Week 3
Session Overview
This week we will be introducing rhetorical analysis. Because we live in the age of information and advertising, being able to understand and analyze rhetoric is more important than ever. The reading, “Backpacks vs. Briefcases” will provide you with an introduction to rhetorical analysis, as you will soon complete your own. We will also be covering genres that you may use in your discourse communities. For example, a criminal justice major may study reports from court while a history major may study journals written during a certain period. You write in different genres every day, too. Do you tweet or text? Do you have to create PowerPoint presentations for your job? This week, we will consider the many genres that we see in our day-to-day lives.
Learning Outcomes
Students will engage in processes for reading, writing, and research, and discovery. They will produce documents which demonstrate that they can:
- Set purposes and goals for reading, writing, and research
- Summarize, interpret, and respond to the ideas of others
Students will demonstrate a metacognitive* understanding of recursive reading, writing, and thinking processes. They will produce documents which demonstrate that they can:
- Engage in writing as a process completed over time in multiple steps through multiple drafts
- Use reading and writing to generate their own questions about texts and their contexts
Students will engage in reading and writing as social processes. They will produce documents which demonstrate that they can:
- Use a variety of strategies for ethical incorporation of peers’ feedback into their own writing
Students will apply textual conventions appropriately to their writing tasks. They will produce documents which demonstrate that they can:
- Use genre, format, and structure conventions appropriately in a range of academic contexts
- Introduce and integrate quoted and paraphrased materials effectively for academic audiences
- Document sources using MLA style
*metacognitive or metacognition is defined by the developmental psychologist John Flavell as, “the theory of dividing thinking into three processes of planning, tracking, and assessing your own understanding.” Essentially, this means that you reflect on and understand how you think.
Readings and Other Texts – Due ________
Backpacks vs. Briefcases, Laura Carroll
Peer Review – Due _______
A1. Discourse Community Investigation
After your peer review session for A1, write a revision plan based on the document below. Be sure to include this plan when you submit A1. Draft 2 next week.
How to Write a Revision Plan
Revision is not just “looking again” at your writing in a quick or cursory way. A revision plan is a set of instructions to yourself. Its purpose is to prioritize, name, and organize your revision tasks. You must decide which tasks are most important and approach them in that order. Here is a list that a student wrote after receiving feedback on a first draft:
- Revise my thesis
- Develop my solution
- Add more examples
- Correct my citations
- Cut out some unneeded material
- Fix grammar
This list is insufficient. The statements are too general and do not give your revision the direction it needs. Revision is about making big changes to your draft: What do you need to cut? To add? To modify? To move? To separate? To detail? To condense? To rewrite from scratch? These verbs can help you
write out your plan.
This list is better since it prioritizes, names, and organizes:
- Rewrite the thesis. Right now, it thesis argues an issue, when it should argue for an analysis. Here’s what I’m thinking: “…..”
- Cut the second paragraph in the introduction. It says the same thing as the first paragraph, which will turn out fine once I rewrite the thesis.
- Move the fourth paragraph up right after the introduction. It’s the clearest textual example of the argument I’m trying to make and will have its greatest impact earlier in the paper.
- Modify the analysis of the second text by incorporating a summary. I need to mention …
- Separate paragraph 7 into two. I have more to say on the fourth text than on the other three, and I can write one paragraph that summarizes it and another that analyzes it.
- Condense paragraph 9. It’s too long and wanders away from the point I want to make. Here’s how I’ll do it: …
- Detail the analysis of the third text. I haven’t written enough summary for readers to understand my argument.
- Add material to my conclusion. I’ve summarized the essay’s main points, but I haven’t discussed the significance of my analysis for not only the primary audience but possible secondary audiences.
Once you have written this plan, writing a revision cover letter to submit with your final draft will take little effort! Take this plan with you to office hours or to the Writing Center if you choose to get more input on your draft.
Adapted from “How to Write a Revision Plan,”
webs.anokaramsey.edu/wrobel/1121/…/Exercises/how_to_write_a_revision_plan.html
metacognitive or metacognition is defined by the developmental psychologist John Flavell as, "the theory of dividing thinking into three processes of planning, tracking, and assessing your own understanding." Essentially, this means that you reflect on and understand how you think.
