Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for English 102. I'll be posting along with you this semester. You can check this blog for class updates. You can also post questions, here, about blogging in English 102, and I'll respond (or other students will). I've included a list of links to other students' blogs, to the right. I've also made the decision to be fairly transparent about myself in this online (and international) forum, but you are welcome to take measures to protect your own anonymity.

Check back often. And enjoy!

Some Hopes and Concerns

Making use of this social technology in ENG102 is an experiment for all of us this semester, but it’s not a reckless experiment. In fact, there are a number of reasons why I’m interested in integrating blogging into the ENG102 course, and I thought it might be important to make those reasons visible/transparent and to also explain some of the obvious and unavoidable concerns that attend this experiment. I'm not alone in these thoughts.

Reasons

Collaboration and Sharing:
Not only will student bloggers potentially receive an outside audience, they may also benefit from a wider audience of their peers. Each blog will eventually be linked through this site, and students will be able to pop into any of these in order to see examples of other students’ work, or to contribute some comment or advice concerning that writing. Future assignments may even require some online workshop component or online collaborative writing.

Research/Evidence:
Many instructors complain (perhaps fairly) that online sources often lack depth, scholarship, validity, etc. They point to the facts that online authors are often unaccountable to their published work or to their readers (through the author’s own anonymity), that online research is rarely juried, that information is constantly in flux on the web (it is ephemeral/mutable), that credibility is difficult to determine, and that websites are often incestuous (plagiarized from other websites plagiarized from other websites plagiarized from other websites). All of these concerns are valid, but none of them are absolute. As the technology changes, so too does information literacy change. Rather than ignore the web as an impossible morass, this course will require students to wrestle with those very concerns.

I’ll add, also, that blogging (when done well) can create an intricately complex web of resources through hyperlinks combined with traditional documentation formats, such that the published blog might actually reflect a more complete and accessible research project than the traditional printed paper, because many sources would be available to the reader instantly and in their totality, online.

Comfort with Social Technology and Online Discourse:
Many theorists imagine a future where hyperspace becomes a hub at least as important to our participation in social and professional spheres as the physical world is currently. I tend to agree. With that concern in mind, it seems important for students to gain some familiarity with online communication. Martha Bergin, a colleague, suggested in passing that online communication required an entirely new discourse—in which writers needed to be particularly concerned about the presentation of their own experiences, weighing the details of their personal lives against the potential readings and misreadings, judgments and reactions, of a global and largely anonymous public readership.

Audience:
Often, the assignments in ENG102 require students to imagine an audience, but the essays that students write rarely receive the attention of any readers other than the instructor and the select few students that participated in peer reviewing that work. My hope, here, is that the concerns of ‘audience’ are realized more completely through the blog, where it may be possible for anyone, globally, to encounter a student’s writing. More importantly, I have read student essays that deserved attention and consideration outside the walls of the classroom, and I have always been disappointed to know that those works disappear into a file drawer or a trashcan . . . through the blog, we save those important texts from their otherwise sad fate.

Personal Satisfaction and Fulfillment?
At first, students might feel some anxiety about communicating to a larger audience—some fear of putting their gestalt out into the world. But along the way, some students might discover an online community of people that shares their interests, their ambitions, their perspectives. They might just as likely find challenges to those perspectives. Regardless, some students will hopefully find some purpose, satisfaction or fulfillment through participating in a social and/or civic conversation.

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. . . However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress (Burke 110-11).

Burke, Kenneth. The Philosophy of Literary Form. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1941. 110-11.

