Reflecting Back (10-20 min)
Below is what is on the handout (click hyperlink to access) I am passing out to you.
Background: As a way to prepare for the “pedagogical object” assignment that we’ll start in November, I want you to get in the habit of reflecting back on what you have learned so far, what you value, and what you find engaging about the practice of writing for a public. You’ll turn this into me, but I am not using it to evaluate you. I will scan these and return them to you all. Once you have all your sheets together by November, you can start to put them all together to help construct your group’s pedagogical object.
Directions: Spend about 10 minutes going back through your notes, through the lesson plans on the website, and through the work you have written (e.g., blog posts, comments, public interest narrative, white paper) and list out what you think you have learned and/or value about public writing. Use the following questions as a guide (and use back of page if necessary):
- What is public writing?
- What is important to know about public writing when you try to write for a public?
- Where am I growing and/or need to grow as a writer in respect to professional and public writing?
When finished, post your thoughts at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wVrZQoMQ_61Q4Cmg_aGcR4uQRLAv9Rs5v-ynlzKDAV8/edit?usp=sharing
Rhetoric, Publics, Style, Audience, Genre: Letter (25-35 min)
Apply what you have learned so far (and what you already know) to our first major assignment!
Take a moment to read your partner’s letter. Let these three prompts guide your reading:
- Jot down any questions you have about the topic, the ideal solution, and the realistic solution to the problem. What do you want to know more about? Is there something the writer might not be thinking about?
- On the sentence level: how does it communicate a problem? Pick a few examples. How does it communicate a solution? Ditto. …want to focus on sentences here. Are there some “MAYA” moves (think back to last week) or are there moments where you can find syntactical or lexical moves that are well suited for you as a reader? (as in, is there an audience awareness here at the sentence level?)
- What possibilities are there for a revision of this letter? Is there a sort of document and rhetorical situation that the information and rhetorical moves made in the letter could be adapted for? What are some ideas you have?
Underline and take notes!
When everyone is finished, talk out your responses to your partner’s letter. Point to specific aspects of the letter when speaking with your partner
The deadline for submitting is tomorrow. I do this intentionally, because I think you all learn a lot from having another pair of eyes on your writing. This first assignment is a little different because I’ll be reading mostly for possibilities on turning this document into something for a wider public rather than one peer. I will also have some comments on what we have mostly spent time on in the early going: sentence-level moves that consider your influence on your audience.
Campaign Planning (10-20 min)
Before we head to break, I wanted to talk with you about your campaign plan draft next week. Also wanted to give you a little in-class time to coordinate with your group. Will be same workflow as it is for all of the bigger assignments; that is, come to class with hard copies and have peers read. Since this is group writing, make sure each of you still brings in a copy so everyone can have a copy. Would like printed out copies like we did for today.
Campaign plan is big on logistics: how will your writing influence your audience? What do you need to do? How will things circulate? Why? Etc.
Below is the prompt for the campaign plan:
First Draft of Collaborative Campaign Plan. 500-750 words. In this assignment, you’ll have to think about what your stance is for this problem, you’ll have to think about what evidence warrants this stance, what “public” you are addressing, you’ll have to begin to map out what rhetorical moves you can make to insert your (supported) stance into your selected public’s consciousness. With your letter completed, you can use what you learned from that to work through this assignment. Think of this as another “draft” of your proposal, only instead of trying to prove the merit of your issue, you are focusing much more on the merit of your decisions you have sketched out so far. These are the sorts of questions worth asking to help you write your campaign plan:
-What attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, behaviors would you like to change or encourage?
-Who do you hope to reach? Why is this audience key to addressing your topic?
-What kinds of documents will your group be producing?
-Multiple media and compositions are typically used to address modern issues. What media will you use?-What modes (e.g., sound, static image, video, alphanumeric writing)?
-How will your documents reach your target audience? How will they see it, how will it get to them? In other words, how will you attempt to circulate these documents?
-What “themes” might bleed over across documents and how will you make that happen?
-Have a rationale. Why did you choose this kind of writing and media? For instance, why did you decide that your audience would respond better to a poster rather than a video? Why deliver this document at this time? Why these documents in this order? Why that document in that medium? Why do you believe your strategies for circulating your writing are effective?
-What have other people and organizations produced about this issue? What genres of writing? What sorts of audiences have they targeted? What media was used? What modes (sound, image, video, alphanumeric writing, etc.)? How might you adapt/build on what others have done? Or, how might you do something very different?
Remember, this is a first draft— a first attempt at working through some initial ideas.
Break (15 min)
Kicking off Unit 2 (Mixing Modes): Visual Rhetoric (30-45 min)
Unit 2 is all about rhetorically intervening with various modes of expression. So far, we have mostly talked about alphabetic writing. Over the next few weeks, we will talk about alphanumeric writing, using sound recording, using video, thinking about design principles, and, today, talking about the rhetorical power of images.
How do we make meaning out of images? Let’s look at the “same” image in two different contexts. This first one is the very first image of Captain America for the cover of the first issue of the comic. What meaning does this image of this comic book cover convey?
Try to break it down: what do the colors say? The gestures? Facial expressions? The background imagery? What sorts of meanings are at play here? How do they work together?
How about this next one? (pull up file)
Again, try to break it down: what do the colors say? The gestures? Facial expressions? The background imagery? What sorts of meanings are at play here? How do they work together?
Here is an article that talks about the recent reactions to the plot twist in the Captain America saga
What sorts of “meanings” does Captain America provide in both contexts? Where is there shared meaning? Where are there divergences? Why?
Can images provide more than one meaning? How?
Activity: Look again at your letter. Let’s draw it. No words. Scratch that, you get as many as four words if you absolutely need them, but try not to use any. How can you convey as much as the “same” message as you possibly can of your first campaign piece? Get out some paper, and (hopefully I remembered to bring colored pencils) add some color as needed.
In groups of 3 or 4, share what you made! Don’t stress about how “good” it is. That’s not the point of the exercise. The point is to see what we can make possible when we try to use a different mode of expression for a similar (or same?) meaning. Talk about the choices you made and explain why you made them. When finished sharing, vote on which image you want to represent your group. Each group member should have something to say about the image.
You could make a campaign piece that is heavily visual, but it is also true that we often mix modes. Let’s look back at some pieces we already looked at that relied on images. Why? How do those images interact with the language around them? How do they contribute to the overall rhetoric of the entire piece?
Pamphlet on transportation for the elderly
Return to your image. How might you go about using it or an adaptation of it? Why? Could you have it stand alone or might you take parts that could be the foundation of something to integrate with alphanumeric writing?
Admin (5-15 min)
-The campaign plan draft is due next class. Just like today, I’d like printed out copies in class. Because this is a group assignment, make sure your group is on the same page about the in-progress draft that you are bringing in. Bring a copy for each member of the group (if group of 2, then 2 copies; if group of 3, then 3 copies).