Blog Entry Seven: Evaluating the Rhetoric of Web Design

After reading Chapters 51 and 53 in The Norton Field Guide, you should now have a good sense of the things one must consider when constructing something like a website or a blog: issues of audience, readability, usability, hypertext, interactive features, visuals, etc.

Now, I want you write a paragraph or two (at least 250 words) evaluating the design of your own blog. Is it easy to read? Is it appropriate for a college classroom about Rhetoric and Writing? Does it express who you are as a writer and a student? Does it accomplish its purpose?

Then, I want you to perfect the design of your site. Pick new fonts, headers, a new color scheme. Edit your blog entry headings -- anything that will be an improvement on your current design. Add photos, etc. Make your site visually appealing and easy to read, correcting major typos -- things of that nature. Consider that you are editing your rough blog into your final blog, or something along those lines.

After perfecting your design, I want you to then write a paragraph or two (at least 250 words) on why you chose the new elements that you did. Use at least two hypertext links to websites whose design inspired yours (don't just copy and past the URL into your text, but use the "Link" option in the tool bar to help make hypertext links). How are the new choices you made meant to consciously contribute to the larger rhetorical situation you are creating with your blog? How do these choices more appropriately satisfy the criteria for a good English 15 blog?

Due by class Friday, October 7 

Proposal Guidelines for the Investigative Report

Proposal for Investigative Report/Profile:

Write at least one page, typed, dbl. spaced, and include the following:

What local issue or person are you writing about?

What is the question you are trying to answer about this issue or person?

Why are you writing about this issue or person now? (A recent article you read? An event that’s coming up? What prompted this idea that makes it new, interesting, or fresh?)

What is your reporting plan? Who will you interview? What secondary sources will you look up (newspapers, websites, etc.)?

Who is your audience (consider what publication you might see this article in and who the readership of that publication usually is)?

Name a particular element/technique/style from one of the pieces we’ve read and explain how it might inspire your own work. 

Blog Six: Investigating

This assignment is meant to help you get a decent head start on researching your topic for the investigative report. For this week's blog I want you to do all of the following:

1. I want you to give me a 200-300 word description of a place or scene related to your issue/profile. You'll need to do some observation for this part. If you are writing about drinking in your dorm: Describe your dorm. If you are writing about manic street preachers, give me a portrait of a scene of someone preaching -- where are they? In front of the Hub? What are they wearing? What are they saying? If you are, say, writing about ANGEL, describe how the platform works -- what does it look like? How is it used?

2. I want you to give me three quotes from a few interviews you've conducted that are related to your issue. Make sure they are relevant and colorful. They can be from an interview with a student, a friend, a professor, your subject, a police officer. Whomever. Just make sure you tell me who the quote is from -- give me their name, their age, their profession (or their year if they are a student). Things like that. They can be three quotes from the same person -- just make sure that each quote says something unique and points to a particular point of interest within your issue.

3. Write down four relevant facts that you have found in at least two different sources, whether from a website, a newspaper article, a survey, an expert you have talked to. Make sure that you cite each fact -- tell me where you got the fact from.

4. While observing, interviewing, and researching, you likely stumbled across new ideas or avenues you hadn't thought about before -- things you might want to look into further for your paper. Tell me about two areas that you are interested in doing a bit more research, issues that you feel you need to address to make your paper stronger. Maybe you feel you need to interview someone in the IT department or you need to talk to a different fraternity or look for a specific article someone mentioned. Let me know what your next investigative steps will be.

You must include all four of these items in your blog -- there is no option to pick and choose.

Due by class Friday

Supplementary Reading for Friday

Read one of the following profiles before class on Friday: 


- Gross, Michael Joseph. "Sarah Palin: The Sound And The Fury." Vanity Fair. October 2010.
- Grollmus, Denise. "Sex Thief." Cleveland Scene Magazine. September 2005.
- Jones, Chris. "The Corporation: Carmelo Anthony." Esquire. December 2005.  
- Talese, Gay. "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold." Esquire. 1965.

Supplementary Reading for Wednesday

 Read "Penn State's Liquid Cocaine," by Kevin Battista. Then, answer the following questions on a sheet of notebook paper (you can type your answers, but you must print them out and bring them to class):

1. Consider the elements of the Investigative Report you read about in the Norton Field Guide. Which ones does he use?

2. What is the issue Kevin is writing about?

3. What is his take on the issue?

4. Does he do a good job of portraying all sides of the story? How so?

5. What is your overall impression of Kevin's story? What did you like about it? What did you dislike?

Paper Two: Investigative Report

Purpose

Identify a local person, problem, or issue that interests you and merits your investigation. Write to a specific audience, one who can appreciate, act upon, or respond to your investigation. In addition to a specific audience, write with a specific purpose in mind (what it is you want your audience to do or think).

