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Essay Instructions: This is the teachers EXACT assignment ----:
122 Essay: Rhetorical Analysis Due Thursday, October 11 Fall 2012
We’ve been examining how writers use certain techniques to make their writing more persuasive. We have discussed the craft and the content of various authors. Writers sometimes emphasize their own authority or credibility (ethos); they might appeal to an audience’s values, emotions, or experiences (pathos); or they might base their argument on careful reasoning (logos). These techniques are all part of what is known as rhetoric—the effective use of language or the art of persuasion. Analyzing the rhetorical choices writers make allows us to evaluate their arguments more effectively and respond appropriately. This assignment asks you to conduct such a rhetorical analysis of a text: Choose any assigned reading from IAW (Postman, hooks, Loewen, Rodriguez, Graff, Hade, Teare). Read the text SEVERAL times, each time making notes about what the author is doing to make his or her argument more persuasive. Then compose an essay of approximately 3 to 4 pages in which you analyze the rhetorical techniques the author uses in the text. Develop a claim of value to evaluate your article’s success or failure, effectiveness or ineffectiveness, and support your claim(s) by quoting the author.
Here are some points to keep in mind as you write your essay:
Ethos: What perspective and biases does the author bring to this text? What authority does he or she have to produce this text? What does the author do within the text to establish credibility with the audience?
Pathos: Intended Audience? Whom is the author of this text writing to? What is the audience's attitude towards the subject matter? How does this attitude affect the way the author presents his or her message? What does the author do to appeal to the audience's emotions, values, or experiences?
What is the purpose or the message of the article? How successful is the author at “selling” his/her idea?
What reasons and evidence does he/she provide to prove the claim(s)? Logos: What basic claim(s) is the author making? How appropriate and convincing is the author’s reasoning and evidence?
Make sure your essay has a clear, focused thesis. You can’t simply hand in a list of rhetorical appeals you found in the text; instead, you should look at the notes you’ve made and determine whether there is an overall pattern of rhetorical appeals that makes the text effective or ineffective.
You should, of course, support your analysis with examples from the text, but remember that your essay should be an analysis, not a summary. Do not waste time telling your reader what the text says; focus on how the text says it. Look at word choice, tone, and structure as conscious decisions by the author.
Your analysis should be just that—yours—in that you’re presenting and defending your own understanding of what the author is doing in the text. There’s no need, however, to mention yourself at any point in the essay. Phrases like “I think” or “in my opinion” tend to weaken this sort of essay, so avoid them. (Write in 3rd person.)
Likewise, your own opinion of the subject matter of the text is irrelevant in a Rhetorical Analysis. This assignment does not ask you to agree or disagree with the author, only to analyze how he or she is making a point.

This is what I have for my original thesis/THESIS----:
In her essay “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor,” noted African American scholar bell hooks attempts to challenge the stereotypes specific to poverty that have haunted and oppressed African Americans, and that have resulted in a legacy of shame and worthlessness among all poor people, regardless of race. hooks believes that popular culture is primarily to blame for depictions of the poor that reinforce negative stereotypes, and she argues that “Television shows and films bring the message home that no one can truly feel good about themselves if they are poor” (par 8). All the while hooks cleverly ties in her distaste to capitalism with remarks such as “To change the devastating impact of poverty on the lives of masses of folks in our society we must change the way resources and wealth are distributed.” (par 12)

I will upload the whole essay to be used as the main source.

Essay Instructions: Here's the Course Description to help you prepare better for the assignment:
Is gender something one has or something one does? What does it mean to ?do? a feminist reading of a text or a film? How might feminist theory endeavor to both describe and undo cultural constructions of gender? This course will explore these questions by reading a range of theoretical and literary texts that elaborate historical, medical, psychoanalytic, and cultural models of gender and sexuality. We will read critics and theorists who have become central to contemporary feminism, including Freud, Mulvey, Butler, and Fausto-Sterling, among others. We will pay particular attention to literary texts that have been productive for feminist formulations of gender, including work by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Nella Larsen, and Angela Carter. Finally, we will screen several films that invite viewers to reform or rethink their own perceptions of gender, including Safe, and Boys Don?t Cry. Topics we will discuss include: norms, the psychosomatic, the gaze, transgender theory, and performativity.

