Course Recap for Monday, April 27, 2015

Checklist for the First Draft of your Playlist Persuasive Essay

• Do you clearly state your argument?  Do you make it clear why your audience should listen to your playlist? Ex. This playlist is great for saying sorry to your significant other because it expresses both how sorry you are and shows that you can be sensitive and romantic.
• Identify your audience and make it clear why this playlist will appeal to them.  Who would be the most interested in your playlist?  Why would the songs in the playlist work for them?  Why would the hip-hop fan or the person looking for a good time want to listen to the playlist you created.
• Explain why your playlist is ordered the way it is.  Why do you choose the first song to open your playlist with? Why did you choose the last?  If you haven't thought about this before, think about it now.  What is the best order for these songs to be heard in?
• Quote and address at least 5 song lyrics in your piece.  This will give you practice providing outside evidence to support your argument.  What lyrics from the song help illustrate how funny, sad, beautiful, relaxing, etc your playlist is?
• Address at least two potential concerns, doubts, or questions your audience might have about your playlist.
• This is what I wanted to accomplish with the reviews everyone made of the playlist.  However, most of the reviews were positive.  I want you to imagine the potential naysayer, the hater, who wants to claim your playlist isn't great.  What complaints might they have? How can you refute those complaints? Maybe someone'll think there aren't enough uptempo songs or maybe they'll say your playlist isn't made of "real" music.  How can you prove them wrong?
• Check those text structures.  Be sure to use 3 different text structures by the end of your essay.

I'm going to shorten this essay length to two pages to make up for missing today.  I expect your rough drafts on Wednesday.  

Homework 

• Rough Draft of Playlist Persuasive Essay (due by midnight) If I don't get it by midnight, I will not check it.  

Course Recap for Wednesday, April 23, 2015

Post a link to your playlist on the blog with your intro paragraph.  Your introduction should introduce your playlist.  And it should present us with the main reasons why you feel your playlist is perfect.
What about it is special?  What can they gain from listening to it?  Establish who your audience is in this paragraph.  Who is your playlist for? You'll get to explore the specifics of each song and the order you put it in in the body of your essay.

Homework

• You received the name of a classmate before you left class on Wednesday.  Go to their blog and listen to their playlist.  Then email me at mosesm@kellogg.edu your honest opinion about the playlist.  It will be anonymous.  No one will know who had whose playlist unless you tell them.
• First Draft of Essay is due next Wednesday.  It's longer than your other two essays, so you want to get started working on it now.

Course Recap for Monday, April 20, 2015

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

1. Ethos-Appeals to credibility

• How do you appeal to credibility
• Credentials
• Showing off how much you know about the topic
• Experiences related to the topic
• Presentation- making sure you and your work looks good
• Appearing likeable

2.  Pathos-Appeals to emotions

• How do you appeal to emotion
• tone and voice-setting a specific tone to fit the emotion you want to evoke
• imagery that elicit emotions
• personal anecdotes that elicit emotion

3.  Logos-Appeals to logic/reason

• How do you appeal to logic
• Factual evidence
• Statistics
• Examples
• Cause and Effect

Persuasive Essay 1

For your first essay, you are writing a piece on your opinion on music.  There are no right answers in an argument like this, but there are good techniques that can be used to convince others to feel the same way you feel about the piece.  You will be creating a playlist (see Persuasive Essay 1 Assignment Sheet under Class Documents) and explaining to your reader why your playlist is perfect and why they should listen to it.  

Homework

• Make your playlist on YouTube.  You all have Gmail accounts which means you also have YouTube accounts.  Login with your Google credentials and create your playlist.  If you're unsure how to do this click the following link https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?hl=en Have it ready to go when you come to class.

Course Recap for Monday, April 13, 2015

Homework

• Revise your Literacy Narrative (due next Monday)
• Start your Narrative Final.  You will be writing a narrative essay entirely on your own from start to finish.  Pick an event in your life that changed you is some sort of way or a something where you learned something about yourself or the world.  Check out the Narrative Final Assignment Sheet under Class Documents for more information. (due next Monday)

Course Recap for Monday, March 30, 2015

Homework

• Complete the Essay Outline for Your Literacy Narrative.  You can complete on the sheet on in a Google Doc but you should come in with rough drafts of all your paragraphs written down.

Course Recap for Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Homework

• Aplia Assignments: Narration and Revising for Consistency and Parellelism (Due Monday by Midnight)
• Thursday Blog Post Comment: Reflect on our beginning class exercise.  What movies, TV shows, music, video games, etc have had the biggest influence on your language choices?  What media has had an influence on the way you see the world?
• Write a Narrative Paragraph detailing a pivotal moment in your literacy narrative.  It can be an event that presents the conflict or it can be the event that presents the resolution.  Remember that narrative paragraphs should primarily feature a chronological recounting of the things that happened at a specific time or during a specific event.  Check the Aplia Assignment if there is any confusion.  We will use this paragraph as the jumping off point for the rest of your essay.

Course Recap for Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Mrs. Flowers Discussion Questions

1. What is the thesis of the narrative?  Remember the best way to find the thesis is to first figure out the overall topic and then ask yourself what is the piece saying about the topic.
2. How does she support this thesis?  What details does she use? Give specific examples.
3. What are the lessons Marguerite learns from Mrs. Flowers concerning language?  What are the lessons she learns about life?
4. We talked earlier about what makes a good story.  Is this a good story?  What elements of a good story does this piece have? Give specific examples.

Homework

• Answer the Sister Flowers Questions in a Google doc.  Use complete sentences.  3 sentences for each question.
• Revise 4 of your 6 paragraphs via Google Docs
• Read "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and write the various text structures you find throughout the piece.  Complete the Discussion Questions.  (DO NOT DO THE LANGUAGE EXERCISES.)
• Thursday Blog Post Topic: Tell me a story of a time you were embarrassed.