Music! (2-5 min)

Let’s talk about some music things that Danny set up in our Discord server.

 

Organizing a Rhetorical Analysis (30-45 min)

A good way to learn about how to do a piece of writing is to figure out how it is organized (another way to think about this is “genre,” which you will think more about in Learning Module 5 later this week).

Every piece of writing is organized in a certain way and those choices in organization can help guide your reader.

In preparation for your Rhetorical Analysis assignment, I want you to go back through the piece by Baruch College student Leon Yablonovskiy and assign a label to each of the 13 paragraphs (each label should be no more than one sentence long). To do this: read through the paragraph and ask yourself:

• What is this paragraph about? What is the central topic here?
• What is the paragraph’s goal for persuasion? What does it want the reader to think? What’s your best guess here?
• What is the paragraph’s goal for moving the piece forward? How does it help the text “make sense” in the current order of paragraphs that the paragraphs are ordered in?

Label Each Paragraph. In the table in this Google Doc, insert each paragraph label into the cell that corresponds to your group number and the number of the paragraph.

Summary. After that, use your labels and the work you did to construct your labels to prepare a brief summary of the piece. Go back to Learning Module 4 and to page 108 of “Tools for Analyzing Texts” to think more about the difference between summary and analysis.

 

Discussion

Let’s compare each groups labels and let’s hear each summary. How did the labels help you summarize?

Where is the rhetorical analysis happening in this rhetorical analysis?

How does the rhetorical analysis help support the larger argument of the piece?

How do you do rhetorical analysis, what do you think are the key elements to be able to do one?

 

 

Rhetorical Analysis Assignment (10-20 min)

Let’s go over the prompt for the Rhetorical Analysis assignment and start brainstorming ideas.

As noted in Learning Module 4 from last week and as shown on the course schedule, tonight your Rhetorical Analysis proposal is due. It’s not something to stress too much about! It is about you starting to get your ideas together on what you might write about.

Let’s take a look at the proposal. You can get it from Blackboard>Submit Assignments>Process Writing and Reading Responses. Then click on the attachment underneath “Rhetorical Analysis Proposal.”

Start or continue working on the proposal now.

 

Online Learning Hurdles (10-20 min)

I was wondering if we can have an open discussion about challenges and benefits of online learning. Especially in terms of taking this class.

Part of the reason why I want to ask you is because I work with the First-Year Writing Program and we want to survey all of the students in FYW over the past year. But we wanted student feedback on the kinds of questions we should ask to get the best information.

 

 

Completing Assignments (5 min)

I know some of you have been having trouble completing assignments. Here are some things that can help:

Bookmark function important links like: course schedule, syllabus, repeating Zoom meetings, Blackboard log-in

Reminders on phone for due dates

Calendar vs. To-Do List

• Calendar: each week, review…time for class, time for meetings, time for work, due dates of assignments. I use Google Calendar.
• To-Do list: each day. what needs to be done by end of day?

Taking notes in class or in asynchronous work. Helps keep you engaged and help to stay focused/pay attention. Will make understanding assignments easier not just conceptually but the specific components you need to complete and when you need to complete them.

File organization. On your device, set up a folder for each class. Within each folder, have sub-folders for: assignment instructions, assignments (maybe even for each assignment if you are working on different components), readings to complete, etc. Name files in patterns easy to follow (e.g., LiteracyNarrative_draft2_7MAR21). It is nice to include the date and also the version number. Keep all versions in case you want to go back to an earlier version.

Make time to plan time. Each week, review all of your classes to help with planning for the week ahead. This is where bookmarks on browser can help. Go to each place that tells you what is due. Write it down for each class. Review your calendar for when you will do each of these things. Have a to-do list for each day to cross things off–and adjust to move things if you can’t complete each to-do list (which is okay! sometimes we don’t quite know how long things will take, or something comes up in life and you have to put things in hold).

Resource on above: How to Easily Stay Organized and Productive in College (collegeinfogeek.com)

 

Writing Session Plan and LN2 (10 min)

Let’s pull up the writing session plan assignment due March 3 (or a little later if you need).

Let’s also talk Literacy Narrative revision one more time.

 

 

Next Time (2-5 min)

-Submit Rhetorical Analysis Proposal

-Read Thompson reading

-Learning Module 5

-Writing Session Plan (should help you get Literacy Narrative revision done…can turn this in closer to March 8 deadline if you want)

-Give feedback to your group members on your in-progress drafts of Literacy Narrative revisions!!