Assignments

Preliminary Writing Assignment (PWA)

Analysis of a Controversy. Follow the format found in the handout of Patti Cohen's "Should Judges…?" Your Title must be your Issue in the form of a question (a la Cohen). The document must contain the following headings:

• Context (background your readers will need to understand the arguments).
• Pro arguments (as a numbered list).
• Who makes these pro arguments and why.
• Some specific actions the pros should take (list).
• Con arguments (as a numbered list).
• Who makes these arguments and why.
• Some specific actions the cons should take (list)
• References (a minimum of 6 sources- each identified as "pro" or "con" or as "context")- use the MLA documentation and parenthetical citation format syllabus).

Note: Several anthologies on reserve for this course in the Reserve Room contain pro and con articles on a variety of topics. Also, the reference librarians in Hayden Library are incredibly helpful resources. Do not simply rely on Web sources.

Writing Assignment #2

Proposal for Service Learning Option

To be appropriate for Service Learning credit, your project must fulfill these criteria:

• The service project must support and inform the theories, ideas, and skills learned in the class- i.e., the project must include aspects of rhetoric in writing and/or oral presentation.
• Communities in need must be served by your project.

Your proposal must be in a list format and must include the following headings and information:

• Organization: Name of the non-profit organization you will work for.
• Contact: Name of your contact person and his/her phone number and email address.
• What I'll Do: Details of what you will do for the non-profit organization (your contribution should be 2-3/hours per week for 10 weeks).
• Schedule: When will you do what for the non-profit? Include here the date you will start and finish your writing for the non-profit (or your 4th essay that examines rhetoric in the non-profit).
• Connection to class: This is a crucial section, for you must convince me (e.g., with details) that what you will do relates directly to this class and rhetoric.

Writing Assignment #3

First Essay

1st Essay (1000-2000 words, 4-8 double-spaced typed pages) + Postwrite.

Using the controversial issue that you researched for your PWA "Analysis of a Controversy," write a full-fledged argument defending and proving the position that you have decided to support.

See "Argument Requirements” for information about structure.

Your essay must

• Use MLA parenthetical in-text documentation throughout the essay.
• Include a "Works Cited" page.

Writing Assignment #4

Second Essay

2nd Essay (1000-2000 words, ~4-8 double-spaced typed pages).

Write a persuasive essay that explores and takes a stand on some significant controversy of interest to you.
This essay might be a position paper, a full-fledged argument, or a persuasive
personal essay.

Writing Assignment #5

Third Essay

3rd Essay (1000-2000 words, ~4-8 pages) + Postwrite. Write a persuasive essay on an issue involving rhetoric and/or morals. Use the concepts, terminology, theories, and insights from our readings and class discussions. Delve as deeply into the topic as you can. For many topics, some research will be needed. Here are some possible topics, but please feel free to invent your own topic:

• According to rhetorician Barry Brummett, "…rhetoric is so much a part of our everyday lives …[that] one can study what it means to be human by thinking about what it means to be rhetorical." (1). Write an essay that makes a case for or against this assertion.
• Do the ends justify the means? In other words, do the importance and/or good intentions and/or long-term results of the ultimate goals allow us to do "whatever it takes" in order to achieve those goals? This question underlies many moral discussions. Using a particular societal issue (e.g., euthanasia, war, terrorism, abortion, the use of rhetoric in ads or politics) or a personal or college issue (e.g., dating more than one person at a time, cheating to get into med school, lying to parents, saying "I love you" when you're not sure you mean it, reporting someone else who cheated), write an essay whose ultimate purpose will be to throw some light on the issues of ends justifying means (i.e., your intro and conclusion should invoke the ends/means issue, but the body your essay will explore that one particular issue you've selected).
• How much individual freedom should we be willing to give up for security? There are several possible specific issues, any one of which you could select to explore this question- e.g., you might consider limits imposed on access to the Internet in order to protect children from pornography or to prevent information on how to build bombs or the home addresses of abortion doctors from falling into the wrong hands; or, using the measures taken by the US since September 11, 2001, attack on the Twin Towers as an example (e.g., the creation of Homeland Security, the checking of bags etc. at airports, racial profiling), take a position on how much individual freedom we should give up to protect us from terrorism? Whatever issue you select, adopt a position and persuade us that your position is more valid, more logical, more effective, more whatever than any other.
• Are there moral limits to what a scientist or engineer should do (e.g., in terms of testing on humans or animals, in terms of developing weapons or biological weapons, in terms of having a "responsibility to society" that transcends responsibility to a company or government or one's own curiosity or career?)
• Can scientists avoid using rhetoric? Should they avoid it?
• Should tolerance be considered a desirable trait to have? If so, what are the limits (if any) of tolerance? In other words, when (if ever) should we stop tolerating the offensive actions of some person or of some group or of some country? Write an essay proving your position.
• Assuming that Gorgias is correct that language has great potential for the control of the mind of others, what are the dangers of eloquence and what (if anything) can (and should) society do about those dangers and potential? Think about this issue at least in terms of politics and advertising.
• Often modern-day lawyers are seen as following the beliefs of sophists. After establishing what the sophists taught, look at 2-3 discussions of lawyer ethics in sophisticated magazines or in professional law journals or books of law ethics. Write an argument agreeing with the lawyers/sophists or disagreeing with them (and hence agreeing with Plato, perhaps).
• Is it immoral to teach students the art of rhetoric- i.e., to teach them how to "read" an audience and how to devise arguments that will influence that particular audience to think or feel or act in a particular way? What does teaching rhetoric suggest about the existence (or non-existence) of Truth? Write a persuasive essay defending and proving your position.
• Select an essay or article (from ESSAYS or some equally sophisticated source) that makes an argument about some rhetorical or moral issue- analyze that text's argument as part of your own argument about that same topic.
• Or your own topic about a moral or rhetorical controversy.

