My two questions are connected to the readings and
discussion from Tuesday as well as the readings for Thursday and hopefully
serve to begin sharing some pedagogical ideas with each other.
·
Reiff’s genre approach article
presents ideas for students to analyze texts within their desired major to
cultivate conversations regarding the rhetorical strategies among texts in the
area. I thought this would be extremely valuable to help connect students to
the writing process as it extends outside of the course. How might this look
from a practical standpoint and what activities, or projects might be valuable
for this type of genre approach?
·
Wysocki’s article touches
on the topic discussed in Tuesday’s class that everything is multi-modal
underlying the concept that even a traditional paper and ink composition is
multimodal because we are working within a space using specific tools. She presents
the idea of textual analysis to draw conclusions regarding intended rhetorical
situation. How might this be used to help students understand the importance of
looking beyond the visual layout of text with regards to validity of
information? For example, the textual features might imply a valid source when
in fact it is not.
(Sorry for the babbling!)
Hey Tricia! Responding to Question 1, I thought Reiff made great points about how a study of the genres within a discourse community can teach students a great deal, and her argument and example of the pre-law student certainly convinced me about the validity and usefulness of such an approach. I actually think that a couple of the Strands for ENC 2135--particularly Strands I and II, but most explicitly II--suggest ways of doing this, especially with their Paper 1. Strand II, in fact, has the students write a paper analyzing a community and the genres it uses. I, however, don't plan on using either of those Strands, so it is good to think of other activities that can still give students the opportunity to think about these areas. Perhaps you could have a week in which you have students focus on a community and look into its genres (also a good introduction into doing research) and draw some conclusions that they present to the class? It could be a low-stakes assignment, since it's hard for me to see other ways to get the kind of rich full-bodied analysis that the example demonstrated without a full-on paper assignment.
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