![C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017
Unit 2 Assignment Instructions
Place Studies Research Narrative Essay
Currently, there are many instances of social crisis taking place throughout the country.
And many of these instances can be traced to a certain, specific location. In the cases
where we can geographically pinpoint a social crisis, the place or space where it takes
place often plays a specific, crucial role in the crisis itself.
For this essay, you are to select a social problem or crisis that is central to a specific place
or space. Using research, write a 5-6 page essay unearthing and arguing how the place or
space is the “silent character” in the problem or crisis.
Some examples of social crises*:
• Protests
• Hate crimes
• Tainted resources
• Poverty
• Pollution
• Substance abuse
This assignment requires:
• Research on a social issue/crisis, as well as on its central location
o Must include at least one book, three peer-reviewed articles, and one reliable
website article. Ideally these will be taken from the sources found for the
annotated bibliography assignment completed during library week
• A clear thesis statement that highlights a stance on the issue and an argument for
how the crisis and the location are connected
• A proposition to a solution to the problem
Audience:
• While writing this essay, consider an audience that knows very little both about the
social issue/crisis and the history/culture of the place/space in which it is located
Format:
• A research narrative is different than the typical research essay. Instead of
sustaining a dethatched voice and perspective, include yourself in this argument
and process. Take us on a journey, tell us a story, all the while building research on
your chosen topic/issue. However, you must still write in standard edited English
and adhere strictly to MLA 8 formatting, particularly in text citations.
Assessment:
• Student/instructor edited rubric TBD
*Note: You can think either large or small scale for this assignment. You may be drawn to
researching a widely known crisis, or perhaps a crisis you see building in your tiny
hometown or even in Moscow.
“We can assert that the environment has a method of interacting with its
inhabitants…
In this context [space] is the silent character which reinforces certain
features.” –Dana Pop, “Analysing Architectural Determinism—the Physical
Environment as a Mnemonic Device”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/102assignmentsheetandassessmentarticulation-170423213211/85/102-assignment-sheet-and-assessment-articulation-3-320.jpg)
102 assignment sheet and assessment articulation
- 1. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 Unit 1 Assignment Instructions Personal Narrative Essay: Place-Identity Spaces and places are far more than fours walls or several acres of wild grass. Our environments perform a larger purpose in our lives than simply being the settings in which they play out. Throughout the course of this class, we will be using analytical, research, and argumentative writing technics to explore the different ways that environments affect human beings and situations. And for our first assignment, you will begin this journey with narrative reflection writing. For this essay you are to reflect on a place or space that holds a lot of importance for you, ideally from your childhood. This could be your hometown, your elementary school playground, your grandparents’ kitchen—somewhere that has held on and never let go. After determining an environment, you are to write a 3-4 page personal narrative in which you discuss how this place or space has affected your identity and who you have become. This assignment requires: • A clear, creative description of your chosen place or space • Narrative elements as detailed in The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing and as gleaned from the example essays assigned throughout the unit • Thoughtful analysis of how your chosen environment has shaped your identity, including examples Audience: • Write this essay toward an audience of your peers Format: • Write in standard edited English and adhere strictly to MLA 8 formatting Assessment: • As stated in the syllabus, this first assignment will be graded by the attached, standard rubric. This rubric will be revised together as a class for consequent assignments “Self-identity is not restricted to making distinctions between oneself and significant others, but extends with no less importance to objects and things, and the very spaces and places in which they are found.” –Harold M. Proshansky, Abbe K. Fabian, and Robert Kaminoff, “Place-Identity: Physical World Socialization of the Self”
- 2. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 Grading Rubric for Major Assignment 1: Narrative Components 30 Points Content 30 Points Organization 30 Points Formatting 10 Points A 90-100 Total Points Narrative components are implemented strongly throughout the piece. The voice and perspective is clear and compelling. Description of the environment is detailed and creative. The statement of relevance to identity is well-pondered and explored thoroughly throughout the essay. The writing moves quick and clean through a well structured form. Transitions are artful and tied into topic sentences. MLA 8 format is used in exact detail with no errors. B 80-89 Total Points Several narrative components are used well at various points in the essay. Description of environment is clear and thoughtful. Statement of relevance to identity is discussed often throughout the essay. Writing follows a clear organization with transitions and topic sentences that rise slightly above being only “good enough.” MLA 8 format is used correctly with only a few errors. C 70-79 Total Points Narrative components are attempted in several areas of the essay. Description of environment and statement of relevance to identity is present. Writing is organized in a logical manner. Transitions and topic sentences are simple. MLA 8 format is used but with distracting errors. NC No Credit Narrative components are completely absent from the writing. There is no description of the selected environment or a clearly stated connection to the writer’s identity. Writing does not follow any clear structure. Transitions and topic sentences are absent. MLA 8 style is not followed in any way.