Writing Assignment #6

Fourth Essay

4th Essay (1000-2000 words, ~4-8 typed double-spaced pages) + Postwrite.

Here are the possible topics. Regardless of the topic, use the concepts, terminology, theories, and insights that we've read about and discussed throughout the semester:

• If you selected the Service Learning option, your 4th essay must be 1 of these 3- and attach a very detailed Postwrite explaining the rhetorical situation (your goals for the writing, the demographic details of the intended readers, where the writing is intended to appear), your rhetorical strategies for persuading the intended readers, and what you learned specifically about rhetoric by writing for a real-world audience (the non-profit plus the intended readers):
  • Hand in the piece(s) of writing you have done for your non-profit organization (e.g., a newsletter, a brochure, an article, a Web page).
  • OR write a persuasive exploration of the uses of rhetoric at or by your non-profit. Include your suggestions how to improve the persuasion by the non-profit for its intended audience (be sure to use the concepts and terms we have discussed throughout the semester).
  • OR write a persuasive essay about the uses of rhetoric by those people who write about your non-profit (e.g., in magazines, newspaper articles).
• If you did not select the Service Learning option, you must write a persuasive essay that contains a rhetorical analysis and an interpretation of 3 essays from ESSAYS that either deal with a common theme or use similar rhetorical strategies (you may use essays discussed in class). Your purpose is to explore the similarities and differences in the uses of rhetoric in the 3 essays and to draw some conclusion about the uses of rhetoric from this sample of 3 essays. In other words, your analyses and interpretations of the 3 essays are the evidence for your ultimate conclusion. You do not have to limit yourself to the suggested essays or topics, but all essays that you use must be from ESSAYS:
  • Nature (some possible essays are Thoreau, Dillard's "Weasels," Twain, Emerson, V. Woolf's "Moth," Eisely, Darwin , Hoagland, Gould).
  • Social World (Didion's "Marrying," Wolfe, Thurber, Rodriguez).
  • Racial Identity (Baldwin , Douglass, King, Kincaid, Cofer, Staples, Truth, DuBois, Steele).
  • Gender (Carter, Ehrlich, Kingston , Momaday, Cooper, Brownmiller, Quindlen, V. Woolf's "Professions").
  • Parent-Child Relationships (Baldwin 's "Notes," Kafka, Gates, G. Woolf, Sanders, Ozick, Baker, Lee).
  • Communication (Kingston , Orwell's "Politics," Tan, Tannen, Lakoff, Wright).
  • Personal Belief (Thoreau, Brownmiller, Davenport , Donne, Forster, Freud, Hughes, Silko, White).
  • Humor and Satire (Barry, Lawrence, Mencken, Swift, Thurber).
  • The Revelation and Uses of Ethos (just about every essay in the book).
  • The Uses of Pathos (Baldwin , Carter, Didion, Dillard's "Jest," DuBus, Gordon, Hughes, Kingston , Lopez, Staples, King, G. Woolf).
  • The Uses of Logic (Auden, Brownmiller, Darwin, DuBois, Freud, Gould, King, Machiavelli, Orwell's "Politics," Quindlen, Swift).
  • The Uses of Symbolism (White, V. Woolf, Plato, Gordon, Freud, Donne, Dillard, Lopez, Oates).
  • Style (every essay in the book).
  • Some category or theme of your own choice.