Concerns

Students’ Anxiety:
The pressure of writing to a wide audience may create anxiety in some students. The technology may also have this effect for those who are less familiar with its use and operation. The worst possible outcome of this experiment would be that the fear might result in students watering down their talents, their language, their curiosity, in order to appear more humble, in order to stand out less. I also worry that students might decide to take fewer risks, that they might decide not to experiment in their writing. I think that the best possible solution to this fear would be to explore the net on your own. Most Blogger blogs have a link at the top that reads next blog>>. Clicking on this link will randomly load one of the hundreds of thousands of Blogger blogs. Students should be careful, however, as there is some objectionable (offensive) content in the blogosphere (see next concern)

Offensive Web Content:
The net is not a safe space. With a little care, students can generally avoid encountering offensive material. But, just as driving through unfamiliar neighborhoods might land you in the red light district, so too can carelessly surfing the net lead to web pages you might have wanted to avoid. Random surfing, like clicking on the “Next Blog” link might expose you to that content. If there’s any consolation, it’s that you can report objectionable content to Blogger by clicking the “Flag” button in the navigation bar at the top. Is this censorship? Read Blogger’s stance, here.

Nothing Happens:
The net is huge. A Technorati button-ad claims that 55 million blogs exist. It’s possible that we’ll go the entire semester, all fifty student blogs blazing, and not a single outside person will read or respond to any of it. This might discourage students . . . it might cause them to wonder why this online community is ignoring them. The truth is that online social software requires participation. One critique of blogs is that there are too many mouths and not enough ears. If you’re feeling lonely in the blogosphere, there are a couple things you can do: 1) reach out and respond to someone else, even if it’s just a classmate. Like face to face friendships, online communities need interaction in order to work. 2) Update your blog more regularly. People will return for new content, especially if they are compelled by what they read. If they love your writing or your ideas, but the blog is never updated, then readers will have not reason to return.

I hope that this helps you to consider the medium and assignment more completely. Feel free to comment on these hopes and concerns, and let’s be sure to examine them again toward the end of the semester.

Guidelines for Blog Posts

In the syllabus for our class, I indicate that blog posts will be graded on thoughtfulness and thoroughness. Admittedly, this is rather vague language that puts the onus on you, the student, to determine what constitutes a “thoughtful and thorough” blog. Here are some suggestions for posting that might help you to develop such posts.

Respond to a Reading
Class readings can offer you some excellent fodder for exploration. Sometimes, I’ll use a reading in order to supplement a lecture, and the content of the reading is lost in the discussion of technique. Other times, we’ll focus on content and miss some of the craft of the work. It is also inevitable that in discussions about the readings we might gloss over points that you feel deserved more attention. Or perhaps one of your points required a more deliberate exploration than you could muster in the heat of the moment.

Continue a Class Discussion
The hour and fifteen minutes of class time is rarely long enough for us to have a developed and thorough debate. But our classroom discussions don’t need to end when we walk out the door. On your blog, you might develop the position you were arguing, or supplement it with evidence that you find online (link to it!). You might provide some overarching analysis that frames our discussion in a new light. You might take the opportunity to more honestly articulate your concerns or responses. All of this gives us an outlet for that unsettling feeling that results from realizing the perfect thing to say at a time when it is no longer useful.

Link and Respond to Another Blogger’s Post, or an Online Article
As I’d mentioned in the Hopes and Concerns post, the blogosphere is hypertextual. This means that we can engage in conversations through the posts, particularly as we use links to create connections between ideas and people. Not only are all of the students in my sections of ENG102 posting to their blogs (see the list at the right), but so are millions of other online readers and writers. By linking to another blogger’s post you not only create a connection between their content and yours, but you also create a literate social sphere. You might also choose to riff off of other forms of online content, like photos at flickr, news articles in the Arizona Republic, or Magazine articles from Seed. At the end of this entry I've included instructions for incorporating links.

Share Something About the Writing Process
Finally, you might choose to share something about the writing process as you work through your assignments for this class. In the past, students who posted a description of a problem they were having were rewarded with generous and helpful advice from their peers. In other cases, you might describe some particularly successful approach that you’ve discovered. Or perhaps you’d like to challenge or explore some of the lessons about the process—questioning the legitimacy of “legitimate” sources, or exploring the importance of editing.

