Surname 2 Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Assignment Portfolio Part 1
Surname 2
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Assignment Portfolio
Part 1
Assignment 1: Developing a Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Course: ENG 112
Due Date: 15/7/2024
Instructions
For this assignment, students will be individually required to analyze any narratives in Doerr’s text. To respond effectively, you are expected to comprehensively analyze how the author uses aspects of language, genre, and rhetorical strategies in your chosen material. How does their choice of using these elements appeal to specific audiences? Use the following structure to guide your choice and analysis process.
Text Selection: Ensure you select only material within the course and one that you find interesting. Additionally, ensure that your selected text has some depth and can provide adequate points to reach the 1500-2000 word-count.
Audience and Purposes: After selecting the text, analyze the audience you want to address and the rationale behind your assessment. You can achieve this objective by underpinning the author’s core argument and their attitude towards the issues conveyed.
Rhetoric Strategy: Remember to use a standardized rhetorical strategy, highlighting the pathos, logos, and ethos elements from the author’s perspective.
Expected Structure
While the assignment does not limit you to a rigid structure, ensure that your essay incorporates the essential essay elements. These include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Needless to say, your introduction should convey the overview of your essay, introducing the key ideas you intend to address in the body paragraphs. The conclusion should include a summary of the critical issues you covered in the paper and a solid call to action. Your paper should be between 1200-1500 words and be submitted within the next week. No late submissions will be accepted.
Assignment 2: Research-Based Argumentative Essay
Course: ENG 112
Due Date:
Your key objective in this assignment is to develop an argumentative essay informed by recent and relevant research.
Assignment Details
Individually, you will begin writing the paper by choosing a debatable topic related to a cultural or social issue. Make sure the topic attracts a fair share of argumentative and counterarguments. As the next step, you should conduct thorough research and determine the sources you will include in your assignment. These should be well cited to back up the opinion and stance in the paper.
Ensure that your paper includes a thesis statement at the end of your introduction. This will represent your stance. For the rest of the paper, ensure a logical flow using adequate evidence to support your arguments. When developing the counterargument, use evidence to refute their positions. This will make your argument stance more credible and stronger. The length of your first draft should be between 1200-1500 words. Upon the first submission, you will receive feedback on what should be changed to improve the paper.
Part B: Framing Document
When designing the assignments, the primary objective was to promote the students’ understanding of and engagement with the threshold concepts.
Writers Write for Different Purposes, Audiences, and Genres with Predictable Conventions.
When developing the tasks for ENG 111 and ENG 112, the assignments incorporated specific elements to help the student determine the purpose, audience, and genres. First, the assignments achieved this goal through text selection, which requires different rhetorical strategies to reach their respective audiences. Giordano et al. (67) address this perspective, noting that in evaluating the outcomes of pedagogy, “in writing courses in particular, outcomes are often framed as proficiencies writers will demonstrate by the end of the course.” This perspective was adopted in developing ENG 111 and 112 assignments. In both, the students are provided with comprehensive guidelines and step-by-step approaches for the assessment. This input allows students to them to understand the predictable conventions. In ENG 111, this was expressed by the expectations to convey the rhetorical applications, and in ENG 112, it was established by an argumentative standpoint informed by research.
Writing Processes Are Individualized and Require Readers and Require Revision.
Regarding the second threshold, ENG 111 and ENG 112 conveyed the need for the student to partake in the assignment individually. Giordino et al. convey the essentiality of instilling the idea that students can write, helping them grow as individuals. Explicitly, the author conveys this as a principle, noting that “everyone has the capacity to write. Writers are not static. They develop skills and enhance their writing skills throughout their writing lives; thus, writers grow continually (66). By encouraging students to partake in the assignment individually and also take the opportunity to revise each other’s assignments at the end, the assignments targeted individuals and gradual growth of their skills, thus satisfying the second threshold. Using peer feedback, they get to understand other perspectives on their assignments, which is also crucial in the gradual development of skills (Lyn Bundy, 208).
Reading and Writing are interconnected activities.
