Joel Burns and Rhetorical Appeals

Here's a great and timely example of a way of looking at rhetorical appeals using an engaging media source, from Relling Westfall. In a larger way, this contant also ties into promoting our Leanring Community principles (civility) and promotes an environmenta of tolerance, in the wake of GLBT-SA National Ally week (Oct 19-23).

Joel Burns and Rhetorical Appeals

Classroom BackgroundAt the beginning of the semester, one of my English 111 students wrote a memoir about her big high school romance that crashed. The biggest problem with the memoir was her choice of pronouns. She consistently referred to her unnamed love as “it” and “they.” When I told her that her choices undercut and confused her narrative, she replied that she was gay. She knew people had problems with gay students. She reasoned that she would be able to do better in this class if she kept her lifestyle a secret, even when it meant distorting her essays. Although I thought about saying many things, I simply suggested that she might use a pseudonym for her lover, and select an androgynous name, such as Caleb, Blair or Sydney. That discussion left me feeling slightly discouraged. Even though I haven’t had any students make offensive remarks in the class, or on Blackboard, clearly I haven’t achieved a safe space.

Joel BurnsOn October 14th, I heard part of Joel Burns’ address to the Fort Worth, Texas, City Council on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show on MSNBC. Burns used his allotted time as a councilor to deliver a message to parents and adults in general, and also to gay teenagers, at a regular city council meeting on October 12th. His thirteen minute statement became viral on youtube.com, and was also played on CNN and NBC. He was invited to appear on a variety of talk shows on the following days. Although talks on bullying are almost invariably boring and tedious to hear, Burns’ address, “It Gets Better,” was clearly very successful and powerful.
I searched the web to find out about his larger context. In September, 2010, Dan Savage created a website, itgetsbetterproject.com, in response to the recent series of suicides among gay teens. Savage suggested that LGBT youth frequently lack models of what their successful adult lives may look like. To counteract the isolation and despair which many teens feel, Savage created a space where adults could make videos explaining that life gets better after adolescence. There are seventy-five videos on that site as of November 14th. The spectrum of people who have made these videos is broad. On the one hand, there are the famous democrats, such as President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Hilary Clinton, and Kathleen Sibelius. There are also two college presidents, one labor union leader, Cindy McCain, and a wide range of religious leaders. But the majority of videos have been made by unknown individuals across this country, and overseas. While some of the videos are stiff, formal, and redolent of what one might call “Victorian duty,” others are chatty and informal. However, none of the other seventy-four have even remotely achieved the popularity of Joel Burns.

Classroom applicationI had planned to launch into an introduction of the rhetorical appeals during the week following Burns’ speech. So, I slightly altered my plans. In class, I explained the appeals in the same manner as the textbook and gave additional examples. Then, I asked the students to watch Joel Burns’ video and find examples of how he incorporated these appeals into his speech. Some students tuned out. A couple of students made the typical off-topic remarks. However, most students were able to find examples of Burns’ use of appeals, and were engaged during class. Moreover, as the discussion progressed, the reasons for the video’s success became apparent. First, Joel Burns knows how to address his audience and present his material. He is a master of example, elaboration and decorum. Second, Joel Burns presents himself as a Norman Rockwell painting. He grew up in a small West Texas town. His mother was a church organist, and his father was a cowboy named Butch. Although he had a difficult time in high school, he went off to college, and later began a career. He also got married to his husband, JD. He’s remained in Texas, close to his family. Indeed, he moderated his written comments because he didn’t want to hurt his parents’ feelings by what he had planned to say. Joel Burns is a thoughtful speaker, and he’s an example of Americana.
Overall, I think this was a successful lesson. I think the students understood rhetorical appeals better. I also think my classroom environment became safer, due to the influence of Joel Burns’ speech. I don’t think anyone changed his or her beliefs, but I do think that Joel Burns’ speech expanded our collective understanding.

Distraction Free Writing Tools?

