Literature

Week 1 – Discussion Forum99 unread replies.99 replies. Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated. Standard Form Arguments [WLOs: 2, 3, 4] [CLOs: 1, 2]Read the assigned chapters in your course textbook. Watch the following videos: Identifying Premises and Conclusions (Links to an external site.)What Is an Argument? (Links to an external site.)What (Links to an external site.) Is a Good Argument? (Part I)  (Links to an external site.)What Is a Good Argument?: The Logic Condition  (Links to an external site.)The Value of Using Standard Form (Links to an external site.)Complete the interactive module PHI 103 Premises and Conclusions (Links to an external site.).Your instructor will choose the discussion question and post it as the first post in the discussion forum. Answer all the questions in the prompt, and read any resources that are required to complete the discussion properly. If you have not done so already, begin by choosing a topic from the Final Paper Options list to use in your writing assignments in this course. You can find these options here or under the required resources for the course.

For each of the assigned poetry collections, write a response essay of at least 750 words or 3 double-spaced pages (1,500 words or 6 double-spaced pages for the longer essay) that addresses the following questions: What are the subjects of the book? What overarching themes do you discern from the poems? How does the poet treat these subjects/themes? Consider the poems’ tone, imagery, diction, figurative language, and speakers. How is the book organized? Do you discern a particular narrative or thematic structure? If the book uses sections, how do they contribute to this narrative or thematic structure? Which particular poems are you drawn to and why? Which poems do you have questions about, and what are those questions? In what ways are the poems and books as a whole relevant to contemporary society? Do the poems address any particular social or cultural movement or situation? How does the poet treat these issues? As this is a response essay, with emphasis on your particular response as a reader, secondary sources are not required. However, in some cases, it may be perfectly reasonable and appropriate to quote other reviews. If you do choose to use secondary sources, you must cite them following MLA format. Be careful when reading online reviews that you don’t pick up someone else’s words and inadvertently commit plagiarism. If you can’t properly and effectively integrate secondary sources into your essay, don’t use them at all. In order to receive timely feedback from me, which will help you to revise your essays for a higher grade, I strongly encourage you to submit your essays according to the schedule on the syllabus. Any essays submitted after 11/08 will not receive my feedback or have the opportunity of being revised for a higher grade. Finally, please double-space, paginate, and use a serif font such as Times New Roman.

Read and answer the context:  The Paradis article allows some very practical assembly of several concepts we’ve studied so far – the role of the technical writer, legality, genre, ethics, and technology. The endnotes describe some of the origins of the stun gun, which may suggest it is not inherently a construction technology… but the question that hovers around this article for me is  “who is responsible? Mirel’s piece constitutes an argument for a rhetorical understanding and pedagogy of data reports – no surprise, again, given our previous readings. I wonder – is there a problem in technical communication that cannot be blithely answered by asking for a more rhetorical-critical-contextual understanding of documents, data, and the people assembling and composing them?

Please watch Crash Course US History #39: Civil Rights and the 1950s.  You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S64zRnnn4Po After you’ve watched the video, create a new thread, using your name as the subject, in which you answer the following questions:1: Why was the 1950s a time of affluence for many Americans?2: What was Levittown?  How did suburbs and car culture change the country?  Were all these changes positive?3: What were the criticisms of American society and the way it was changing?4: What was the start of the “modern” Civil Rights movement?  What changed in the 1950s?  What was the NAACP’s strategy?5: What was the “true” story of Rosa Parks?  How does it differ from the story about her that has been traditionally told?  Why is this important?

In the poem “Barbie Doll” Marge Piercy writes out the poem What was your purpose? What effect were you trying to achieve? What was interesting about the process you went through in writing this paper, and what did you learn from it? What was the most difficult about this paper, and what did you learn from the attempt? What do you see as the strengths of the paper, and what would you try to do if you were to revise it some more? What’s not a part of your paper that you think might help a reader understand or appreciate it more? What didn’t you put in? Are there certain events or feelings or memories that led you to write on this topic or to take this approach? What kind of feedback or response would you like from your instructor? For more information read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie_Doll_(poem)

Read Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” and in 2-3 pages let me know, not only what you thought, but how the work deals with not only the war in Vietnam but also all “war.”  What is O’Brien saying about war and how does he go about presenting it? For more information read this:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_They_Carried

After reading Chapter 3 on stage spaces, and based on your understanding of the production needs of the play “Dinner With Friends”, what stage space would be best suited for a performance of “Dinner With Friends” and why? Be sure to use examples from the play script (scenic requirements, scene changes, etc.) and textbook (stage machinery, layout, visual aspects, etc.) to support your opinion. For more information read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_with_Friends_(film)

Here is the prompt and instructions for the paper.1. Identify the phases of dramatic structure. Summarize the content of the Exposition.Note the moment the Exposition ends and the Rising Action begins and say why this is so. Mention two or three events in the Rising Action and indicate why these events raise tension. Identify the climax, again noting why this is the climax. Summarize the Denouement.2. Select either the Limitation of Space or the Limitation of Time and show how it functions in the play. Length: Total words between 500 and 600, with 70-80% for part 1.Format: MLA or APA.Penalties for failing to underline or italicize a title and misspelled proper nouns.

 Analysis of Chapters 1-3 of The Nickel Boys  In at least 300 words, discuss a significant theme within the first 3 chapters of the novel. Make sure to include at least two quotes within your analysis. For more information read this:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nickel_Boys

(These are some tips that you can use to write this formal essay)This is an exercise where you explore a different view on the questions we have examined and give your own evaluation of the view’s value.  In other words, don’t spend time and effort trying to find out what other people think about the piece you have chosen to focus on.  Instead, after figuring out how to summarize the main argument or ideas proposed by the author, reflect on what your answers to the following questions are: Is the view proposed a good one?  If so, what makes it good?  Why might someone think it’s not good and how can you respond to that? If it’s not so good, what is wrong with it?  Can it be adjusted so that it becomes a better view?  Why might someone disagree with your evaluation or suggestion and how can you respond? Give reasons in support of your claims.  (In other words, what can you offer that might convince a rational person who does not already agree with you that the claims or ideas you are proposing are the most reasonable to accept?)If it seems helpful, you can mention how the ideas tie in with one or two of the other views we have considered but don’t spend too much time on that.  One might do this to indicate perhaps that the view under consideration is not completely new, that it shares ideas or aspects with another view generally accepted as good, but don’t make this the whole of your analysis.  Instead, think about the ideas that might work if put into effect in everyday life, whether they would be helpful (or not), whether they might work well for people/make their lives better (or not), things like that. In summarizing the author’s ideas or arguments, work on paraphrasing them.  A few short quotations are okay, but the explanation of the view should be primarily in your own words.  Do give citations for the ideas, however, as well as for quotations as we have been practicing. These are worth 75 points.  Don’t leave them until the last minute.  You want to have time to reflect on the ideas and also to make sure that the writing in your essay is good (there’s no sense losing points for carelessness). For more information read this:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiview_projection