In this assignment, an exercise in community engagement, you’ll learn about your surroundings by exploring, listening to, absorbing, and questioning what others say and do; conducting limited research; and, most importantly, interviewing. You may choose one of two options to fulfill this assignment:

1.     Profile – Interview a local professional and spend some time with her or him (a significant portion of a work day) in the workplace. If you choose this option, you should be tactful, generous, and humble as you approach someone to request their time and energy—and as you observe them closely and pick their brain.

2.     Report – Select a nearby location, institution, or campus issue to investigate. You may be attracted by some glaring or not-so-obvious problem (exigence). Or you may be simply curious about it. Learn what you can about both the “historical” background of your topic and its “contemporary” life today.

Invention

Keep in mind as you brainstorm/draft:

-  Choose a specific person, problem, or issue to investigate. Be specific.

-  Bring together a variety of observations, research findings, and judgments in order to stimulate your investigation.

-  Synthesize the most appropriate of them in order to reach your reasoned/logical conclusion or solution.

-  Think about how your investigation might be informative, entertaining, or persuasive for a specific audience.

Expectations

A successful investigative report will:

1.     Introduce why the subject merits investigation;

2.     Approach the subject from various perspectives, with the use of concrete examples, evidence (including anecdotes), and direct quotations to develop your purpose;

3.     Tell a compelling story about your subject by expertly incorporating source materials into your narrative

Length: 4-5 pages (double-spaced)

Rough Draft Due: October 3, 2011

Final Assignment Portfolio Due: October 10, 2011

Blog Entry Five: #1 Party School

In 2009, the Princeton Review named Penn State the #1 Party School in America. In honor of this new title -- and out of a certain curiosity -- journalists from This American Life came to investigate the scene. Their findings culminated in an hour long broadcast entitled "#1 Party School." Though this is radio journalism, it is still an investigative report that is structured in much the same way you would a written article.  

Click on the link above and listen to the report. Then, in at least 500 words, answer the following questions:
1. What is the issue of the piece? 
2. What reasons are given for why the issue needs to be investigated?
3. Who is the intended audience?
4. What facts and details are given to explain how the issue affects different groups that might have an interest in or connection to the issue?
5. What conclusion is drawn by the end of the report? 
6. What research and interviews were included in this report? 
7. What narrative techniques were used in this report? 


I also wanna get your take:
Did you like it? Why? Why not? What worked for you? What didn't? What would have liked to hear more of/less of in the story? 


Post your response on your blog by class on Friday, September 23.

EXTRA CREDIT

You may attend one of the Mary E. Rolling reading events and write a 500 word reflection in order to receive extra credit. This reading series is sponsored by Penn State's MFA program in English and provides the Penn State community with the opportunity not only to hear celebrated living authors read from their work, but to ask them about their process as writers. You can attend as many readings and write as many reflections as you want. Each reflection will be worth one blog entry. The Mary E. Rolling reading series schedule is as follows:

Thursday, September 22: Linda Gregerson
Thursday, October 13: Sharon Olds
Thursday, October 20: Anne Stevenson
Wednesday, November 2: John Edgar Wideman
Thursday, December 1: Stuart Dybek

Readings are always held at the Foster Auditorium in the Paterno Library and start at 7:30 p.m. -- try to get there 10 minutes early for a good seat. These events fill up fast!  

For your reflections, I want you tell me a bit about the author, what sort of writing they do, what they read, how you liked it, what you learned about the author's writing process during the Q&A session, and what you feel you took away from the reading, whether it was about writing, or something topical in the author's work that got you thinking about life in general.

If you do attend a reading and write a reflection, please send me an email to let me know so that I can give you proper credit.

Blog Entry Four: Bird By Bird

Now that we are finished reading Bird by Bird, I want you to consider what sticks out in your mind the most from all the reading. What piece of advice that Anne Lamott delivers is something you will carry around with you for a while/had the greatest impression on you/really blew you away and encouraged you to think differently about the writing process? Why do you think this particular point moved you the most out of all? How did you connect with it/relate to it? How did it change your mind? How did Anne's writing affect the poignancy of this point? I want you to think consciously about the writing techniques she used to compel you. It's not just the content but that form at work and I want you to consider how each works together. Take 500 words or more to consider these questions as you write your final Bird by Bird reflection.

Due before class, Friday, September 16

Blog Entry Three: Memoir Analysis

Read one of the following personal essays and then, in 500 words or more, break down for us those elements of memoir that are being employed by the writer. Tell us what the story is about in your own words, identify the tension/conflict of the story, the resolution, tell us what the point of the story is, why this particular story is timely or relevant, who is the intended audience, and what narrative techniques are used that you found particularly strong and are ones you might like to incorporate into your own writing? Also, consider how the writer transitions from scene to scene so that you always know where in time you are. Here are your choices:

- Giffels, David. "Shirt-Worthy," The New York Times Magazine. October 28, 2007.

- Owens, John. "Confessions of A Bad Teacher," Salon, August 29, 2011.

- Sheff, David. "My Addicted Son," The New York Times Magazine. February 6, 2005.

- Towers, Wells. "Meltdown," Outside Magazine, April 1, 2008.

Your entry is due by class on Friday, September 9.