Semester on a Page Calendar

Learning how to schedule my time was a major skill I had to develop in college. One way I keep track of everything even today is to have all major dates on a single page. It allows me to plan ahead and prevents deadlines from sneaking up on me.

Here is the single page calendar with all the weeks for Fall 2014. I hope it might be useful to some of you.

Conclusions

Conclusions in Analysis Papers

Introduction: Rhetorical Context

Provide the rhetorical context for the social milieu of your text. In other words, you will want to provide relevant contemporaneous information about the issue/debate the speaker is addressing (e.g, war in Iraq, gun control, dedication of a new monument, etc.). Cite sources to help provide context such as historical events, political climate, or biographical information. You want to explain why your author wrote on this topic at the particular moment (s)he chose to write. Your goal is to provide context for your readers who will know less than you about the text and its contemporary historical moment.

Conclusion: Contemporary Significance

Provide the continuing significance of the issue your paper addresses. In other words, you will want to demonstrate contemporary events that make this something we should still talk about and consider or which make the points less relevant today. You can then evaluate your author’s argument based on whether we should continue to heed his/her warning, dismiss him/her for a certain reason, or pay attention to him/her but not for a good reason (maybe they represent a dangerous or problematic viewpoint on the topic that we should strive to avoid).

Introduction	Conclusion
Rhetorical Context of Your Article	Rhetorical Context of Your Paper
Context of author’s time of writing	Context of your time of writing
Why this issue was important at its publication	Why this issue is important today
Why did your author care then?	Why should we care now?

Places to Look for Sources

-Web search on topic
-Library Search (articles, newspaper, books, etc.): http://library.tulane.edu/
-Encyclopedia: http://www.britannica.com/, use Wikipedia to lead you to more reputable sources
-Google Books for historical sources: http://books.google.com/
-Articles in Various Disciplines: http://scholar.google.com/

Sample Conclusions on Andrew Sullivan's "iPod World"

This article, published 7 years ago, foretold of continued growth in iPod sales and a noticeable change in the social interactions between people. In reality, sales of iPods turned out to be much different than was suggested in 2005. In an article published in 2010 one columnist said, “If sales of Apple’s iPod are any indication, the heyday of the MP3 player is over and done with” citing the continued decline in sales of the device after its peak in 2008 (Bonnington). However, it was not because people decided to rid themselves of such devices and interact in a distraction-free environment as Sullivan suggested, instead Apple has introduced consumers to even more alluring devices such as the iPhone. The predicted popularity of the iPod in 2005 pales in comparison to the actual popularity of the iPhone today with Apple having reported almost 250 million iPhones being sold since its introduction in 2007 (Apple Inc). These increased features over an iPod that the iPhone now offers only further the validity of Sullivan’s argument from 2005. Instead of being limited to music with an iPod, people are now able to talk, text, tweet, message, and video chat from almost anywhere at any time. And Sullivan’s prediction is becoming ever more accurate as Apple incessantly tweaks the device to perfect it for optimal consumption of media, accumulation more distractions every time. With these constant advancements, the points Sullivan brings up are more applicable to current society than when his article was first published and reminds us to always realize that it’s not all bad to have some downtime for the mind.


“IPod World” is funny, witty, and overall truly makes you think about the degrading camaraderie in our society and the value we place on simple human interaction. iPods have become such a large aspect of our culture, when Sullivan wrote his article in 2005, 10 million iPods had been sold—by September 2012 the number has increased to 350 million (Costello). This topic of technological isolation is not just a current debate, but has been talked about since the origin of MP3 players. In 1981, Shuhei Hosokawa wrote an article about the “Walkman effect”. This article was written in response to the recent release of the Walkman in 1980 and its effects on the interactions of others—claiming that these new MP3 players were disconnecting society and causing severe “incommunicability” between people (Hosokawa). Thirty-one years later much has changed. Walkmans have turned into iPods and cassettes have become digital files, but the same problem remains; people’s routine detachment from their environment once deafened by their headphones. Now in 2012, iPods aren’t just MP3 players, they’re movie theaters, books, arcades, and even cell phones. Between iPods and iPhones more and more people are loosing touch with their environment and succumbing to their personal virtual bubble. Sullivan’s article, despite being written seven years ago, is even more pertinent in our current society and makes its reader’s think about what they’re missing when they plug themselves in and tune society out.

