Rhetoric
& Composition 1: Academic Literacy
Unit
Two: Academic Analyses (Weeks 4-7)
Inquiry
Theme: Analyzing Multiple Perspectives
on a Research Question
Literacy &
Rhetoric Goals: Students will
• Define and employ terms:
analysis , rhetorical analysis , standpoint,
cultural logic
• Situate themselves among
competing perspectives
• Use
MU's library/research technology:
http://www.marquette.edu/library/thesignpost/
•
Evaluate sources (recent, relevant, reliable, sufficient information,
standpoint)
•
Define and employ summary, paraphrase, and quotation of sources
•
Recognize multiple means of academic citation (as discipline-specific
practices)
•
Explain and evaluate their own researcher standpoints as well
as the
standpoints of their sources
• Explain organizational
principles for structuring a paper
• Explain how Aristotle's
communication triangle affects what is included and
omitted in texts
• Employ researching and
writing as processes of discovery, revision, and
communication
• Recognize how academic
analysis builds upon exposition
Writing Goals:
Students will
• Use short writings to
summarize, rhetorically analyze, and respond to research
sources
• Compose an academic thesis-support
analytical research essay
•
Address an audience of classmates and teacher who are less
informed on the
topic than the writer
•
Employ the ethos of “student expert”
• Define and narrow a research
topic: i.e., pose a research question to be
answered
• Employ a thesis statement
(as an answer to the research question)
to organize
the essay
• Employ effective introductions
(locate thesis among competing perspectives) &
conclusions
• Organize paper and each
paragraph effectively, given the purpose and
audience
•
Employ their own ideas as main points (topic sentences) in the
body ¶s
•
Employ sources (summary, paraphrase, quotation) as evidence (to
support
students' main points)
•
Integrate sources smoothly into students' own prose
•
Employ academic citation practices
•
Employ stylistic strategies
•
[Possibly] Employ collaborative research strategies
Suggested
Readings:
• Danzer, Gerald, et
al. “New Leaders Voice Discontent” (1998 textbook)
• Malcolm X (with A. Haley),
“Lessons Learned” from The Autobiography of
Malcolm X (1963)
• Media accounts of Malcolm
X's assassination (1965)
• Ossie Davis, “A Eulogy
for Malcolm X” (1965)
• Newsweek 25th anniversary
of assassination, “Rediscovering Malcolm X” (1990)
• Interview with Spike
Lee about the movie Malcolm X (1993)
• Shelby Steele, “Malcolm
X” (1993 The New Republic )
• Walter Lippman “How the
NY Times Distorted Malcolm X's Views on Self-
Defense” (1993)
• Betty Shabazz, “Police
Interview” (1965) and “Remembering Malcolm”
Web Resources
• Columbia University:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iraas/htm/iraas_malcolm.htm
•
Discovery Channel School:
http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/malcolmx/
•
The African American Registry:
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/199/Malcolm_X_
•
“Beyond Children of the Atom: Black Poltics, White Minds, and
the X-men”:
http://www.playahata.com/pages/morpheus/xmen.htm
Suggested
Writings:
Short Writing 1:
Make a list of 3 topics and write why one interests you
(1¶)
Short
Writing 2: Write a summary of one research source (1¶.)
Short Writing 3:
Write a rhetorical analysis of the same source (1¶)
Short Writing 4:
Write a strong response to the same source (1¶)
Paper 2:
[Open Paper Topic] Write
a thesis-support academic research
essay (5pp) on
a topic that interests you,
situating your
stance among competing
perspectives.
Suggested
Unit Grade: 25% of final course grade
The unit grade will
be awarded to the final essay; however, short writings
must be completed on due dates AND turned in with Portfolio Two.
Otherwise students may lose 1/4 percentage point for each SW not
completed on time or included in the unit portfolio. Peer review
points are awarded separately.
