The Rest of the Semester!:

• Wednesday, 12/7 and Friday 12/9: one-on-one conferences
• Meet me at the Student Union Starbucks for your scheduled appointment: Paper3ConferenceSignup.pdf  
• I'll bring your current grade in the course
• Monday, 12/12: last day of class!
• Wednesday 12/14: final draft of paper 3 due
• Stapled printed hard copy with rough draft and peer review worksheet 
• Drop by the classroom between 9-9:50am to turn your paper in
• If you'd like to drop your final draft off earlier, you can submit it to my mailbox in Storm Hall West 141
• No papers submitted after 9:50am on 12/14, either in person or in my mailbox, will be graded
• If you intend on picking up your final draft and would like me to provide comments, please write "Feedback Please" on top of the paper. You can pick up your graded paper on 12/19.
• Monday, 12/19
• I will be in the classroom between 9-9:50am with your graded papers. If you wanted and asked for feedback, you can pick yours up from me then!

Paper 3 Rough Draft Due Monday 12/5

• 5 full pages
• Printed, hard copy
• Be ready for peer review! 

Homework for Monday, 11/28—Due Wednesday, 11/30

• Post your revised and finalized (arguable, focused, specific, argumentatively written) main argument and claims (as well as sub-claims, if applicable) to your blog before class on Wednesday.
• If you're collecting data, aim to finish your research process by Wednesday.
• Bring your DraftingPaper3.pdf worksheet, the data you've collected and/or additional supporting sources, and your course reader to class on Wednesday. 

Week of 11/21

• Monday, 11/21: Annotated Bibliography and/or Proposal for paper 2 due (ThompsonCarrandboydPointsofDifferenceDisagreementorConnection (1).pdf)
• Wednesday, 11/23 and Friday, 11/25: Campus holiday. No class! 

Homework for Monday, 11/14—Due Wednesday, 11/16

• Read pages 55-67 in They Say/I Say. Bring your course reader and a hard copy of boyd’s text to class on Wednesday.

• At the end of class on Wednesday, you should have selected your research topic for paper 3. Don't worry, we'll discuss paper three and the annotated bibliography and/or proposal (due 11/21) further on Wednesday. Here are some broad topics to consider.   

• Cultural/societal consequences of digital life (group cognition, knowledge production, public thinking)

• Consequences of digital life on the individual (individual cognition, knowledge production, opportunity and access)

• Digital access and/or inequality (age, education, socioeconomic status, race, gender, etc.)

• Writing and researching in the digital age

• Critical digital literacy (what is it? who has it? how do you cultivate it?)

• Digital tools and/or platforms (Google, Wikipedia)

• The idea of the “digital native” (complicate, extend, defend, or challenge this idea)

Homework for Wednesday, 11/9—Due Monday, 11/14, and Important Schedule Reminders!

• Homework: First, write a PACES analysis of boyd’s text, using the Course Reader to refresh your memory if necessary. Second, write a few sentences exploring your argumentative position in relation to Thompson, Carr, and boyd. Post both to your blog by Monday morning. Also, while you're in your blog, please approve your classmates's comments on your previous post so I can view them!

• Friday, 11/11: Veteran’s Day. No class!

• Monday, 11/14: Library research day. Meet in the library addition basement, LA-76 at 9:00am. This will be helpful for guiding your research process for paper 3 (prompt here: Essay3Prompt.pdf)

Homework Due Wednesday, 11/9

• Write paragraph-length responses to three of your classmates's questions in the comment sections of their blogs. You can respond to all three of one person's questions, or you can respond to one question each posed by three of your classmates.

Homework for Friday, 11/4—Due Monday, 11/7

• Print boyd’s text and read it carefully: boyd - digital natives.pdf
• On your blog, post three thoughtful questions for class discussion on Monday. Be sure to write questions that are specific to the text, demonstrating that you’ve thoroughly read boyd. For instance, don’t ask how boyd appeals to ethos, because such a question could be asked of any persuasive text. These questions can be related to either the content of boyd’s discussion or how her argument works. There's no need to have answers to these questions, but come to class prepared to pose them to your classmates!
• Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour! Daylight Savings is on Sunday :). 

Due Wednesday, 11/2:

• Stapled hard copy of your final draft of the second essay, with rough draft and peer review worksheet.

•   For those of you who were not in class, write me an email in which you reflect on your successes and challenges in this second paper. At this point in the semester, in what ways do you feel confident in your writing and where would you like more support? Tell me what you're most interested in getting feedback on in your paper so that I can focus on providing commentary that will be most helpful to you.

