the perpetual wink for aye might put

This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who

Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,

They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;

They'll tell the clock to any business that

We say befits the hour.

Evaluation Suggestions:

The in-class exercise is not evaluated, while papers are graded according to instructor's discretion/rubric

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Most of my students found this exercise extremely helpful - both because they were able to see a variety of different readings of the same text, and because they were provided a series of concrete examples of what a "claim" or "thesis" might look like for a close reading. Particularly for students who are less comfortable with close reading, this is a fruitful opening exercise.

Additional Resources:

Here are some of the student examples (provided with permission) written about the passage above:

Claims about Antonio’s Speech in The Tempest (Act II, Scene 1)

In this passage from The Tempest, Shakespeare portrays Antonio as a crafty man who thinks of nothing but power and who uses words to manipulate others.

The above passage from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest underscores the idea of power, and the attempts to assuage the consciences of those who choose its usurpation.

In this passage, Antonio is described as cold hearted and mean person, and he does not value others especially who are obstacle to his success.

Within The Tempest there is a constant struggle for power between the characters. A common channel the characters use in trying to achieve this power over one another is manipulation.

This passage from Shakespeare’s The Tempest is rife with strong connotations, imagery, and irony, providing a rich subtext to the great opportunity laid at the feet of Sebastian, who up to this point was simply a source of bitter humor in the play. There is no more insightful example of power struggle in The Tempest than in Sebastian’s swing in temperament before and after Antonio’s cold reply.

In this passage from Act 2 Scene 1 of The Tempest, Antonio’s alternating pronouns and powerful imagery highlight Antonio’s different point of views between his inferiors and himself, and his ability to manipulate those around him with his words.

Antonio in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest proves to be an honest, considerate character. This notion appears most apparently through Antonio’s relationship with Sebastian. Shakespeare augments Antonio’s personable personality through the character’s actions, word choice and syntax.

In this passage from The Tempest, in which Antonio responds to Sebastian in regards to his “conscience,” Antonio resolves to persuade Sebastian that it is okay for him to murder, as he himself has no “conscience” after having done the same for the throne of Milan. Antonio persuades by example.

In this passage Antonio justifies that circumstances, derived by personal feelings towards remorse, can define the meaning of guilt in different ways. Here, Antonio is proposing a different world to Sebastian; a world without the feeling of guilt.

Many people would claim that Antonio is the obvious villain in The Tempest. This may be true from Prospero’s point of view, but that does mean that Antonio is not the typical evil villain. In fact, he is simply a true realist and this passage helps prove that point.

Antonio’s passage proves that Antonio is indeed an evil conspirator who does not feel bad about uprooting his brother Prospero and would not feel bad about killing the King of Naples, Alonso, for the power that would accompany it.

Course Type:

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

I used this assignment in my introduction to literary studies course, E314J Literature and Theater.

The broad goals of this course are to introduce students to the basic tools of literary analysis and to develop students’ own critical writing. No expertise in literary criticism or theater is presumed.

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Essay Revision with Automated Textual Analysis

Michael Widner — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:47:21 +0000

Author:

Michael Widner

Image Credit:

Screenshot of Voyeur interface by Michael Widner

Brief Assignment Overview:

This assignment uses Voyeur to analyze word frequencies and word distribution in student writing to help students see the paper’s thesis and how the argument progresses without reading the paper.

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

Single Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Arrangement

Rhetorical Analysis

Style

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Remediation

Visualization

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Gain an objective, computer-assisted understanding of one's writing. Learn how to use Voyeur for textual analysis.

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Computer, Voyeur software, student writing

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Full Assignment Description:

I like to discover and play with digital humanities tools. One I recently discovered is Voyeur, which creates word clouds and word frequency graphs for texts you provide it. Despite the warning by Jacob Harris that we should be wary of word clouds, they can serve as a gentle introduction to automated text analysis for students. While experimenting with Voyeur, I wondered how I could best use this tool to expose my students to the ways the digital humanities are transforming how we interact with and study literature. Rather than explore a literary text, however, I decided that it might be interesting to see if textual analysis can help with the process of revision. My hope is that this exercise might make students see the value of such tools in a different way and see their own writing as texts available to (and requiring) interrogation.

Voyeur is an easy tool to use. You simply upload or paste a text and click “Reveal”. You’re then provided with a workbench-like screen that starts with a word cloud and copy of the text you submitted. You can also upload multiple documents in many common file formats such as Microsoft Word or PDF. Doing so allows Voyeur to create a corpus of texts that it can then compare for word frequencies. Voyeur also provides two pre-defined corpora: one of Shakespeare’s plays (which would be fun for a course on his works) and another of a humanist listserv archive. The initial word cloud includes every word in the document, which is often not very useful because of common words like “the,” but the tool provides a pre-programmed list of “stop words” that will cause Voyeur to redraw the word cloud with those words omitted. Clicking on any word in the cloud will provide a graph of the relative frequency of that word. The tool also provides information about vocabulary density, distinctive words, length of documents, and a number of other statistical details worth investigating.

