First Steps!

Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist
and Nobel Prize winning economist.

Here are your first steps for writing your Major Writing Project #2:

1. Find a NY Times column written in September or October of 2012.

2. Post a link to this article on your blog.

3. Create an ethos-logos-pathos chart for your selected column. Post to your blog.

4. Write an opinion-free summary of the column you have selected. Post to your blog.

"Why Men Fail" by David Brooks

Read this opinion column from David Brooks, a New York Times columnist:

This article refers to the article we read earlier this semester by Hanna Rosin. Since the article was first published in The Atlantic Monthly, she has written a book on the same subject.

Please write a 250-word blog entry that examines the argument Brooks is making, remembering to note how he uses ethos, logos and pathos.

The Visual Rhetoric of Convention Videos

Use your notes from class and the excellent class discussion as a starting point to analyze the visual rhetoric of the two videos from the recent political conventions. Find a Visual Rhetoric worksheet on Blackboard under "Course Documents." Use the questions on this worksheet to help you think and write about the visual rhetoric found in these videos. Write a blog post (at least 300 words) that summarizes your analysis. Blog posts should be done by start of class on Monday.


Mitt Romney's Convention Video Barack Obama's Convention Video

The Speeches of Ms. Romney & Ms. Obama

Use the chart analysis you completed in class, to write a blog entry (at least 300 words) that explores the rhetorical effectiveness of Ann Romney's speech and Michelle Obama's speech. You can compare the two speeches, but I would also like to define some of the ways that the speeches were similar. How rhetorically effective was each speech? Did they present an appropriate balance of ethos, pathos and logos? Was it hard to look at this from an unbiased critical perspective? Did your own political leanings shade the way you viewed the speeches? Did the audience reactions impact how you thought about their words?

Complete your blog entry before class on Friday, Sept. 7.


Ann Romney's speech Michelle Obama's speech

The End of Men?

Here is a new video with the author of "The End of Men":

This image is titled Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Which figure represents ethos? Logos? Pathos?

Blog About Gaming

Here are your instructions for your homework:

1. Write a blog about this video lecture with Dr. Jane McGonigal. Using your notes from class, write (in at least 300 words) whether you think she builds a good argument or not. Support your claims with the notes you have taken on ethos, pathos and logos. At the end of your blog post, you may write a few sentences about whether you personally agree with her argument or not. << THIS BLOG POST IS DUE BY MIDNIGHT TONIGHT -- 8/29.>>

2. Comment on two classmates blogs by the start of class on Friday, 8/31. (Blog addresses can be found on Blackboard.)