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Contents 1 In-Class Activities: Day 13, October 16th 1.1 Logistics 1.2 Your Civic Letter 2 Homework Due 18th October 3 In-Class Activities: Day 14, October 18 3.1 Question 1 3.2 In-Class Assignment A 3.3 In-Class Assignment B 3.4 Question 2 3.5 In-Class Assignment C 3.6 Question 3 3.6.1 Extra Credit 4 Homework Due 23rd October 4.1 Civic Letter Portfolio

In-Class Activities: Day 13, October 16th

Many logistical items today, plus mapping your civic letter using the rhetorical situation triangular model.

Logistics

• Questions about your letter to a senior in Honors 491G?

• How to introduce yourself? (Maintain anonymity or no? You do need to sign with your wikiusername.)

• BTW! Some of you are posting messages to me on my Usertalk page without using the code that makes your "signature" a link! Make it easy for me (and anyone else who wants to engage with you/your writing).

• Appointments: My office hours are

Mondays 10:05-11:05,

Tuesday from noon (sometimes a bit before) until class starts, and

Thursday from noon until class begins.

• Please email so we can avoid (if possible) too much overlap, but also do not hesitate to stop by. I will arrange another time to meet with you if necessary.

• If I am not in the office I am just down the hall in the Graduate Student Lounge/Computer Lab or making photocopies on the 4th floor.

• Optional rewrites of your argument analysis of Flogging are due in a complete portfolio Thursday, Oct 18. I will deduct points if your portfolio is not assembled. What is the problem?!!? Include all notes and drafts related to the essay. Here is a sample paper by Bela, and another one, Torture is Cheap, by ElR6.
• Wikiteam: Who will join Aaron? Jen? Sonia? David? Brett? Kristen? Anyone else?
• Collaborative writing: Who will join Nicole? Chris? Gina? Nick? Kristen? Brett? Anyone else?
• Returning work -

1. grammar corrections: those that earned a point can now be posted (for a second point) to the CourseWiki but you must do the format correctly for credit. Go to Grammar Matters for information and to post.
2. argument analyses (am I going to get any requested essays posted to the Wiki?)
3. grade sheets....I need to know your identities to include the anonymous blogwork.

Your Civic Letter

• Sketch the triangle of your own rhetorical situation, labeling your

intended, target audience (name, title, specific outlet)

specific content, and provide a

brief description of yourself as author.

Do not be shy about reviewing frames of reference, the two models of communication as a process: transmission and ritual, or any part of the rhetorical situation.

• Next, brainstorm specific facts/statements of each rhetorical strategy you can bring to bear:

How might pathos work to establish a connection between your audience and your content?

How can you wield logos to establish your own expertise with the content?

What forms of ethos can you demonstrate to enhance your credibility?

• Finally (for today):

What gaps exist in your knowledge of this topic? List them so you do not forget, then find the answers! (Research!)

What kinds of questions will a serious reader of your argument ask? You must imagine a critical audience; why should they simply agree with you on the basis of your desire?

Homework Due 18th October

Class Thursday will be in Goodell 613.

1. Bring your letter to the Honors 491G student either on a flashdrive or emailed to yourself (be sure the attachment will open!) or loaded onto your UDrive. We will post these during class!
2. Read the selected Argument Analyses of Bring Back Flogging by Bela, How effective is corporal punishment anyway and by ElR6, Torture is Cheap. We will do an activity with these in wikilab tomorrow (hopefully we will get another couple posted); read them even if you do not rewrite your own essay.
3. Complete a draft of your political/civic letter. Consider this a "freewriting" activity: let yourself go and write what you think and feel on the topic, what you know, describe the sources of your knowledge, be critical of your own biases...try to take your own argument apart! Do this in writing so you can begin to clear and hone your mind for the sharper focus necessary in writing a letter intended to make a difference. This draft needs to be in your Portfolio for this third (somewhat) more "valuable" assignment: in terms of percentage of your quality grade and in terms of higher stakes in society.
4. Optional rewrite of "Bring Back Flogging" Argument Analysis.

In-Class Activities: Day 14, October 18

A wiki day: we will meet in the computer laboratory in Goodell, Room 613.

1. Give one copy of your civic action letter draft to Steph (feedback today if possible).
2. Give one copy of your draft to your teammate (for homework, complete asap and exchange).
3. Turn in rewrites of Argument Analysis, in portfolios, if done.

We will accomplish a few different tasks today. The steps we go through today will build basic skills that will help you in other internet environments beyond the wiki. Recall our discussion of non-linearity in class last Tuesday? Not that mental disabilities are humorous in real life; the experience of intellectual tension may feel disturbing, yet a certain amount is necessary for actual learning. Check out some of these contextualized definitions:

1. "a change in neural function as a consequence of experience." MedausPharmacy Anti-Aging Glossary
2. "The acquisition of knowledge or skill. It occurs in, and may lead to changes in, the brain." The Brain: Our Sense of Self, National Institutes of Health
3. "An exercise of constructing personal knowledge that requires the learner to be mentally active rather than passive; interpreting rather than recording information." Maine Department of Higher Education
4. "A relatively permanent change in cognition, resulting from experience and directly influencing behavior." Glossary by Dr. Diane Ehrlich, NorthEastern Illinois University.
5. "...s an increase in the capability for effective action. Individual, team, and organizational learning can all be measured by the outcomes that result from effective action." Mountain Quest Institute

Question 1

Work in the same teams established during the First WikiQuiz; if you do not have a team member - or if anyone is part of trio, let me know immediately. Come get the Second WikiQuiz paper portion from Steph). After completing Question 1 on paper, continue with Assignment A, below.

