we cannot walk alone

For Tuesday, listen to Barack Obama’s speech from last night’s historic Democratic Convention.  Listen actively and consider the rhetorical situation: What is the historical context for Obama’s speech? What is his aim, his purpose? Also consider the rhetorical appeals he uses to advance his aim in this unique and stirring historical moment. Your answers to these questions will be integral to your success in class on Tuesday. But it will also be paramount to your understanding of John McCain’s response on Thursday night, which we will examine next week. The rhetorical complexity of the current American political drama cannot be understated, and the importance of understanding it cannot be ignored. As budding rhetoricians, you must be able to understand how each side presents an argument, and how you can employ your own rhetorical prowess to argue for yourself, your ideas, and your America. Enjoy your holiday.

wandering

“The American Wanderer, in All His Stripes,” by Michael Powell.

“Unrootedness is, and always has been, part and parcel of being American,” says Stanford professor Arnold Rampersad in the recent New York Times article linked above, “It is the flip side of perhaps the defining aspect of Americanness, the capacity of its citizens to reinvent themselves.” I read this and thought of our continuing unit on American Identity. As you write your papers, I’d encourage you to take a look at this article, and I’ll tempt you with another excerpt that made me think of McCandless:

Failing to strike out for unknown parts was sometimes taken as lack of gumption. To remain in a New England town square or a sun-baked cotton town in Oklahoma was to risk soul death. “And I made myself a promise when I was old enough to run, that I’d never stay a single day in the Oklahoma Sun,” Johnny Cash sang in “I Never Picked Cotton.”

I’ll assign extra credit if you compose a reflection on the ideas presented in the article. To receive the credit, post at least 250 words by Friday, 29 August.

let us consider the way in which we spend our lives

ira glass, host of TAL

“Nice Work if You Can Get It”

After listening to the following excerpts from This American Life, develop questions related both to our reading and to our current topic (John Smith/American Identity) from each of the following three acts. Post three questions-one for each act-by 11:59 PM, 20 August

Astro”nots” / beginning-about 8:00

On average, NASA schedules just a couple of space missions a year. But it employs 95 astronauts. This means that only a tiny percentage of an astronaut’s career is actually spent in space, and some never get there. Ira talks with these three astronauts about how they spend the vast majority of their time: on the ground, in an office, doing paperwork.

Show Me the Annuity / 19:50-37:10

This American Life producer Alex Blumberg talks with Ed Ugel, who had a very unusual dream job: he bought jackpots from lottery winners. When you win the lottery, your prize is often paid out in yearly installments. And Ed would offer winners a lump sum in exchange for their yearly checks. He’s talked with thousands of lottery winners, and the vast majority, he says, wish they’d never won

Just One Thing Missing / 46:20-end

Reporter Douglas McGray interviews a college student in California with good grades, an excellent work ethic, but no possible way to get a legal job. She’s lived in the U.S. since she was little, but her parents are undocumented; and she is, too. Most of her friends and teachers don’t even know.

quick note

DFW

I will be leaving more comments on your blogs within the next few days, but I wanted to write you a quick note about two essays on which only two of you have posted so far.

The first, “Onward, Christian Liberals” by Marilynne Robinson, is perhaps the most challenging. Robinson’s diction and style are likely to be unlike anything you have encountered, and that is the primary reason for its inclusion. Toil through it, and you will be rewarded when you find such elevated style and unfamiliar diction on the AP exam next spring (in fact, an excerpt from one of Robinson’s novels appeared on the reading comprehension section of the SAT last fall). Remember, too, that the precis is a place for you to sort through the sometimes complicated logic of complex arguments. Use the genre as a vehicle to understanding Robinson. We’ll have plenty of time to talk through the issues her essay raises–if we want–in a couple weeks. Also, please don’t feel as though you must relate every point of Mark Danner’s essay on the issue of Iraq. The essay is quite long, I know, so an abbreviated precis will suffice. Just be sure you relate an understanding of the essay as a whole.

As always, leave questions as comments to this post, or e-mail me directly.

an argument for extra credit

I’d like to respond to a few impressions of Louis Menand’s piece from The New Yorker here on the main site, hoping to incite additional discourse on this summer’s readings.

It would be irresponsible–and impossible–to assign only material with which you are certain to agree, especially in an introductory rhetoric class; in fact, the more contentious the material, the more moved you are for or against our authors’ arguments, the better. I would challenge you, though, to express your points and opinions with the same rhetorical vigor our authors use to present theirs. To do so, you first need to ask yourself a few questions.

