Soapstone and Toulmin Mini Project/Presentation

SOAPStone and Toulmin Mini Project/Presentation

August 2014 (100 points)

Objectives: The goal of this assignment is for the students to apply their understanding of rhetorical devices and components of argument to a piece of reading as a collaborative group.

Directions: You will be assigned to a group. Each group will read a different essay and is responsible for reporting the main ideas (or arguments posed), the tone, and purpose to the rest of the class.

POSTER: 30 points

Your group will prepare a chart that must include SOAPStone information, as well as a visual representation of the essay (ie, a picture). Your group should select at least five excerpts of the text to read aloud. These selections must reflect the author’s tone, style, or beliefs about writing.

SOAPStone: 30 points

Individually, students will prepare their own unique SOAPStone document. The group should not copy one another, but each student needs to prepare this document after their initial reading of the assigned text. They may add to this document as they discuss the text as a group.

Toulmin’s Structure: 20 points

Students will collaborate over the elements of Toulmin’s structure and add the components on their poster as students make connections, particularly between claim, evidence, and warrants.

Individual Contribution—Presentation: 20 points

Students will explain some facet of the group’s poster that demonstrates the student’s understanding of the rhetorical devices and the text. Students must employ effective oral delivery skills: eye contact, voice projection, inflection/intonation, clarity in details, pace, and knowledge of topic.

Materials:

In Major Modern Essays, you will be assigned one of the following readings:

George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” p69

Annie Dillard, “Push It,” p375

Margaret Atwood, “Great Unexpectations,” p242

Joan Didion, “Georgia O’Keeffe,” p230

Thomas Lewis, “Notes on Punctuation,” p108

Virginia Woolf, “Professions of Women,” p4

James Baldwin, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” pg 149

Richard Selzer, “The Pen and the Scalpel” pg 203

*One alternative reading is Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” (I have a handout.)