ENG 2150 Sample Assignment Sequence

(At least 30 double-spaced pages of writing, including weekly or low stakes writing)

 

Rhetorical Analysis and Close Reading

• 1,800-2,100 words / ~ 6-7 double-spaced pages
• 25% of course grade

• Close reading/comparison of texts with a similar thematic focus across a variety of genres: essays, film, short fiction, poems, songs, film, cultural artifacts such as video games, television shows, music videos, using interpretive methods based on:
  • Rhetorical criticism (audience, purpose, genre, medium, delivery/circulation);
  • Literary criticism (metaphor, plot, setting, point of view, theme); and
  • Historical and cultural criticism

 

Research-Based Argument Essay

• ~ 3500 words; 9-10 double spaced pages
• 30% of course grade

• This assignment connects to the following course learning goals:
  • Critical thinking and reading (engaging with credible sources to help shape your own views)
  • Drawing conclusions based on compelling and credible evidence
  • Developing a position (thesis) and tailoring prose to fit a particular rhetorical situation and audience (in this case an academic research paper written for an academic audience)
  • Supporting a position with compelling and credible evidence
  • Organizing writing in logical and coherent ways, and
  • Revising and editing so that ideas evolve over a period of time rather than right before the deadline.

• Reflective Annotated Bibliographies: 2-4, ~ 3 double-spaced pages ea., 10% of course grade
  • Scaffolding is important: Ask students to do preliminary research around questions they have about the course theme or whatever assignment prompt you’re using; ask them to draft a prospectus and project timeline; and ask them to draft an annotated bibliography and discuss source credibility.
  • I suggest a version of Prof. Mark McBeth’s (of John Jay College) Reflective Annotated Bib (RefAnnBib) assignment. See the Teaching Resources page on our program website for highlights and handouts from Mark’s Baruch workshop in Fall 2014; and I include a RefAnnBib on my course blog, available in the Teaching Resources portion of our website.

 

Creative Remix or Remediation of Research Project

• 20% of course grade
• Writing component: 4 double spaced pages

The creative remix or remediation assignment engages one of the five major course goals for ENG 2150(T):

Use a variety of media to compose in multiple rhetorical situations: Apply rhetorical knowledge in your own composing using the means of persuasion appropriate for each rhetorical context (alphabetic text, still and moving images, and sound), including academic writing and composing for a broader, public audience using digital platforms.

I urge you to get creative with this assignment, using the questions: How do different media offer different affordances? Does the medium change the message? How can remediation be used as a lens to see an argument in new ways? One approach is to ask students to do a remix of their research-based argument project, re-create it as a multimedia piece. Digital remediation is “re-mediating”—adapting a message from its current page-based medium to some other medium using digital technology. This part of the course and assignment sequence asks students to consider the various affordances of the medium: techniques, audiences, language use, etc. that may or may not be available to you in a page-based medium, as well as reflect on what rhetorical knowledge does transfer across different media.

Examples

This project is about affordances of different media, especially in terms of interactivity with your audience. Students should imagine their audience as extending beyond your class to include (possibly) publication in our new online student intellectual journal, Refract. In other words, students should imagine that they’ll share this project in a public venue vs seeing you as the professor as their audience. Examples include:

• Audio essay or podcast version of research project
• Short video using WeVideo or iMovie
• Visual essay comprised of a series of 10 images
• Meme

Portfolio Reflection

• ~1000 words; 3 double-spaced pages
• 10% of course grade
• Extended Writer’s Cover Letter for all the student’s writing in the course—could be a hard copy or digital portfolio—explaining how the student’s writing for the course has addressed the course goals and takeaways from the course for other writing situations

Weekly Reading/Writing

• Weekly written responses to course readings
• 10% of course grade
• Low-stakes writing done before class on Blackboard or Blogs@Baruch—or in-class—that can scaffold into students’ major assignments