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Rhetorical Analysis of “The World is Yours”
Materials: Official music video of Nas’s “The World is Yours,” slideshow “The World is Yours.” The slideshow will give students essential backstory on this video, including the fact that “the world is yours,” is a recurring refrain of Tony Montana, the violent protagonist of the movie Scarface, who was willing to attain power and privilege by…
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Reverse Outlines
While outlining before writing can stifle writing efforts, the reverse outline may help students make existing material much stronger. The “reverse” outline resembles a regular outline, which glosses or summarizes each paragraph’s main ideas. However, students make a reverse outline not to organize their future writing but to organize and expand upon writing they have…
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List as Composition
Understanding lists as compositions can help students better understand the shaping process we engage as we compose. I recommend doing exercises of this sort as you’re discussing effective paragraph usage. It can be grouped with Says/Does exercises, which demonstrate that most paragraphs either say or do only one thing. Use it to demonstrate that each…
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Introducing the University
Materials: Slideshow “Welcome to College,” sticky notes I like to introduce Peter Elbow’s believing and doubting games on the very first day and to explain their relevance to critical thought using this slideshow. Divide students into two groups—one that “doubts” and one that “believes” the statement “Higher education empowers us.” Make 3 columns on the…
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Sondra Perl’s “Felt Sense”
Sondra Perl built a student writing practice around the work of psychologist Eugene Gendlin’s “Felt Sense,” described as “a bodily awareness of a situation or person or event. An internal aura that encompasses everything you feel and know about the given subject at a given time—encompasses it and communicates it to you all at once…
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Everything Is an Argument
Optional materials: slideshow “Everything is an Argument,” Understanding Analysis handout. I use the actual textbook, Everything is an Argument, but it’s not necessary to do so as you can discuss the book’s essential argument without reference to the book itself. The first slide in “Everything is an Argument” lists artifacts and asks students to explain what…
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Introducing Yourself to Different Audiences
Encourage rhetorical awareness by asking students to introduce themselves twice, adjusting their introductions for different audiences. For the first introduction, they’ll follow standard protocol, introducing themselves to their actual peers. They’ll give their pronouns, say where they’re from, what their interests are, what they’re interested in studying, etc. For the second introduction, they’ll pretend they’re…
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Introducing Yourself, Two Truths & a Lie
Objective: Students get to know one another while also gaining awareness of their rhetorical decisions. Everyone takes a few minutes to write a paragraph that describes two things they want (anything from a mocha Frappuccino to a specific career is fair game) and one thing they definitely don’t want but that their peers might think that…
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Revisioning Exercise
This exercise is meant to be combined with the “Finding & Writing from a New Lead” exercise and, ideally, with Sondra Perl’s “Felt Sense” Exercise. Introduce your students to the concept of wholescale revision using Anne Lamott’s “Shitty 1st Drafts” and the accompanying slideshow. I recommend doing “revisioning” work as a class before asking the students to…
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Rhetorical Context: National Values
Materials: Slideshow of contemporary U.S. advertisements for analysis. YouTube video of Japanese advertisements. You may also want to provide students with the handout “Questions to Ask When Conducting a Rhetorical Analysis.” Objective: Students make connections between what an audience values and the rhetorical strategies rhetors use to appeal to them. Whole class discussion: Think of the national…