Week of 10/24: 

• Monday: peer review workshop
• Wednesday & Friday—one-on-one conferences! There won't be regular schedule class on these days. Instead, meet me at the Student Union Starbucks for a ten-minute meeting, bringing your rough draft and any questions or concerns. Your scheduled conference times are here: Paper2ConferenceSignup.pdf
• If you weren't present for the peer review workshop, email me to schedule a conference time based on the slots available.  

Remember: Friday, 10/21—no class!

                       Monday, 10/24: Full five pages (hard copy) of rough draft due in class for peer review!

Week of 10/17:

• Due in class on Wednesday: Revise and rewrite the paragraphs you wrote over the weekend using the Drafting Carr Handout.docx as a guide. Focus on developing your analysis by addressing each of the questions listed for your chosen strategy. Bring these paragraphs to class on Wednesday, either written on your handout or typed and printed.
• Friday, 10/21: No class!!! Take the extra time to work on your rough draft.
• Monday, 10/24: Hard copy of a full rough draft due in class for peer review.  

Announcement: Class Cancelled Friday 10/14!

Homework for the weekend of 10/14:

• Continue analyzing Carr using CarrAnalysisGuide.docx. The handout includes descriptions of and analytical questions for various strategies used by Carr that work in service of ethos, pathos, and logos. I encourage you to take your time with generating this analysis, continually asking yourself and how and why and to what effect these strategies work. The more work you do now, the easier the drafting process will be! Bring the handout to class on Monday. 
• By Sunday at 4:00pm, post a four paragraph mini-analysis on Carr on your blog. This is essentially the same as the handout: one paragraph that introduces the text, describes the rhetorical situation, and identifies Carr's audience, and three paragraphs discussing and analyzing a particular strategy that works to develop each appeal—one (developed) paragraph per strategy/appeal pair. 

Homework for Wednesday, 10/12—Due Friday, 10/14

• Select three strategies that work in service of each of the Aristotelian appeals (that's nine in total)!
• Come to class prepared to discuss and work on these. 
• The prompt for paper 2 is posted on the Prompts page.  

Homework for Monday, 10/10—Due Wednesday, 10/12

• Read Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" in your Course Reader. Come to class prepared to discuss. 

Homework for Friday, 10/7—Due Monday, 10/10

• On Monday we will have a team debate in which each group presents and defends their position using a savvy blend of appeals to ethos, pathos and logos. Come to class Monday morning prepared to "present" (or read) your paragraph-long argument to the class and a jury of your peers. This likely means you'll need to collaborate and co-write with your team remotely using a shared doc. The assignment and teams can be found here: Team “Debate” -- Triage.pdf. There may be prizes . . . 
• For those of you who weren't in class today (10/7) and don't know what I'm talking about, please read the assignment handout above and write a paragraph in defense of one of the positions as though you were in a team, and bring this in to class on Monday.  
• If you'd like to get ahead this weekend, read Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (Spoiler Alert: probably not). We'll begin discussing this text, which you will use to write your second paper, on Wednesday.  

Homework for Monday, 10/3—Due before class on Friday, 10/7

• Examine the website of a product or service you like or find interesting. Write 3-4 paragraphs on your blog analyzing how the website appeals to ethos, pathos, and/or logos through rhetorical strategies in order to persuade customers to buy their product. Include an evaluation of how the website balances or fails to balance the Aristotelian appeals.
• Come to class Friday prepared to discuss your analysis! 

Final Draft of Paper 1 Due on Monday, 10/3 in class!

• Stapled hard copy with your rough draft and peer review worksheet  

Update 9/26

• Please meet me for your conferences INSIDE the Student Union Starbucks—it's gonna be a disgustingly hot week!
• Revise, Revise, Revise! 

Weekend of 9/23 Homework—Rough Draft Due on Monday, 9/26!!

• Write your rough draft. It doesn't have to perfect or completely developed, but it must be at least four full pages—no outlines or notes! For an example of a successful body paragraph and the depth of analysis I expect, check these out: Draft Paragraphs—Thompson.pdf
• Bring a hard copy of your rough draft to class on Monday morning for our peer review workshop. 
• We will not be meeting as a class on Wednesday 9/28 or Friday 9/30. Instead, you will meet with me for a one-on-one ten minute conference.
• Meet me at your scheduled time on the outside patio of  inside the Starbucks at the Student Union. Don't be late—ten minutes is not a long time! Here's the signup sheet with your appointment times: Paper1ConferenceSignup (1).pdf. If you were absent on 9/23 and have not yet scheduled a conference, e-mail me your preferred time based on the availability on the sign up sheet. 
• Email me if you have pressing questions over the weekend. Happy drafting! 

