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Freshman Writing
Engl 015

Contents

Course Objectives
Required Concepts and Skills
Minimum Design Parameters for English 15
Sample Syllabus Materials
English 15 Grading Standards
Plagiarism Policy - The plagiarism guidelines presented here include descriptions of word-for-word plagiarism, plagiarism by paraphrase, and mosaic plagiarism.

Sample Assignments - The following six assignments constitute a complete course, as it would be ordered for a section of English 15. In contrast, the "Additional Assignment Options" offered below are ordered randomly; they do not represent a course trajectory.

Additional Assignment Options

Links

Penn State Sites

Online Rhetoric Resources

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Course Objectives

English 15 at Penn State challenges you to an ambitious semester-long inquiry into the subject of rhetoric, an ancient art that has always been closely associated with education and with democratic institutions. The course has a simple goal: to help you to become "critical citizens" inside and outside the university, people who engage actively and influentially with the communities they belong to because they have an awareness of how communities are created and influenced through language and other symbols. The course proposes to create a safe and yet provocative environment where you can develop sophistication as a producer and consumer of discourse.

Rhetoric is the study of how language works and how to make it work well. All human beings are somewhat skilled in rhetoric, in more or less intuitive ways. But the difference between intuitive rhetoric and conscious, artful rhetoric is something like the difference between walking and dancing, or between tossing a ball around and playing an organized sport. Our goal, then, is to develop more conscious skill, especially in what broadly might be called "argument."

Acquiring skill in rhetoric and argument means learning to write (and speak) with a coherent sense of audience and purpose, and with a strategic sense of argument and design. It also means learning to read (and listen) rhetorically, with a critical yet open-minded attention to the methods of persuasion employed by others. Such methods may be used to teach, explain, create knowledge, alter beliefs, protect the innocent, recommend actions, reform society; they also may be used to manipulate, exploit, and deceive. Let us together learn to look at rhetoric creatively and analytically, lest we put ourselves in powerless situations; let us avoid being the dupe of others.

In this course we will focus attention on the main aspects of effective discourse (logos, ethos, pathos, structure, style) and on the elements of the writing process (planning, inventing, arranging, drafting, revising, editing). By the end of this semester, you should be better able to evaluate the quality of others' arguments and to develop and articulate your own position clearly, thoughtfully, persuasively, and even eloquently. You will also gain an appreciation of how visual and material elements operate in the act of persuasion.

Some things to keep in mind: This course asks not simply for self-expression, but for your participation in public discourse on matters of public interest--such as might be expected of educated adults in the world outside of school. Interesting, important discourse develops not in isolated egos, but within communities committed to some mutual inquiry or to some shared question. In consequence, this course depends greatly on what you bring to it, so you need to make a real commitment to the work and to your peers in the classroom. The University sometimes estimates that students should spend a minimum of two hours of study time outside of class for every hour in class, so in our course you can expect to have various kinds of reading and writing homework due at virtually every meeting of this class. But think positively: yes, I will expect you to come to class prepared and ambitious; but I will also be doing my best to make your studies interesting, vital, and unforgettable.

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Required Concepts and Skills

  1. Writing as a process: invention/planning, drafting, and revision strategies.
  2. Rhetorical situation: audience, exigence/occasion, issue, and the wider cultural context; the concept of "discourse community"; the reader-writer contract.
  3. Invention:
    • Issue: an exigent and arguable question open to different possible answers.
    • Argument: "Toulmin argument" or "enthymeme." A claim or "thesis" as an "answer" to the question-at-issue, supported by
      • evidence and reasons for believing the claim (or finding it reasonable or probable),
      • the underlying assumptions or "givens" that make the evidence/reasons "reasonable," and that the audience will accept.
    • Inventional strategies: "brainstorming," question and thesis-driven inquiry, dialogic invention, topical invention, and so on.
    • "Stasis" of argument: the basic types of question-at-issue and the argumentative/evidential requirements for each:
      • Fact or probable fact: "What is the case?" (questions of description; analysis; definition; comparison; causes and effects; consequences; implications; significance); apply relevant evidence and reasoning;
      • Quality: "How should we judge it? Is it good or bad?" (questions of evaluation); includes/presupposes previous stasis; apply evaluative criteria (pragmatic, ethical, aesthetic);
      • Action: "What should we do?" (questions of policy; proposal; problem-solution); includes/presupposes both of the previous stases; apply cost/benefit and feasibility considerations.
    • Types of evidence and reasoning:
      • "Inartistic" (found): testimony, documents, collected "data," surveys, library research
      • "Artistic" (invented):
        • Ethos: the apparent moral quality, credibility, reliability of the speaker/writer
        • Logos: stated reasoning and examples; explanation/commentary; relationships between ideas; and
        • Pathos: the emotions/attitudes of the audience.
      • Topoi:
        • "special material topics" (subject-related commonplaces; assumptions about the structure of reality; assumptions about hierarchies of value);
        • "logical common topics" (argument from contrast, opposition, antithesis, or contradiction; from analogy, comparison, or "greater and lesser"; from definition or etymology; from logical entailment or causality; from conditional reasoning).
  4. Arrangement/structure:
    • Introduction, "body," and conclusion ; "body" as dividable into preliminary exposition, proofs/arguments, and refutation/meeting of objections.
    • "Contract" and reader psychology:
      • arrangement/structure as the arousal, playing out, and fulfillment of reader expectations;
      • arrangement/structure as "tactics" or "plot" by which the reader is guided from a statement of the issue through reasoning to conclusions (as opposed to static "outline" methods).
    • Signaling structure to the reader: forecasting statements, transitions, headings, etc.
    • Coherence: the structuring of paragraphs and paragraph-blocs (argumentative "movements").
  5. Style: "voice" as ethos; diction and tone; clarity and propriety; variety and emphasis; prose rhythm; syntactic options (for expanding and reshaping sentences); figures of speech.
  6. Critical/rhetorical reading: "rhetorical analysis" as analytical/descriptive applications of the above concepts; as critique.
  7. Library skills: the Penn State Library is responsible for offering orientation and instruction in the use of library resources; the responsibility of ENGL 015 is to create one or more assignments that require use of those resources as part of the invention/inquiry process.

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Minimum Design Parameters for English 15

Assignment Parameters

Readings Parameters

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Sample Syllabus Materials

Requirements: To pass this course you must do the following three things:

  1. Complete all six major assignments.
  2. Complete all homework assignments (reading and writing).
  3. Actively participate as both reader and writer in draft workshops, argument workshops, in-class exercises, and classroom discussions.

Fine print: Submit each paper in a folder (not a plastic binder), along with any rough draft(s), peer review comments from draft workshops, and other materials and notes that represent the various stages of the paper's development (including notes and photocopies and printouts from any sources you have used), along with your argument proposal. (Sometimes I will ask for a reflective cover sheet for your paper as well.) At the end of the semester, you will submit a portfolio of your work including all major papers as well as any revisions that you and I have agreed you will undertake.

Papers must be handed in on time: Late papers will normally be docked one letter grade per day, unless you get my approval for an extension before the due date. Note well: This also holds for drafts that are due for peer review: not only must you present a draft on the day it is due, but the draft must be a complete draft that is ready to share.

