1. Comment on a Classmate’s Blog Post (10-25 min)
Think back also to our discussion about logos, pathos, ethos and purpose statements/memory/”telling younger people what to do”. Can logos/pathos/ethos be clearly separated? How? When should we and shouldn’t we be explicit about our intent behind our message? Can we always be clear about what our intent is even to us? For instance, a meme on the internet: might that just be “entertainment”? Or can it be something else? Something about identification (i.e., reaffirming who the reader is by their enjoyment of the meme: Yes, I find this funny because I am a gamer)? What if something has many purposes? Do you state all of those? Does it depend on genre? These are questions I have based on our discussion, and they need not be your same questions. But I want you to be in the habit of asking questions through reflection, trying to work through trying to find answers, even tentatively, so you can start to be more self-aware as you write and revise with a public audience in mind. What didn’t you say in class that you had time to process since then? Do you think about your blog post differently since you wrote your draft? What about some things your classmates wrote? Spend some time to think about these things. Start by sketching some things out on a piece of paper. If you are ready to comment on another student’s post, go ahead and start drafting it. If not, finish up and have it posted by next class.
2. Peer response. (30 min)
Follow these questions as guidelines: What sparks your interest most? What excites you? Name at least one thing, but don’t limit yourself there. Be prepared to explain why. Did anything surprise you as you read? What? Name at least one thing, and be prepared to explain why. How can something in this piece (its style, its organization, its plan and order of documents, its chosen genres, its orientation toward its issue, the chosen target audience, etc.) help you in your own campaign? Finally, choose 1-2 sentences that you really liked. What did you admire about them? How did it fit in around the other sentences? Why was it appropriate there? Was there a certain rhythm to it? What? Something about the word choice? What? About the structure to that sentence? Or maybe the varied structure of sentences around that given sentence?
3. Style (30-45 min)
What is style? Style is notoriously difficult to define. Many elements of style are unconscious, we don’t even think about them when we write. Style takes place at the sentence level, with each stylistic choice assembling with others to create tonal and genre convention elements of a larger piece. Think back to roasting and how Jeff Ross’s choices both influenced the tone of his jokes in order to build the relationship to his audience that he wanted and also conformed to a pattern that an audience has come to expect from a roast.
Find an example of 2-3 sentences from at least two of the documents that are different (e.g., one longer and the other shorter, one uses second person the other uses third person). Use what you know about sentences from years of writing them (y’all are highly literate and educated, don’t be shy about this)! Why may they be different? Because of audience? Genre? What do you think?
Also, consider the “tone” of each document. If you had to list characteristics of the document based on the “tone,” what would they be? List as many as you can and think about how these characteristics relate to individual sentences or chunks of sentences.
For both activities, do these differences in sentence style and tone have anything to do with the age of the target audience, the genre of the document, or both? Or something else? All audiences will have certain expectations of style according to the genre and the rhetorical situation.
Finally, go back to the sentence(s) you chose from your partner. Were you drawn to it for any of the reasons we just discussed?
Transportation for elderly.
http://www.eldercare.gov/Public/Resources/Brochures/docs/N4a-transportation-brochure-access.pdf
Alcohol and teens
https://www.toosmarttostart.samhsa.gov/teens/
Human rights and children
https://www.unicef.org/rightsite/files/uncrcchilldfriendlylanguage.pdf
4. Break (15 min)
5. Images (30-45 min)
Questions for each: What are all the possible effects these images have on reader? (e.g., explanatory, pathos, supplementary). What effect does the image have as is? How might that effect change if the picture was shifted to the right? What if it was moved from its current location to the bottom of the page or document? Etc. Be prepared to offer an explanation of how the effect of the image would change.
News articles:
http://uproxx.com/life/dragonflies-fake-death-to-get-away-from-males/2/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2129185-female-dragonflies-fake-sudden-death-to-avoid-male-advances/
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/female-dragonflies-fake-deaths-avoid-annoying-males/
Brochure:
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/pdf/swimming/resources/share-fun-not-germs-508c.pdf
White Paper:
https://www.womenshealth.gov/files/documents/white-paper-opioid-508.pdf p. 6, p. 15.
Blog Post, social media post:
Memes:
Other genres:
Infographic
Narrated moving image thing (What was this called again, Graeme?)
6. Studio time, Draft of First Campaign Piece. (30-45 min)
What might you do first? Due 5/31. Who is your audience and why are they your audience?
How will you use that information to influence what you make for this first campaign piece for 5/31? How do you integrate thinking about design of your document? About usage of images? About style and language? Start working and I want to hear some thoughts as I come around.
7. Admin. (5-15 min)
Next reading, next blog post, workshopping Proposals next class, make sure to have comment on a classmate’s 5/17 blog post by 5/24 as well.