Political Cartoons

Political Cartoon Terminology

Political Cartoon Website

One of the best websites to find political cartoons to analyze is Daryl Cagle's PoliticalCartoons.com.

Online Writing Labs

Students, if you are looking for more writing resources  or are unable to buy the textbook for an English class, the following online writing labs (OWLS) can help.

Online Writing Labs & Resources

Purdue OWL: The oldest and most famous of its kind, the Purdue OWL offers an excellent web version of the MLA handbook along with guides to the writing process. There are specific sections for writing in the disciplines, ESL, and job search writing.

Writing Commons: an open-source, peer-reviewed, online writing textbook

Excelsior College OWL: The feature that makes this lab unique is the writing process video game, Paper Capers.

Silva Rhetoricae: This site features a lengthy alphabetical list of rhetorical terminology.

Guide to Grammar & Writing: This lab provides extensive grammar instruction with online quizzes to test students knowledge and help them identify problem areas. Students can easily navigate the drop down boxes when a teacher assigns further study.

Hypergrammar: The University of Ottawa site offers a digital version of their grammar course. It moves from the basics of parts of speech to building phrases and sentences.

Strunk's Elements of Style: An online version of a classic writing style book.

Intertextuality

Lesson 1: Reading as an Intertexual Practice

Compose a narrative version of the “story” told through a series of checks, published without comment as “Ordeal by Cheque” in a 1932 issue of Vanity Fair. Consider these questions: How many people use the checkbook? How does handwriting affect your reading? Who is Tony Spagoni? As you go through the checks, just hit what you think are major events instead of getting caught up in all the little details.

We will discuss the exercise in class and I will explain how it relates to a concept called intertextuality.

Lesson 2: Writing as an Intertextual Practice

Lecture: We define intertextuality through the examples and analogies below, and I also break down the term "intertext" into its etymological parts: inter meaning between or among and text meaning anything that communicates or that can be read for meaning (spoken words, articles, pictures, clothing, smiles, etc.)

Lesson 3: In-Class Writing Using Intertextuality

In one application of intertextuality, authors use a cultural touchstone or allusion to hit a note of familiarity with their audiences and to make dry material more interesting. Students can use an allusion to relate to their audience and to create a useful context for their points. For example, one might invoke a TV show, movie quote, song or popular music group, poem, play, literary work, speech, political event, or news story. I encourage you to research pop culture online to make connections.

Examples:

"In 1964, just as the Beatles were launching their invasion of America’s airwaves, Marshall McLuhan published Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man."

--Nicolas Carr, The Shallows

"Around the time that women were being penciled in to the equal employment act and Sandra Day O’Conner was being sworn into the Supreme Court, women across the Western world decided that they had the right to pain relief during childbirth." Newly included in women’s healthcare options was the epidural, an anesthesiologist administered placement of a catheter into the epidural space of a laboring woman’s spine where pain blocking anesthesia is injected into her body.

--Caranina Palomino, Tulane Award-Winning Student Essay "The Anti-Epidural Movement: Mommy-Bullying and Women’s Rights to Pain Management" 

However, it wasn’t until 1990, the same year that the movie Home Alone became a top seller, that cell phones became all the rage across America. Little did America know, twenty-two years down the road cell phones would literally and metaphorically make us “home alone.”

--Millie Blumka, Fall 2012 English Student

I have spent the last few years of my life teaching kids to swim. While Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps were winning medals across the pond in the 2012 London Olympics, it seemed that all of my students were striving to improve a little more each lesson.  My day was coming to an end and I only had one 6-year-old girl left who was actually a pretty talented swimmer for her age.  When I asked her to float on her back, she simply looked back at me and asked if she could get out to go play with her iPad. 

