ENG 102: Composition II

ENG 102: Composition II Professor Bailey-Kirby Practice Sequence A: Inquiring

Find an advertisement on the internet and write down anything about what you observe in the ad that puzzles you or that challenges your beliefs and values. Next, write down at least five questions that you might have about what the ad is trying to convey, how are they trying to appeal to you as a man or woman in buying their product, and what are your questions about the product when you observe the details in the ad, etc. Finally, write down other ways you think the ad could persuade you to buy and/or use their product for this particular company over others in the market. (Note: Your response should be approximately 150-350 words.)

Remember the steps to inquiry include the following:

1. Observe

2. Ask questions

3. Examine alternatives

Sequence B: Analyzing a Text Rhetorically

To practice the strategies of rhetorical analysis, you will refer back to “’Bros Before Hos’: The Guy Code” by Michael Kimmel and use the questions below as a guide. (Note: Your response should be approximately 150-350 words and please number your response to each question/step below.)

1. Identify the situation: What motivates Kimmel? (Provide evidence from the text to support your answer.)

2. Identify the writer’s purpose: What does Kimmel want readers to think about? (Provide evidence from the text to support your answer.)

3. Identify the writer’s claims: What is Kimmel’s main point? (Provide evidence from the text to support your answer.)

4. Identify the writer’s audience: Given the language Kimmel uses, who do you think his main audience is? (Provide evidence from the text to support your answer.)

Practice Sequence C: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis of an Essay

Write a brief rhetorical analysis of Susan Bordo’s “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” referring to your notes and citing passages where she indicates her situation, purpose, main claim, and audience. (Note: Your response should be approximately 150-350 words, and please number your response to each question/step below.)

1. Identify the situation(s) motivating Bordo to write. Then evaluate: How well does her argument function as a conversation with other authors who have written on the same topic?

2. Analyze the audience’s identity, perspectives, and conventional expectations. Then evaluate: How well does the argument function as a conversation with the audience?

3. Analyze the writer’s purpose. Then evaluate: Do you believe Bordo achieves her purpose in her essay? Why or why not?

4. To what extent does Bordo’s ability as a conversationalist – that is, her ability to enter into a conversation with other authors and her audience— affect your evaluation of whether she achieves her purpose in this essay? Why or why not?

5. If you were to meet this writer, what suggestions or advice would you give Bordo for making her argument more persuasive? ENG 102: Composition II Professor Bailey-Kirby

Practice Sequence D: Identifying Claims

What follows is a series of claims. Identify each one as a claim of fact, value, or policy. Be prepared to justify your categorization by explaining why it is a claim of fact, value, or policy with at least one sentence for each example below. You may want to review and consult Chapter 3 for these three types of claims when completing the practice sequence below.

1. Taxing the use of fossil fuels will end the energy crisis.

2. We should reform the welfare system to ensure that people who receive support from the government also work.

3. Images of violence in the media create a culture of violence in schools.

4. The increase in homelessness is a deplorable situation that contradicts the whole idea of democracy.

5. Distributing property taxes is the one sure way to end poverty and illiteracy.

6. Individual votes don’t really count.

7. Despite the 20 percent increase in the number of females in the workforce over the past forty years, women are still not treated equitably.

8. Affirmative action is a policy that has outlived its usefulness.

9. There are a disproportionate number of black males in American prisons.

10. The media are biased, which means we cannot count on newspapers or television news for the truth.

Practice Sequence E: Formulating an Issue-Based Question

As you start developing your own issue-based question, it might be useful to practice a five-step process that begins with a topic, a word or phrase that describes the focus of your interests. Use the five-step process described in Chapter 4 to formulate your own topic on ADVERTISING. (Note: Your response should be approximately 150-350 words, and please number your response to each question/step below.)

1. Refine your topic: Examine a topic on ADVERTISING from different perspectives. (For example, I am interested in learning about the consequences of violent images in advertising on children and teens. Otherwise, ask it as a question: What are the consequences of violent images in advertising?) You may want to word it as the following: I am interested in ______(Expand your topic into a phrase) or formulate your topic into a question: What are the causes of______?

2. Explain your interest in this topic: Explore the source of your interest in this topic and what you want to learn.

3. Identify an issue: Determine what is open to dispute.

4. Formulate your topic as a question: Use your question to focus your inquiry.

5. Acknowledge your audience: Reflect on what readers may know about the issue, why they may be interested, and what you would like to teach them.

Practice Sequence F: Analyzing the Appeals in a Researched Argument ENG 102: Composition II Professor Bailey-Kirby You will refer back to the reading by Jib Fowles, titled “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals” and write a response to the three questions below. (Note: Your response should be approximately 350-500 words, and please number your response to each question/step below.)

1. Make a list of the major premises that inform Fowles’s argument in “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” and examine the evidence he uses to support them. To what extent do you find his evidence credible? Do you generally agree or disagree with the conclusion he draws? Be prepared to explain your responses to your class or peer group.

2. Note instances where Fowles appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos. How would you describe the ways he makes these types of appeals? How does he present himself? What does he seem to assume? How does he help you understand the chain of reasoning by which he moves from premises to conclusion?

3. Now you will compose a brief paragraph (3-5 sentences) and address an issue about his argument. For example, you may ask him to further explain one or more of his points, or suggest what he might be leaving out, or add your own take or evidence to his argument on “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”. Pay attention to your own strategies for appealing to him – how you present yourself, how you appeal to his values and emotions, and how you present your reasons for your own premises and conclusions.

