Weekly Course Schedule
(Subject to change. Check course blog for most updated schedule.)
Week One – Introduction
Wed. 1/18: Introduce syllabus and course overview. Sign up for blog post dates, presentation date, and provide alternate contact info. Writing samples and collaborative writing exercise. Syllabus and Grading Contract scavenger hunt.
Week Two – Intro to Rhetoric and Genre; Rhetorical Analysis; Media Critique
Mon. 1/23: HOMEWORK DUE: Register for an account to post on course blog. Accept Prof. Andersen’s invitation to Google Drive shared folder by adding the folder to your Drive. Sign up for blog post date and presentation date. Read Losh/ Alexander, “Understanding Rhetoric.”
IN CLASS: Discussion of texts. In-class exercise: Everyday Texts. Discuss/review rhetorical appeals.
Wed. 1/25: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Dirk, “Navigating Genres” and Jack and Pryal (textbook), Ch. 1 and Ch. 3. Blog post – OPs due Tuesday 2/9 at midnight; comments due by class time.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #1. Discuss Dirk. Discuss genre. In-class exercise: Re-genre-ing with “sixers”
Week Three
Mon. 1/30: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Gladstone, “Introduction.” Blog post – OPs due Sun. 1/29 at 6pm; comments due by class time. Bring in two different texts: a newspaper article, and a movie clip or song. (Bring phones, laptops, tablets, etc. – something with which to view/listen to media.)
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #2. Discuss Gladstone. In-class writing/group exercise: Genre and Meaning-Making. Introduction of Visual/Aural Rhetorical Analysis.
Wed. 2/1: HOMEWORK DUE: Read excerpts from Picturing Texts, pp. 22-25, 48-55, 111-115, and 384-398. Blog post – OPs due Tuesday 1/31 at 6pm; comments due by class time.
IN CLASS: Discuss Picturing Texts. What is visual rhetoric? In-class exercise: “No Caption Needed?”
Week Four
Mon. 2/6: HOMEWORK DUE: 1st draft of Visual/Aural Rhetorical Analysis due.
IN CLASS: Go over peer review process. What makes a good peer review? Examples of peer review comments. Developing peer review guidelines for our class. Peer review day in class.
Wed. 2/8: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Jack and Pryal, Ch. 4 and Ch. 8
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #3. Discuss reading. In class analysis exercise. Discuss multi-genre and multimodal texts.
Week Five
Mon. 2/13: HOMEWORK DUE: 2nd draft of Visual/Aural Rhetorical Analysis due.
IN CLASS: Individual conference #1
Wed. 2/15: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Gee, “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics.” Blog post -OPs due Tuesday 2/14 at 6pm; comments due by class time.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #4. Discuss Gee. Discuss “qualitative research.” In class writing: What online discourse communities are you a part of? What literacies are needed in your major? What do we need to know and understand in order to have good media literacy? Introduction of Empirical Research Project.
Week Six – Genres & Academic Disciplines; Qualitative Research; Ethnography
Mon. 2/20: HOMEWORK DUE: Final draft of Visual/Aural Rhetorical Analysis due.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #5. In class reflective writing. Begin discussing genre and writing in academic disciplines. Review terms: literacies, discourses, communication. Continue media literacy discussion from last week.
Wed. 2/22: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Kahn, “Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context.” Skim Eills and Bochner, “Autoethnography, Personal Narrative, Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject.”Blog post – OPs due Sunday 3/13 at midnight; comments due by class time.
IN CLASS: Discuss Kahn, and Ellis and Bochner. In-class observation exercise. Begin thinking about how you can use Kahn to add to your Empirical Research Project.
Week Seven
Mon. 2/27: HOMEWORK DUE: Jack and Pryal, Ch. 11, Ch. 13, Ch. 15, and Ch. 24. Read assigned example ethnography. Be prepared to report back to the class on genre characteristics featured int eh ethnography you were assigned. (Find your assigned reading here.)
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #6. Discuss reading. Connections between Kahn, Gee, and the genres in Jack and Pryal. What are the genre characteristics of ethnography? How do those characteristics help establish the Discourse of specific academic Discourse communities? Where do we see qualitative methodology typically used (in and outside of academic disciplines)? Discuss proposals as a genre. In-class exercise.
Wed. 3/1: HOMEWORK DUE: Proposals for Primary Research Project
IN CLASS: Peer workshops of proposals. Qualitative vs. quantitative research. Developing a research plan and research journal. Literature review as a genre.
