Please respond to the questions below. Each section is worth four points; you will be graded on the completeness of your responses, the quality of your writing, and the extent to which your responses show your understanding of key concepts from the semester. Your completed exam should be posted to your blog by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, December 11. You can post the exam either as a linked document (if you’re able to) or work in a word processing program and cut and paste right into a post. The exam is worth 20 percent of your final grade; late exams will not be accepted.

Section 1: Go to the student blog that is below yours on the class blog list (skip to the next one after that if you have trouble accessing the one directly below yours) and review the writer’s print ad (not the rationale). Use rhetorical analysis to write one to five paragraphs critiquing the ad (remember, “critique” does not mean the same as “criticize”; it means to give a detailed analysis of something). Be sure to indicate which ad you are reviewing, describing it fully. Use rhetorical vocabulary (including terms from the methods of analysis we have been discussing in class, fallacy terms, and other words that have come up in discussing close reading). You may use any of the methods or any combination of methods.

Section 2: Use the rhetorical analysis methods we learned at the start of the course to analyze a piece of your own writing from the semester. You can use any of the methods: explicit/implicit/extended, Ethos/Pathos/Logos/, the rhetorical context questions, the Toulmin method; you may focus on the fallacies; you may also use any combination of these methods. You can analyze any piece of writing we did during the course. You may find that you already have related analyses in the reflections you wrote during the semester; feel free to incorporate that material. Somewhere in your response, be sure to address the following question: How have you become a more successful user of rhetoric?

Section 3: Choose three terms from the list below. Discuss each term you’ve chosen (do not simply give the dictionary definition; also talk about the term in your own words — why you chose it, why you think it’s important, what you know about it). Then apply the term (1) to your own writing from this semester, (2) to a classmate’s writing from the semester, or (3) to a text we read this semester. A strong response will compare one piece of writing with another or with multiple other pieces of writing. For example, you could explain the term primary research (kinds, uses, benefits) and mention some articles you have read this semester or pieces you have written that use primary research. Then discuss how your literacy narrative and your sociology report and the James Paul Gee article all use primary research.

Rhetorical Context                Purpose

Fallacy                                    Academic Writing

Pathos                                    Efficient Writing

Logos                                      The Dialogue Method

Ethos                                      Primary Research

Text                                        Methodology

Genre                                      Code-Switching

Evidence                                Audience

FUCT Paragraphs                  Structured Writing

Section 4: In one to a few paragraphs, discuss what a good research and writing process is.  List all the steps and activities writers/researchers take to complete projects. How did your writing process evolve this semester? What did you learn about how to get from a blank page to a completed project? What’s important for you to remember about the research and writing process?

Section 5: Discuss any three of the following ideas in one well-developed paragraph each:

  • How does audience affect what we write (content) and how we write it (rhetoric)?
  • Genre differences among the three main projects you did this semester
  • Why is it important to know the logical fallacies?
  • All the world is a text: Explain.
  • What have you learned about writing in different disciplines (humanities/social sciences/business contexts)?
  • Ethos done poorly can lead to an appeal to authority fallacy: Explain.
  • Explain how a person can be rhetorically manipulated, and describe some consequences of being rhetorically manipulated.
  • Academic writing is a language, like any other language, to be mastered.
  • Advertisements are evil vs. Advertisements are ingenious

BONUS (worth up to 5 points, depending on completeness of answer, development of ideas, use of grammatical conventions, clarity of sentences):

Pick the intervention below that you think has most dramatically changed your writing this semester. Describe how the particular intervention improved your writing. Be specific, referencing particular work from this semester and even quoting from your work.

  • Changes in your writing process
  • Peer review work
  • Creating a blog
  • Exploring fallacies
  • Understanding rhetoric
  • Reflecting on your work
  • Sentence work and proofreading