- 3. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 Unit 2 Assignment Instructions Place Studies Research Narrative Essay Currently, there are many instances of social crisis taking place throughout the country. And many of these instances can be traced to a certain, specific location. In the cases where we can geographically pinpoint a social crisis, the place or space where it takes place often plays a specific, crucial role in the crisis itself. For this essay, you are to select a social problem or crisis that is central to a specific place or space. Using research, write a 5-6 page essay unearthing and arguing how the place or space is the “silent character” in the problem or crisis. Some examples of social crises*: • Protests • Hate crimes • Tainted resources • Poverty • Pollution • Substance abuse This assignment requires: • Research on a social issue/crisis, as well as on its central location o Must include at least one book, three peer-reviewed articles, and one reliable website article. Ideally these will be taken from the sources found for the annotated bibliography assignment completed during library week • A clear thesis statement that highlights a stance on the issue and an argument for how the crisis and the location are connected • A proposition to a solution to the problem Audience: • While writing this essay, consider an audience that knows very little both about the social issue/crisis and the history/culture of the place/space in which it is located Format: • A research narrative is different than the typical research essay. Instead of sustaining a dethatched voice and perspective, include yourself in this argument and process. Take us on a journey, tell us a story, all the while building research on your chosen topic/issue. However, you must still write in standard edited English and adhere strictly to MLA 8 formatting, particularly in text citations. Assessment: • Student/instructor edited rubric TBD *Note: You can think either large or small scale for this assignment. You may be drawn to researching a widely known crisis, or perhaps a crisis you see building in your tiny hometown or even in Moscow. “We can assert that the environment has a method of interacting with its inhabitants… In this context [space] is the silent character which reinforces certain features.” –Dana Pop, “Analysing Architectural Determinism—the Physical Environment as a Mnemonic Device”
- 4. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 Unit 3 Assignment Instructions Multi-Genre/Modal Environment Analysis Project At this point in your academic careers, you have studied rhetoric in many written and verbal terms—books, articles, speeches, debates, etc. But some messages aren’t read or heard as much as they are seen. In Unit 4, we are focusing on spatial rhetoric. Spatial rhetoric is a part of the visual rhetoric family; for example, a music video, a poster, a crafted photograph, and a commercial are all examples of visual rhetoric. This kind of rhetoric still conveys a carefully designed message, but through the utilization of visual elements paired with other meaning making devises to convey logos, ethos, and pathos through means other than the written or spoken word. Spatial rhetoric is a message conveyed in a particular space through the use of architecture and design choices, sometimes paired with cultural history of a particular location. For this assignment, consider the University of Idaho campus. Many college students notice a change in their personality or priorities when they move away from home to go to school. Often times we chalk it up to simply getting older, but what if it is something more than that? What if the university campus conveys a particular message for the human beings who dwell within? After thinking these questions over, create a multi-genre/modal project that conveys your thoughts/findings on the spatial rhetoric of UI through means other than a straightforward written essay. This assignment requires: • Focus on the topic of the university spatial rhetoric and research on the topic through a variety of supplemental sources, including readings you find on your own • Introduction/Preface/Dear Reader • Expository piece (at least 400-500 words. Make this vivid, informational, straight- forward writing. Boil your topic down to essentials) • Works Cited Page in MLA format • A Note Page that documents the process and choices for how your research has informed each genre of your multi-genre project, and how you connected the topic to your genres • 5 chosen genres from the list below. In that five, at least one genre will need to be relevant to your major/field of interest • At least one visual element in your project • Unifying elements from the topic (repeated images/ideas, themes and experiences related to but exclusive to a particular genre, details just mentioned in one piece but exploded Audience: • This project should consider the wide audience of people who participate in the university experience (students, faculty, staff, parents) “Genre: a construction/compilation of rhetorical elements (either in writing or another modality) that has a clear author, audience, style, and convention that is unique to it as it incorporates a focus about a topic.”
