Monday, November 30

Today, we started class by reviewing the general state of your Animal Farm PR Projects, which you turned in, in various states of completion, last Wednesday. We confirmed who had turned in what, who still needed to turn in work, and how that work would be completed.

We also discussed what a real "finished product" looks like -- proofread, spell-checked, and free of penciled-in corrections or additions -- and the distinction between "finishing" a project by nominally completing all the components with a last-minute burst. This was a three-week project, and you had ample class time to work on it, but we noticed a definite uptick in your general energy level and productivity as the deadline approached, and the fact that some groups accomplished nearly every part of their project in the last 24 hours (an observation that those groups collectively confirmed) gave us pause.

We'll be working on revising these ads and improving both their appearance and their execution over the next three weeks. This process will start with individual conferences tomorrow.

Next, we reviewed the elements of a good "content sandwich" paragraph, which we had last discussed on Wednesday, November 18. We distributed the color-coded handout that we posted last time: find it at the link below if you don't have your copy:

Content Sandwich Model

Finally, Thomas and Kelsey participated in an exercise to illustrate some ways that logos-based rhetorical elements arise naturally in the course of a one-on-one discussion, and we began to identify particular questions that will give rise to the various elements of the "content sandwich" structure. Tomorrow and Wednesday, we'll finish those questions.

Your homework (due Wednesday) is to read two poems, and write a content sandwich paragraph that supports ONE of FOUR possible claims about the poems. Please find a copy of the assignment at the link below:

Two Poems, One Paragraph