October 23, 2015
First day ice breaker
1. Put students into pairs. One student sits with her back to the board.
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September 8, 2014
Composing Effective Technical Descriptions
This presentation discusses the genre of technical descriptions, which your students should be working on in ENGL 316. Technical description is a complex genre that involves a detailed explanation of an object or process. This explanation is typically organized by the parts or functions of an object, or the stages of a process. The information contained in this presentation is derived from the textbooks of Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Mike Markel. Much of the presentation information is taken from Johnson-Sheehan’s Technical Communication Today.
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September 8, 2014
Composing Effective Instructions
This presentation discusses the genre of instructions, which your students should be working on in ENGL 314. Teaching readers how to complete a process can seem like a straightforward task, but there are many rhetorical and functional considerations involved in developing a successful set of instructions. The information contained in this presentation is derived from the textbooks of Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Paul V. Anderson.
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August 18, 2014
Identifying Logical Fallacies
This activity is very helpful to use during a Rhetorical Analysis unit. It can be used at almost any point during the beginning of the unit, and is very helpful to get students interested in persuasive arguments.
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August 18, 2014
Say What? Design and Delivery with PowerPoint
This activity is designed for any class in which students are giving an oral presentation using a delivery aid like PowerPoint. Not only will it help build clear content for visual design, but also will ensure more comfort in delivery. It is essential that each student participate in the sample activity to build comprehension and build the class community.
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August 18, 2014
Trailer Comparison
This is a classroom-based activity. I usually use this activity before a visual rhetorical analysis unit. I think this activity is a good way of helping students see visual content, and how that content is designed for a particular audience. The interactive nature of this activity creates a very energetic beginning to any visual unit.
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August 18, 2014
The Rhetoric of Infomercials
“This is a in-class activity. I usually use this activity before a rhetorical analysis unit or an oral presentation unit. This is activity is a good way of teaching the different strategies for persuading an audience. The interactive nature of this activity creates a very energetic beginning to any unit.”
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August 18, 2014
Poster and Brochure Analysis
This activity is intended for a 50-minute session of an English 150 class. To be successful in this exercise, students should have had some practice in genre analysis as outlined in John Trimbur’s “The Call to Write,” as well as a familiarity with the visual and design strategies outlined in excerpts from Molly Bang’s “Picture This” (provided). By this point in the semester, students are continuing to develop their understanding of genre by both analyzing and composing writing projects that conform and combine different genres of formal and informal writing. Assignment #5 asks them to take the content from either Assignment #3 or Assignment #4, and translate that content into the genre of a poster or brochure. To this end, this exercise challenges student to think critically about posters and brochures as a genre. They will collect “artifacts,” or genre samples, that they will then analyze for their conventions and rhetorical styles. They will complete an assignment worksheet that asks them to identify genre conventions while also analyzing design choices. Through an instructor facilitated class discussion, the students will develop an understanding of these genres in their own words, so that they may later develop a how may compose their own posters and brochures in ways that are rhetorically effective. The instructor will need the following materials for this exercise: The worksheets provided, a laptop, a classroom with both a digital projector and a document camera (both included in all classrooms in Ross hall).
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August 18, 2014
Art on Campus Analysis Activity
“This activity is useful during the first week of the Campus Architecture/Campus Art Analysis assignment. Students are bringing their own versions of analysis and seeing to this class, so initial activities such as a basic description and contextualizing activity such as this one will get them to see that they DO indeed have plenty of insight that can fill the paragraphs in their papers. Additionally, some students may be art majors with clear ideas of what “art critique” looks like. This activity is a chance to show them a rhetorical perspective on the viewing art.”
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August 18, 2014
Slide Presentation Exercise
“This is a computer lab activity. I usually use this activity before a poster design unit or a oral presentation unit. This is activity is a good way of saying ‘No, you don’t have to be a designer, but you do need to be competent applying visual principles using the lab technology.’ The interactive nature of this activity creates a very energetic beginning to any visual unit.”
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