Part of the thinking process that went into designing ENG 111 and ENG 112 was to help the student appreciate that reading and Writing are interconnected and equally valuable. This consideration was made by considering the learner’s educational background. The input of this element into the assignment was adopted from the perspective of Giordino et al. (7), noting from experience that “many of our students had limited experience with academic literacy and often had gaps in their educational experiences.” Based on this perspective, it was essential to consider the learners’ experiences. This was accomplished by ensuring that assignments were explicitly drawn from the course content, meaning they would write what they had read and understood in the course. The bottom line is that this aspect means advancing the idea that reading and writing are interconnected.
d. Writers Make Choices About Language Within Cultural and Social Situations
The threshold was to help writers make relevant choices about language within cultural and social situations. This was accomplished by offering the student diverse text selections, allowing them to choose texts they consider culturally appropriate to their social standings. Blaauw-Hara (168) conveys this perspective, noting the essentiality of sociological contests and helping students think in terms of dialects to help them reach the desired academic objective. Similarly, Giordino et al. express how aspects of culture and social contexts can be accomplished through language choices. The author notes that “efforts to achieve equity in a college writing classroom or an online learning environment must acknowledge that some students -especially racially and minoritized students have been structurally disadvantaged by inequities in society” (25). When designing ENG 111 and 112, these perspectives were considered by ensuring that students were open to developing content within what they considered culturally and socially appropriate. The last threshold was advanced in developing the assignments by removing restrictions and offering choices on the contexts.
Learning Activities for Assignments 1 and 2
ENG 111 Learning Activity: Developing Rhetorical Narrative Essay
An in-class rhetorical analysis workshop would be helpful for the first assignment, which is focused on developing a rhetorical essay. Some learners might not be familiar with the critical rhetorical strategies, so this activity will help them better grasp the concept before working on the assignment. In the workshop, they will elaborate on the texts’ different rhetorical strategies and cultural contexts (Kirszner et al. 112). This will provide a better understanding of what they are required to meet as outcomes.
ENG 112 Learning Activity: Peer-Review Workshop
In the second assignment, the recommended activity is a peer-review workshop that will help the students determine key points to strengthen their arguments. This objective will be accomplished by pairing learners and having them go through their partner’s work to provide relevant feedback, which the teacher will assess to give the final remarks and score. This means that the activity’s success relies on the nature of the feedback the learners receive. Bundy (208) notes how revisions, through rewording, can be rewarding, especially for inexperienced writers.
How the Assignments and Learning Activities Reflect Inclusive and Equitable Teaching
The assignments, including learning activities, also reflect inclusive and equitable teaching elements. One of the ways this is accomplished is through the option of diverse text selection as affording the learners to choose their topic of interest, they have the opportunity to choose what aligns with their social background and general ideals (Giordano et al. 59). The assignment also included cultural reflection, which is an essential part of equitable teaching as noted by Blaauw-Hara (168), citing the essentiality of sociocultural perspectives in learning. The learning activities also support this goal as interacting and addressing assignments allows learners to understand each other’s perspectives on specific issues.
What I Particularly Liked About the Assignments
In developing the student assignments, the one thing I liked was their informative outline. When designing them, I reflected on previous assignments I have completed and how their respective instructions aided in the process. Therefore, I liked that they helped me contemplate what makes a good assignment from a reversed perspective.
How I would Have Made the Assignment Stronger
If I had more time, I would strengthen the assignments by including specific contexts to help gauge the learners’ understanding even more. This includes assessing specific excerpts in the texts and using them to create the assignments. Taking such an approach would have aided in providing more specific feedback and gauging how much the learners meet the threshold concept.
Works Cited
Blaauw-Hara, Mark. “Why our students need instruction in grammar, and how we should go about it.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College 34.2 (2006): 165-178.
Bundy, Sheryl Lyn. “Feature: Playing by (and with) the Rules: Revision as Role-Playing Game in the Introductory Creative Writing Classroom.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College 45.2 (2017): 207-224.
Doerr, Anthony. All the light we cannot see: a novel. Simon and Schuster, 2014.
Giordano, Joanne Baird, et al. Reaching All Writers: A Pedagogical Guide for Evolving College Writing Classrooms. University Press of Colorado, 2024.
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Patterns for college writing: A rhetorical reader and guide. Macmillan, 2011.