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last.updated 8.7.08
Minor Assignments
Purpose
While minor
assignments may seem like "busy work," if they are approached
properly students can use them as an opportunity to pre-write for their
assignments and get feedback from the instructor.
For each of these minor assignments, you will compose a 250-300 word response and post it on the Blackboard Discussion Board. Because of the brevity of each entry, you will want to work on making your point breifly and choosing the most important details to support it. While these are informal writings, you should try to practice good grammar and citation practices.
One of the first lessons you will have in the class will be on the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos) and the rhetorical canon (arrangement, invention, style, memory, delivery).
For each rhetorical analysis entry, you will find one text to analyze. This can be any text, from a personal letter to a newspaper article to a short story. You are, however, encourage to choose something related to the topic you will write about for the Final Text or will help you choose a problem or issue for that assignment. Once you have chosen a text, you will...
- provide a citation using MLA or APA (not part of the word count)
- identify the author's argument
- explain how the author uses two of the rhetorical concepts above to be persausive; the concepts you use for the first two entries should not be used for the two, and the concepts used for the first two entries should not be used for the last one
Post your entries to the Blackboard Discussion Board on...
Progressive Annotated Bibliography (PAB)
When people want to learn more about a particular topic, they often do research looking at multiple ways that people are composing wabout this topic. The annotated bibliography give you an opportunity to expand your knowledge on the problem or issue you have chosen–or, at the very least, a related and relevant topic.
Once you have chosen your problem or issue, you will find five sources for the composition of your Proposal. Three of these sources will be 1) a popular opinion piece, 2) a popular report of research or an event, or 3) an academic article, and will be the subject of your three bibliography entries. These texts should be different from those used in the Rhetorical Analysis. For each entry you will...
- provide a citation using MLA or APA (not part of the word count)
- identify the author's argument
- summarize how the author supports his argument
- review the value of the text and explain why you have provided this review
Post your entries to the Blackboard Discussion Board on...
Grammar and writing are often discussed in terms of right and wrong, but grammar can also be described as stylistically effective or ineffective. This analysis gives you the opportunity to examine how other writers are using grammar to create a certain effect on their audience.
Start by choosing a text, it can be one of the six texts from your previous entry. Read through the text paying close attention to how the writer uses grammar stylistically. For your entry, you will...
- provide a citation using MLA or APA (not part of the word count)
- briefly argue whether the writer uses grammar effectively (consider the purpose and the audience of the text)
- support your argument with an example sentence and explain why this sentence exemplifies your point
- revise another sentence from the text and explain how it might change how the audience reads the sentence or the entire text
Post your entries to the Blackboard Discussion Board on...
Criteria
Logistic:
- 250-300 words, please note this is an exercise in detailed brevity
- single-spaced
- Due on the days listed above. Use the Blackboard Discussion Board to post your entry to the instructor and the class. You will submit all of your entries in the body of a discussion board post. If you cut and paste your entries into Blackboard and the program shifts your text, do not sweat it.
- evaluation based upon minor assignments scale
In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...
- a sense of audience–do you provide enough information and detail about the text you are studying that your audience gets a clear sense of the article's content? Likewise do you only highlight important information?
- an understanding of rhetoric, research, and grammar
- do you provide ample examples from the texts?
- appropriate use of conventions, including MLA, APA, or an appropriate citation formatting