Now, here's the assignment prompt: Read the Bell Hooks piece I will upload as a resource. You are required to submit a one-page analytic response to the piece by Hooks. Your paragraph should make a concise, thoughtful point about an issue, concept, or idea in one or more of the readings for the week.

Essay Instructions: The purpose of this assignment is to synthesize and incorporate the reflections, learning, and activities about wisdom gathered through the semester. Students are encouraged to write an academic research paper in the form of a biography of a wise individual (bell hooks), emphasizing why the individual selected is or was wise, including assumptions about how the person developed his or her wisdom. The paper should be about 20 pages long (5,000 words+), and should follow A.P.A. published style guidelines.

Paper specifics:
1. Specify why bell hooks is a wise person
2. include your assumptions about wisdom
3. justify your reasoning with what you have learned about or read about wisdom.

The following books must be cited in the paper:

Sternberg, R. & Jordan, J. (Eds.). The Handbook of Wisdom:
Psychological Perspectives. (2005). NY: Oxford Univ. Press.
Brown, W. S. (Ed.). (2000). Understanding Wisdom: Sources, Science & Society. (2000). Philadelphia: Templeton Press.

The following websites may be sited in the paper:

The Wisdom Research Network: http://wisdomresearch.org/
The Wisdom Page: http://wisdompage.com

The following modules are being covered in the class:

MODULE 1. Introduction. August 25-27 (3 days).
MODULE 2. Defining Wisdom. August 27-31. (4-5 days)
MODULE 3. Historical Perspectives. September 1 - 7 (1 week).
MODULE 4. Philosophical Dimensions. September 8- 14 (1 week).
MODULE 5. Psychological Investigations. September 15 – 21 (1 week).
MODULE 6. Cultural Connections. September 22 - Oct 12 (3 weeks).
Fall Break (October 13-18th)
MODULE 7. Wisdom and the Mind/Neurobiology.October 20 – 26 (1 week).
MODULE 8. Development/Critical Reflection. Oct. 27 – November 2 (1 week).
MODULE 9. Educational/Learning Connection. November 3 - 9 (1 week).
MODULE 10. The Loss of Wisdom. November 10 – 16 (1 week).
MODULE 11. Virtue and Ethics. November 17 – 23 (1 week).
MODULE 12. The Wisdom Paradox. November 24 - 30 (2 weeks).
Presentations of Research Papers. December 1- 14 (2 weeks).

The paper should demonstrate that the writer has knowledge of the following:

1. Develop a definition of wisdom.
2. Describe the historical perspectives on wisdom.
3. Classify the philosophical approaches to wisdom.
4. Explore wisdom as a worldwide cultural phenomenon, recognizing different ways of knowing.
5. Analyze their existing mental models about wisdom.
6. Explain possible neurological and biological bases for wisdom.
7. Critique many of the psychological investigations into wisdom
8. Describe and compare the developmental theories that may explain wisdom.
9. Identify the attributes of those who are known to be wise.
10. List and analyze the possible roles of mentors and teachers in the acquisition of wisdom, developing a possible lesson plan.
11. Explore wisdom’s connection to transformational learning principles.
12. Self reflect in a journal about the issues addressed in this course, including personal ideas and thoughts about wisdom.

Essay Instructions: Read all the chapters from Bell Hooks "Killing Rage: Ending Racism" that are assigned: pgs. 21-51, 263-272 and compose a four page response paper in which you include all of the following:
1. a well organized introduction
2. what did you find most interesting/enlightening/unexpected about these chapters?
3. what aspects of these chapters did you agree with or disagree with?
4. what questions would you like bell hooks to respond to?
5. the body of the paper should explore bell hooks in depth, making sure to use the chapters 4 and 5 from Omi and Winant's to affirm dispute, or bolster bell hooks' positions.
6. a well organized conclusion

use Michael Omi and Howard Winant "Racial Formation in the United States" for #5.
There are faxes for this order.