Lifehacker's hive mind is running a question by their readers, namely, which distraction free word processor is the best.  If you know a student (or a professor) who gets distracted while drafting, then you might want to consider trying out one of the word processors mentioned:

http://lifehacker.com/5689579/five-best-distraction+free-writing-tools

ENG 112 textbook adoption

Just a reminder, our selection process for the new ENG 112 textbook is underway! This textbook will be adopted for Spring 2011!
Presentations began with Bedford-St Martin's presentation on Tuesday: Everything's an Argument Eds. Andrea Lunsford et al, and Current Issues and Enduring Questions, Eds. Barnet and Bedeau.

Here's the schedule:
All presentations will take place 3-4:30 p.m. in Massey 117, Parham Road. **except Thursday Nov. 11 which will be held in Massey 210

Wednesday, 10 November Emily Kimple: Pearson
Envision In Depth: Reading, Writing, and Researching Arguments, 2/E by Christine Alfano & Alyssa O'Brien.

Thursday, 11 November Mary Helen Willett: Norton
They Say/I Say 2nd. ed.

Monday, 15 November Nancy Shepherd: McGraw Hill
The McGraw-Hill Reader, 11th edition, Gilbert Muller.
Research Matters , 1st edition, by Rebecca Howard, with Aims of Argument, brief version 7th edition by Timothy Crusius and Carolyn Channell (shrink wrapped package).

Tuesday, 16 November Kristin Ix: Cengage Learning
The Purposeful Argument: A Practical Guide, 1st Edition ©2012 Available January 201. Harry Phillips - Central Piedmont Community College & Patricia Bostian - Central Piedmont Community College.
The Well-Crafted Argument, 4th Edition ©2011 Fred D. White - Santa Clara University & Simone J. Billings - Santa Clara University

On Not Teaching Ethics

Mary Gardner sent me an e-mail sharing with me a couple of blog entries made by her Eng 111 students. She didn’t like what these students had to say about gay people after reading articles on gay marriage – but we teach composition, not citizenship, not ethics. So how does a professor who believes in the dignity and equality of human beings, regardless of gender orientation, respond to student statements like these?*********************************************************************Student Student #1 This is just one of the incidents that I read about. There are more diseases in the gay community than any other community. It has been said that the HIV/AIDS virus started in the gay community. Most gay men are undercover, they have wives and children. So do we just sit back and let them destroy their families because we approve of them being with other men? Not saying that heterosexuals don’t contract diseases too, but most of the major diseases started in the gay community. Could this have been prevented? Yes everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Do I believe it’s going to stop? No. We can do something about it by writing to our congressmen and not supporting bills legalizing gay marriages. Approving of gay marriage is not going to help us in the long run -- it’s going to destroy our country and our children.

Student #2 I believe people shouldn't be bothered by what other people are doing; like, get over yourself, dude/tte. If people want to be gay and touch each others hands, and other private areas of the same sex it's fine by me. As long the gays don't try to sway me to their skippidy-do-dah, "My Favorite Color is Rainbow & do I look fat by the way-ways, I see nothing wrong with people wanting to get married, regardless of what kind of sex they prefer. I don't believe that our birth rate will diminish in the future, it will only grow larger and larger, much like a gays... feelings. But really, there's plenty of straight people in the world to keep the children a pumpin'. Look at Ancient Greece for example, they practically invented homosexuality and abusive older men, as well as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". The Spartans also managed to beat a massive army of Persians, I don't think that would've been possible had they not been in such a spirited mood from their morning shield polishings. Gays are good for many things apparently shopping & war being the main ones, because no one fights like a woman trapped in a man's body - and no one shops can shop like a woman with a man's credit card.
*****************************************************************************
How would you handle this?

My thoughts: Principles that we already teach in a standard ENG111 class actually cover the issues that these offensive posts raise.

Student #2 was trying for humor. Sometimes subjects that are taboo (sex, race, sexual orientation) are popular targets for humorists, so it’s not surprising that Student #2 took this approach. Making jokes about the situation of gays in America is a way to avoid dealing with a serious topic. Instead of “you shouldn’t make fun of gay people”, I would reinforce some lessons from our English 111 text. Our book describes context. In some contexts, jokes about gays will get a positive response (laughter). Is a writing assignment for a college class the right context for this? Had the instructor already laid out some guidelines for comments that disrespect a person based on his or her gender, race, creed, or orientation? (In this case, she had.)

