Author Archives: JSylvor

Posts: 37 (archived below)
Comments: 132

Assignments – Week 11

Posted on November 2, 2020 by JSylvor
  1. Review my comments on your Rhetorical Analysis Essays.  You can access your essay by going to turnitin.com, clicking on your essay, and waiting for my comments to load.  Please be sure you have read my comments carefully before your scheduled conference.
  2. Prepare for your scheduled conference by filling out this form:  Mid-Semester Review.  Be sure to complete and submit it before your conference.
  3. Read and Respond to your classmates’ Gen Z interviews.  Read through the Gen Z posts and leave comments on at least 3 posts.  What comments surprised you?  Which respondents voiced perspectives that resonate with your own feelings about this election?  What did you learn from reading these posts and from conducting your own interviews?  Some of you did an amazing job with this assignment, so I hope you will all take the time to read through these posts.  Your comments should appear by Wednesday, November 4th.
  4. Identify possible research areas.  For your next major project this semester, you will be working in groups to compile Annotated Research Guides to some of the most important issues of our day.  We will be discussing the assignment in detail next week, but in the meantime, please click on the link to access a list of possible subjects.  Review the list, and send me an email ( [email protected]) in which you identify your first, second, and third choices from this list.  Your choices must be sent by Friday, November 6th. Anyone who does not submit preferences will be assigned to a  research group randomly.
  5. Reminder:  Because we are having conferences this week, we will NOT be having our regular Wednesday Zoom call.

 

 

Posted in assignments | Comments Off on Assignments – Week 11

Conferences – Nov. 2,4, 6

Posted on October 28, 2020 by JSylvor

You can click HERE to access the sign-up sheet for next week’s conferences.  We will be having individual conferences rather than meeting as a group next week.  Please contact me immediately if you are not able to sign up for a conference time.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Conferences – Nov. 2,4, 6

Assignments – Week 10

Posted on October 26, 2020 by JSylvor

Hello Friends,

This week’s reading is a deep dive into Gen Z,  a designation used to describe those born between 1996 and 2010.  As we approach Election Day, we are particularly interested in learning more about where Gen Z stands politically.  What are the issues that you care most about?  What do you think about our political system and about the politicians currently in office?  What is your vision for the future of the U.S. ?

1.Please explore the texts listed below and then respond to them in a new blog post.  Make sure the title of the post includes your name and the term Gen Z.  In your post, identify at least three specific things that stood out to you from your reading.  To what extent do these portraits of your Gen Z align with your own sense of who you and your peers are?  What would you like to add or change to these descriptions of Gen Z? What do they get right? What do they miss?  If you had been interviewed for any of these stories, what would you have added?  How do you FEEL after reading these pieces?  Do they evoke any strong reactions?  I am looking forward to reading your posts, which are due by October, 28th.  We will be discussing these works during our call on Wednesday, so be prepared to share your responses orally as well.

Kim Parker and Ruth Igielnik, “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know about Gen Z So Far”

Rishika Dugyala and Kamran Rahman, “Gen Z Rising: 6 Things to Know about Gen Z, Politics, and 2020”

Kate Bubacz, “Gen Z is about to go to the Polls, Many for the First Time.  Here’s What They Care About”

All Things Considered, NPR (Radio) – “Gen Z Voters on the Issues that Matter Most to Them Ahead of the Election”

 

2.Using the Buzzfeed piece (the one with the portraits and quotations) as your model, you will be interviewing three members of Gen Z about their feelings about the upcoming election and sharing selections from their responses in a carefully composed post that should be uploaded by Sunday, November 1st.  

You may choose to stick with the model  Buzzfeed uses and pair photographs with quotations.  This might mean capturing screenshots over Facetime, asking respondents to photograph themselves, meeting friends outside for masked interviews, or interviewing members of your own household.  I’m sure your classmates would also be willing interview subjects.  You might also choose to present your interviews (or selections of your interviews) in video or audio form.   The choice is yours.  No matter what format you choose, you will need to prepare for your interviews ahead of time.  Compose a list of questions you want to ask.  You can use the articles listed above for inspiration, but also feel free to add your own questions.  Remember that our goal is to learn more about what issues matter most to members of Gen Z and about how they feel about the political process.  If you are intending to use the Buzzfeed model and share selected quotations from the interviews, I would suggest making an audio or video recording of the conversation, rather than trying to write their remarks down.  Alternatively, you could send your interview subjects the questions and ask them to respond in writing.  Figure out what strategy works best for you!

Posted in assignments, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Assignments – Week 10

Assignments – Week 9

Posted on October 19, 2020 by JSylvor

1.Office Hours – You can still sign up to meet with me during my Monday office hours.  See separate post for link to the sign-up sheet.  This is a good opportunity to get feedback on your Rhetorical Analysis Draft.

2. Essays Due – Your Rhetorical Analysis Essays are due on Wednesday, October 21st.  Please upload your essay to turnitin.com by midnight.  If, for some reason, you are not able to complete your essay by then, there should be an email in my inbox on Thursday morning explaining the delay.  Turnitin.com DOES accept late submissions, so you should still upload your essay as soon as it’s complete.

