Rhetorical Analysis Unit

Week 1​– Introducing Rhetoric

Monday– What is rhetoric?
Reading: Covino & Joliffe, “What is Rhetoric?” 5 mins– Free write about Aristotle quote
20 mins– Discuss free write
30 mins– introduce rhetorical triangle
Wednesday– Fallacies
Reading: Lunsford & Ruszkiewicz, “Fallacies of Argument”
15 mins– discuss reading
5 mins– discuss fallacies handout
10 mins– group work looking up fallacies online, 5 groups (2 emotional, 2 logical, 1
ethical)
20 mins– discuss group work as a class
Friday– How to conduct rhetorical analysis
Reading: Sojourner Truth “Ain’t I a Woman” (print and bring to class), rhetorical
devices handout
5 mins– analyze text on their own
10 mins– analyze it in small groups
20 mins– discuss what the groups came up with
15 mins– discuss how to choose elements that you can form together to make a cohesive
argument

Week 2​– The Writing Process

Monday– How to write a thesis statement and plan an argument
Reading: ​Writer’s Reference,​ C3-18, C42-54
5 mins– reading quiz
20 mins– instruction on how to write a thesis
10 mins– write a thesis and plan an outline for an essay about Truth
15 mins– talk about outlines and critique them as a class
Wednesday– Rhetorical Elements & introduce assignment
Reading: Doug Downs, “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and
Meaning-Making,” Anne Lamott “Shitty First Drafts”
5 mins– free-write about one or both of readings
What have you done with rough drafts before? Do they help you? Has
your opinion changed?
What does the Downs piece add to your understanding of rhetoric that you
have not thought of before?
20 mins– talk about free-writes
20 mins– introduce rhetorical analysis assignment
5 mins– answer questions about rhetorical analysis assignment

Friday– Analyzing the rhetoric of a website

20 mins– Example using Boone
Look at pictures, subheadings, key words, contact info, anything else there
is to analyze
30 mins– break into groups based on similar hometown region and analyze the website of
one of their towns

Week 3​- Workshops

Monday– Presenting Rhetoric of Town Websites
5 mins– get into groups and reflect on what they want to present on
45 mins– presentations, each group gets 5-10 minutes to present on their findings
Homework: write a reflection about commonalities/ differences in rhetoric across
websites, submit by midnight on Tuesday
Wednesday–How to collaborate in workshops
Reading:​ Writer’s Reference​ C19-29, Richard Straub, “Responding–Really Responding–
to Other Students’ Writing”
 5 mins– free-write about what they learned from the reading about what they should
expect to achieve through giving and receiving feedback
40 mins– discuss free-writes and create guidelines for how they will be evaluating their
peers “shitty rough drafts”
Everyone should share one thing, I will make them into a document and bring an edited
and printed version to the workshop day
Homework: submit thesis statement by midnight so I can put them into groups

Friday– Workshop day

Due: first draft- very rough is okay
5 mins– break into the groups I assigned based on thesis statements and distribute
guidelines
45 mins– work in groups with handout to give and receive feedback on their papers
Maybe 4 people/group, 10 mins/paper

Week 4​- Conferences and Revision

Monday– How to Revise
Reading: Nancy Sommers, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced
Adult Writers”
Watch Video ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg1XEz_1pVU
Take notes on what the three ideas are
10 mins– discuss video as small groups
40 mins– discuss the reading and video as large group
How have their ideas about revision changed after these texts?

Wednesday​– Class cancelled to meet with me

Sign up by Tuesday at midnight for an appointment

Friday​– Class cancelled to meet with me

Week 5​- Peer Review
Monday​-Class cancelled to meet with me

Wednesday–Peer review
Due: second draft (should be close to finalized)
10 mins– passing out rubrics and explaining what students are looking for
20 mins– first partner (5 mins to read, 7-ish mins to discuss each paper)
20 mins– second partner (5 mins to read, 7-ish mins to discuss each paper)
Friday- Unit Wrap up
Due: Final Rhetorical Analysis Paper, printed (collect at the end of class)
10 mins– look over their paper and free-write about it, reflecting on how they think it
went, what they wish they would have done differently, what they learned from it
20 mins– discuss free writes as a class
20 mins– Score their paper based on my rubric and give it a grade and self-reflect