Week Eight
Mon. 3/6: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Gladstone, “Canis Journalisticus,” “News You Can’t Use,” “Birds on a Wire.” Blog post – OPs due Sunday 3/5 at 6pm; comments due by Wednesday at usual class time. Continue observing your online discourse community and compiling your research journal.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #7. Continue discussing quantitative research. In-class writing exercise. Discussing Gladstone. Exercise: quantitative and qualitative research in the media.
Wed. 3/8: HOMEWORK DUE: 1st draft of Empirical Research Project due.
IN CLASS: Peer review day in class. Midterm self-assessment for low-stakes writing.
Week Nine
Mon. 3/13: SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS Remember to continue observing and compiling your research journal!
Wed. 3/15: SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS Remember to continue observing and compiling your research journal!
Week Ten – Multi-Modality (Revisited!); Quantitative Research; Visualizing Data
Mon. 3/20: HOMEWORK DUE: Continue observing your online discourse community and compiling your research journal. Begin gathering quantitative data for your project, if you are using quantitative data. Read Nijhuis, “The Art and Science of Science Writing.” Blog post – OPs due Sunday 3/19 at 6pm; comments due by class time.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #8. Discuss readings. Discuss gathering data. In-class work: creating data lists. Bring in the data you’ve gathered so far for your Empirical Research Project.
Wed. 3/22: HOMEWORK DUE: 2nd draft of Qualitative Research Project due.
IN CLASS: Individual conference #2.
Week Eleven
Mon. 3/27: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Manjoo (2 short Slate articles) and Goodreads infographic. Bring in one text-based piece of writing that exhibits quantitative research methods.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #9. Discuss texts. Discuss charts, graphs, and other ways of visualizing data. Media visualizations and quantitative data. Exercise: Exploring meaning-making in online visualizations. In-class exercise, visualizing data in graphs/charts. Discuss online data visualization.
Wed. 3/29: HOMEWORK DUE: Final draft of Empirical Research Project due.
IN CLASS: Reflective writing. Genres of writing and research in your discipline. Introduce WiD project. Brainstorming.
Week Twelve – Rhetoric, Genres, Modality, & Your Major; Your Major and the Media; WiD Project
Mon. 4/3: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Gladstone, “The Great Refusal” and “Bias.” Blog post – OPs due Sunday 4/2 at 6pm; comments due by class time.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #10. Discuss readings. Your discipline in the media – applying Gladstone. Exercise: rhetorically analyzing bias in mainstream
Wed. 4/5: HOMEWORK DUE: 1st draft of WiD project due.
IN CLASS: Peer review day in class.
Week Thirteen
Mon. 4/10: HOMEWORK DUE: Read Singh-Corcoran, “Composition as a Write of Passage.” Blog post – OPs due Sunday 4/9 at 6pm; comments due by class time.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #11. Discuss Singh-Corcoran. In-class exercise: Genres, Disciplines, and Mad-Libs
Wed. 4/12: HOMEWORK DUE: 2nd draft of WiD project due.
IN CLASS: Individual conference #3
Week Fourteen – Summing Up; Resumes as a Genre
Mon. 4/17: HOMEWORK DUE: Skim Thaiss and Zawacki, “Student Expectations for Writing in Their Disciplines.” Bring in examples of writing assignments from classes in your major.
IN CLASS: Rhetoric presentation #12. Why do classes in your major assign these genres? How do they connect to the professional genres we discussed on 3/29?
Wed. 4/19: HOMEWORK DUE: Final draft of WiD project due.
IN CLASS: Reflective writing. The resume and CV as genres. Josh Walker from Career Services will talk to us about internships and resumes.
Week Fifteen
Mon. 4/24: HOMEWORK DUE: 1st draft of resume due.
IN CLASS: Peer review day in class. Introduce portfolio and final reflective letter assignments. The portfolio as a genre, and the rhetoric of portfolios. Begin working on portfolios.
Wed. 4/26: HOMEWORK DUE: 2nd draft of resume project due.
IN CLASS: Individual conference #4
Week Sixteen – Course Conclusion
Mon. 5/1: HOMEWORK DUE: Final draft of resume project due.
IN CLASS: Reflective writing. Work on final portfolios. Final self-assessment for low-stakes writing
Wed. 5/3: HOMEWORK DUE: Portfolios should be 75% complete.
IN CLASS: Peer Portfolio Review
Week Seventeen – Course Conclusion
Mon. 5/8: HOMEWORK DUE: Final Portfolio and Final Reflective Narrative due.
IN CLASS: In-class time to finish up portfolio and turn it in, or to speak with me individually. Portfolios due by the end of the class period – no exceptions.