Who is the author? For whom is the author writing? What argument does he attempt to convey to this specific audience, and how does he shape his language and target his appeals to reach this audience? What points resound, and what rhetorical strategies help them ring true. What points feel flat, and what makes them so? Tone, audience, language, support? Something else?

When you’ve thought about these questions, structure an argument of your own in response: one that appeals to an audience, employs evidence, appeals, and rhetorical strategies; one that highlights the strengths and weakness of the argument to which you are responding; one that makes a larger point all your own that may actually move others to respond to your writing, just as you responded to your chosen author’s.

Write an argument of this kind, expressing yourself in response to any essay from the Best American book, and I’ll assign extra points to your summer grade. I’ll decide on the number of points based on the quality of what you write and the thought you give your argument–and the original author’s. You can write as a response to this post, or you can post on your blog. Write what you will, and express yourself clearly, thoughtfully, descriptively.

But if you write today, do it outside. It’s a really nice day.

summer reading con’t…

Hi, everyone.

I hope you’ve all had a happy and restful first few weeks of summer. Thanks to those of you who have gotten an early start with strong, insightful posts. And though you still have plenty of time before your first deadline, I encourage you now–as I did in April–both to get started early and to post in increments rather than submitting three posts right before the deadline. I’d also like to answer a few questions you may have as you get started:

• I will give feedback on your work throughout the summer, commenting on most of your posts as you go.

• I will assess each of your posts with comments left directly on your blog. You can choose whether or not to make these comments public, though I strongly encourage you to do so. The comments, though directed to the individual, will benefit the group.

• I will not grade posts individually; rather, I will give you one grade for all posts once they are all submitted.

• You will incur penalties for missed deadlines. You have had plenty of time and opportunity to voice concerns about deadlines and to plan for them.

• If you have technical concerns, check the very helpful wordpress faq’s first. “The website’s not working” is not an excuse for a missed deadline (e-mail me your work in the very unlikely event of a site glitch).

• Please e-mail me with any questions or concerns. You might try leaving your questions as a response to this post, if they are not a private ones; this way, the group might benefit from both question and answer.

I hope your summers continue to be enjoyable.

summer reading 2008

Here is your summer reading assignment in two parts. I hope you’ll enjoy both selections, and that you’ll take something meaningful from these reading and writing exercises. I do not wish to present an assignment full of drudgery and musty meaninglessness that combats your better efforts to enjoy these fleeting high school summers; rather, I hope that both the choice of texts and the directed writing evince a more ostensible purpose for your summer assignment. Please enjoy.

● Read all of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild by the first day of class. If you are not held accountable for this reading on the first day-which, of course, you may be-you will certainly be held accountable for it by the end of the first week.

● You must post on 10 assigned essays from The Best American Essays 2007. You must finish at least 3 posts by 30 June, 6 posts by 31 July, and all posts by the first day of school. Click here for the list of required essays.

For each post, you must complete the following four items:

1. Write a précis for the essay.

The précis (pronounced pray-see) is a type of summarizing that insists on an exact reproduction of the logic, organization, and emphasis of the original texts. An effective précis retains the logic, development, and argument of the original in much shorter form. Thus, a précis is useful when you are dealing with lengthy passages that demand careful attention to the logic and organization of an argument.

To write an effective précis, read the essay several times for a full understanding. Note key points, and restate each paragraph a sentence or two. In cases where there are very short paragraphs, combine them in your restatement. Make sure that you retain the precise order of the original points, and combine the sentences into one or more smooth paragraphs. Finally, check your précis against the original to be sure that it is exact and retains the order, proportions, and relationships of the original argument.

2. Provide a bulleted list of new vocabulary words (with definitions) you learn from the essay.

3. State the tone of the essay in one, two, or three words

4. List 3 specific examples of rhetorical strategies which you find in the essay along with the phrase, sentence, paragraph in which the strategy occurs. Cite page numbers parenthetically. Remember that authors/speakers employ rhetorical strategies to reach a specific audiences: if you want to identify the complexity involved in an author’s use of rhetorical strategies, you must first identify the audience the strategies are employed to reach.

Here a few student examples, if you’re curious. They did not have exactly the same assignment, but they are solid exemplars, nonetheless.

• Margaret Story
• Ian Dunne