Writing Assignment #7

Portfolio

Your Portfolio with its "Introductory Essay."

For each Optional Revision that you include, attach new Postwrite.

The Portfolio should be one of those cheap paper folders that have two inner pockets. Your Portfolio must contain all of the following:

• An Introductory Essay (500-1500 words, ~2-6 pages) that addresses the following: Of the Renaissance, Herrick notes that "Rhetoric had a practical role to play in guiding ethical deliberations in the noisy deliberations of day-to-day life in a busy community" (150). How useful is rhetoric today in helping you (as a student, as a member of the MIT community, as a member of American society) in your ethical deliberations? Does rhetoric help you in everyday life? Does it lead you to truth and/or compromise or does it, instead, muddy the waters and add to confusion? Feel free to use examples from your own life or from other sources to illustrate your position.
• In the left-hand pocket, place the "Introductory Essay" and any new Optional Revisions and their Postwrites.
• In the right-hand pocket, place all the corrected-by-me versions of your essays (Mandatory and Optional Revisions).

1. Class Discussions and Workshops.
   Everyone is expected to participate meaningfully in class discussions and workshops throughout the semester.
2. Impromptu Speeches (2-3 minutes).
   These are off-the-cuff speeches. I'll announce a choice of topics in class, give everyone a couple of minutes to organize his/her thoughts, and then either ask for volunteers or randomly select speakers. Sometimes the topics will be key concepts from the readings.
3. Extemporaneous Speeches (3-5 minutes).
   An extemporaneous speech is one that has been prepared and practiced ahead of time. You should use note cards with an outline of the speech (extemporaneous speeches are not read or memorized). The first extemporaneous speech will be your speech of self-introduction during the 2nd class meeting. In addition, on the workshop day or the following class period, you might be called upon to give a speech about the topic on which you wrote your essay. So it's important to practice "talking the topic" several times before you come to class.
4. Final Extemporaneous Speech (6-7 minutes).
   This speech must be about the assigned topic and it will be followed by a Q-and-A session.

If you selected the Service Learning option, your speech may be on this topic (but it does not have to be on this topic).

If you selected the SL Option, your speech may be about some aspect of rhetoric involving your non-profit (but it does not have to be about your SL experience-- e.g., the rhetoric used by the non-profit (e.g., for fund raising, for consciousness raising, for morale boosting, for publicity) or the rhetoric used by media about your non-profit.

If you did not select the Service Learning Option (or if you did select the SL Option but wish not to talk about the SL), you must give a speech on "Rhetoric in our everyday lives."

"Rhetoric in our everyday lives." The speech should be 6-7 minutes in length. It must be given extemporaneously (i.e., not read or memorized or made up on the spot). Use note cards for your outline.

• Find a text that significantly uses rhetoric. This text might be anything from a political speech to your physics syllabus, from song lyrics to a public garden, from a piece of sculpture to a poem, from an advertisement to a piece of architecture, from a scene in a play to an essay in our textbook. But it must be a physical text (i.e., not a conversation that you heard or imagined).
• You must use a visual aid. If the text is something such as a building, a photograph, an advertisement, a sculpture, please make it a visual for us (either bring enough handouts for each person in the audience-- 18 people-- or make an overhead slide).
• If yours is a written text, please bring copies for everyone (18 copies).

In your speech,

• Explain the rhetorical situation (What is the persuasive purpose of this text? For what specific audience was this text created? Where did you find the text- i.e., in what magazine, etc.?)
• Summarize the text for us.
• Analyze this text for us.
• Make a persuasive case that the text is indeed an example of rhetoric.
• Explain which specific resources of rhetoric it uses.
• Explain how it uses each of those resources.
• Explain how it tries to persuade us in some way.
• Explain what exactly it tries to make its audience do or feel.
• Finally, evaluate the effect that such rhetoric (everyday, submerged, overt, whatever) does or might have on us.
• Your speech itself must use rhetorical strategies and devices in order to persuade us.