Discussion Questions – for Thurs. 10/29

Reading to be discussed: Jonathan Lethem, “The Ecstasy of Influence”

General questions about plagiarism:

1.  Think about your past experiences discussing plagiarism in classes?  How do those discussions make you feel?  Were they productive?

2.  Can you think of examples from your daily life that might could as plagiarism?

3.  What are some examples of sampling, copying, or non-cited use of other people’s work in the music, films, books, or other cultural items you encounter regularly?

Here are some questions intended to help you analyze and reflect on Jonathan Lethem’s essay “The Ecstasy of Influence,” which puts pressure on our notions of plagiarism:

1. Lethem says: “Plagiarism and piracy, after all, are the monsters we working artists are taught to dread, as they roam the wood surrounding our tiny preserves of regard and remuneration.”  Does this line up with your own experiences of being taught about plagiarism?  Why or why not?

2.  Lethem points out that technology is changing the way we think about issues of plagiarism, copying, and copyright.  What ways do you see technology as a force that changes the ways we think about these things?

3.  What is the difference between a market economy and a gift economy, at least according to Lethem?  Is a gift economy even possible in our current society?

4. How do we unpack this idea, especially as members of a class that puts a lot of focus on collaboration: “That a language is a commons doesn’t mean that the community owns it; rather it belongs between people, possessed by no one, not even a society as a whole.”?

5. Lethem says “Contemporary copyright, trademark, and patent law is corrupted.”  Do you agree or disagree?  Why?

6.  The “notes” section at the end of the essay are part of Lethem’s central argument.  What were your reactions when you came to this section when you started reading it?

7.  How does this essay and Lethem’s argument make you feel?  Do you agree with it?  Why or why not?  Does it affect the way you think about plagiarism at all, and why/why not?

8.  What are some examples of sampling, copying, or non-cited use of other people’s work in the music, films, books, or other cultural items you encounter regularly?

Discussion Questions – for Tues. 9/22

Reading to be discussed: Compose, Design, Advocate, ch. 5, p. 164-184

1. What are some tips for giving feedback to a peer? Keep in mind that we are doing peer review on Tuesday ourselves.
2. What are your past experiences with peer review and feedback? Do they match up with the book’s suggestions or not?
3. What are the differences between proofreading, editing, and revising?
4. Why/how is revision a rhetorical act?
5. What does your normal revision process look like? Are you happy with it, and/or does it work out well for you? If not, what are some ways you would like to change that process to be more effective?
6. What is the most difficult part of revision for you? The easiest?

Twitter Discussion Questions – for Mon. 9/21

These are questions we will consider when we talk about the Nielsen piece and do an activity related to Twitter. I also suggest that those of you are unfamiliar with Twitter try to check out what a Twitter profile/feed looks like so you have some idea.

1. What kind of things do you use Twitter for or see others use it for?
2. How do you access Twitter? On your phone or computer? Through an app? How does the way you view Twitter change the way you read it or use it?
3. What sort of decisions do you make (or imagine others make) when you/they post to Twitter?
4. How is the way you view a person affected by their Twitter or other social media output? Why?
5. How can we see Nielsen working through things we’ve discussed already in this class – rhetorical situation, media/genre, audience, purpose, etc?
6. As you finished your draft and are thinking about revision, how does Nielsen’s process make you think more about your own process?
7. Can we think of Twitter as a genre? Does it have distinct features? What makes it different from other forms of social media, such as Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.?

Discussion Questions – for Tues. 9/15

Reading to be discussed: Dennis Baron, “From Pencils to Pixels”

1. Baron claims that “writing itself is always first and foremost a technology?” How does he support this argument through the rest of the essay? What evidence does he use?
2. Related to the above question: Do you believe writing is a technology? Why or why not?
3. One of the points Baron makes throughout the essay is that literacy and writing technologies are often tied to economic advantages. He makes this most clear towards the end of the essay when he writes: “Literacy has always functioned to divide the haves from the have nots.” Do you agree with this? In what ways has technology made this more or less true?
4. How have computers changed the way we write over time?
5. Think about your own past experiences with literacy and with technology. in what ways have these experiences overlapped?
6. This essay was originally published in 1999, which is 16 years ago? What has changed since then that might affect Baron’s argument?
7. How do you see writing technology changing in the the next decade or two? In what ways do you foresee you will be writing over the course of your life?

