You have been provided with a printed course packet, which contains the required theoretical reading and writing guides for the class. You must bring the course pack with you to every class. Additional reading will be posted here, which you may print or read electronically. You must either have a device or a hardcopy of the reading in class.
Please come speak to me if:
- you do not have regular access to a computer or the Internet or are unsure of availability here at QC
- you require an electronic version of the course pack for accessibility reasons.
All of our essays require MLA format and citation, some conventions for which we will go over in class. Purdue OWL’s MLA Sample Paper provides an excellent reference, and in-depth information on MLA citation is available on the Purdue OWL MLA Formatting and Style Guide.
Theoretical Texts
Essay 1: Rhetorical Analysis
- “Questions of Identity” video interview with Stuart Hall
- “The Question of Cultural Identity” by Stuart Hall
- “Hyphen-Nation” (video) from The New York Times
Essay 2: Lens Analysis
- “Stuart Hall – Race, Gender, Class in the Media” Al Jazeera video
- “Discourse and Power” by Stuart Hall (excerpt pp. 201-204)
- “Ferdinand de Saussure and Structural Linguistics” (video)
- Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising (excerpt)
by Judith Williamson
Essay 3: Researched Argument
- “Representation & the Media: Featuring Stuart Hall” (video)
- “But Wait: Do We Really CONSUME Media?” (video)
- “Encoding, Decoding” by Stuart Hall
- “The Danger of a Single Story” TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Readings on Writing
- “They Say, I Say”: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing
by Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff - “Acknowledgments and Responses” by Wayne Booth et al.
- “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mark Bunn
- “Breaking into the Conversation” by Mark Gaipa
- “Linking Evidence and Claims” by David Rossenwasser et al.
- “Motivating Your Argument” by Williams and Colomb
Writing Guides (in your course pack and available on Dropbox)
- 8 Strategies for Engaging Secondary Sources
- Argumentation
- Assignment Guidelines for Essay 1
- Assignment Guidelines for Essay 2
- Assignment Guidelines for Essay 3
- Citing Sources
- Developing and Structuring Your Argument
- Developing Strong Claims
- Effective Conclusions
- Effective Paragraphing
- Effective Theses
- “Elements of the Academic Essay” by Gordon Harvey
- Engaging Multiple Viewpoints
- Functions of Sources
- Identifying Problems
- Lens Analysis
- Logos, Ethos, Pathos
- Model Student Introductions
- Radical Revision
- Reading (and Writing) for Conversation
- Rhetorical Situation
- Sandwiching Quotes
- Section Titles and Signposting
- Socratic Questioning Method
- Strong Research Questions
- Transitions
- Visual Analysis
- Visual Analysis—Explicit and Implicit Bias
Images: “We the People” series, created for the 2016 presidential inauguration. From left to right, We the People Protect Each Other by Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant), We the People Are Greater than Fear by Jessica Sabogal, and We the People Defend Dignity by Ernesto Yerena.
What is your first reaction to the images (thoughts and feelings)? How do the titles change your thoughts and feelings about the images?