Format: Choosing a format is a rhetorical decision, but normally your papers should be typed (double-spaced) with black ink and one- inch margins on all sides. Separate title pages are usually inappropriate in this course. Place your name, the date, and the instructor's name in the upper right hand corner of the first page. Place any title above the text on page one, and double space beneath it. (The title should not be underlined or in quotation marks.) Page one need not be numbered, but all subsequent pages should be numbered in the upper right hand corner. Fasten the pages with a paper clip, not staples.

Grades: You will find in the packet a copy of the department's grading standards, which I will use when I read your papers. When figuring your overall semester grade, I will use the following formula:

Assignment #1 5%
Assignment #2 10%
Assignment #3 15%
Assignment #4&5 20%
Assignment #6 25%
Participation 5%

Attendance: Regular attendance is required because course instruction depends on your active participation. True, two or three absences will probably not affect your performance too much (unless you miss a rough draft session-a major problem); but try to limit it to that. Indeed, why not attend every meeting? Excused absences are appropriate, of course, but beyond that, let me repeat University policy ( Policies and Rules , 42-27): A student whose absences are excessive "may run the risk of receiving a lower grade or a failing grade," whether some of those absences are considered "excused" or not. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get the assignments and complete the work.

Conferences: Think of my office as an extension of the classroom and use my office hours to discuss any aspect of your reading or writing: problems, questions, papers you're working on, ideas you wish to develop, strategies you'd like to try, and so on. Plan on having at least two conferences with me this semester to discuss your work and your progress in the course. Try to have the first conference early in the course; don't delay until the final two weeks.

Academic Honesty: You will find in the packet a departmental statement on what plagiarism is and why it is bad. If you still have questions about plagiarism is after reading this document, ask them. Plagiarism demonstrates contempt for ethical standards, your instructor, and your peers. If you are caught plagiarizing, you risk failing the course. You may also be referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs which may recommend academic probation, suspension, or expulsion for academic dishonesty.

Nota Bene: Penn State encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in a course or have questions about physical access, please tell your instructor as soon as possible.

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English 15 Grading Standards

These grading standards establish four major criteria for evaluation at each grade level: purpose, reasoning and content, organization, and expression. Obviously, every essay will not fit neatly into one grade category; some essays may, for instance, have some characteristics of B and some of C. The final grade the essay receives depends on the weight the instructor gives each criterion and whether the essay was received on time.

The A Essay

  1. The A essay fulfills the assignment-and does so in a fresh and mature manner, using purposeful language that leads to knowledge making. The essay effectively meets the needs of the rhetorical situation in terms of establishing the writer's stance, attention to audience, purpose for writing, and sensitivity to context. When appropriate to the assignment, the writer demonstrates expertise in employing the artistic appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos appropriately.
  2. The topic itself is clearly defined, focused, and supported. The essay has a clear thesis that is supported with specific (and appropriate) evidence, examples, and details. Any outside sources of information are used carefully and cited appropriately. The valid reasoning within the essay demonstrates good judgment and an awareness of the topic's complexities.
  3. The organization-chronological, spatial, or emphatic-is appropriate for the purpose and subject of the essay. The introduction establishes a context, purpose, and audience for writing and contains a focused thesis statement. The following paragraphs are controlled by (explicit or implicit) topic sentences; they are well developed; and they progress logically from what precedes them. (If appropriate, headings and subheadings are used.) The conclusion moves beyond a mere restatement of the introduction, offering implications for or the significance of the topic.
  4. The prose is clear, readable, and sometimes memorable. It contains few surface errors, none of which seriously undermines the overall effectiveness of the paper for educated readers. It demonstrates fluency in stylistic flourishes (subordination, variation of sentence and paragraph lengths, interesting vocabulary).

The B Essay

  1. The assignment has been followed and fulfilled. The essay establishes the writer's stance and demonstrates a clear sense of audience, purpose, and context.
  2. The topic is fairly well defined, focused, and supported. The thesis statement is adequate (but could be sharpened), especially for the quality of supporting evidence the writer has used. The reasoning and support are thorough and more than adequate. The writer demonstrates a thoughtful awareness of complexity and other points of view.
  3. The B essay has an effective introduction and conclusion. The order of information is logical, and the reader can follow it because of well-chosen transitions and (explicit or implicit) topic sentences. Paragraph divisions are logical, and the paragraphs use enough specific detail to satisfy the reader.
  4. The prose expression is clear and readable. Sentence structure is appropriate for educated readers, including the appropriate use of subordination, emphasis, varied sentences, and modifiers. Few sentence-level errors (comma splices, fragments, or fused sentences) appear. Vocabulary is precise and appropriate; punctuation, usage, and spelling conform to the conventions of Standardized American English discussed in class.

The C Essay

  1. The assignment has been followed, and the essay demonstrates a measure of response to the rhetorical situation, in so far as the essay demonstrates some sense of audience and purpose.
  2. The topic is defined only generally; the thesis statement is also general. The supporting evidence, gathered honestly and used responsibly, is, nevertheless, often obvious and easily accessible. The writer demonstrates little awareness of the topic's complexity or other points of view; therefore, the C essay usually exhibits minor imperfections or inconsistencies in development, organization, and reasoning.
  3. The organization is fairly clear. The reader could outline the presentation, despite the occasional lack of topic sentences. Paragraphs have adequate development and are divided appropriately. Transitions may be mechanical, but they foster coherence.
  4. The expression is competent. Sentence structure is relatively simple, relying on simple and compound sentences. The paper is generally free of sentence-level errors; word choice is correct though limited. The essay contains errors in spelling, usage, and punctuation that reveal an unfamiliarity with the conventions of Standardized American English discussed in class.

The D Essay

  1. The D essay attempts to follow the assignment, but demonstrates little awareness of the rhetorical situation in terms of the writer's stance, audience, purpose, and context. For example, the essay might over- or under-estimate (or ignore) the audience's prior knowledge, assumptions, or beliefs. The writer may have little sense of purpose.
  2. The essay may not have any thesis statement, or, at best, a flawed one. Obvious evidence may be missing, and irrelevant evident may be present. Whatever the status of the evidence, it is inadequately interpreted and rests on an insufficient understanding of the rhetorical situation. Or it may rely too heavily on evidence from published sources without adding original analysis.
  3. Organization is simply deficient: introductions or conclusions are not clearly marked or functional; paragraphs are neither coherently developed nor arranged; topic sentences are consistently missing, murky, or inappropriate; transitions are missing or flawed.
  4. The D essay may have numerous and consistent errors in spelling, usage, and punctuation that reveal unfamiliarity with the conventions of Standardized American English discussed in class (or a lack of careful proofreading).

The F Essay

  1. The F essay is inappropriate in terms of the purpose of the assignment and the rhetorical situation. If the essay relates vaguely to the assignment, it has no clear purpose or direction.
  2. The essay falls seriously short of the minimum length requirements; therefore, it is insufficiently developed and does not go beyond the obvious.
  3. The F essay is plagued by more than one of the organizational deficiencies of a D essay.
  4. Numerous and consistent errors of spelling, usage, and punctuation hinder communication.

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University and Department Plagiarism Policy

The Department of English insists on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Therefore, plagiarism, the act of passing off someone else's words or ideas as your own, will be penalized severely. The following discussion is offered so that you won't commit plagiarism.

Sometimes plagiarism is simple dishonesty. If you buy, borrow, or steal an essay to turn in as your own work, you are plagiarizing. If you copy word-for-word or change a word here and there while copying without enclosing the copied passage in quotation marks and identifying the author, you are also plagiarizing.

