Homework
This page provides policy information about homework, participation, and the portfolio as well as links to reserve readings from the course website. Note: to retrieve the readings, you'll need your unity id and password.
Participation
Participation is crucial in this class not only because we rely on one another for feedback on our writing and thinking processes, but also because the nature of this material is unfamiliar to most of you. Class participation means more than how much you say in class; it's your effort to be present—both in mind and body—in our discussions. This means that you need to make a good effort not only to complete the readings, but to make notes that will permit you to recall important aspects for discussion. Homework, class exercises, and quizzes will be included in your participation grade. Your grade will also reflect your attendance, preparation, and the quality of your contributions to our class work. Accordingly, class participation will be graded as follows:
C Range:
- Arrive on time.
- Be ready to discuss readings when called on.
- Be prepared with the textbooks, reserve material, written homework, and/or memory storage device in class.
- Listen respectfully.
- Engage actively and productively in group work, peer review, and other in-class activities.
B Range:
- consistently fulfill requirements 1-5
- Volunteer questions or points of interest from readings to generate discussion.
- Willingly offer ideas in class; make sure your contributions are topical and thoughtful.
A Range:
- consistently fulfill the above 7 criteria
- Show leadership in class discussion (break uncomfortable silences; respond to open-ended questions; challenge received opinion; ask difficult questions).
- Respond to other students' ideas (not just mine) by asking questions or building on their points.
You will receive a failing participation grade if you are excessively and/or frequently tardy, you are unprepared for class, you disrupt class work, and/or you are occupied with activities other than those related to class.
Portfolio
Portfolio Assignment Sheet (Web)
Portfolio Assignment Sheet (PDF)
Throughout this semester, you will encounter ideas and theories that are foreign to you, that spark your interest, or that you feel may remain important in future classes. The purposes of the portfolio assignment are manifold. First, it will help both of us track your understanding of concepts pertinent to the course material. Second, it will help you reinforce concepts with which you may have difficulty, those which you find particularly interesting, or simply those you feel deserve more thought, providing you with an opportunity to research and discuss the topic in an informal document, the chance to "think in writing." Finally, it will serve as a study guide for our two exams.
Readings & Other Downloads
Powerpoint from 11/14/08 - Critical Perspective - [ CritPerspective.ppt ]
New Calendar - Effective 11/7/2008 - [ PDF ] [ Web ]
* For Discussion on 11/14 - Chapter 2 of Roderick Hart & Suzanne Daughton - Modern Rhetorical Criticism - hart-ch2.pdf
* For Discusssion on 11/17 - Chapter 8 of Campbell & Huxman's The Rhetorical Act AND review questions. 2 documents to download - [ RhetAct-Ch8.pdf ] [ questions-chap8.doc ]
Older Readings
* Grudin essay - for help on Project 2: LINK
From time to time, there will be readings assigned that are not available in your textbooks. You will find links to them here.
* For discussion on 8/27 - selections from Stanley Fish, Is There a Text In This Class? - Chapter 13 Chapter 14
* For discussion on 8/29 - Porter - "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community" - 5.1porter.pdf
* For discussion on 9/12 - Bitzer - "The Rhetorical Situation" - 1.1bitzer.pdf
* For discussion on 9/15 - Vatz - "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation" - 6.3vatz.pdf
* For discussion 9/24, 9/26, 9/29 - Plato Phaedrus - Trans. Benjamen Jowett - Phaedrus.pdf
* For Discussion on 10/17 - Burke, "Terministic Screens," from Language as Symbolic Action (1966) - burke-terministicscreens.pdf
* For Discussion on 10/22 - Barthes, "Rhetoric of the Image," from Image Music Text (1977) - Barthes-RhetImg.pdf
* For Discussion on 10/24 - Foss "Rhetorical Schema for Evaluation" - foss-visrhet.pdf
Class Notes from 10/22 - Notes [.doc format] and Powerpoint.
* For Discussion on 10/27 - Dentith, Chapter 1 of Parody - dentith_ch1.pdf.
* For Discussion on 10/29 - Rose, Chapter 2 of Parody: Ancient, Modern, and Postmodern - rose-ch2.pdf
* Project 1 rubric - Download PDF
* Portfolio assignment supplement for 12 Sept. & 19 Sept. - Download PDF