Homework for Wednesday, 9/21 — Due Friday, 9/23

• Read p 22, 30-31 in Course Reader
• Bring Drafting Thompson handout to class on Friday

Homework for Monday, 9/19 — Due Wednesday, 9/21

• Select 1-3 strategies that work in support of one of Thompson’s claims or subclaims that you’d like to analyze in your paper.

• Suggestions: metaphor, analogy, structure/organization, word choice, transitional questions, prolepsis (anticipating and addressing an opposing argument)

• Bring your Drafting Thompson handout to class on Wednesday.
• Also, for anyone interested, here's the flier for the Writing Center's open hours: Open RWS Students flyer ONLINE Sept16.pdf  

Homework for Friday, 9/16 — Due Monday, 9/19

• Read pages 1-41 in They Say/I Say (no need to do the exercises!)
• Skim through "Public Thinking" and select at least two of Thompson's claims or subclaims and at least two pieces of evidence supporting each that you'd like to write about in your upcoming paper. Select the ones that you think are the most important, interesting, compelling, or flawed—this will make your writing process more enjoyable. We'll discuss how to evaluate evidence in class on Monday, so be prepared to share your selections. 
• Also! Thanks to Jenn for catching a mistake on the prompt I handed out this week: your rough draft is due Monday, 9/26, not Friday, 9/23! I have uploaded an updated prompt with the correct date under "Prompts" on the wiki, and the correct date is reflected in your syllabus. 

Homework for Monday, 9/12 — Due Friday, 9/16

• Conduct research within your assigned cluster for at least an hour. If you were absent today, you've been assigned to investigate a particular aspect of the author, the text, its audience, or the rhetorical situation. Here's the sign-up from class today: thompsonresearchsignup (1).pdf
• Write a 3-4 paragraph blog post (due before class Friday morning) in which you explain what you learned in the course of your extra-textual research and the implications of those findings for how we read and understand Thompson's text. Some questions you might use to get started:
• What did you discover (about Thompson, his persona, his other research interests, how the book was received by the public, how public thinking works in practice, etc.) in your research? Why do these discoveries matter in the context of how we understand Thompson?
•  How do your findings affect the way you read "Public Thinking"? Is your understanding of the text broadened, deepened, complicated by what you found?
• Do you find "Public Thinking" more or less persuasive in light of your findings? Explain. 
•  Come to class on Friday prepared to give a "lightning presentation" about your findings and their implications to the class. Don't stress—these aren't formal presentations and should just be about a minute long. That said, what you share in class should be substantive and thoughtful. I would suggest printing out your blog post and highlighting points you'd like to share with the class. 

Homework for Friday 9/9 — Due Monday, 9/12

• Carefully and critically read Clive Thompson's "Public Thinking" in your Course Reader (45-55). 
• Come to class on Monday prepared to share your observations, thoughts, and/or questions about the text.  
• A few of you requested access to my *very fancy* argument map slide: argument map.pdf. Remember, this is just an example that shows the hierarchy of elements of an argument and how those elements relate to one another. Arguments can have any number of claims, subclaims, evidence, and strategies, so how many subclaims, pieces of evidence, and strategies support a given claim varies considerably. (Some simple arguments, for instance, may have no subclaims at all. Some weaker arguments may have very little evidence. Some boring-to-read arguments may be light on strategies.)

Homework for Friday 9/2 — DUE Wednesday, 9/7 

• Read Kristof's "Do We Have the Courage to Stop This?" and "Some Inconvenient Guns Facts for Liberals" in Course Reader (CR)
• Write a blog post (in complete sentences) in which you apply PACES (pg. 14 in CR) to one of Kristof's texts. Submit before class begins at 9:00am Wednesday.
• Bring CR to class on Wednesday
• Remember: no class on Monday for Labor Day. Enjoy the long weekend!
• Here are my notes from today's class. You can use this to guide your PACES blog post: paces applied to video teaching notes.pdf  

Homework - Wednesday 8/31

• Read pages 1-19 in your Course Reader
• Bring your Course Reader to class on Friday
• If you have not yet sent me a link to your Wordpress blog, please do so ASAP! 

Homework - Monday 8/29

• Review the syllabus. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please let me know! 
• Create a personal Wordpress blog: https://wordpress.com/ (for help creating your blog, check this out:   How to Create a Wordpress Site.docx)
• Create your first blog post, 3-4 paragraphs, in which you reflect on some or all of the following questions:

1. What do you think makes writing "good"?
2. What's your writing process like? (i.e. writing in the morning, in the library, while listening to music, without an outline, etc.)
3. What frustrates you about writing?
4. What are your writing strengths?        

• Send me an e-mail link to your blog at cfraedeker@gmail.com.