Practice Sequence G: Paraphrasing

From one of the readings in the course by Kimmel or Bordo, find a sentence of some length and complexity that you may intend to use as evidence/support in your upcoming essay assignment, and paraphrase it. Share the original passage and your paraphrase of it when completing this practice sequence, and then explain the effectiveness of your statement. Is the meaning clear to your reader? Why or why not? Is the paraphrase written in your own language, using your own sentence structure? (Note: Your response should be approximately 150-350 words, and please number your response to each question/step below.)

1. Cite the original passage.

2. Paraphrase it.

3. Explain the effectiveness of your statement: Is the meaning clear to your reader? Why or why not? Is the paraphrase written in your own language, using your own sentence structure?

Practice Sequence H: Summarizing

Summarize the text that was assigned for reading by Jib Fowles, titled “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”. You may want to limit yourself to an excerpt of just a few paragraphs, such as one section on a specific advertising appeal or a few pages of his essay. Follow the four steps we’ve described, using a summary worksheet for notes, and write a summary of the text. Be prepared to justify your choices in composing the summary when called upon during the class discussion. For instance, would your peers agree that your summary captures what is important in the original? (Note: Your summary response should be approximately 150-350 words since you are selecting an excerpt of a few paragraphs rather than the entire essay to summarize.)

Steps to Writing a Summary:

1. Explain the key claims of the text: To understand the shape and direction of the argument, study how paragraphs begin and end, and pay attention to the author’s point of view and use of transitions. Then combine what you have learned into a few sentences describing the key claims.

2. Select examples to illustrate the author’s argument: Find one or two examples to support each key claim. You may need only one example when you write your summary.

3. Present the gist of the author’s argument: Describe the author’s central idea in your own language with an eye to where you expect your argument to go. ENG 102: Composition II Professor Bailey-Kirby 4. Contextualize what you summarize: Cue your readers into the conversation. Who is the author? Where and when did the text appear? Why did the author write? Who else is in the conversation?

Practice Sequence I: Drafting an Introduction

Write or rewrite your introduction for an upcoming essay assignment in this course (which, as you’ve seen, may involve more than one paragraph), using one of the strategies described in Chapter 9, such as Inverted triangle, a narrative, asking a question that you will answer, presenting a paradox, or mind the gap. (Note: Your introduction should be approximately 100-150 words for this practice sequence, but you can exceed the 150 words if you need to do so in the actual essay assignment.)

Steps to Drafting Introductions – Five Strategies:

1. Use an inverted triangle: Begin with a broad situation, concept, or idea, and narrow the focus to your thesis.

2. Begin with a narrative: Capture readers’ imagination and interest with a story that sets the stage for your argument.

3. Ask a question that you will answer: Provoke readers’ interest with a question, and then use your thesis to answer the question.

4. Present a paradox: Begin with an assumption that readers accept as true, and formulate a thesis that not only challenges that assumption but may very well seem paradoxical.

5. Mind the gap: Identify what readers know and then what they don’t know (or what you believe they need to know).

Practice Sequence J: Drafting a Conclusion

Write your conclusion for the upcoming essay assignment in this course, using one of the strategies described in Chapter 9, such as pulling together the main claims of your essay; answering the question “So what?”; placing your argument in a larger context; showing readers what is new; or deciding on the best strategy for writing your conclusion. (Note: Your conclusion should be approximately 100-150 words for this practice sequence, but you can exceed the 150 words if you need to do so in the actual essay assignment.)

Steps to Drafting Conclusions – Five Strategies:

1. Pull together the main claims of your essay: Don’t simply repeat points you make in the paper. Instead, show readers how the points you make fit together.

2. Answer the question “So what?”: Show your readers why your stand on the issue is significant.

3. Place your argument in a larger context: Discuss the specifics of your argument, but also indicate its broader implications.

4. Show readers what is new: As you synthesize the key points of your argument, explain how what you argue builds on, extends, or challenges the thinking of others.

5. Decide on the best strategy for writing your conclusion: Will you echo the introduction? Challenge the reader? Look to the future? Pose questions? Conclude with a quotation? Choose the best strategy or strategies to appeal to your readers.

Practice Sequence K: Evaluating Internet Sources

For this exercise, you will be analyzing and evaluating Web sites/Internet sources for this practice sequence exercise. The goal is to determine the extent to which you believe you could use the information on this site in writing an academic essay. ENG 102: Composition II Professor Bailey-Kirby You will read the following essay: “Sexy Advertising On the Rise” by Stephanie Pappas (See the link: http://www.livescience.com/20773-sexy-advertising-increasing.html ), and using the steps below, evaluate it. (Note: Your response should be approximately 150-350 words and please number your response to each question/step below.)

Steps to Evaluating Internet Sources:

1. Evaluate the author of the site: Determine whether the author is an expert.

2. Evaluate the organization that supports the site: Find out what the organization stands for and the extent of its credibility.

3. Evaluate the purpose of the site: What interests are represented on the site? What is the site trying to do? Provide access to legitimate statistics and information? Advance an argument? Spread propaganda?

4. Evaluate the information on the site: Identify the type of information on the site and the extent to which the information is recent, relevant, accurate, and reliable.