Due:
- Group contracts and interview appointments.
Goals:
- To explain and practice rhetorical analysis.
Assignment:
- Individual groups should set their own deadlines for the next
class. Your next group deadline should be for the completed rhetorical
analyses on day six.
Setup Needs:
- Samples of texts from classroom assignments, academic journals,
and workplace writing. You can find your own samples or use the
examples included as the appendix to this unit.
- "Analyzing a Written Text" sheet.
Sequence:
- Start with an appropriate DAILY writing exercise:
Insert your own DAILY here.
- Begin with an explanation of the rhetorical analysis. Luckily,
this should be easy since you've talked about language analysis
all along: essentially, the rhetorical analysis is the same thing
as the general analyses your students did in Unit I and the audience
analyses they did in Unit II. The difference is that this one
is more detailed and geared toward finding specific information
about language in their own fields.
- Go over the actual analysis sheet with your class.
- Have your students practice analyzing texts with the following
activity:
- First, break your students into groups according to the area
of their field their groups have assigned them to cover (everyone
covering classroom assignments should be in one group, academics
in another, etc.). If the groups get too large, cut them in half.
- Hand out copies of sample texts to each group according to
their respective areas of inquiry, and have the groups complete
a rhetorical analysis of their samples.
- Finally, bring the class back together and discuss their analyses.
How were they useful? What questions/difficulties came up?