Other Posts
This list is meant to provide models. Hopefully it becomes a useful tool for developing meaningful posts. But I don’t in any way mean for it to be limiting. If you want to write a post that falls outside of the realm of the kinds of posts described here, please don’t let the list stop you from writing that post. Please do keep in mind, however, that this is a course blog and not a personal blog. The party on Friday night was probably a blast, but it shouldn’t be the topic of a course blog post unless it somehow relates to the questions of research, rhetoric and writing that are the purview of this class. That said, if you can connect real-world personal experience to the content of this class, I might believe that my life was a little more meaningful.

Instructions for Incorporating Links
If you are responding to an outside source, blog or otherwise, here are the step-by-step instructions for incorporating a link into your post:

1. Sign in, and navigate to the “New Post” page



















2. Type some text that you want to link to another web page.



















3. Highlight the text and click on the Link button.



















4. Type the web address for the webpage you'd like the text to link to and click "OK."



















5. You have linked the text. Now, when readers click on underlined text, they will be taken to the web page you linked to. Note, too, that you can type around this text without losing the link.

Questioning Exercise: Rhetorical Situation and Rhetorical Appeals

Folks, these are the notes developed by the different groups concerning the potential content of your reflection/analysis. Please remember that you are analyzing your own use of these techniques as they are applied in the letter you've written. I hope this helps!

Writer/Ethos:

• What authority do you possess in relation to the topic?
• What is your credibility?
• What is your personal experience?
• What is your motivation?
• Do you have statistics or facts? (This would demonstrate that you’re knowledgeable)
• Do you have credentials?
• How do you communicate these things?
• How will readers see you? Why?

Audience:

• Who is the reader?
• Who will read it?
• Who is it intended for?
• Who is the imaginary audience?
• How do you know your audience?
• What are the audience’s values?
• Is the audience sympathetic / neutral / resistant?
• How does your audience affect your use of ethos?

Purpose:

• What is your motivation?
• What do you plan to accomplish?
• What vocabulary will you use? (Ethos)
• What reaction do you solicit from your audience?
• Which audience do you hope to satisfy (resistant, neutral, sympathetic)?
• How do you consider unintended audiences?

Genre:

• What’s expected / appropriate?
• What type of format will be used?
• How did lack of space affect your arguments?
• What information was left out?
• What were the reasons for choosing to include some information and not other information?

Occasion:

• What is the emotion that you get from reading the article, and how is that carried into your own letter?
• What language or tone will you use to reflect the motivating impulse?
• What emotions do you want your audience to feel?
• Is there personal experience that motivates you to write this letter?
• Why did this particular article motivate you to read it and write about it?
• How motivated are you to get a good grade?
• How motivated are you about the article?
• Is it useful to tell your readers about the occasion?

Context:

• What current events are related to this issue?
• What public figures are related to this issue?
• What history has led up to the current state of this issue?
• Who was the original author trying to reach in his or her article?

Logos:

• Would the logic appeal to your specific audience?
• Do you use facts to support claims?
• Do you use statistics?
• Do you use rational thought?
• How is logos related to genre?

Pathos:

• What do you hope readers will feel after reading your letter?
• Do you use specific language to generate emotion in your readers?
• Do you use personal experience to generate emotion in your readers?
• Would the emotional appeal work, given your audience?

Essay Four: Visual Proposal Argument

English 102: Assignment Four
Visual Proposal Argument

The Assignment:
In this assignment you are asked to advocate that something be done (or not be done) about an issue, or to argue that some procedure be changed. You can argue for or against specific proposals that have actually been made, or you can propose (and argue for) one of your own. Your response must include a significant visual component.

Written Component:
Your starting point might well be something that bothers you and that you feel should be changed. Of course, you might have to convince your readers that it is a problem for them too, if that is not obvious. As you work out the rhetorical situation for this assignment, pay particular attention to the audience for your proposal. You should be able to specify an actual audience and a forum within which you would present the proposal. Consider what your purpose is—your audience should be asked either to undertake the action proposed or to support the action proposed.

