EN 105 Week 2 Discussion

EN 105 Week 2 Discussion | Park University | Assignment Help 

Unit 2: Discussion

Welcome to this unit's discussion! In this discussion, you will analyze and discuss your readings, and prepare for success in this unit's major writing assignment.

LEARNING GOALS: By participating in this unit's discussion, you will:

·         Identify common genres of writing

·         Explore rhetorical connections between language, community, and identity

·         Practice using explicit analysis to support a claim

TASK: To participate in this unit's discussion, please choose 2 of the prompts below, and craft a 1-2 paragraph response to each prompt. Remember that your instructor and your classmates are interested in your ideas, interpretation, and analysis -- so take your time to craft a thoughtful response! There are many possible "good answers" to each of these prompts. Choose the prompts that interest you. Don't forget: you must respond to each of the prompts in order to have the possibility of full credit.

1.      Two of this unit's mini-lectures and one of your readings from A Reader's Guide to College Writing address the subject of genre. Now that you have read several different explanations of genre, how would you define genre? What aspects of "genre" are you useful to you as a college reader? What genres do you most often identify in your readings for your college courses? Besides written articles, what other sorts of things can be categorized into genres? Select at least one quotation from one of your readings to include in your response, and use MLA guidelines to quote and cite it.

2.      Find an article on the web that you have recently encountered via social media or browsing. Provide a link to the article, a short summary, and then categorize the article into one of Ruzskiewicz's three genres. Explain your categorization in detail. Quote at least one sentence from the article that illustrates your categorization, and use MLA guidelines to quote and cite it.

3.      Most readers would categorize Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" and Daniel Felsenfeld's "Rebel Music" as narratives. Review this unit's mini-lecture on Critical Reading Strategies, and use the "Critical & Analytical Questions To Ask" for the "Narrative" genre to analyze either Tan's or Felsenfeld's essay. Write 1-2 paragraphs in which you answer all of the analysis questions, and provide rationale or explanation for your analysis. In your response, use at least one quotation to support your analysis, and use MLA guidelines to quote and cite it.

4.      In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan describes several different "Englishes" that she speaks. What are these different "Englishes"? Why are these divisions important to Tan? How have the various "Englishes" affected Tan's identity as a writer? In your response, use at least one quotation from Tan to support your analysis, and use MLA guidelines to quote and cite it.

5.      The "language" that Felsenfeld describes in "Rebel Music" is the language of music. What aspects of musical literacy are similar to literacy in reading and writing? What aspects are different? What parts of Felsenfeld's experience with musical literacy remind you of your own experiences? What parts of Felsenfeld's essay that surprised you? In your response, use at least one quotation from Felsenfeld to support your analysis, and use MLA guidelines to quote and cite it.

6.      Several of the readings this unit explore the connections between language, community, and identity. To respond to this prompt, describe a language community that you belong to, and compare your experience to either Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue" and/or Daniel Felsenfeld's "Rebel Music." What aspects of their experiences match your own experiences with language and community? 

When you respond to your classmates' posts, consider highlighting which aspect of their posts interested you most, and why. Or, describe your own perspective on the subject. You might also consider asking a clarifying question. Or, offer a further insight by connecting your classmates' ideas to your own, to another classmates' post, or another subject you have learned about in this class or another. Remember that you must reply to at least two classmates' initial posts for the possibility of full credit for discussion.

GRADING: Please see the rubric for this assignment to see how your participation in discussion will be graded. Please note that the rubric places more importance on thoughtfulness, insight, and creativity than on grammar, punctuation, or even citation style. So, make it your goal to create posts that fully explore the prompts.

REMINDERS: Your initial discussion post is due by Wednesday, 11:59pm (Central). Your follow-up posts are due Sunday, 11:59pm (Sunday). For a possibility of full credit on discussion, you must not only create a well-crafted initial post, but also engage in constructive, thoughtful follow-up discussion. Finally, remember that in most discussions, you are required to post before seeing your classmates' responses. Why? Because your instructor is interested in your responses, your ideas, and your interpretations.