INSTRUCTOR
Owen M. Williamson, MA
In case of absence, or if class is ever cancelled due to circumstances beyond Instructor control, students are still expected to complete and submit all assignments shown on this Calendar page if possible.
Week 9: March 21 - 25, 2011
Bibliography for collective reports due
for all students.
Monday:
Quiz on Borders, Chapter 7
Do Activity 8.1 on p. 170 of Borders.
Assessment activity that examines the student's interests, abilities, and values. [Academic success strategies] [Learning styles/self assessment]
Discuss UCLA loneliness test results.
Do Values A-Z exercise.
Public speaking activity—declamation. [Applies to theme / discipline] [Public speaking]
Wednesday:
Discuss the big rhetorical question, "Who does it serve?"
Discussion of the dialectic and dialectical reasoning as a learning tool, if time available.
Slide show on Idealism vs. Materialism, or other video TBA. (If time available)
Work Group 5 will discuss Progymnasma 9 (Denunciation).
Friday:
Know yourself, know your professors: reach for an "A" every time. Discussion of research techniques, and about how to know and become known to your professor.
Written exercise
Scenario:
It has been a pretty good semester and you are passing all your courses, though it still depends on how you do on your finals. You arrive home late from studying at the Library on the day before finals week and receive the sad news that a family member of yours who lives on the West Coast (or in Chihuahua City, or some other distant place) and who you have never seen has suffered a devastating stroke and is in a coma. She is not expected to live. You learn that earlier today your uncle in Houston has just quit his job and he will be coming through El Paso in an hour or so in his van to pick up the entire family and then head out for the vigil at the bedside.
Everyone in the house is madly rushing around packing suitcases. When they see you they yell at you to toss your books somewhere in a corner and to for heaven's sake hurry up and pack your best black suit or dress and a duffle bag with enough clothes for a week or two. None of your professors offers "incomplete" grades if you miss the final, and you realize that if you leave now you will almost certainly fail all your courses for the semester.
Your task: If you decide to go, write a persuasive letter in five-part ISARC format to one of your professors, explaining the reasoning behind your decision to fail all your courses. If you decide not to go, write a persuasive five-part ISARC letter to your family explaining the reasoning why you are breaking their hearts and (according to them) disrespecting your relative and betraying the whole family. Either way, use lots of pathos in your letter.
Monday:
1. Read Kennedy (click for link), 111-3 (example).
2. Choose any one of your professors, investigate her/him in depth on the Net, interview him/her if desired, and report on her/him in writing and in class. Your written results are due by next week by e-mail. Do not post this on your Wiki. Save a copy of your e-mail to report in class.
Wednesday:
1. Do Career Planning exercise.
2. Read Borders Chapter 8: Career Planning. (pps 166-183) Do exercise on p. 170.
Friday:
1. Do Progymnasma 9. . [Applies to theme / discipline]
2. Work on Final Report. . [Applies to theme / discipline] [Group/team work]
3. KTEP reports. [Academic success strategies—note taking] [Critical thinking]
Progymnasma
9: Vituperation (Invective).
Denunciation!
Carefully follow the BYU website instructions. The subject you choose may be any private or public individual, living or dead, fictional or real, who by his actions or attitudes makes your fulfilling the semester thesis impossible or more difficult than it needs to be. If necessary, use a pseudonym (false name) for the individual. This may not be a nation, group, family, organization, race, religion, party or team, or a thing. Your subject may not be anonymous, but if you wish, you may use a pseudonym (false name) for the individual. Do not use the ISARC format. Carefully follow the example given in Kennedy, pages 111-113 for length and style. Do not plagiarize!
If you use or quote any written or online source (or introduce any information that is not common knowledge for an educated person) you must provide both in-text citation and a Works Cited note.
In
each of my courses, I need to make 100% sure that I finish the semester
knowing more about the subject than what the professor demands or
is teaching.
Directions for Composition
Attack a person or thing for making it more difficult for you to fulfill
the semester thesis. After composing an exordium
(introduction), follow these steps:
- Describe the stock a person comes from:
- what people
- what country
- what ancestors
- what parents
- Describe the person's upbringing
- education
- instruction in art
- training in laws
- Describe the person's deeds that impede your education, which should be described as the
results of
- his/her evils of mind (such as greed, rudeness, jealousy, weakness or indiscretion, ignorance or lack of education, self-centeredness)
- his/her evils of body (such as immaturity, laziness or lack of vigor, alcoholism or addiction, poor health, or lack of ambition)
- his/her evils of fortune (such as lack of or corruption of high position, power, wealth, friends)
- Make an unfavorable comparison to someone else who supports your college education, in order to escalate your vituperation
- Conclude with an epilogue including either an exhortation to your hearers not to emulate this person, or a prayer.