Visual Component:
The visual component of this assignment could take many forms. As with written arguments, visual arguments make use of the three rhetorical appeals: ethos, logos, and pathos. A visual ethical appeal might show the picture of scientists working out the cure for cancer in a laboratory, or it might show the image of an American icon that supports your cause. A logical visual appeal might be a pie chart that shows revenue spent on education in relation to other expenditures. A visual representation of the processes that lead to global warming would also be a logical appeal. We are probably most familiar with pathetic visual appeals: the image of an emaciated child that needs our help or the crime-scene photograph from the drunk-driving accident that shows two cars reduced to scrap. The argument may also make use of any of a number of genres: pamphlets, posters, websites, flyers, advertisements (including video and print ads), or works of art.

Goals:

• Discover and incorporate credible sources in written argument
• Analyze visual arguments
• Design and develop effective visual proposal arguments
• Draft and revise effective written proposal arguments
• Appeal to specific audiences

Composition:
The audience for this essay will be the person or people who have efficacy (the ability to effect change) in relation to the issue. Audiences might include: the voting public, legislators, administrators, consumers, etc.

Here is a list of the features that usually appear in a proposal:

1. Statement and discussion of the issue, including background and causes
2. Statement and discussion of the problems related to the issue
3. Statement and discussion of the proposed solution
4. A point by point explanation of how the solution can solve the problem
5. A demonstration of the feasibility of the proposal (this often includes costs, personnel, equipment and facilities, and a timeline for implementation)
6. A response to the conditions of rebuttal
7. Description of the possible futures—scenarios describing what will happen if the proposal is accepted, and the consequences if it is not.
   

What It Should Look Like--Constraints:

• Length: The written component should be long enough to satisfactorily fulfill the assignment; most successful papers are between three and five pages, but remember: a two-page paper could hypothetically receive a passing grade and a fourteen-page paper could fail. Both scenarios seem to be anomalies. The visual component may be integrated into the written essay, or it may be a standalone piece. A standalone visual argument may include some text.
• The completed paper should utilize at least seven of the ten credible sources collected in your annotated bibliography. It should include at least one primary source.
• All sources should be documented using MLA style.
• Please type (12 point font) your paper and double space it using one inch margins; this requirement is not an arbitrary obsession with form. Studies have shown that teachers react in different ways to different formatting. By standardizing your paper format, I can guarantee us both an equitable reading of your work.
• Give your work a title.

Essay Three: Annotated Bibliography

Assignment Three:

The Annotated Bibliography

Description:
To prepare to write the proposal argument, you will first compile an annotated bibliography of at least ten (10) sources that summarizes current research on your proposal topic. This means that you will find, summarize, and evaluate ten different sources that provide information on your topic and arrange this information into an organized list BEFORE you begin to write the actual proposal argument.

Composition:
If you’ve never seen an annotated bibliography before, you’ll want to follow the links below and consider some different models and examples. Annotated bibliographies focus on one research topic, pulling together and listing different sources related to that topic (web sites, print and online journal articles, books, historical documents, primary documents, and other materials). In addition to providing full bibliographic information about each source (where and when it was published, for instance), annotated bibliographies also extract key information about the ideas in each source for readers, summarizing main points and also evaluating each source’s credibility and relevance. They provide researchers with up-to-date summaries of what’s been written on topics they wish to explore. Compiling your own annotated bibliography will 1) familiarize you with existing research on your proposal topic, and 2) prepare you to research and write about any topic in the future.

For our project, you’ll need to find varied sources of information: books; newspaper, magazine, or journal articles; web sites; personal interviews; notes from lectures or films; or historical documents (speeches, correspondence, etc). You should find sources that are not already required reading for this course, and at least one should involve primary (firsthand) research, such as interviews, surveys, questionnaires, or observations. Annotated bibliographies generally follow style guidelines (such as APA, Chicago, or MLA). We will use MLA style guidelines (as explained in the Prentice Hall Guide) for ours.