But plagiarism can be more complicated in act and intent.

Paraphrasing, stating someone else's ideas in your own words, can lead you to unintentional plagiarism. Jotting down notes and ideas from sources and then using them without proper attributions to the authors or titles in introductory phrases may result in a paper that is only a blend of your words combined with the words of others that appear to be yours.

Another way to plagiarize is to allow other students or friends to give you too much rhetorical help or do too much editing and proofreading of your work. If you think you have received substantial help in any way from people whose names will not appear as authors of the paper, you should acknowledge that help in a short sentence at the end of the paper or in your list of Works Cited. If you are not sure how much help is too much, talk with your instructor, so the two of you can decide what kind of outside help (and how much) is acceptable, and how to give credit where credit is due.

As you go through the writing process, you should keep careful track of when you use ideas and/or exact words from sources. As a conscientious writer, you have to make an honest effort to distinguish between your own ideas, those of others, and what might be considered common knowledge. Try to identify which part of your work comes from an identifiable source and then document the use of that source using the proper format, such as a parenthetical citation and a Works Cited list. If you are unsure about what needs documenting, talk with your instructor.

When thinking about plagiarism, it is hard to avoid talking about ideas as if they were objects like tables and chairs. Obviously, that's not the case. You should not feel that you are under pressure to invent completely new ideas. Instead, original writing consists of thinking through ideas and expressing them in your own way. The result may not be entirely new, but, if honestly done, it may be interesting and worthwhile reading. Print or electronic sources, as well as other people, may add useful ideas to your own thoughts. When they do so in identifiable and specific ways, give them the credit they deserve.

The following examples should clarify the difference between dishonest and proper uses of sources.

The Source

The US has only lost approximately 30 percent of its original forest area, most of this in the nineteenth century. The loss has not been higher mainly because population pressure has never been as great there as in Europe. The doubling of US farmland from 1880 to 1920 happened almost without affecting the total forest area as most was converted from grasslands.

From Bjorn Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist

Word-for-Word Plagiarizing

In the following example, the writer tacks on a new opening part of the first sentence in the hope that the reader won't notice that the rest of the paragraph is simply copied from the source. The plagiarized words are italicized. Despite the outcry from environmentalist groups like Earth First! and the Sierra Club, it is important to note that the US has only lost approximately 30 percent of its original forest area, most of this in the nineteenth century. The loss has not been higher mainly because population pressure has never been as great here as in Europe. The doubling of US farmland from 1880 to 1920 happened almost without affecting the total forest area as most was converted from grasslands.

Quotation marks around all the copied text, followed by a parenthetical citation, would avoid plagiarism in this case. But even if that were done, a reader might wonder why so much was quoted from Lomborg in the first place. Beyond that, a reader might wonder why you chose to use a quote here instead of paraphrase this passage, which as a whole is not very quotable, especially with the odd reference to Europe. Using exact quotes should be reserved for situations where the original author has stated the idea in a better way than any paraphrase you might come up with. In the above case, the information could be summed up and simply paraphrased, with a proper citation, because the idea, even in your words, belongs to someone else. Furthermore, a paper consisting largely of quoted passages and little original writing would be relatively worthless.

Plagiarizing by Paraphrase

In the following case, the exact ideas in the source are followed very closely-too closely-simply by substituting your own words and sentences for those of the original.

ORIGINAL
PARAPHRASE
The US has only lost approximately 30 percent of its forest area, most of this in the nineteenth century. Only 30 percent of the original forest area has been lost.
The loss has not been higher mainly because population pressure has never been as great there as in Europe. Europe has fared slightly worse due to greater population pressure.
The doubling of US farmland from 1880 to 1920 happened almost without affecting the total forest area as most was converted from grasslands. Even though US farmland doubled from 1880 to 1920, little forest area was affected since the farms appeared on grasslands.

The ideas in the right column appear to be original. Obviously, they are just Lomborg's ideas presented in different words without any acknowledgement. Plagiarism can be avoided easily here by introducing the paraphrased section with an attribution to Lomborg and then following up with a parenthetical citation. Such an introduction is underlined here:

Bjorn Lomborg points out that despite environmentalists' outcries. . . . (page number).

Properly used, paraphrase is a valuable rhetorical technique. You should use it to simplify or summarize so that others' ideas or information, properly attributed in the introduction and documented in a parenthetical citation, may be woven into the pattern of your own ideas. You should not use paraphrase simply to avoid quotation; you should use it to express another's important ideas in your own words when those ideas are not expressed in a way that is useful to quote directly.

Mosaic Plagiarism

This is a more sophisticated kind of plagiarism wherein phrases and terms are lifted from the source and sprinkled in among your own prose. Words and phrases lifted verbatim or with only slight changes are italicized: Environmentalist groups have long bemoaned the loss of US forests, particularly in this age of population growth and urbanization. Yet, the US has only lost approximately 30 percent of its original forest area, and most of this in the nineteenth century. There are a few main reasons for this. First, population pressure has never been as great in this country as in Europe. Second, the explosion of US farmland, when it doubled from 1880 to 1920, happened almost without affecting the total forest area as most was converted from grasslands.

Mosaic plagiarism may be caused by sloppy notetaking, but it always looks thoroughly dishonest and intentional and will be judged as such. In the above example, just adding an introduction and a parenthetical citation will not solve the plagiarism problem since no quotation marks are used where required. But adding them would raise the question of why those short phrases and basic statements of fact and opinion are worth quoting word for word. The best solution is to paraphrase everything: rewrite the plagiarized parts in your own words, introduce the passage properly, and add a parenthetical citation.

Summary

Using quotation marks around someone else's words avoids the charge of plagiarism, but when overdone, makes for a patchwork paper with little flow to it. When most of what you want to say comes from a single source, either quote directly or paraphrase. In both cases, introduce your borrowed words or ideas by attributing them to the author and then follow them with a parenthetical citation.

The secret of using sources productively is to make them work for you to support and amplify your ideas. If you find, as you work at paraphrasing, quoting, and citing, that you are only pasting sources together with a few of your own words and ideas thrown in-that too much of your paper comes from your sources and not enough from your own mind-then go back and start over. Try rewriting the paper without looking at your sources, just using your own ideas; after you have completed a draft entirely of your own, add the specific words and ideas from your sources to support what you want to say.

If you have any doubts about the way you are using sources, talk to your instructor as soon as you can.

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Rhetorical Analysis

Preface: This first assignment is designed to introduce many of the course's key concepts. The purpose for writing a rhetorical analysis is to explain how an author attempts to influence an audience. That is, we use specific evidence from the text to establish a generalization (thesis) about the text's rhetoric (how it persuades its readers).

Assignment: Find an advertisement, a traditional printed argument, a website, or some other type of text that you deem to be interesting and that has a persuasive aim. By "interesting," I mean that the text in question should have some sophistication about it. There is no point in analyzing the obvious. Then write an analysis that will help your readers understand how the text works to persuade its audience. Introduce the text and identify its basic claim/thesis. Arrange the body of your paper so that the readers move through it in an orderly way. Also, make a judgment about the text's rhetorical effectiveness.

Note: Your analysis should not simply paraphrase or summarize what the author says. The reader has already read the text and knows what it contains. Your purpose is to provide a way of understanding how the text persuades its audience.