Our textbook also introduces the concept of appealing to an audience. Is it safe to assume that this audience (his instructor and classmates) appreciates humor that mocks a minority group? This tactic has the instructor not lecturing a student on his civic responsibility to respect every member of our society, but rather reinforcing lessons that every young writer needs to learn as part of his or her ENG111 curriculum.

Student #2 ought to also recognize that sometimes shooting for humor is going to interfere with sending a clear and accurate message. It’s not accurate to describe a gay man as “a woman trapped in a man’s body” – I’m not sure whether he’s trying to describe a person with gender identity disorder/dysphoria, or whether he really thinks that’s what gay men are. And, if I might criticize his humor, “spear polishing” would have been way more suggestive than “shield polishing”.

Student #1 presents a more troubling problem. Where Student #2 just wanted to make inappropriate jokes, Student #1 appears to have some real malice towards gay people. I have often heard that prejudice is founded on ignorance, and this student’s diatribe illustrates that relationship pretty well. He or she says There are more diseases in the gay community than any other community. And most of the major diseases started in the gay community. These are prejudice-generating ideas that just aren’t true. My problem with these statements isn’t that they aren’t PC, it’s that they aren’t accurate. It’s well-known that AIDS in America hit the gay community before spreading out to other groups. But that’s one disease – and it’s not one of America’s major killers, either. What are these other diseases the author alludes to? As for diseases starting in the gay community, does this author imagine that gays gave us hepatitis? Rabies? Diabetes? The author also states that Most gay men are undercover, they have wives and children. When my students use the word “most”, they know that means “this is the case for 51% or more of the subject, and I have a research source to back it up”. I really don’t know how many people are secretly gay, living a heterosexual cover-up life, and I’m sure this student doesn’t know either. “Some gay men are undercover” would have been a supportable statement; “most gay men are undercover” implies that this student has some research, which was clearly not the case.

There’s also a logical disconnect here – is this student telling us that legalizing gay marriage would worsen the problem of covert gays in traditional marriages? I would think it would do rather the opposite, giving gay people a societally sanctioned alternative to their sham marriages. Nor do I see from this student’s argument how legalizing gay marriage would increase the rates of transmission of all these diseases that are supposedly coming out of the gay community. This student’s points should support each other. As disconnected as his or her thoughts are, it comes off as a diatribe: “I don’t like gay people, and therefore I don’t want them to be able to marry legally.” Few rational people could take this appeal seriously.

To correct this student, we don’t have to talk about our social views. We don’t have to tell them how they should feel about gays in the military or gay marriage – that’s not our job. But it is our job to tell them how to construct a good argument. A strong argument has factual information and logical inferences drawn from these facts. This student’s position contains neither. The bottom line is that if you don't have good information, you can't have a reasonable argument. This principle has nothing to do with my political leanings or social agenda. This is just composition class.

How do you respond when a student writes something that is prejudicial or otherwise offensive to your ideology?

English Department Committees

We confirmed the 6 English department committees for the year: Literature, Writing, Assessment, Developmental, Professional Development and Placement Testing. If you are interested in serving on one of these committees, and have not yet signed up, please visit the jsrccenglishfaculty.weebly.com site and fill out the form indicating your interest.

Additionally, as you form cadres for the year, please submit this information to Steve Brandon. Let him know if you'd like him to create a cadre page for your group on the weebly site. Cadre groups will have three responsibilities: 1) participation in group discussions throughout the year, 2) review of one syllabi, and 3) one classroom observation. Please keep cadre groups to 8 members or less, for more effective participation.

Animoto tool

Karen Pallay shares a recent and VERY cool animation tool she's using in her ENG 111 classes:


Thanks to my friends at the English Companion Ning, I have found a truly cool Web-based tool called Animoto. This find coincided with my foray into the teaching of a new subject: ENG 01. When I first saw an Animoto demo, I saw a tool for introducing my new audience to the Natural Human Learning Process and a major premise conveyed in the textbook I am using based on that process: students who expend time and effort can learn because humans are born to learn.

How you might incorporate Animoto seems limitless. On the English Companion Ning, teachers reported using it to teach abstract course concepts, to convey basic class policy information, and to provide high-level overviews of--just about anything.