Many annotated bibliographies simply list sources in alphabetical order. You can choose your own system and categories if this seems helpful to you. Whatever you do, organize your sources so that your readers can understand how you are thinking about the information, keeping sources within any sub-categories in alphabetical order (for ease of reading). For example, you can group your sources by subject, by the position the authors take, by the type of source (article vs. book), by date, by the kind of information presented (qualitative, quantitative, anecdotal), etc. Choose the organizing principle that makes the most sense and corresponds most closely to the way you are thinking about the material. Each annotation should be preceded by the complete bibliographic information for the source (see samples).

The following websites provide further explanations and samples of annotated bibliographies:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/general/gl_annotatedbib.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/general/gl_annotatedbibEX.html


Format for Turning in the Annotated Bibliography

Part 1: The Rationale
Before your list of sources, your bibliography needs a brief introduction (500 words minimum) that explains your rationale for the project. Start by listing your research question, but also explain the following— the scope and range of your sources, how you organized them in your bibliography, where you located them, any problems you encountered while conducting research, any sources that you did not manage to include but would still like to use in your final project, any gaps that you noticed in the research, and any preliminary conclusion you have reached based on your research thus far.

Part 2: The Annotations Themselves
In addition to complete bibliographic information, each annotation should contain 1) a summary of the source, and 2) an evaluation of the source (using criteria such as completeness, comprehensiveness, clarity of presentation, point of view presented, level of detail, quality and quantity of research). Annotations should be approximately 100 to 150 words each. Be selective about how much information you include so that you give readers a clear idea of what the source is about without overwhelming them with too much detail.

Begin each annotation by briefly summarizing the overall claim, scope, and subject of the source. Next, evaluate the source in terms of how well it fulfills its purpose and point out any limitations that it might have. Consider questions such as:

• How complete is the information presented?
• Is the author an expert on the subject?
• What kind of information does the author present: statistical, personal/anecdotal?
• How does the kind of information presented affect the quality and significance of the work?
• Does the source present flawed information?
• Are the conclusions reached consistent with the information presented?
• Does the author support all the claims made with evidence?
• Does the source present accurate and up-to-date information?
• Does the source cite information from other sources?

The sources you collect will help you draw conclusions about your research topic and support the argument you will make in your proposal. You might not quote or paraphrase from every annotated source in your final project, and you might add others that you did not include in the annotated bibliography. Don’t worry too much about that now—just focus on finding good information and demonstrating that you can critically evaluate the usefulness and relevance of what you find. We will discuss your ongoing research progress regularly in class.

Assignment Two: Evaluation and Review

English 102: Assignment Two
Evaluation Argument

What You’ll Be Doing--Description:
In this assignment you’ll be writing a review/evaluation of some person, product, policy, event, or action. You will ground your work in a system of criteria, and will hold the product, policy, or action up against that system. It will also be necessary to demonstrate that the system of values that you are applying is necessarily situated within a particular social context.

What We Hope To Accomplish--Goals:
In this assignment, students will be familiarized with methods of evaluation, and will also necessarily encounter how those systems are situated within (or extensions of) particular communities. We will explore arguments of value, focusing specifically on evidence as it functions within evaluation arguments. Finally, students will make use of outside sources, conducting meaningful research and incorporating that research into their essay following MLA guidelines.

How You’ll Be Doing It--Composition:
The first step is probably to decide on a subject. What person, product, policy, event, or action has recently alarmed you? Which has excited or interested you? Which has disappointed you?

After deciding on the subject, it’s important to explore what causes your reaction to the subject. Are there specific values that you subscribe to in relation to this subject? Are those values fixed, or are they elastic? Hopefully you can develop a set list of criteria that you might apply to any manifestation of the subject. If you can rank those criteria (most important to least) then you also have a system of values.

Next, you’ll need to apply that system of values to the subject you’re evaluating. How does this subject achieve, or fall short of, fulfilling those criteria? How does it measure up to others of its kind? Finally, you’ll need to reflect on where that system of values comes from? Who else holds these values? What are some of the other systems out there? Who ascribes to those beliefs? Why? Is your system better than others, or are these systems arbitrary or situational in nature?