Some basic questions: Below are some basic questions. These questions are not meant to provide an outline for the paper; rather, they simply help you to think about the rhetorical aspects of the text.

  1. What is the rhetorical situation? Who is the writer's audience? What is the writer's purpose? Also, think about where the item originally appeared. This may help you to determine the purpose, audience, and scope of the text's argument.
  2. How would you describe the writer's ethos ? That is, what can you apprehend in the text about the writer's character, ethics, attitude, and overall credibility? " Ethos " speaks to the trustworthiness of the writer. Those who employ ethos to persuade say this: "Believe me, identify with me, because of the kind of person I am."
  3. How would you describe the logos of the text? " Logos " speaks to the logic of the text. More specifically, think about how the supporting claims and the implied claims of the text reinforce the overall thesis. How are they linked together? Also, how does the writer use evidence, data, to support the thesis? Those who use logos to persuade say this: "Believe me because what I say is reasonable."
  4. How would you describe the pathos of the text? How does the writer appeal to emotions? " Pathos " means "feeling," and it speaks to the desires, attitudes, and deeply engrained values of a person. Pathos is frequently communicated through vivid descriptions, details, and examples. Writers use such things in order to invoke emotional responses. Pathos, like ethos and logos, is also communicated through the style and tone of an essay. Those who use pathos to persuade say this: "Believe me because X feels good, bad, fearful, joyful, admirable, (etc.) at the very cores of our beings."
  5. How does the text's structure work? Why are the elements of the text arranged as they are?
  6. What is the role of style and tone? Style is one of the most important aspects of any rhetorical text. Style speaks to the overall shape, mood, and atmosphere of the text.
  7. What seems to be the writer's dominant strategy? Each of questions 2-6 addresses a particular kind of rhetorical strategy. All of these aspects are more than likely present in the text at issue, but in most cases, one strategy is dominant. If possible, identify the dominant strategy.

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Exploring an Issue

In this assignment, take some time to explore an issue--any matter important to the communities in which you live about which people disagree and on which it is possible to take several positions. This exploration should be in the service of some real purpose. Your assignment involves three activities: 1. Choose your topic carefully: although you are not required to argue for a particular position here (though that is one of the options), your paper could serve well as a prelude to a subsequent argument for a particular position that you might wish to take in a later assignment in the course. 2. Then read widely about the issue in Pattee Library, on the Internet, on listserves, or in other sources. Speak to authorities as necessary. In any event, become well educated on the issue: why do people take the positions on the issue that they hold? 3. Then write your paper.

Your paper could be in the form of a letter. It could be the draft of a talk presented to a group of listeners which includes people with a variety of positions on the issue. Or it could be an article for a magazine or newspaper which presents the intricacies of the issue to its readers. Or imagine it as a lengthy memo to a person--such as a legislator--or to members of a particular group who need to be informed before they take a stand on a particular issue. In short, your paper must respond to an exigence: for some reason, an audience is interested in your exploration of this issue, and you want to provide a service to this audience. In any event, your response to this assignment should consider one of the three types of rhetorical situations described below:

a) You can take up an issue that people disagree about-should your school district build a new high school or renovate the current one? Should the current administration's position on stem cell research be reconsidered? Should SAT testing be continued, discontinued, or modified?-and use your exploration of the issue to support a certain conclusion. Your audience may or may not know much about the issue already; that's for you to assess. But you should present your account of current thinking on the matter in a way that supports a conclusion that you hold.

b) You can enlarge someone's understanding about a controversy without reaching a settled conclusion. Such an audience would already have some knowledge of at least some aspects of the issue. For example people in your community see gun control as necessary to curb violence, but you as a hunter understand it somewhat differently: enlarge your reader's understanding of all positions on the issue, including that reader's position. Or some people in your community oppose sex education in the public schools because they believe parents are responsible for such teaching; you have a different point of view. Show those opposed to sex education both the arguments for their position and the differing points of view available on this issue.

c) You can examine an issue that is unfamiliar to your audience, but which they have some need to understand. For instance, you might explore some aspect of the problems involving old growth forests or clearcutting or clean streams so that a group interested in supporting environmental issues would better understand all the available positions on these issues. Or you might explore the controversy surrounding human cloning for an audience that lacks knowledge about this issue but that has become interested in it. You could provide comprehensive information about the issues raised by charter schools so that people in your community can make more informed decisions about the charter schools being proposed in your school district: think of your paper as an effort to "catch people up" with what has been said on an issue. Or as a Penn State student you might choose an issue that a Collegian audience would read about (such as hate speech or underage drinking or the recent Penn State position on downloading music ) and explore the positions available on that issue in order to clarify people's understanding

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Rebuttal Argument

Preface

In short, a writer uses a rebuttal argument to disagree with an opposing position. The term "rebuttal" often carries with it a confrontational aura, but in most cases of rebuttal, aggressive confrontation does very little to move an opponent closer to one's own position. In most types of sophisticated disagreements, opponents concede points to each other and search for common ground. This behavior shows a willingness to engage, and it also creates a positive tone for the disagreement. By trying to make a meaningful connection with your opponent, by discovering shared goals and assumptions, and by actively listening, you are far more likely to accomplish a productive and civil conversation.

Assignment

Please find a specific argument with which you disagree. Write a rebuttal of that argument. Your rebuttal could take the form of a traditional essay, a personal letter to the author, an open letter, or a response piece for a newspaper. Many other genre possibilities exist as well. Consider who you want your audience to be, and consider what type of forum might work best for a productive disagreement.

Some common elements of a rebuttal essay

  1. Identify the specific claim against which you will argue.
  2. Responsibly summarize the alternative position. Be fair and rigorous.
  3. Establish common ground.
  4. Find a point or points of disagreement.
  5. Explain your good reasons for disagreeing with the alternative argument.
  6. Explore other ideas, arguments, and possibilities that your opponent discounts or ignores.
  7. Try to persuade the audience towards your position.

Not all rebuttals contain all of these elements, but most of these elements should be represented in a complex rebuttal.

Types of disagreements

People disagree for different reasons. Here are a few ways to think about how you might disagree with someone else's argument: you might disagree with a basic fact, or a definition of a key term, or the value of something (good, bad, desirable, undesirable). You might disagree about the proper course of action that should be taken in light of the facts, or about the cause of a problem. You might disagree with the analogies, metaphors, and descriptions that someone uses in an argument. Perhaps the argument just does not feel right. You might disagree with someone because they seem untrustworthy. You might disagree with someone's fundamental assumptions about the world. Usually in the course of a complicated disagreement, one person disagrees with another for a combination of reasons, but in most cases, one or two particular kinds of reasons prove to be more important than the others.

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Definition (or Redefinition) of a Concept or Term

The need for definition arises when people have diverging ideas about what a term means or when an audience has difficulty understanding a concept. In addition, people often use definitions to achieve larger rhetorical purposes: if you accept all my definitions, I will most likely convince you of my point. In that sense, argument by definition is a very important rhetorical tactic. The purpose of this assignment is thus to teach you how define something--the nature of an activity, a kind of person, a condition, or a concept you know well-either in order to change an audience's thinking about the concept's meaning or to help an audience understand it better.

