In Class:

• Take Quiz 1 – Unit 1.
• Watch: “Endless Curiosity: The Science of Fake News.”
• Discuss: “Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally.” Extra: “The Psychology Behind Fake News”
• In Class Writing: In groups, complete the following Social Media Activity. If you do not have a social media account, answer the questions in response to what you observe about your classmates’ accounts.

Homework: Read over Essay 1 Prompt.

In Class:

• Take the online quiz: How well can you tell factual from opinion statements?
• Understanding Knowledge and Bias (Powerpoint) cont.
• Watch “The Monkey Business Illusion.”
• Identifying misinformation.
• Value: Long-lasting belief about what is important to a person. Values become standards by which people order their lives and make decisions.
• In Class Writing: List 10 values which are some of the most important to you.
• Watch Robb Willer’s TED Talk, “How to have better political conversations.”

Homework for Thursday, 9/5:

• Study terms/definitions for Quiz 1.
• Read and annotate “Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally” – The Conversation.

In Class:

• Share what you found from homework: facts, opinions, and claims.
• Introduction to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Terms cont. (Evidence, Strategies, Rhetorical Situation, and “Big Picture” Questions)
• Understanding Knowledge and Bias (Powerpoint)

Homework for Thursday, 9/5:

• Read and annotate “Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally” – The Conversation (I will pass out copies in class).
• Study terms/definitions for Quiz 1.

• How to write a sentence cont.: fixing run-on sentences.
• Introduction to rhetoric:
  • rhetoric: the art of persuasion/persuasive language
  • Introduction to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Terms (Project, Argument, & Claims)
• Fact vs. opinion vs. argument
  • fact: a true or verifiable piece of information
  • evidence: facts used to support a conclusion
  • opinion: a view or belief not necessarily based on fact
  • claim: an assertion of truth that the author supports with evidence
• In Class Writing: Find one fact, one opinion (or unsupported claim), and one factually supported claim from the opinion article you chose for homework. Copy your examples and post them to your blog.

Homework for 9/3:

Using different colors, highlight all facts, opinions, and claims from the article you chose for homework for 8/28 (for example, you could highlight facts in yellow, opinions in purple, and claims in green). Be sure to include a color key! You can copy and paste your article into a google doc that you share with me, or you can print it out and hand in a physically highlighted copy of the article for Tuesday’s class.

Extra:

• How do you cope with stress? Here are three articles on coping with stress caused by reading the news (note how these articles are written for different audiences and try to identify which ones):
  • “You Asked: Is It Bad for You to Read the News Constantly?” – Time
  • “‘Headline stress disorder’: How to cope with anxiety caused by the 24/7 news cycle” – NBC News
  • “Depressed by the News? Here Are 7 Strategies for Self-Care” – Psych Central

• Help: “News or Opinion?” – Writing Commons

In Class:

• Student notetaker needed!
• How do you find motivation? Answer on your blog for in class writing: Are you an obliger, questioner, rebel, or upholder? How are you going to thrive in this class (and in school in general)?
• Share bios.
• Grades on D2L.
• Go over writing professional emails.
• Introduction to rhetoric: Writing as a Means of Persuasion
  Introduction to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Terms
• How to write a sentence: identifying sentence fragments.
• Share news: what is happening in the world? What are people writing about that interests you?

Homework for 8/29/19:

• Find an editorial/opinion/op-ed news piece that you find interesting to analyze in class on Thursday. Read through once for homework. Post the link and your opinion of/reaction to the piece to your blog.

Alex Reid, Associate Professor and Director of Composition and Teaching
Fellows at State University New York Buffalo, studies digital media and
rhetoric. His book, The Two Virtuals: New Media and Composition, received
honorable mention for the W. Ross Winterowd award for best book
in composition theory, and his blog, Digital Digs (http://www.alex-reid.
net), received the John Lovas Memorial Weblog Award for contributions
to the field of rhetoric and composition.

(from Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2)

In-Class:

• Notetaker needed!
• What is a blog?
• Go over the reading “Why Blog?“: Benefits, definitions, and your opinions/thoughts on blogging.
• Follow each others’ blogs and follow the class blog.
• Tips on blogging.
• In Class Writing: Write your professional student biography. Share with the teacher on google docs for editing suggestions (optional). Post to your individual blog under “About Me” and share with the class.
• Go over annotation and summary for the homework. (“How to write a summary.”)

Homework for 8/28/19:

• Find a news story of interest to you (here is a link about news bias). Print and annotate. Post a summary of the news piece to your blog.

In Class:

• Go over D2L.
• Go over the course syllabus (on D2L).
• Go over the class WordPress Blog.
• Create a WordPress Blog for daily writing in class.
• Go over homework/what to include in a professional email for homework.

Homework for next class (8/27):

1. Read “Why Blog? Searching for Writing on the Web.” 

2. (First blog post) Answer: According to Alex Reid, what are the benefits of doing an online blog for a writing class? What are your feelings about keeping a blog, good and bad?

3. Send a professional email to your professor (jspencerlevy@pima.edu) with your blog URL in the body of it. For example, the class blog URL is www.wrt101s1f2019.home.blog.