Here's a view of the process involved in Animoto-ing:

• Find a concept you want to teach or information you want to convey.
• Pick a template/theme.
• Add images and text.
• Choose some music
• Let Animoto's magical engine mash it all together.

You'll find Animoto is pretty adept at creating interesting and moving transitions. If the initial result doesn't quite work for you, you can rearrange and add content, and perhaps select a few effects, and then put Animoto to work once again on compiling a result; (hopefully, ultimately) a multimedia experience that delivers the meaning you want to convey.

Educators will want to sign up for an educator's account, which is free and has the features discussed here.

To learn more about Animoto, try this link.

Here is a sample Animoto creation by Karen: http://animoto.com/play/14pN3TC1zT9X5gKc5Lx30g

New Faculty Profile

Congratulations to Jason Lira, our newest full time faculty member! Many of you know Jason from his time as an adjunct instructor here are JSRCC. Jason sat down with me to talk a little bit about teaching, transitioning from part time to full time, and starring in horror movies....

1) Tell us a little about your background and teaching experience, as well as your personal teaching philosophy.

I've taught adjunct for VCU, Richard Bland, John Tyler, and for a couple of for-profit private institutions before gravitating towards JSR. I'm not sure that I developed a philosophy during that time, but I've developed a few guiding principles. I make it a point to treat young students like adults in terms of carrying their responsibilities -- because how else are they going to learn to bear a burden? I act as though all my students are interested in becoming scholars and writers, even when I suspect they are not. I try to teach lessons that are just barely over their heads, because a thing you have to work to master is more stimulating than a thing you succeed at effortlessly. I guess among English professors, it's not too pretentious to quote Browning. "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?"

2) Obviously you've been at Reynolds as an adjunct for several years--tell us what drew you here and what you like about the Reynolds community.

I liked the amount of support and advice the full-timers at JSRCC were always willing to offer. I like the diversity of our student body, in terms of age, life experience, and nationality.

3) How is the transition from adjunct to full time progressing? Any major differences that you've noticed thus far? What advice would you have for adjuncts on the lookout for a full time teaching job?

This semester, over the course of the weekend before school started, I went from teaching 12 to teaching 18 credits. This is my first semester doing LCs and my first semester teaching SDV courses and I'm doing 3 of each of those. It's a challenging semester and that's even before I get involved with committees, etc -- but that's not a complaint. To adjuncts seeking full-time employment, I recommend that you get involved with out-of-class activities. Join committees. Attend department meetings. Present a paper at the faculty Research Symposium. Let people get to know your name and face. If someone asks you if you're an expert on graphic novels, say, "I can become one by the time I have to give a presentation".

4)What are your professional interests as far as pedagogy, discipline-specific info, genres, time periods etc.? How are you able to pull some of those interests into your classroom? What do you look forward to contributing to our English Department?

As far as pedagogy, I think my love of freewriting and peer reviews makes me an Elbownian with regard to my writing classes. In English 112, I'm focused on applying classical rhetoric and critical reading to modern media by way of advertising and political discourse. Literarily, I'm most interested in myth and medival lit (I want to develop a Special Topics course in this area). I usually jam a unit on the Pulp writers, along with a question of "What is High and Low Art?" into my 242 classes.

5) Give our readers one interesting fact about yourself--outside of the realm of school.

I try to get my fingers into a lot of artistic pies: theatre, film (screenwriting and acting), short stories, and am just starting to cut my teeth on scripting a graphic novel (based on Indian mythology). I recently played a screenwriter/serial killer in the local indy/horror flick _Lights, Camera, Dead_(The title was not my idea).

English Committees

Here is the link to the description of English Department committees. Please take a look at the list and descriptions and think about what committees you might be interested in serving on.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFphYXZ3QVhrNVBHMDFnZkVZYzBYc3c6MQ

Weekly Discussion 9/1

Integrating Portfolios... Portfolios are viewed more and more as productive pedagogical tools that allow students to consider and reflect upon their writing goals, their progress, and the materials they're produced. Many are excited about the prospect of creating a record--something tangible that they can carry beyond the classroom--to demonstrate their skills and to serve as a model for creating other portfolios in other disciplines or for the workplace. FOCUS wants to know, how have you successfully integrated portfolios into your composition classes? How do portfolios work in your classes? What kinds of assignment do students include? What have been the benefits and limitations of this approach? What recommendations do you have for others considering adding a portfolio component?