Your purpose in this assignment should be described by one of the two types of rhetorical situations described below:

a) You can change someone's mind about what a term or concept means. For example, your mother thinks feminism means one thing, but you think it means another: change her mind. Or your friends have a negative impression of the pro-life (or pro-choice ) movement: define the term in a way that will change their impression. Or members of your high school community think a university is a place of higher learning, and you want them to think of it as a business. Or most people think of a jock as one thing, but not you. Humanism; creationism; evolution; terrorism; freedom of speech; racism; conservative; natural; family values; politician; environmentalist; school choice; patriotism: all these are words that people may define differently than you. Enlarge their understanding.

b) You can define a term that is unclear to your audience, but which they have some need to understand. For instance, you might define the West Coast offense so that your boyfriend or girlfriend might better enjoy an upcoming football game. Or you (as a well informed scientist) might define a term like bio-luminescence or quark or fractal to a perplexed friend facing an exam. Or you could define gothic vision to prepare a friend for a visit to the Cloisters Museum in New York. Or you could take a term which your audience has only a vague notion of-- sea kayaking or hip-hop or liberal or urban sprawl --and pin down the meaning for someone who can profit from it. New words or foreign words or slang words might be a possibility. Or you could inform someone of the meaning of an ethnic or regional term--like shtick or Cincinnati chili .

Conceptualizing Your Task

Your invention process will include creating a thesis statement which puts the term or concept you are defining into a category. Example: "The contemporary university is still concerned with acquiring and developing learning, but more and more is also a business." That category may redefine the way your audience understands the subject or it may broaden and deepen their understanding. Your rhetorical situation--that is, what your audience knows and the nature of their need for this definition--will help you understand which parts of the thesis need the most development and support. You may use a variety of techniques to support your definition: synonyms, genus and differentia, description, narration, process, cause-effect, analysis of parts, examples, etymology, negative definition, and so forth. We'll discuss these tactics in class.

What form might your definition paper take? It could be a letter. It could be the script for a talk presented to a group of listeners. It could be posted on a web site or listserve. Or it could be a brief article for a specialty publication--a trade journal, hobby magazine, or pamphlet. Or it could be a memo to a person or the members of a particular group within an organization. In any case, it must have an exigence: for some reason, an audience is interested in your definition of this concept or term.

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Proposal Argument

For this assignment, advocate that something should be done to address or alleviate a problem. Your aim is first to convince your audience that a situation is a problem (if that's needed) and then to propose that a certain action should be taken to respond to that problem. What action is possible and desirable? Your starting point might well be something that bothers you and that you feel should be changed. (Of course, you might have to convince your readers that it is a problem for them too, if that is not obvious.) Then devote the balance of the paper to advocating your plan for dealing with that problem.

Issues to consider? Here are some ideas:

You get the idea: propose that someone take some action. You might even wish to return to some aspect of the topic of an earlier paper. Or you might look through Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments for ideas.

Conceptualizing and Accomplishing Your Task

As you work out the rhetorical situation for this assignment, pay particular attention to audience. You should be able to specify an actual audience and forum for which you will present your proposal. Consider what your purpose is--to convince someone directly to take action; or to create grass roots support for an action that someone other than the audience would take. Your audience should be asked either to undertake the action proposed or to support the action proposed.

Consider carefully how differences in audience and forum will influence the specific kind of thesis and support you need to present. That means, first, assessing whether your audience agrees with you that a problem exists. If there is no question about it, then you can spend your time on your solution. But if it is not clear that a problem exists, or if your audience does not necessarily appreciate the magnitude of the problem, then you must first concentrate on establishing the problem. That might mean employing the tactics of evaluation that we will discuss in class.

Then, as you develop your proposal itself, make effective use of all the strategies of invention that we have been practicing in earlier papers-testimony (i.e., cite experts), narration, definition-as well as the tactic that many proposals especially depend on: consequence. You will certainly need to be aware of competing solutions and to take up issues of feasibility as necessary.

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Portfolio of Revisions

To conclude English 15, show off everything you have learned about the rhetorical principles and practices you have learned by turning in a portfolio of revisions.

You will choose two (2) of your previous papers from the semester and write a significant revision . A significant revision goes beyond clean up matters; it involves a significant rethinking and redevelopment of an assignment (and maybe a clean up as well). For instance, perhaps you didn't do a strong job on the Explore an Issue assignment-but in the weeks since then, you have come to a deep understanding of the issues involved. Here is your chance to redo the assignment and get it right.

We will be discussing other options and strategies for revision in class including audience concerns, genre, arrangement and style, but it is worth mentioning now that your grade will depend not only on the quality of the finished work but on how "significant" was your revision.

In order for me to assess your revision your portfolio must include:

  1. The original graded draft with instructor's comments
  2. Peer reviews, rough drafts and research notes for each revision
  3. An extensive cover letter that describes the rhetorical strategy/strategies you employed as you revised
  4. Your significant revision.

Please keep in mind that effective revision is a process that requires time, patience and commitment. Your portfolio should reflect on-going revisions that took place throughout the entire semester.

Additional Assignment Options

The following assignments were designed by professors and graduate students at Penn State. Cheryl Glenn, together with a team of instructors, developed the first three assignments; they show how the textbooks you use in class can be integrated into your assignment sheets.

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Literacy Narrative

(Integrates Making Sense: A New Rhetorical Reader.)

Making Sense invites you to examine your literacy in much broader ways than your basic ability to read and write. It helps you imagine your literacy in terms of how you react to and interpret language in particular ways, and how you produce and use language to achieve certain kinds of goals. Thus, the book provides you opportunities for reading and writing experiences-literacy experiences-that will not only seem familiar and everyday to you but will also help prepare you for making sense of the assignments you'll encounter in your first-year writing class and in the college coursework (and working life) that follow.

Please write a short narration (3 to 4 pages, double-spaced) recounting a significant literacy event or development in your life. In the broadest sense, this assignment asks you to reflect in some way upon the roles that reading, writing, and community have played in your life-to consider, in other words, how you became the literate person you are now and are still in the process of becoming.

By creating or retelling a sequence of occurrences (that relates to your literacy development), you will be using narration for a specific purpose: to argue a point, create a mood, or provide an example. Whatever your purpose, you'll need to determine exactly what point you want to make-a general point that you'll bring to life with specific relevant and representative examples. You will also want to keep a specific audience of readers in mind as you write. Therefore, the key to writing a successful narrative is to choose-you'll need to choose the most important details, characters, and dialogue to make certain that the setting, point of view, and organizational pattern work to your advantage. Be sure to consult the guidelines for checking over narrative writing on p. 180 in Making Sense as you draft, revise, and respond to the drafts of your classmates.

