Archive for January, 2010

Regarding the essay “Somebody’s Baby,” please respond to the following items as a comment to this blog post:

1. Describe the rhetorical (persuasive) strategy of the essay (how does it accomplish its argument?).
2. Does the essay have an emotional appeal (pathos)? If so, exactly how is the emotional appeal created?
3. In what ways does the essay appeal to logic or reason (logos)?
4. How exactly does the speaker establish her credibility with an audience (ethos)?
5. What is the thesis of this essay (or its persuasive goal)?
6. Include the names of the people in your group.

As a group, choose one of the poems in the reader from pages 297-309 and write a response to the following:

1. Name or describe the identity of the speaker and the title of your selected poem.
2. Provide evidence from the poem that supports your claim about the speaker’s identity.
3. Describe the occasion of the poem (the event or situation that is taking place in time).
4. Describe the rhetorical purpose of the poem (or the human experience of the poem).
5. Describe the tone of the language used in the poem.
6. Describe how the tone of the language contributes to the meaning/purpose of the poem.
7. Provide evidence of language from the poem that creates the tone defined in #5.
8. Write the names of the writers in your group.

Part of the reading assignment for Monday includes poetry.  Poetry analysis may be new to most undergraduates, so to help you become more comfortable when writing about poetry, please read this Two Page Handout on Poetry Analysis.

To upload an RA or essay to Files, click on the Files icon for ENGL 112.08 shown in the Courses section of your MyACUpage.  The Files icon has an image of an open folder with a checkmark on the outside cover page:

In Files, you should see a folder called “Dropbox.”  Double-click on the Dropbox folder.  Then, you should see an icon on the right side of the screen called “Upload.”  Click on the Upload icon and upload the file from your computer that contains your rhetorical analysis.

Please save your work in Microsoft Word format before submitting your file.  The electronic version of your work should have the same formatting as you would use when turning in a hard copy.

Let me know if you have any trouble using Files, and I would be glad to help.

To post an entry to the Class Blog, I believe the only option is to use the Postie feature. All you do is place your writing content in an email and send it to:

1020_ENGL11208@groupmail.acu.edu

Some guidelines for blog posts:

• Please write an original title for your post in the subject line of your email.
• Please write about only the texts assigned as course readings. Consider posting RAs to the blog to get feedback on your writing or start a conversation about a text.
• This is a way to publish your writing to the class. Please edit your language using the same care you would use in writing any essay for a grade.
• If you use quotes or refer to details from a text, please cite the page numbers (for stories) or line numbers (for poetry) just like you would in an essay.
• Use paragraphs (and topic sentences for paragraphs) in the same way you would for an RA or essay.
• You may include images in your post, but they must be appropriate and applicable to the literary text you are writing about.
• Feel free to include a copy of an RA or an essay as an attachment to the email.

See also ACU’s Guidelines and Best Practices on blog posts.

As a group, please write a response to the items below on “Parker’s Back” as a comment to this blog post.

1. What are some specific issues (questions) this story raises about relationships?
2. Write a possible thesis (position) claim about the story’s purpose regarding human relationship.
3. Exactly how does the story text accomplish its argument or purpose you identified in #2 above.
4. Include the names of your group members.

If not already addressed in your responses to the items above, try responding to the following questions: More »

The short story “Parker’s Back” presents spouses who have remarkably different perspectives of the divine. Sarah Ruth seems obsessed with following abstract codes of regulations that she associates with her religious identity. In contrast to Sarah Ruth’s obedience to doctrine and law, Parker’s experience of God centers on the incarnational image of a person who is perceptable to the senses and who has “eyes to be obeyed” (527). Considering these differences, how might a writer compose an essay about the complex relationship between Obadiah Elihue Parker and Sarah Ruth?

Below is an image of the famous icon Christ Pantocrator (“Christ, Ruler of All”), which could fit the story’s description of Parker’s Christ tattoo, with its “haloed head” and “all-demanding eyes” (522):

Please read the short story “Parker’s Back” by Flannery O’Connor for the RA due on Friday, January 22.  This story is not in the reader, so please click on the link above to access the text of the story.

For Friday, please also read the short section on “Quotations” from A Sequence for Academic Writing (44-53).

If you plan to write about “A Respectable Woman” for Essay #1, consider some of the following differences between Mrs. Baroda’s relationship with her husband and her relationship with Gouvernail: More »

In groups of 2-3, please discuss the following items and have one member of your group post a response to these items as a comment to this blog post:

• Articulate what you think is the thesis of Melendi’s essay, “All of Heaven for Love.”
• Offer your own tentative thesis about the short story “Die Grosse Liebe” (one that is different from Melendi’s thesis). Remember, a thesis must be debatable (a claim that people can disagree with). Try to offer a thesis about how “Die Grosse Liebe” accomplishes its rhetorical purpose.
• List the names of the people in your group, so they can receive credit for today’s in-class assignment.

Writers of stories spend time creating cultural universes, and they ask us to experience these universes as readers.  These cultural universes are shaped by carefully selected details in the stories—particular language, particular images, and particular spaces.   Every word, every detail in a text functions as an argument—an argument that attempts to alter the experience of readers.

On Friday, we’ll look at additional details in “Die Grosse Liebe” and what effects those details have in the story’s performance:

One of the most interesting questions to ask when writing about texts is simply, “How?”

• How does the story perform its argument?
• How does the story accomplish its purpose?
• How does the story’s language cause readers to experience certain effects?
• How does a certain detail interact with other details in the story, and to what effect?
• What kind of cultural universe is presented in this story?  And how does the story create that kind of universe?

Here’s a clip with selected images and audio from the movie described in the short story:

Be sure to read the Rhetorical Analysis Guidelines linked to the Pages sidebar of the blog.

An example rhetorical analysis is available on this link: Example Rhetorical Analysis.

NOTE: You should not do any research when writing a rhetorical analysis.  For rhetorical analyses—and for your first two major essays—I want to read only what you find interesting from your own engagement with the text.  Please do not refer to or quote any source outside of the text about which you are writing.  Stay focused on the work you are reading.

Throughout the semester, I will post entries on this site to encourage conversations and critical thinking about the stories, essays, poems, and films we will encounter in the course.  Feel free to comment on posts, submit your own posts, and generally engage the conversation of this blog.

Again, welcome to the course—I hope you enjoy writing about literary texts this semester.