Discussion Questions – for Tues. 9/8

Reading to be discussed: Compose, Design, Advocate, Ch. 7

1. What are some reasons why we might be learning visual communication as part of an introductory writing class?
2. Why is learning about visual communication important? What do we gain by being visually literate?
3. What are some things you need to take int consideration when you want to communicate visually?
4. What are contexts you can and cannot control for visual texts?
5. What are advantages AND disadvantages in using visual symbols?
6. How do ethos and pathos work in visual texts?
7. Why do you think the book considers color and text design choices to be related to pathos?
8. What are some of the key things to keep in mind when considering the logos of arranging visual elements? Why are these things important?
9. Can you think of times when it is appropriate to NOT follow some of the rules for clean and easy-to-look-at visual texts? Point to a few examples.

Discussion Questions – for Thurs. 9/3

Readings to be discussed: Kerry Dirk, “Navigating Genre,” and “The medium is the message” resources

1. How would you define “genre” and “media”? What are the similarities and differences between the two?
2. How do you think genre and media fit into rhetorical situation?
3. What argument is Dirk making about why we should study genres?
4. How does being more aware of genres help make us better writers – not just in college, but in our professional and personal lives, also?
5. Is Dirk’s “checklist” of questions to ask about genre at the end of the article useful? Why or why not?
6. Do you agree with Marshall McLuhan’s argument that the medium in which something is delivered is as important or even more important than the content? Why or why not?
7. I gave you two different mediums through which to experience McLuhan’s argument: an online, user-generated encyclopedia and a short internet video. Yet both of these things were “delivered” to you via the internet and a computing device of some kind. How would you apply ‘the medium is the message’ to this particular paradox?
8. McLuhan came up with his theories 40, 50 years ago. What has changed since then? Do any of these changes affect his argument? Why or why not?

Discussion Questions – for Tues. 9/1

Reading to be discussed: Compose, Design, Advocate, ch. 5 (to p. 163) & ch. 9

1. What are some of the difficulties involved in imagining or thinking about your audience? What are some possible strategies for overcoming those difficulties?
2. What are ethos, pathos, and logos? (You may need to do a little bit of research to understand these better. You can start here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/03/ )
3. Think of some past writing scenarios from your own life. Were there times that ethos, pathos, or logos were not all necessary or appropriate for something you wrote? Were there times when you felt you should have better balanced the three?
4. What are some strategies for an introduction? Why do you think the book includes this in the ethos section?
5. What are some logical structures in writing – both larger and smaller? As a reader of many types of texts, are you more convinced by some strategies than others? Why?
6. Why is word choice important?
7. What is a rhetorical analysis? Why is it beneficial to do one?
8. What are the five steps for doing a rhetorical analysis?
9. What do you think might be “easy” for doing a rhetorical analysis of a website? What do you think might be difficult?

Discussion Questions – for Thurs. 8/27

Readings to be discussed: Compose, Design, Advocate, ch. 1-2

Below are questions that are meant to help you read and formulate some possible thoughts for in-class discussion. You do not need to prove to me that you wrote answers to them, but you will probably find it useful to take notes that relate to these questions in some way.

1. What is rhetoric?
2. What is a statement of purpose, and what should it include?
3. What is a design plan, and what should it include?
4. On page 24, the book’s authors write about when an argument occurs. Do you agree with their assessment of what is and is not an argument? Why or why not?
5. Why is argument and advocacy important? What might be the downsides to argument and advocacy?
6. On page 26, the authors write: “Any communication affects the future shape of our current communication contexts.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? Think of at least one example in which this might happen and one example in which it might not.
7. Why is it important to consider cultural knowledge and bodily experience when composing or designing?
8. What do the authors mean when they talk about the importance of inclusion and exclusion when thinking about your intended audience?
9. The book only mentions several examples of what context is. We went over context in Tuesday’s lecture. Can you think of more important contextual considerations for composing/designing something?