Course Assignments
Essay I: Media & Information
You will work in groups of 3 or 4 to write a rhetorical analysis of an argumentative text. The essay will allow you to demonstrate your understanding of the basic rhetorical concepts and your critical reading skills. In the assignment sheet, you will find detailed instructions about the essay and a list of the articles available for analysis.
Deadlines:
Topic Proposal: Feb 7th in class
First Draft: Feb 18th by noon
Revision: Feb 28th by noon
Essay II: Trends & Culture
You will use a theme from The Culture of Fear to write a research paper individually. The essay will need to be a causal argument and will allow you to demonstrate both your research skills and your ability to engage with a complex, controversial issue. Please see the assignment sheet for detailed instructions.
Deadlines:
Topic Proposal: Feb 28th in class
First Draft: March 11th by noon
Revision: March 28th by noon
Essay III: Health & Safety
This individual research paper will be a definitional argument that discusses an issue within the general theme of the assignment. Again, you will use The Culture of Fear as a starting point for your topic selection. The essay will let you showcase your research and rhetorical skills. Please see the assignment sheet for detailed instructions.
Deadlines:
Topic Proposal: March 28th in class
First Draft: April 8th by noon
Revision: April 18th by noon
Essay IV: Policies & Fear
You will work in groups of 3 or 4 to write a proposal argument that attempts to solve a specific problem related to policies and fears. The essay will allow you to demonstrate your problem-solving skills and relate the rhetorical strategies you have learned to real-life situations. The full instructions are included in the assignment sheet.
Deadlines:
Topic Proposal: April 18th in class
First Draft: May 2nd by noon
Revision: May 11th by noon
Blogging
You will be contributing posts that invite discussion, help you understand the material, or assist you with group assignments. You are expected to post once a week. Each post should consist of at least 150 words, i.e. a substantial paragraph. You are welcome to start discussions on topics of interest to you that are related to the course, ask questions about the material, follow up on class discussions, etc.
In addition, you will be responding at least once a week to your classmates' posts or to my posts, which will be closely related to the readings. The overall goal will be to sustain a dialog online. There will not be any word limit for responses to other people's posts, but you should try to be detailed and avoid terse remarks.
Deadlines:
Comments due by noon before the next class period.