Eng 201 Sample Assignments
Advertising Analysis Essay: Comparing Two Ads
Description: This assignment was given at the start of 201, after the students had learned rhetorical analysis terms and theory (ethos, pathos, logos and Toulmin and Burke’s Pentad). We practiced ad analysis in class a few times as well. I consider this kind of essay “a school form” in the humanities.
Key Terms Assignment
Description: My students research rhetoric key terms throughout the semester. They post their work to their personal blogs and then these are shared with all the students in the class. This assignment is really successful at building rhetorical vocabulary, which improves peer review and reflective writing.
Print Ad Assignment
Description: This assignment asks students to create their own print ads. They are working in a form that they are familiar with as readers (consumers), but may never have approached as a composer (seller). This project works exceptionally well when the 201 class begins with rhetorical analysis of ads.
Scripted Interview Remixed
Description: This assignment sheet is a version of the scripted interview assignment that I use in 201. Instead of having students inhabit the voice of multiple authors as they typically do in the 101 version of this assignment, here each student only inhabits one author but instead of doing the assignment individually they complete the dialogue in a group of collaborators.
Two Projects in One: 1) “Objective” Evidence-Based Report and 2) Analytical Evidence-Based Argument
Description: I use this two-part assignment to bring in some short crime lit, which the students usually enjoy. We start with writing an “objective” fact-based crime report on the story, which leads to some great language discussions/exercises in class. What makes language biased? What’s the difference between report and analysis? How can we control our language? How can we simply relay the “facts” and limit our own deductions/analyses? Why is it important to do so? When does it matter that write “objectively” and is that even totally possible? Then, for part two, the focus becomes a psych analysis, APA style thesis-based writing piece that requires both primary and secondary research as “evidence.”
Social Science Research Project
Description: All Social Science studies have four major sections: 1. the introduction (with literature review and the posing of inquiry); 2. The methodology (which requires descriptive writing, process-analysis, reporting etc), 3. The data section (which requires primary research collection/design, reporting, summarizing, control of language in terms of remaining–or least seeming to remain–“objective”) and 4. The discussion (which requires students to synthesize/analyze the data and present an evidence-based argument/thesis). Though I’m always looking for ways to rework it, the Social Science study is a rhetoric instructor’s dream.
Understanding the Difference: Causation vs. Correlation
In completing primary research in ENG 201, many of my students are unaware of the difference between causation and correlation. An informal in-class or take home writing assignment could demonstrate this difference using the below New York Times story reporting how traffic relates to fat bellies. The article is also a great example of a well-made argument in and of itself as it gives evidence and explains claims clearly and succinctly, ultimately concluding that this “correlation as causation” fallacy is made by journalists all too often.
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