Planning and Writing a Literacy Narrative: Suggested Topics

  1. Look at the essay "Prison Studies" in your Making Sense text. Malcolm X's quest for greater literacy is one that all college students embark on, if not to the same degree. Think about what you hope to gain from your undergraduate education. Make notes about the series of steps that lies ahead of you. What would you sacrifice, or what might you be sacrificing, for this education? In an essay of three to four pages, write a narrative that recounts your gains as well as any losses (such as losing touch with certain friends or family) as you become an educated American. (You might also want to include some reflection about what it means to be an educated American). As you write, remember the guidelines for checking over narrative writing on p. 180 in Making Sense.
  2. Draft a three- to four-page narrative that traces the educational progress-or lack thereof-of one of your parents. Develop a thesis statement early on, making sure that each incident in the narrative supports the thesis. Consider what your parent gained-and lost-in the process. You may want to invent some dialogue as a way to make your essay come alive. Be sure to refer to the guidelines for checking over narrative writing on p. 180 in Making Sense.
  3. Consider the importance of psychology in the practice of teaching. Write down all the reasons you can think of for the importance of enthusiasm, empathy, and kindliness in teachers' relation with their students. Is it more important for a teacher to possess these sensibilities or to bring technical skill and knowledge to the classroom? Decide on a thesis statement and provide some examples that support it, either from personal experience or from the experiences of other students you know. Then write a three- to four-page essay in which you support your thesis by weaving in these short narratives, referring to "Checking Over Narrative Writing" on p. 180 in Making Sense.
  4. Draft a three- to four-page narrative essay in which you argue a thesis that relates education to identity. As you argue, you may find that you're also explaining a process and maybe even creating a mood. Consider modeling your essay on one of the narratives in Making Sense, imitating the writer's strategies for making and supporting his or her points. Refer to the guidelines for checking over narrative writing on p. 180 in Making Sense as you draft and revise.

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Process Analysis

(Integrates Making Sense: A New Rhetorical Reader.)

Ideally, a process is a series of actions that always leads to the same result, no matter how many times it's repeated. But Making Sense offers you two actual processes: the directional process analysis, which tries to explain a process in a way that makes it replicable with the same results (think baking directions or basic chemistry experiment), and the informational process analysis that explains how something was done or happened. In both cases, process analysis explains the process by breaking it down into a fixed order of detailed steps. Like narration, process analysis is chronological-it's organized according to time-but narration is concerned with a one-time event. A process analysis, on the other hand, is concerned with an event that might be replicable, that might be duplicated. Your three- to four-page process analysis will fulfill one of two purposes: it will supply detailed directions for replication of the process (the directional process analysis) or information about how a process works or is done (the informational process analysis).

Your process analysis should (1) focus on a specific process; (2) fulfill a clear purpose that you clarify in your thesis statement; (3) consider the needs and interests of a specific audience; (4) be organized step-by-step, explaining why each step is important. Like the writing you did for your literacy narrative, the process analysis will also need clear, pertinent details and examples in each step and transitions that help your reader move from one step to the next. Like the thesis statement in "Mission Possible" (p. 399), your thesis statement should explain what your audience will gain or learn by following your process analysis. Be sure to consult the guidelines for checking over process analysis writing on p. 434 in Making Sense as you draft, revise, and respond to the drafts of your classmates.

Planning and Writing a Process Analysis: Suggested Topics

  1. How do you envision your education future? What do you want to learn and how do you want to learn it? What is the best learning environment for you, and how can you put yourself in that learning environment? Consider your answers to these questions, and then draft a three- to four-page process analysis essay that sets out a plan that allows you, in Adrienne Rich's words, to "claim" your education. In developing your essay, think about what personal, unique steps you will build into your education plan (i.e., coursework, cultural experiences, extracurricular activities, internships, etc.) to prepare you for the specific future that you want. Your instructor and your classmates will be your audience, and your thesis statement will focus on your plans for success in your educational future. Refer to "Checking Over the Use of Process Analysis" on p. 434 in Making Sense.
  2. Identify a process of student life that is often troublesome: balancing a checkbook, getting an insurance company to pay a medical bill, finding an honest and inexpensive car repair shop, registering for classes online, getting good advice from a reliable advisor, and so on. Draft a three- to four-page directional process essay that will help your classmates with this problem. Refer to the guidelines for checking over the use of process analysis (p. 434) as you draft and revise.
  3. Think of a process that's either unhealthy or dangerous. What steps could be taken to make this process healthier or safer? What pitfalls and opportunities does each step involve? In an essay of three to four pages, analyze the process necessary for positive change. Make sure that all the steps and details you include help to develop a thesis statement about this process. If a visual would enhance your essay, include one. Refer to "Checking Over the Use of Process Analysis" on p. 434.
  4. Ceremonies of all kinds are an important part of any culture: weddings, funerals, graduations, religious and political rites. Concentrate on one U.S. ceremony in particular and on the ways your own ethnicity, gender, or religion add texture to the ceremony. Analyze the process of this ceremony, making sure that your three- to four-page essay has a thesis statement. Refer to "Checking Over the Use of Process Analysis" on p. 434.

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Causal Analysis

(Integrates Making Sense: A New Rhetorical Reader .)

Like a process analysis, causal analysis links actions or events along a time line, but it differs from process analysis in that it tells us why something happens, is happening, or will probably happen. Therefore, a causal analysis can serve one or more of four main purposes: to entertain, to inform, to speculate, and to argue. Whether we're enrolling in a fitness program, appearing in traffic court, diagnosing a child's illness, or assessing an investment, we're analyzing causes, often for a specific audience. Because purpose and audience are nearly inseparable, it's often impossible to decide which to think about first. But if you consider your general subject, then you can begin to determine the exigence for your writing and your purpose. Your audience will be those readers best served by your purpose, so you'll need to consider the values they hold and the information they need.

Your thesis statement will introduce your subject to that audience, suggest the reason you're analyzing it, and state the ideas about the causes or consequences you want your readers to accept. Unless you're absolutely certain, using phrases such as "probably" and "most likely" will enhance your credibility with your readers. You'll also need to think critically about different causes or consequences (primary, contributory, immediate, remote, and so on) as well about whether you want to explain the causes or consequences in chronological or emphatic order, using transitional words or phrases to help your readers follow your line of thinking.

What conclusions can you draw from your analysis? What inferences? What implications? If you answer these three questions, your conclusion will offer you an opportunity to push your own thinking as well as that of your audience-and you'll write a meaningful conclusion, one that goes beyond a weary restatement of your introduction. Be sure to consult the guidelines for checking over the use of cause-and-consequence analysis on p. 511 in Making Sense as you draft, revise, and respond to the drafts of your classmates.

Planning and Writing a Causal Analysis Essay: Suggested Topics

(Please note that your causal analysis essay might provide the basis for the recommendation essay assignment that follows.)

  1. Many people who aren't writers are voracious readers. You might be one of those people. Draft a three- to four-page essay in which you recount some of your most memorable reading experiences-and the consequences of reading those books and authors. Be sure to consult the guidelines for checking over the use of cause-and-consequence analysis on p. 511 as you draft and revise.
  2. Go to a public place-a waiting room, dining hall, lounge, park, coffee bar, or library-and observe the kind of reading people are doing. You may have to walk around for a while to get the entire picture of how many people are reading and what exactly they are reading. How many are reading fiction, nonfiction, magazines, newspapers, email, Web sites? Talk to as many readers as possible to ask why they are reading or what they think or hope will be the consequences of their reading. Draft a three- to four-page essay in which you analyze the causes or consequences of these public reading habits. (Notice that you will be resorting to some classification and division in this essay.) Be sure to refer to the guidelines for checking over the use of cause-and-consequence analysis on p. 511.
  3. Work backwards from an event or situation, and trace its possible causes. You could write about a divorce, a marriage, a fire, an award or honor, or a larger topic such as the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. List the possible causes of the event or situation, and draft a three- to four-page essay in which you test each possibility. Consider working with one or two classmates to test your causes. Finally, decide on a primary cause and organize your essay emphatically. Refer to "Checking Over the Use of Cause-and-Consequence Analysis" on p. 511 as you draft your essay and revise it for submission.
  4. Draft an essay describing the problems of adolescence and untangling the causes or consequences of those problems. Don't hesitate to use anecdotes, as Douglas Foster does in "The Disease is Adolescence," to bring your essay to life. You might want to gather information by interviewing classmates, adolescents, and people who work with them as well as from other sources to supplement your own thinking on this subject. You may also need to conduct library or World Wide Web research. As you draft and revise, consider working with a classmate. Also, refer to the guidelines for checking over the use of cause-and-consequence analysis on p. 511.
  5. Define success, and then talk about the causes or consequences of success. As evidence, you might want to use your own life or the life of someone you know well: a parent, for instance. Or you may turn to the popular media and examine one of the many examples of success they offer on a daily basis. Be sure to discuss immediate and more remote consequences. As you plan, draft, and revise your essay, be sure to use the guidelines for checking over the use of cause-and-consequence analysis (p. 511) to make sure that your essay has a clear purpose and carefully considered causes or consequences.