3. Dear Reader Letter – As you did for the Personal Narratives, please compose a “Dear Reader” letter in which you reflect on the process of writing your Rhetorical Analysis Essay and assess the essay itself.  Your letter should be shared with me – either through Google Docs or an email attachment by Friday, October 23rd.  In your letter, you may want to address the following:

What were you hoping to achieve in this essay?

What drew you to this particular speech?

What parts of the essay writing process went smoothly for you?

Where did you struggle?

How did your understanding of the speech deepen over the course of this process?  (Include specific examples of this.)

What did you learn from the feedback you received during peer review?

What did you learn from reading your partners’ drafts?

What did you change during the revision process?

What would you have done differently if you had had more time?

What would you like your reader to keep in mind as she reads your essay?

What grade would you give this essay? Why?

4.Comma Usage – As promised, we will be having a special comma usage workshop on Wednesday during our Zoom call.  This is your chance, once and for all, to gain mastery over this elusive punctuation mark!  In preparation for Wednesday’s call, please review Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab) Guide to Commas.  Bring any questions you have about commas with you on Wednesday!

Posted in assignments | Comments Off on Assignments – Week 9

Office Hours – Monday, October 19th

Posted on October 14, 2020 by JSylvor

I will be holding office hours on Monday, October 19th. You can sign up for an appointment HERE.  This will be a great opportunity to meet with me to get feedback on the draft of your Rhetorical Analysis Essay and to discuss how you can revise it before it’s due.  If there is something else on your mind that you’d like to discuss, of course, that’s always great too!  Looking forward to the opportunity to meet with you alone or in small groups.

Posted in office hours, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Office Hours – Monday, October 19th

Peer Review – Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Speech

Posted on October 14, 2020 by JSylvor

We will be working in Peer Review groups to read and comment on one another’s Rhetorical Analysis Drafts.  The process will be similar to the one we used for our Personal Narratives.  You can find both your partners’ drafts and the Peer Review Form in our ENG2100 Writing and Democracy folder.  If you are in a three person group, you will be reading and providing feedback to both of your partners.  If you are in a four person group, you will still be providing feedback to two partners (If you want to do a third, that is great, but not required).  Please figure out who will be reading whose draft in order to make sure that each person has the benefit of having at least two readers.  Copy and paste the Peer Review Form at the bottom of the essay you are reviewing.    Your groups are listed below.  Peer Review forms need to be completed on Google Docs by Sunday, October 18th.

Peer Review Group – Rhetorical Analysis

Emely, Joel, Oumar, Asha

Gabriela, Elijah, Devrani, Aamina

Brenda, Nevontae, Kemara

Cyrus, Jesus, Shamima

Thierno, Anupa, Joseph

Rose, Guadalupe, Jose

Cheyenne, Rasheed, Tachmia

Posted in peer review | Comments Off on Peer Review – Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Speech

Assignments – Week #8

Posted on October 12, 2020 by JSylvor
  1. Drafts Due : As you know, the drafts of your Rhetorical Analysis of Political Speech essays are due on Wednesday, before our class.  To submit your draft, please name your file using your name plus “Rhetorical Analysis Essay” and place it in our English 2100 F20: Writing and Democracy Folder.
  2. Peer Review: Once again, we will be working together in small groups to offer one another support and feedback during the essay writing process.  I will explain the process and set you up with your groups on Wednesday.
  3. Read Laura Bolin Carol, “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” (available under the “Texts” tab above.). Please respond to this reading in a separate blog post (approx. 300 words) in which you a) identify three things you learned from this essay (This could be new terminology or words you had to look up), b) share a quotation from the essay and explain its significance, and c) describe one specific way in which this essay will affect the rhetorical analysis you are currently working on.  These posts should be shared by Friday, October 16th.
  4. Read Donald M. Murray, “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” (available under the “texts” tab above). Once you have read this short essay, please identify, in a short comment on this blog post, one piece of Murray’s advice that you want to follow in revising your Rhetorical Analysis Essay.  These comments are due by Sunday, October 18th.
  5.  Due Date Changed:  In light of Monday, October 12th being a holiday and other scheduling considerations, I have decided to push back the due date for your Rhetorical Analysis Essay.  Essays are now due by midnight on Wednesday, October 21st, rather than on the 19th as originally scheduled.  Of course, you are still welcome to turn your paper in the the 19th, but I hope that you will use the extra time for editing and revising your drafts.
Posted in assignments | 15 Comments

Monday Office Hours and Weekend Update

Posted on October 10, 2020 by JSylvor

Hi Friends,

I hope you are enjoying some sunshine on this beautiful day.  As promised, I am linking to the sign-up sheet for Monday’s office hours HERE.  In order to get the most out of your time with me, please either share your work with me ahead of time, or have something ready to screen share with me on Monday.  Don’t forget that the point of these Rhetorical Analyses is to identify and evaluate the strategies the speakers are employing, NOT to agree or disagree with their positions.