Rather than delve into the possibilities some of the more advanced statistical measures provided, I decided to focus on word clouds and word frequencies when I use this tool with students; those two elements seem the most accessible to students who probably lack experience with automated textual analysis. I also want to focus on seeing if this approach can help address one of the biggest and most prevalent problems I encounter in student writing: the difficulty stating a clear thesis and then staying focused on that thesis throughout the paper. I wondered, then, if a word cloud and graphs of word frequencies might allow a way to visualize the actual (rather than implicit or imagined) topics of a paper and their appearance and disappearance in different sections. I came up with this exercise as a result of these ideas. Note: I teach in a classroom that provides a computer to each student. Still, this exercise could, with only a little effort, be repeated with laptops or outside of class time. Voyeur does allow users to export all data, so it would be fairly simple to share work.

First, have students upload their papers to Voyeur. If they have multiple revisions of a paper, all the better, as it allows a comparison of the iterations of their writing. After setting the stop words and exploring the different word frequencies of their own work, students should then trade and look at a peer’s work. This switch allows the students to avoid being biased by what they think the paper is about and instead focus on what Voyeur shows. Here are a few instructions I have come up with for students to ask:

Use Voyeur to see if you can get an idea of the paper’s thesis and how the argument progresses without reading the paper.

What can you determine about the paper's organization?
What words are most common? What words would you expect to be most common based on the thesis?
What words rise and fall (or do not) in frequency together? Would you expect them to do so?
How can you revise your paper so that the most important words to the argument appear more frequently or in more effective combinations?

I have tested this technique on some of my own writing and found that it does, in fact, reveal some interesting patterns. For example, in one essay I wrote, I juggle three major topics, which rise and fall in sequence through the paper. It was surprising to me to see just how regularly the paper followed that pattern, in fact, and confirmed that I had organized it in a logical manner that accords with my argument. What other uses might you suggest for Voyeur? Are there other questions you think I could pose for students as they use this tool to analyze their own writing? Do you know of other tools that might be useful for this exercise?

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Play around with Voyeur first.

Instructions For Students:

Download the file containing your essay.

Go to the Voyeur website

Upload the file via the "Upload" link.

Hit "Reveal".

Select the gear icon in the upper left box titled "Cirrus". Select the "Taporware (English)" stop words list to remove common words like "the", "a", "and", etc. from the word cloud.

Shrink the text-view window by clicking the arrows on the bar on the far right. This action will reveal several new windows, including a word frequency chart.

Explore various word frequency combinations to see if the most common words in your paper match your thesis, to see how different, important words vary in frequency throughout the paper, and how word combinations appear (or do not).

Have a peer look at the graphs you've created and see if they can determine the main topics of your paper from them. Trade places with your peer; explore one another's texts using Voyeur to see if you can get an idea of the paper's thesis and how the argument progresses without reading the paper.

What can you determine about your paper's organization?

What words are most common? What words would you expect to be most common based on your thesis?

What words rise and fall (or do not) in frequency together? Would you expect them to do so?

How can you revise your paper so that the most important words to your argument appear more frequently or in more effective combinations?

Evaluation Suggestions:

None

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Intermediate Writing Course

Introductory Writing Course

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

Why do we read literature? What, if anything, do we get out of literature that makes it important? What cognitive faculties to we use when we read and how do those faculties effect or even determine our interpretations? In this course, we will explore these and related questions in order to introduce students to the study of English literature through criticism focused on how the mind works. We will emphasize, in particular, the rapidly growing field of cognitive literary studies, which applies the findings of contemporary cognitive science and neuroscience to traditional humanities questions about the nature of literature, the practice of reading, and the possibilities of interpretation. We will read selections from some of the leading cognitive scientists and cognitive literary theorists and test their theories and methods through our own interpretations of primary literary texts. We will also discuss the history and practice of psychoanalytic critical approaches like Freudian, Lacanian, and feminist theories. We will read an eclectic mixture of literary works including contemporary science fiction, classic novels and short stories, and medieval and Renaissance poetry.

As an introduction to the study of English literature and preparation for upper-division English courses at UT, this course will also focus on developing the fundamental skills of close reading, critical writing, research, and critical analysis. In other words, this course is not primarily about psychology. Instead, that is the lens through which we will view our primary object of study: literature. We will receive an introduction to various formal, historical, and cultural approaches to literary texts, all of which will use some form of psychology. We will also learn how to use the Oxford English Dictionary and other resources central to literary studies.

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