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Cause and Effect Group Project

What came first-the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music?
-"Rob Fleming" in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity

For the next few weeks, we are going to discuss cause and effect with regards to trends in popular music and their connection to national or world affairs. Over the past 40 years, we have seen a number of trends spring to the mainstream and then fade underground only to resurface again years later. As we examine pop music and recent history, we may be able to formulate theories to explain these occurrences.

I am going to divide you up into groups and assign each a time period spanning a few years. Each group will be required to do research concerning a particular genre of music and how the music responded to or shaped social and political trends in America during its time.

Here are the time periods:

This project will require you to spend some time in the library as you attempt to get a sense of each period. Look at major political, economic, and social forces, as well as corresponding movements in other art or media forms (literature, fine art, television, film, etc.). Also, find out what songs were at the top of the charts, what albums were selling, and which performers drew the largest audiences. Also, find published commentary on the music and its relation to its period and incorporate other writers' opinions on the topic into your presentation.

I am especially interested in how different trends respond or react to previous trends (eg. punk as a reaction to disco) so you'll need to connect your particular period to what came before and after.

Each group will present on their period for 30 minutes, incorporating audio and visual aids. You might want to play samples of the period's music, show a short video clip or a figure or event, or use other means of getting your point across in an interesting and informative manner. Be creative!

Each group will be required to submit a bibliography of sources consulted, prepared using the MLA format. The bibliography should include at least 10-15 sources.

Each member of the group will be required to participate in the group presentation.

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Encomium

For this assignment you will write an encomium, praising a living person. Your audience will be the class and the teacher, which means both men and women, some sympathetic and some who need convincing that your candidate is worthy of praise. Imagine your paper being read aloud on the day you hand it in.

Who will you write about? Your subject need not be famous, but could be. There are possible candidates for praise in public and in private life. In the public sphere consider people in politics, the arts, business, sport. You could praise Robert Mapplethorpe for his daring, Woody Allen for his humor, Madonna for her entrepreneurial skills. In the private sphere there may be people you admire among your family and friends-a teacher, a coach, an employer, a local activist.

Whoever your subject, you will have to find an exigence, a reason or need to praise the person you choose to praise. Why should anyone need to hear how wonderful your mom is? Why should we experience yet another encomium of Mother Theresa?

Why should anyone care that you admire this person? Of course different subjects present different challenges for the writer. Keep in mind that well-known public figures may inspire a range of reactions: they are not all universally admired and some people may hold quite the opposite view from you. For instance, is a former role model being unfairly judged? You may want to bring the person's accomplishments to your readers' attention. Your encomium may address a variety of intentions: you may give readers a fresh point of view on a familiar figure; you may ask them to put aside questionable or less admirable or ideal characteristics in order to consider positive qualities; you may write to reinforce known and accepted values in order to make readers see your subject as an example.

Your goal in praising an unknown figure will present the opposite challenge. Your audience will have no idea why praise is significant. You will have to create a portrait of the person you are praising so that your readers can end up feeling the same way you do-that this is someone worth knowing about, someone who embodies sharable values and admirable characteristics.

Remember that in either case, if it is at all likely that you and your audience value different qualities or hold different assumptions, you must convince the reader that your praise is justified.

How do we praise someone? We can describe them, tell stories about them, give examples of their behavior, compare them and contrast them to others, analyze their good qualities, place them in a category, claim they are unique, tell how they achieved something, show what they cause to happen. A successful paper will choose a varied, appropriate, and lively selection of methods. Let yourself go in developing this essay. Have some fun with the topic. See this as a chance to hold forth. Make the person you are praising come to life. Rather than five perfectly turned paragraphs, give your audience richness of development.

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Evaluation

This assignment will ask you to take a side and argue about the quality of a situation or thing-in other words, to evaluate it. Similar to your exploration in Assignment 3, you will need to find an issue not only important to you but to a particular audience: you should demonstrate exigence. Some examples of evaluative claims other students have researched and presented include the following:

Of course, none of these claims should go unchallenged. Each claim should be backed up with solid reasons and evidence, and each should be thought about in terms of warrants and backing to determine their effectiveness for their audiences. In addition-and just as important for this assignment-you will need to develop criteria to use for evaluating the situation or thing you are discussing. For instance, what do you mean by "effective" or "great"? What standards do these terms imply? Where do you "set the bar" for someone or something to jump over? As we will discuss in class, it is useful to think about evaluating in terms of the "value topics"-ethics, pragmatics, and aesthetics-to generate criteria.

Once you have established criteria, you will need to anticipate possible objections to the criteria themselves or to the "match" part of your argument. If you argued, for example, that one reason fertility drugs are harmful is because they often produce multiple births, you would need to argue your warrant that multiple births are undesirable. You would also need to show evidence that fertility drugs do indeed produce enough multiple births to be a problem. Choose both your reasons and your evidence carefully, because your choices will affect your credibility.

Once you have thought about exigence and an appropriate audience, you will need to determine an effective genre. Should your argument be a formal paper for publication? A letter? An address? An article in a magazine or newspaper?

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Cultural Analysis

This assignment asks you to examine closely, define and interpret some aspect of American culture-an aspect related in some way to the cultural mores, roles, or myths Americans live by. Your interpretation of this "cultural artifact or phenomenon" should help an audience interested in American culture to understand better-more fully, more critically-some aspect of our culture as it exists today. Your analysis should reveal the continuing power of cultural myths and mores in our lives today; it should show how they are embodied or communicated in the various forms our culture takes.

Your topic could be a common practice which your audience may take for granted the way it is. You may show readers how and why it is not simply "natural," but specific to our culture. You may choose a celebrity and examine the persona which that person creates and try to account for its success-or its controversial nature. You may want to look at a popular image or value as depicted in the media-images of family life; of the work place; of recreation; of relationships; of gender; of race; of success-academic, athletic, professional, or self-fulfillment; of freedom and democracy. How do such images both reflect and shape cultural attitudes and myths? Perhaps a work of popular art expresses a cultural attitude-a song, a book, a photograph or painting? Perhaps a trend or fad or a particular artifact represent sour culture in ways we have not realized-body piercing? Tanning? Rollerblading? Owning a sport/utility vehicle?

