Teaching Resources
Composition Archive
CO150
2005-2005 Syllabus
Week 14: Monday, Nov. 28th - Friday, Dec. 2nd
Our goal this week is to have students choose the publication they will target for their public audience argument, and to start the revision process. We will also discuss the use of visual rhetoric. Hang in there as the semester draws to a close!
Please remember to provide lesson and course connections each class day and to introduce and conclude your lessons along with providing transitions between activities.
Take a few minutes to review the public argument assignment. Since students have been on break, they will likely need a quick refresher.
The goal of this activity is to expose students to a variety of publications that they may choose to write for with their public argument. Have students share their publications in groups or as a class. They should explain:
Once students have shared their publication samples, have them complete the publication analysis. The goal of this assignment is to have students carefully examine the requirements and expectations of the publication they wish to target. This will help them to better shape their argument for this publication. You should plan to collect this assignment with their final portfolio. In planning this activity, be sure to outline how long you feel the activity will take, what materials you will need, and what you will need to do to prepare students to successfully complete it. You may also decide how you want students to turn in their Publication Analyses--do you want it written out in paragraph form or is question-and-answer satisfactory?
To introduce this activity, have students choose one publication to focus on (one that they brought in or one that someone else brought in). Then, ask them to address the following questions:
1. What is the purpose of the publication (magazine, newspaper, etc…) you chose?
2. What is the publication's mission statement?
3. What type(s) of authors are regularly featured in the publication?
4. Who are the primary, intended readers?
5. What are these readers like? What do they value or believe? What might their political or religious beliefs be like? Why do they read this publication? What might they think about your topic?
6. What topics/issues does the publication usually cover?
7. What is the typical length of an article in the publication?
8. What kinds of graphics are used throughout the publication?
9. What patterns do you note in the layout of main articles in the publication? (i.e. Do all the articles or columns begin the same way? Do they each contain a certain number of graphics?)
10. What is the tone, style or language used by writers in the publication like? Is the language formal, scientific, humorous, playful, etc…?
11. What requirements of guidelines do you need to be aware of in terms of citing sources or other stylistic features?
12. How do the writers in this publication usually support their points? Do they use personal experience? Factual data?
13. Note anything else significant about your publication here.
The Context Comparison provides students with the opportunity to foreground the choices they will make in the revision of their arguments for an academic audience. You can make the Context Comparison "bigger" or "smaller" according to what you feel your students need more time or work on.
Part 1
Divide a sheet of paper in half. Label the left column "Academic Context" and label the right column "Public Context." Fill in the appropriate answer to each of the following for both contexts:
Part 2
In this section, you should go beyond the answers to Part 1 and, in sentence form, explain the revision choices you will make when you change your argument from meeting the expectations of an academic context to meeting the expectations of your public context.
The goal for this activity is to help students see how visual elements can enhance the effectiveness of their argument. Have students work with one specific article (that they found in the sample publication they brought to class) an address the following points.
Encourage students to examine how other writers use visual elements to make their argument more effective. Key points to cover in as you introduce this concept include:
Once you finish discussing visual elements, connect the concept to students’ own writing. Ask students to brainstorm options for incorporating visual elements into their papers. How might they use visual rhetoric to further their arguments for a public audience? They might think of something as complex as creating a table to display data or something as simple as a bulleted list to simplify a complex set of solutions, for instance, for a reader. Let them know, too, that the type of visual rhetoric they choose should resemble the visual rhetoric used in the publication they are analyzing.
Explain how to create a text box: If you want to create a text box with writing in it or insert a picture/image into a text box to place within your writing, be sure your "drawing" tool bar is open in Word (this is the one that has auto shapes and a paint can on it). Then click on the icon that looks like piece of paper with typing on it around the letter 'A.' This should allow you to choose the type of text box you want (in older versions of Word, your cursor will turn into a + that you size however you want by holding down the left button on your mouse). Once you create the box, you can type call out quotes in it or copy/paste images. If you right click on the box's outline, a new menu should appear. In this menu, choose "format text box" and you'll get a whole new set of choices for wrapping text, bringing text "forward" (over the text box), coloring the text box, etc.
We recommend telling students to play around with this WITH A SAVED DOCUMENT until they figure out to what extent they want to use this feature.
** Remind students that the visual elements are only one small part of this revision assignment. They should primarily focus on effective writing. The visual components alone will not make for a strong argument.
Assign the following to students this week:
