Lessons
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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…