If you have knowledge of other cultures because of family background or travel or living abroad (or even in a different section of the United States), you may want to use examples from those cultures as points of comparison. Your own experience of your own culture-personal or observed-may also be valuable evidence.

Clearly you'll have more to do in this assignment than simply describe the subject. The following suggestions might help you begin to focus your ideas.

Invention:

Think about the audience you've chosen to address and about what impact you want to have. Imagine them as a friendly but skeptical audience, willing to be persuaded by a reasonable argument. Perhaps they are familiar with the topic or image you have selected but less conscious of its implications than they realize. Can you show them new connections and interpretations? Can you give them a new perspective?

Next, gather information about your subject. What aspects of an American mythology or cultural more are the audience asked to identify with, and how are its characteristics embodied in the topic? What do most people seem to think about the topic? What else might it mean? Try to remain open as you gather more information about your subject: consider its parts; look at details; compare a variety of examples of it; look for evidence about the causes and effects of images; consider contrasts too. Think also about similar practices or artifacts in the culture and common factors that might account for them as well. Then, think about how this information can help you shape a thesis-an interpretation you wish to argue.

As you develop you argument, start with the questions you have about he topic. Consider also questions that the audience may ask; decide how your responses can be organized around a particular claim and support for that claim. Try to assess the strengths of your evidence and the changes or modifications your thesis may need.

Composition/Delivery:

As you draft the paper, think about structure. Your introduction should make a clear contact with your reader. The body paragraphs should develop the main points in an order that is best for the audience and purpose; think strategically about the developing responses of the audience.

The essay should present a statement that the audience is prepared to accept, given the evidence and reasoning you have shown.

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Ad Analysis

This paper gives you a chance to practice some of the skills and concepts we've discussed in class. Advertisements are always persuasive, in that they have specific designs on their audience. The most common of these designs, of course, is that the company wants you to buy their product or service. To this end, companies use rhetorical devices - ethos, logos, and pathos. First, advertisements carefully construct an image or persona for a company; they want the audience to think the company is trustworthy and reliable. Secondly, advertisements appeal to the audience's sense of logic, using good reason to support the claim that you should buy their product. Finally, and most importantly, advertisements use pathos to connect to the audience's beliefs or values. Often, the pathos appeal connects to basic American values, like equality, material comfort, efficiency, or individualism. Evidently, the audience for a given advertisement has a significant influence on these rhetorical choices.

For this paper, choose an advertisement that you find rhetorically interesting. Obviously, you'll want to think about the rhetorical situation for the ad, as well as the appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) used. Use the following questions to help you come up with ideas:

Audience & Rhetorical Situation - Where was the advertisement published and when? What does the type of publication tell you about the probable audience for the advertisement? To get a better idea of a publication's target audience, look at the other advertisements in the publication. Are they targeted towards a certain gender, age, income level, education level, and so on? The ad itself should help you to flesh out your audience analysis. What visual and verbal cues does the ad give that would connect to a particular audience?

Ethos - Companies work carefully to build a recognizable brand image, and advertisements play a big role in this task. What kind of image does the ad create for the company? How does the ad try to build credibility? Look at the verbal cues, like "4 out of 5 dentists recommend Crest" or "Serving you for 75 years." Websites, 800 numbers, and even registered trademark symbols are also verbal cues. However, the images in an ad also provide cues to its ethos. What type of company do they want the audience to believe they are? Progressive, traditional, reliable, trendy, exciting?

Logos - First, identify the main claim of your ad. (In many cases, the main claim will be something like "You should buy product X"). What logical reasons does the advertisement use to support this claim? What evidence is provided to support these reasons? Again, look at the text, but also the visual cues. Remember that the logos of an argument isn't always stated explicitly - sometimes it's implied by the images, word choice, etc.

Pathos - Drawing on the readings on American advertising, think about the values, emotions and beliefs contained in the ad. You might also go through the list of "Common Topics in American Discourse" for ideas. Once again, examine the images in the ad as well as the text. For example, do the colors used in the ad evoke a particular emotion or belief?

Once you've worked through the invention topics above, look for a common thread that seems to connect most of your ideas together. For example, you might find that the theme of family values relates not just to the pathos of your ad, but also to the ethos, logos, and target audience. You can use this common theme to formulate your thesis statement. As you write your paper, use concrete details from your advertisement to support your claims. You can quote directly from the ad's copy, or use detailed language to describe the images, colors, fonts, etc. in the ad. Although you're free to structure your paper however you want, it's often a good idea to organize it around the following categories: audience/rhetorical situation, ethos, pathos, logos. Keep in mind that your audience for this paper is your instructor, and that she will be looking for a solid understanding and application of the rhetorical concepts covered in class.

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Manifesto/Declaration

For this assignment, you will write a manifesto or a declaration. A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, especially of a political nature, and it is a label usually applied to statements made by groups outside of the mainstream. A declaration is technically a broader formal statement or announcement, and it is the label usually applied to documents or statements made by groups within the mainstream (i.e., both documents are similar, but manifestos are seen as more "radical," so many group make the rhetorical choice to call their manifestos "declarations" to avoid the "fringe" label).

Essentially, your goal is to move from individual beliefs ("I") to shared beliefs ("We"), and two important tactics will be definition and evaluation. Like many manifestos, "The Declaration of Independence," for example, moves through three stages: here is what I/we believe, here are our "proofs" that the King is a tyrant and his government a bad one, and here is what we're going to do about this bad situation. You establish and define your group identity, present your group's principles, identify the problems in a specific context (often a "status quo" negative evaluation), and take or urge a course of action.

Manifestos and declarations are two primary tools for anyone who is trying to change some aspect of their specific context (e.g., school, work, church, society), but they also are used in attempts to preserve or reconstruct a specific vision of society. Radicals and reformers generally write manifestos; traditionalists and preservers write declarations. You can write either one, and you should produce a three-to-four-page argument

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Humorous Argument

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Onion. Saturday Night Live. Most of you have seen at least one of these satirical venues. And we all enjoy making fun of people, rules, institutions, trends, TV shows, music, and more. This last essay is your chance to let out all of your bitterness, cynicism, disgust, confusion, and/or outrage in a blistering satire or parody. "But wait," you say. "I'm not bitter. In fact, I'm a very happy person." That's ok. Happy people can write humorous essays, too. If you don't want to make fun other people or policies, make fun of yourself or of a situation.

In this essay, you will form an argument following one of the patterns we've studied so far: definition, evaluation, causal analysis, or proposal. You'll have a thesis/claim, reasons, evidence, etc. In fact, closely following a traditional format can make the humor even funnier. Your book has excellent suggestions for finding a topic and planning your essay (pgs. 274-276). As it suggests, you may use humor to point out flaws in a policy or argument, suggest a new policy, help your audience like you (and thus agree with you), admit your own weakness (and thus keep people from criticizing you), or satirize or parody a position, point of view, or style. Like any argument, your humorous essay should have a point. It will probably be easiest for you to write about something to do with life at Penn State. What is absurd in your life here on campus? What is absurd about how PSU students behave, dress, or talk? What is absurd about the expectations of a certain class or of your major? What is absurd about the way administration handles registration or underage drinking? What is absurd about the advising process? Use the prompts on pgs. 274-5 to help brainstorm a topic and then decide which type of argument will best fit your topic. And, as usual, use the "preparing a proposal" section on pg. 275 to write your assignment proposal.