--Ethan Ader, Fall 2012 English Student

Multimedia for Intertextuality

The Day the Music Died - Don McLean on Buddy Holly's Crash

"Curating the GOP Cultural Library" The Rachel Maddow Show, Nov. 17, 2011

Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Basics of Ethos, Pathos, Logos

"The Rhetorical Triangle: Understanding and Using Ethos, Pathos, Logos": a quick 2 page read

Introduction to Ethos, Pathos, Logos: a short video

Ethos, Pathos, Logos Overlap

Ethos, pathos, logos are not discrete non-overlapping elements. All communication tells us something about the author and so includes ethos.  Authors and audiences always possess emotion, even if striving for "neutral" emotion, and so pathos is involved. And all communication evidences a judgment or claim, thereby drawing on logos.

If these appeals overlap so much, what is the point of seeing them as distinct? The appeals help us understand three dominant ways through which people persuade and three common ways that rhetorical critics talk about texts. They give us places to focus. The appeals ask you to use a certain lens, to concentrate on one particular element and to dissect how it works in a given text.  If you can't first name and identify these effects, then you would have a hard time explaining how they overlap or how the pathos of a line might succeed while its logos fails. It strengthens analysis to show how any one of the appeals may become stronger or dominant in a given moment as well as to demonstrate how they are interrelated.

Group Work 

To learn how to use these terms, identify ethos, pathos, and logos in the following passages. You could use Word’s Comment feature under the “Review Tab” to select text and label it. I encourage you to break down the different parts of the text instead of using one term for each selection.


Mark Clayton “A Whole Lot of Cheatin’ Going On,” Christian Science Monitor, 1999
The Center for Academic Integrity in Nashville studied 7,000 students on 26 small-to-medium-size college campuses in 1990, 1992, and 1995. Those studies have found that nearly 80 percent admitted to cheating at least once. “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the more-explicit forms of cheating” and illegitimate “collaborating,” says Donald McCabe, associate provost at Rutgers University in Newark . . . He and others blame poor role models and lack of parental guidance for the growing acceptance of cheating in colleges . . . Add to that a pervasive change in societal values, and students can easily be snared if they lack a strong moral compass.

Franklin Roosevelt, “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation,” 1941
The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. . . .

Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Ronald Reagan, “The Space Shuttle ‘Challenger’ Tragedy Address,” 1986

We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for twenty-five years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and, perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers. . . . And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them. . . . The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

Andrew Cuomo, Democratic National Convention keynote Address, 1984
Ten days ago, President Reagan admitted that although some people in this country seemed to be doing well nowadays, others were unhappy, even worried, about themselves, their families, and their futures. The President said that he didn't understand that fear. He said, "Why, this country is a shining city on a hill." And the President is right. In many ways we are a shining city on a hill. But the hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this city's splendor and glory. A shining city is perhaps all the President sees from the portico of the White House and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. But there's another city; there's another part to the shining the city; the part where some people can't pay their mortgages, and most young people can't afford one; where students can't afford the education they need, and middle-class parents watch the dreams they hold for their children evaporate. In this part of the city there are more poor than ever, more families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it. Even worse: There are elderly people who tremble in the basements of the houses there. And there are people who sleep in the city streets, in the gutter, where the glitter doesn't show. There are ghettos where thousands of young people, without a job or an education, give their lives away to drug dealers every day. There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces that you don't see, in the places that you don't visit in your shining city.

Christopher Lasch, “The Lost Art of Political Argument” Harper's, 1990
Let us begin with a simple proposition: What democracy requires is public debate, not information. Of course it needs information too, but the kind of information it needs can be generated only by vigorous popular debate. We do not know what we need to know until we ask the right questions, and we can identify the right questions only by subjecting our ideas about the world to the test of public controversy. Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate, is better understood as its by product. When we get into arguments that focus and fully engage our attention, we become avid seekers of relevant information. Otherwise, we take in information passively--if we take it in at all.