In-Class Assignment A

Write a brief analysis of the preceding definitions. Do this (first!) in a word processing program and save it (get into this habit!!!) As a team, first brainstorm the questions you need "to ask" the list (as a text) in order to provide a thorough analysis. Type these up above the analysis; you will post these questions separately from the analysis (but it is good to have them for yourselves in one document: this should be printed for inclusion in your Argument Analysis portfolio. Please read these instructions carefully!

1. Create a title and a new category: COM375: Argument Analysis
2. briefly describe what you were asked to do, include the actual questions you and your partner used to "interrogate the text," and
3. make a link to Steph's Wordpress blogentry, COMM Juniors Awake! - which is where you are actually going to post your (prewritten and saved) analysis as a "Reply" (sometimes called a comment).
4. Now, click through to Steph's entry, COMM Juniors Awake!,
5. scroll down to the "Leave a Reply" box,
6. copy and paste your analysis in the box, and
7. click "submit."

In-Class Assignment B

Fancy up your UserPage in preparation for readers from Honors 491G.

• Correct any funky formatting.
• Insert a Table of Contents. (If you do not know how, how could you find out?) Hint: click the "edit" tab on a page that has the feature you want; find the code, copy it - without changing any text on that page! - and then paste it where you want it. Check out ElR6's UserPage, or steph's.
• Create headers for each item posted on your page. (If you do not know how, how will you find out?)
• ADD your letter to your randomly-assigned writer from Honors 491G. (Being sure it has its own unique title and subsection in the TOC.)
• Make sure all the formatting is clean and the TOC links functional.
• Go to

Question 2

on the paper portion of the Second WikiQuiz.

In-Class Assignment C

1. Go to the Honors 491G Coursewiki where your assigned author's work is posted. (Where was this link originally posted?)
2. Select your randomly-assigned student's name from the Table of Contents.
3. Select "edit" on the right side (corresponding to the "title" of the particular posting; in this case, the writer's name.
4. Scroll to the bottom of your writer's entry,
5. insert a title for your sub-entry, by using (in this case) three equal signs === before and after ===
6. Write a brief (one or two sentence) invitation to come read what you wrote in response to their analysis.
7. Somewhere in your sentence, create an internal link to your letter.
8. Sign using the official signature button or the infamous four tildas. ~~~~
9. Test everything to be sure it works!

Question 3

• review the Homework Due for Tuesday, all clear?
• consider: do you want to earn some extra credit? (If so, see below.)
• complete the paper portion of the Second WikiQuiz,
• turn the Second WikiQuiz in to Steph, and you're done.
  • Enjoy the weekend!

Extra Credit

(Applies to baseline points): You can earn up to five points by comparing a combination of any two of the following Argument Analyses with your own:

Bela's, How effective is corporal punishment anyway,

ElR6's Torture is Cheap,

Amanda Huggenkis' To Flog or Not to Flog, and/or

BellaBerly's Un-Flog Your Mind.

(Double points if you compare/contrast all four with your own.) Write first in a word processing document and save it; then copy and paste into your Wordpress blog, category: COM375: Argument Analysis

Post a message on my Usertalk (discussion) page with a link when this is done. Deadline is Tuesday, 30 October.

Homework Due 23rd October

First! Critique your teammate's first draft. Make special arrangements to exchange this feedback with each other asap so that you can benefit in writing your final draft.

Writing as Politics and Communication due (postponed from original due date of October 18). This is a targeted letter to a specific audience with the power and/or resources to effect the problem you selected. Do not neglect the Portfolio! The "vacation" from Baseline Point Penalities (granted on the Argument Analyses) is over.

Civic Letter Portfolio

Please remember to organize this portfolio in reverse-chronological order: most recent on top, the work completed first (in time) on the bottom.

This third portfolio of your work in COM375 should include:

1. First Wordpress blogpost on Civic Engagement: Writing for Action
2. In-class mapping of your rhetorical situation
3. In-class brainstormed lists (knowledge gaps, questions critics will ask)
4. Freewriting (long!) draft
5. Rewrite, reduced/limited to 500 words. (Busy, influential people do not have time - nor patience! - to meander through a disorganized stream-of-some-stranger's-consciousness!)
6. Accurate use of in-text citations (yes, you are writing a "letter," and the goal is to persuade with an academically-based argument. Show (cite!) the sources of your evidence! (I.e., include a full bibliography.)
7. The Honors 491G news analysis you read and
8. your letter to the author of that analysis.
9. Blogpost analyzing the "argument" presented by the teacher in her selection of definitions of learning (and her timing. Hmmm.)
10. Feedback (peer review) from your teammate on the first draft copy.
11. Final draft of your civic letter. Dated, single-spaced, formal To/From heading (targeted audience's actual address) and genuine signature. Write this letter for real.