Memoir genre thoughts

from Relling Westfall

Events in our everyday lives trigger our memories. William Capers’ brother is getting an MA, which reminds him of his brother’s nearly disastrous, almost failed graduation from high school. Bobby Thomson dies, which reminds Bob Herbert of the World Series in 1951. Simple as this sequence is, Writing Everyday fails to mention that some of the best, most immediate memoir writing comes as a response to daily events. For some of our students, who become deer-in-the-headlights in response to a memoir assignment, this connection may be a helpful spur.

Bob Herbert’s column this past Tuesday, “A Hero Named Bobby,” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/opinion/24herbert.html?emc=eta1) also demonstrates the impact memoirs can have, how they can undercut our prevailing ideas of what things were like. Most Americans today tend to think of the 1960’s as that great revolutionary moment, when progress in equality began in this country. The 1950’s, in contrast, become that shadowy and distant past when people behaved nastily. As Bob Herbert describes his kindergarten self, his hero worship, and his family, a very different picture of the 1950’s emerges. I think it is no accident that Herbert wrote this column a month after career civil servant Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign, as a result of the editing of a right-wing blogger. Such equality, such progress… Good memoirs complicate our understanding of life and history.

Articles of Interest

Here are links to three great articles, useful for ENG 111 and 112. These are great examples of intertextuality and "writing as conversation", on a topic that's bound to be of interest to many of our students....

“I Became an Adult at 22: Why Can’t You?” Nelle Engoron (which examines the seemingly growing trend of 20 somethings delaying financial independence and traditional maturation), http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2010/08/21/delayed_adulthood_growing_up_open2010

written in response to…

“What is it about 20 Somethings?” by Robin Marantz Henig (which explores the perceived delay in maturation among 20 somethings, and examines a proposal that this delay may in fact be a new stage of development, among other reasons) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=homepage

Ø And a follow up discussion on this article from Slate.com http://www.slate.com/id/2264542

which features a group of 20-somethings discussing the points raised in the article and reacting to the proposals considered in Henig's article.

Author of _Writing Today_ to hold workshops, 8/25

Richard Johnson-Sheehan, one of the authors of Writing Today, our newly adopted textbook for ENG 111 will hold two identical workshops on Wednesday, 25 August, in the Gallery.  There will be two identical sessions, one starting at 2:00 PM and one starting at 5:00 PM.  The workshops promise to address how best to use the text, how best to use genre in teaching rhet and comp, using the text with portfolios, etc.

Rick is a professor of Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University.  At Purdue, he directed the Intro. to Comp program.  He is a 2008 Fellow of the Assoc. of Teachers of Technical Writing and a past officer of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. ("Preface," Writing Today, xiii)

Food will be provided.  If you want food, please RSVP using:

Back to School Haiku

Haiku U.: Short Takes on the New Semester

By Gina Barreca

I asked a number of friends to help me with this 17-syllable exercise, and since more people responded than I imagined might, I'm happy to throw everybody into one batch. I hope you'll consider adding your own.

Wake with teeth grinding

Broken printers in my dreams

Is it fall term yet?

...

Wonderfully does

The cheating kid sit beside

The foreign student.

...

Capture my fresh thought

Embrace the joy of learning

Oops! There is no place to park.

...

Why teach before dawn?

The schedule I have now

Might kill me outright.

...

Happy instructor!

Brilliant students come to learn!

Brooklyn Bridge for Sale!

...

Cynical teachers

Make empty nests of classrooms

No one fills the blanks.

...

See the patient desk

Where no writer sits today.

Teaching interferes.

...

My boyfriend is back

But my new colleague is cute.

Fulbright time again?

...

Yesterday’s lessons

Drawn from your grad school notebooks

Will not work today.

...

How can we have lunch?

I teach five classes a day.

Remember? Adjunct!

...

Anybody here?

A fly buzzes in reply.