Ellie Wiesel, “The Perils of Indifference,” 1999
Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again. Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion. Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know -- that they, too, would remember, and bear witness.
. . .
And so, once again, I think of the young Jewish boy from the Carpathian Mountains. He has accompanied the old man I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.

Andrew Sullivan “iPod World,” New York Times Magazine, 2005
I was visiting New York City last week and noticed something I'd never thought I'd say about the big city. Yes, nightlife is pretty much dead (and I'm in no way the first to notice that). But daylife - that insane mishmash of yells, chatter, clatter, hustle and chutzpah that makes New York the urban equivalent of methamphetamine - was also a little different. It was just a little quieter. Yes, the suburbanization of Manhattan is now far-gone, its downtown a Disney-like string of malls, riverside parks, and pretty upper-middle-class villages. But there was something else as well. And as I looked across the throngs on the pavements, I began to see why. There were little white wires hanging down from their ears, tucked into pockets or purses or jackets. The eyes were a little vacant. Each was in his or her own little musical world, walking to their own soundtrack, stars in their own music video, almost oblivious to the world around them. These are the iPod people.

Ashley Davis Bush “Grief Intelligence: A Primer”
For the last 25 years, I have worked with thousands of griever. I have sat with widows and widowers, the young and the old. I have offered tissues to bereaved parents in their inconsolable grief. I have normalized, educated, listened to and championed those grievers who, through tremendous pain, still engaged with life.

D.T. Max “End of the Book” (1994)
The quiet hum of the room, the bright white lighting, the clean, flat antiseptic surfaces, give the impression of an aspirin commercial. "It was clear to us that no reader was going to read a book off any of the current screens for more than ten minutes," says Malcolm Thompson, the chief technologist. "We hoped to change that." A large annotated poster on the wall illustrates point for point the screen's superiority to paper, as in an old-fashioned magazine ad. This flat panel display is indeed better than commercial screens, but it is neither as flexible nor as mobile as a book, and it still depends on fickle battery power. A twentysomething software marketer who began as an editorial assistant in book publishing points out, "A book requires one good eye, one good light source, and one good finger."

The Rhetoric of Maps

The Basics on Maps

Great reading on Maps & Rhetoric: "Writing with Maps."

Maps are metaphors. Maps are not the actual land features, rather they are representations of these features. As representations, they are always created from a position of culture, bias, and values. In short, maps (and all types of logos) are rhetorical.

Even maps that strive for accuracy of say Africa, can never be Africa itself. One could never take in the whole of Africa in a single moment; a view from land is only of a specific place from a specific direction; a view from the air obscures the people, formations, plants, and animals below. As Samuel Ichiye Hawayaka says succinctly in Language in Thought and Action, “The first of the principles governing symbols is this: The symbol is not the thing symbolized; the word is not the thing; the map is not the territory it stands for” (19). While people can strive for objectivity and accurate descriptions of reality and experience, these descriptions can never be complete, universal, or divorced from the sign systems within which they work.

Group Work

To learn how to recognize the underlying message and values of maps, analyze the following New Orleans maps. What do you notice about each? What is prominent? What is hidden or deemphasized? Who do you think the target audience for the map is? What purpose do you think the map is used for?

In-Class Writing

At the end of class, students write on the following topic for about 10 minutes: Which map of New Orleans do you think is the "best"? You can define "best" in any way you choose: clearest, most useful for a certain activity, most encompassing, most representative, etc. You may also choose to compare the "best" map to the "worst" map in your mind. What makes one stronger than the other?

More Unique Maps

A Sample of Geopolitical Anomalies: This map draws attention to the way that maps encourage students to think of space (often wrongly) as isolated nations.
40 Maps that Will Help You Make Sense of the World: Includes unique cultural maps such as McDonalds Across the World and Paid Maternity Leave Across the World
Geography of Hate: Geotagged Hateful Tweets in the United States: The map tracks the use of certain slur terms for homosexuals, racial minorities, and individuals with disabilities.