When composing your paper, keep in mind that the final product must:

• State your position on the person, product, policy, event, or action.
• Clearly state as well any competing positions that are relevant to the situation. It should also state the evaluative criteria (the values) that are at stake in this argument, defend or attack these, and show how they are at work in the various positions taken in the argument.
• Consider alternative views and counter-arguments where relevant, and provide any and all evidence that is persuasive for the arguments you advance in support of your case.
• Evaluate the quality of the evidence presented by parties who do not agree with your evaluation of the position, action, or policy.

What It Should Look Like--Constraints:

• Length: long enough to satisfactorily fulfill the requirements of the assignment; most successful papers are between three and five pages, but remember: a two-page paper could hypothetically receive a passing grade and a fourteen-page paper could fail. Both scenarios seem to be anomalies.
• Please type (12 point font) your paper and double space it using one-inch margins; this requirement is not an arbitrary obsession with form. Studies have shown that teachers react in different ways to different formatting. By standardizing your paper format, I can guarantee us both an equitable reading of your work.
• The paper should use and document at least five authoritative sources, using standard MLA style.
• Give your work a title.

Assignment One: Letter to the Editor

English 102: Assignment One
Dear Editor . . .
Sincerely, Lost in Phoenix

What You’ll Be Doing—Description:
This assignment is twofold: the first section will consist of a letter to the editor of a publication, the second section will be a reflection and analysis concerning the decisions that you’ve made in your letter in regards to that unique rhetorical situation.

What We Hope To Accomplish—Goals:
We are looking primarily at the rhetorical aspects of audience and situation as they apply to even the smallest written arguments. We will identify the various and unique audiences of our specific writing situations, taking into account the imagined audience, the ideal audience and the actual audience. We will also consider how best to appeal to sympathetic, neutral and resistant audiences.

We will also consider issues of medium and purpose. How do we construct our arguments to meet the specific needs of a publication? In this particular case, how do we reflect the depth and complexity of our arguments in such a short span of words? How do we make and support our claims? How do we pare down the scope or breadth of our arguments? Etc.

How You’ll Be Doing It—Composition:

1. Decide upon a publication and conduct some study of (read a bunch of) the letters that have been published. The publication might be a local newspaper, national magazine, online journal or weekly entertainment and events magazine (we have something called The New Times in Phoenix that covers entertainment but also does some investigative reporting—usually with a leftist bent). It would be best to choose a publication that you read relatively often. Don’t limit yourself to the serious stuff, like Newsweek—have some fun with this.
2. Explore that publication’s particular expectations for form and content.
3. Develop a working outline of the letter—since the format for most letters is relatively small, you have very little space with which to make your point. Therefore, the organization is extremely important to the success of your writing.
4. Compose the letter and the reflection and submit these to a peer review.
5. Revise the letter and the reflection, and submit those to me for a grade.

What It Should Look Like—Constraints:

• Length: the letter itself should be roughly as long as the majority of the letters published in your chosen magazine or newspaper. A quick review of today’s (1/17/07) New York Times letters revealed that the shortest letter was 58 words, and the longest was 162. Letters in The Arizona Republic were between 52 and 318 words. The reflection will likely be significantly longer than the letter, but I have not assigned a length requirement, as length is often dependent upon form and content.
  A Warning About Length: Choosing a publication with relatively shorter letters will not necessarily make your job easier as you still need to construct complex arguments—supporting claims with evidence or reason. In fact, your job may be significantly more difficult if you have less space within which to cast your argument.
• The first section should, in fact, take the form of a letter—follow standard business letter procedures in this case.
• The reflection should be typed in 12 point font and double spaced using one inch margins. These requirements are not an arbitrary obsession with form; studies have shown that teachers react in different ways to different formatting. By standardizing your paper format, I can guarantee us both an equitable reading of your work.