Wrong room once again.

...

Professor X smells

Of Axe spray and baby poop.

Contradictory.

...

Canadian schools

Give faculty more support.

Count your blessings, eh?

...

No, you can’t get in.

The class is already full.

Yeah, well, tell it to the Dean.

...

Library closes

When you most need to go in.

You buy a Kindle.

...

Fine colleague retires.

Her absence makes you wonder:

Have you allies left?

...

See the pretty girl!

She is way too young for you.

Better believe it.

...

Twenty years teaching

And still no health insurance.

Too late for law school?

...

Submit the novel

Wait for the agent’s reply.

Is this a way out?

...

Turn your laptop off

And watch the sun cross the sky

Time has no cursor.

..............

NEW! Submitting Syllabi and Office Hours

New and improved, easy and fun! Well, maybe that depends on your definition of "fun" but definitely much more efficient for everyone than our old system! Steve Brandon and Joseph Vallejo have worked hard to create this technological masterpiece which makes submitting your syllabi and office hours a snap....
........simply go to http://hssfaculty.weebly.com/ (password: hssfaculty) and click on the links to submit syllabi and office hours. Just follow the easy directions for submission--it's as easy as entering your name, uploading your files, and clicking "submit"! You will get an email confirmation that your submission have been received! Best of all, it saves our office staff from drowning in even more emails at this busy time!

This site also has information on yearly MOAT training and Attendance Submission Dates. It's a one-stop shop! Thanks to Steve and Joseph!

FYI

FYI postings will handle specific questions about procedure, policy, and departmental information. Have an FYI? Submit a question to abourne@reynolds.edu, wziegler@reynolds.edu, or sbrandon@reynolds.edu with the subject line: FOCUS FYI and we'll post the answer!

To get us rolling, this week's FYI is: Fall Attendance Submission Deadlines. Remember these dates should appear in your syllabus!! Here's the chart:

FALL 2010

16 Week Courses: DROP date Sept 10

WITHDRAWAL date Nov. 2
1st 8 Week courses: DROP date Sept. 1

WITHDRAWAL date Sept. 28

2nd 8 week courses: DROP date Oct. 29

WITHDRAWAL date Nov. 24

Weekly Discussion August 18

Looking ahead to the first week of school, FOCUS wants to know: What are examples of your most successful, interesting topics for a first week writing diagnostic? What topics have gotten your students writing with enthusiasm? On the flip side, which topics have gone down in flames? Post your thoughts here, share your ideas and cautionary tales....

This year's VCCS English/ESL peer conference is in Richmond

October 28-29. See details at https://www.vccs.edu/FacultyStaff/ProfessionalDevelopment/PeerGroups/EnglishESLCallforProposals2010/tabid/956/Default.aspx.
Deadline for proposals is the end of August.

Adjunct Orientation

It's that time again... the fall semester will be up and running before we know it! Kick off the new school year by attending the Adjunct Orientation event on August 18th! Join us in the Gallery (Georgiadis Hall) where the School of Humanities and Social Sciences orientation will begin at 5pm, with a breakout session for English department orientation to follow in Massey 117. All the info you need to get your semester started!

Full Time Faculty position open

Attention Adjuncts!

JSRCC currently has a job posting for a full time English position. See the job description here:

http://www.jsr.vccs.edu/jsr_hr/positions/Faculty/FO365.pdf

Closing date is August 12, so please send in your application if you are interested!

New Year, New Semester!

Happy New Year, and happy new semester! The first week is coming to a close, hopefully the wrinkles are getting straightened out and classes are coming together. On the Parham Campus, Burnette Hall is undergoing construction and renovation, which had made navigating the building a little more challenging. Please remember to submit your brand new Spring '10 syllabi: you can submit them through the "Bureaucracy" tab at the top of the page! Easy! Also check the "Cadres" tab for details on the ongoing teaching cadres project! Getting involved with your teaching cadre is a great way to start the new semester: fresh ideas and insights!

Finally, what would you like to see discussed on our blog this semester? What disciplinary topics and issues are foremost in your mind? What burning questions would you like to see English faculty debate? Send your suggestions, thoughts, comments to abourne@reynolds.edu.