Unfortunately, my internet service is OUT and the technician is not coming to repair it until Monday evening.  (I think the universe is sending me a message).  I am posting this using my phone as a hotspot, and hopefully, that will also work on Monday for office hours.  However, please communicate with me over the weekend using [email protected], and if you are submitting any assignments, share them with my gmail address as Google Docs, rather than sending them to my Baruch email address.  This will make it easier for me to access your work and respond to your emails.

Take good care of yourselves and enjoy the weekend,

Professor Sylvor

***Update***  Somehow – because of the irregular nature of the semester and teaching remotely – I forgot that Monday is a holiday, and the college is CLOSED.  If you have already signed up to meet with me on Monday,  you can either stick with that plan and speak to me on Monday OR meet with me on Wednesday (which technically is an institutional Monday!). Just let me know what you’d like to do.  I apologize for the confusion and for not being more sensitive to the calendar.  I do want you to have some down time, so no worries if you choose NOT to meet with me on Monday.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Monday Office Hours and Weekend Update

Essay #2: Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Speech

Posted on October 7, 2020 by JSylvor

Length: 4-5 pages, double-spaced

 

Draft Due: Wednesday, October 14th     (shared to our Google Docs Folder- Please include your name and Rhetorical Analysis Draft in file name)

 

Essays Due: Monday, October 19th           (uploaded to turnitin.com)

 

For your second formal essay of the semester, you will be writing a Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Speech.  As you know, the term “rhetoric” refers to both the study and use of language (written, oral, or visual) whose intent is to entertain, inform, inspire, or persuade a target audience.  Your task in this essay is not simply to describe the speech and the rhetorical techniques it employs; rather your job is to make a claim about HOW the speech creates meaning and accomplishes its purposes for its specific audience.

 

  • Begin your essay by offering a brief description or summary of the speech.
  • What is the “Rhetorical Situation” for the speech? This includes the context in which the speech was given (time/place/occasion) as well as its intended audience.
  • How does the speaker use ethos to establish credibility?
  • How does the speaker use pathos to engage or connect with the audience emotionally?
  • Which facts, figures, and information does the speaker cite in appealing to logos?
  • What is the tone of the speech? How can you tell?
  • What rhetorical devices does the speech employ? (This might include things like metaphor or simile, repetition, appeals to the past, shifts in tone, diction, the use of rhetorical questions, and more).
  • You may want to consider Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” in assessing your speech’s language use. Do you see any of the patterns or habits that Orwell describes in his essay?

 

A successful Rhetorical Analysis Essay will do the following:

  • Offer a well-defined analytical thesis statement that makes an argument about the speech’s assumptions, strategies, or effectiveness.
  • Describe the speech and its context clearly and concisely.
  • Include textual evidence to support and illustrate each claim it makes.
  • Pay careful attention to the language of the speech, rather than evaluating the merits of its arguments.
  • Contain body paragraphs that begin with topic sentences that announce each paragraph’s focus to the reader.
  • Be largely free of errors in grammar, punctuation, or word usage.
  • Include a full citation in MLA format for the text of your speech.
Posted in essays | Comments Off on Essay #2: Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Speech

Assignments – Week #7

Posted on October 5, 2020 by JSylvor
  1.  Review Personal Narratives:  You can access your personal narratives with my comments and your grades by logging on to turnitin.com and clicking on your paper.  If you wait a minute or two, you will see my comments load.  Scroll to the bottom of the essay, and you will find my final comment plus your grade.  Please read all my comments carefully, then reach out to me with any questions or concerns.  I would be happy to discuss these essays with you during office hours or to make an appointment to talk outside of office hours.
  2. Personal Narrative – Corrections:  Please select 5 sentences in your essay which I have marked as having some kind of issue.  This could be something as specific as a punctuation error or something as vague as “awkward.”  Please revise these five sentences and for each sentence, provide an explanation for the correction you’ve made.  Include the original sentence in your document and submit it to me, either by email or Google Docs by Friday, October 9th.
  3. Rhetorical Analysis Essay – As I told you last week, we are beginning work on our next formal essay, a Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Speech.  Before we meet on Wednesday, please select the speech you’d like to work on for this project.  It can be one of the speeches on the list I posted last week, or it can be a speech of your choosing – provided you have it approved by me first!  Stick to contemporary speeches, please.  Once you have chosen your speech, you will begin the process of annotating the text of the speech, sentence by sentence.  Please send me a sample of your annotation by Sunday, October 11th.  Your sample should include one full paragraph from the speech together with your notes.  Annotation could include thoughts, questions, observations about word choice, style, rhetorical strategies, argument, use of figurative language, repetition, manner of delivery, and more.
  4. Blog Post – As the presidential campaign heats up and more and more “unprecedented” events seem to be happening every day, many of us are either participating in or following commentary about these events on various social media platforms.  In a short blog post, please share a post that caught your attention this week as you were scrolling through your feeds and explain why it caught your eye.  Was it funny, insightful, infuriating, clever???   Please share by Sunday, October 11th.
  5. Wednesday’s Class – Please have both the speech you’ve selected and George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” available to you for Wednesday’s Zoom call.
Posted in assignments | Comments Off on Assignments – Week #7