- 5. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 Format: • Any writing should be in standard edited English and adhere to the specific formats of each genre Assessment: • Student/instructor edited rubric TBD Some questions you may consider: • What does it mean to be a college student at UI? • What is a particular building used for? Does it fulfill its purpose? How? • What is the intended culture of the on-campus living options? How do their spaces convey/suggest these cultures? • What experiences do college students have at UI? • How do you fit within your peers? • What sets you apart from other students? • What does being a UI student mean to people who share, or do not share, your age, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, et cetera. • How does your background/personal history influence your experiences as a college student at UI? • How has your identity as a student changed over the year(s)? • What does it mean to be an ideal student at UI? Some examples of genres you might try: Directories Cast lists Encyclopedia entries Fable Game rules Interviews Job application Letters/post cards Web site home page Map Parodies Headlines Manifesto Prayer Quotations Recipes Time lines Facebook pages Tweets Texts Blog postings Pinterest Pinnings Want ads Menu Newscasts Play list First person narrative Third person narrative Stream of consciousness Interior Monolog Dialog (written in play format) Poems for two voices Free verse Photograph poem Haiku Limerick List poem Dramatic monolog Newspaper article Song lyrics Alternate Style Pieces Fragments Double voice Lists Hard news stories Feature stories Dear Abby Comic strip
- 6. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 Obituary Editorials Classified ad Reviews Diary/journal entries Allegory Character sketch Brochure Bumper sticker Short story Video Announcement Blueprints Museum label *You may have an idea for a genre that isn’t on this list. Ask your instructor about using a non-listed genre before implementing it into your project. Outline of Multi-Genre/Modal Environment Analysis 1: Dear Reader/Introduction: Introduce the topic for the reader by previewing what to expect in your project, and what the reader can look forward to viewing and experiencing through your project. You should describe the focus of your project while also previewing how you explored this focus in your project in this Dear Reader/Introduction. (¾-1 page in length) 2: Expository Mini-Essay: 400-500 words (At least 1½-2 pages double spaced). Form a thesis about the topic (college campus rhetoric) and use your essay to expose, explain, inform, or illuminate some issue about the topic. For this essay, you are responding to your topic/focus in order to give more context and information about the topic/focus of your project. Have this writing focused and concrete in order to effectively communicate your topic to your audience. 3: Chosen Genres: For your five chosen genres, you can do them in any format that you think fits your project and/or focus. These genres are meant to display how you can incorporate your focus through a variety of mediums/forms of writing in order to enhance the reader’s thinking about the topic. 4: Note Page: This demonstrates to the reader how your focus/thesis about the topic is incorporated into your genres. In this part of your project, you will describe how each genre ties into a part of your focus/topic in order to prove how your genres enhance the reader’s thinking of the topic. In your Notes Page, you will need to do the following: • Describe why you chose this particular genre, • Detail why you did the genre in the way that you did, • Explain what you think is effective about your genre, and why it is effective, • Justify how your genre helps your reader gain a deeper understanding of your topic/focus. I’m looking for at least ¾ of a page for each genre in your Notes Page. 5: Works Cited Page: For this project, you may need to incorporate sources that help give you insight towards your focus/topic, or sources that help you support writing about your genres. If you do, you should include a Works Cited page in MLA format.
- 7. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 Unit 4 Assignment Instructions Ideal Learning Environment Multi-Modal Pitch Over the course of this class, you have explored environments personally, observationally, critically, and analytically in terms of their effect, affect, and overall connection to human life. Now is the time to take all of this knowledge and move it one step further—creating an environment that does not yet exist. For the major assignment last unit, you analyzed the University of Idaho campus in terms of its spatial rhetoric. You thought about this space in terms of its speaker, message, and audience. Now, you are tasked to think about what you wanted to change over the course of this observation and create a pitch for what you would consider your “ideal learning environment.” Some ideas you may consider: • Different majors may have different ideal learning environments • Campus advertisements • Indoor versus outdoor • Classroom sizes • Student to instructor ratios • Technology • Color • Lighting • Furniture This assignment requires: • A visual representation/model of your proposed learning environment o This can take the form of any mode you see fit (drafting board, video, collage, etc.) • A five minute presentation that accompanies your visual representation where you will pitch your proposition to an audience of fellow students and a committee of English instructors • A 2-3 page written articulation of goals and choices to be handed in with your visual representation Audience: • Angle this pitch toward an audience of a panel of university officials who could potentially create and develop your proposed environment Format: • The format for this assignment will depend on the modes chosen, but written, oral, and visual elements should all be present and integrated correctly Assessment: • Student/instructor edited rubric TBD “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” --Joel A. Barker
- 8. C.J. Hill – ENGL 102 FA 2017 English 102 Assessment Articulation As stated by Carey Jewitt in her article “Multimodality, ‘Reading,’ and ‘Writing’ for the 21st Century,” “What it means to be literate in the digital era of the 21st century is different than what we needed previously…school literacy needs to be expanded to reflect the semiotic systems that young people use” (323). The world around us is currently changing and growing at a rapid pace, and oftentimes the university English course isn’t doing all it can to keep up with these changes. In response, the materials I include in this course reflect an effort to explore and investigate new modes of communication through literacy that is not always linguistic. By including both a multi-genre rhetorical analysis assignment, and a multimodal pitch assignment, it is my goal to incorporate the kinds of communication that will be more present in my students’ lives today than the typical essay. That being said, the typical assessment strategies that work just fine for the typical written essay do not fit as neatly into the grading of multimodal work. As a response to this change, all major assignments in this English 102 course are graded by a negotiable contract. I create the baseline, standard detailed rubric for the first writing assignment of the course for students to get a taste of what it means to be assessed in a variety of areas. As the semester moves on, different modes of communication are introduced, and students become more focused on what they would like prioritized in their literacy education, adjustments and continued elaboration will be made to this rubric. At the beginning of Units 2, 3, and 4, instructor and students will meet and work together to create a grading rubric that fits the current major assignment. Each major assignment will be worth a total of 100 points, but how these points are distributed throughout the grading rubric is up for negotiation. Ideally, this will create a happy medium of expectations between students and instructor while also adapting to this current 21st century world.