January | 2011 | WEPO Spring 2011 B

Today in class, we talked about how to frame Project 1 by talking about Bitzer, the 5 rhetorical canons, Grice’s maxims, and Kress’ theory of multimodality. Here, I’d like you to post a comment that frames your first project.

As I see it, there are two ways to go about it— 1) you can choose a key term and frame your project using that key term, or 2) you can use the frame to help you decide on a keyword. Either way you end up with a key term and a frame.

Below are some examples that illustrate how that might work. Remember, though– the examples are there to help you think, not to provide a template to copy.

——————————–

Example 1- Bitzer: “Using the rhetorical situation, I might first choose an exigence (an imperfection marked by urgency). For instance, FSU freshman struggle to adjust to English at the college level. I’m the rhetor, obviously, and my audience is FSU freshman.So what key term might help them adjust? The 5 canons help me think about my writing, so maybe it will help them. My keyterm is the 5 canons, then. So, what are the constraints of communicating the 5 cannons to FSU freshman? First, there are constraints in the audience: I have give an effective but simplified version of the canons– something they can latch onto and use. Of course, I’ll still have to give them enough so that the canons are useful. Second, there are constraints in the situation: I can’t just go talk to them all, so I’ll have to figure out how best to reach them. A video might work, but so might a pamphlet…or a podcast that explains them. Or I could imagine that I could talk to them all, then I might put together a presentation of some kind. I’ll have to think more about that later– but at least I’ve got my keyword and my frame.”

Example 2- 5 canons: “I have to choose a key term– maybe by “inventing”?— maybe by looking back through my list and notes. Ok, so that helps me: I want to talk about Negroponte’s bits and atoms. But what do I want to say? Maybe arrangement will help. Should I arrange my project to talk about bits, then atoms? Should I talk about them as separate or as two pieces in a single phenomenon? I’ll talk about them separately– then I can show how things change historically. A poster might work well for that– that gets me to delivery, I guess– whether and how to arrange them in digital or paper format. And that depends a bit on style– I want to make my audience other EWM students, so I’m going to have to make some clever design decisions– chunky typography, lots of color, and plenty of attention to how my visuals work with or supplement my text. Memory, easy on one hand– save my project as I go. On the other hand, memory could also be all of the things I know/remember about bits and atoms– my notes, my examples, etc…

Example 3- Grice’s maxims: quality, quantity, relevance, and manner –I know I want to talk about “affordances”– the things modes allow you to do. And I think I can get that across well in a video– it gives me image, text, and sound– very multimodal. Quality: so I’ve got make sure I provide a truthful account of “affordances”– that means going back to the reading for quotes- a definition, maybe even some examples. How many examples? I guess that’s quantity– should I provide a few really good examples or try to list as many as I can think of? I guess it depends on what’s relevant– that is, what I want my audience to get from it. Do I want them to know a few examples really well or have a ton of examples at their fingertips? Manner means clarity– so maybe that will help. In this case, I think it’s clearer if I give just a few examples. Quality definition, limited quantity of relevant examples explained in a clear manner. I can get started with that…

Example 4- Kress’ multimodality: Although Kress doesn’t give me much to help me choose a keyword, I already know that I want to do my project on ethos (one of the three proofs ethos, pathos, and logos in Covino & Jolliffe). So now I have to think about whatdesign– what constellation of modes and media best fits my purpose. But what is my purpose? Well, I want to show other EWM students the importance of the proofs- especially ethos– in rhetoric. So I need aptness– Kress’ word for a good fit– between ethos, my chosen modes, and my chosen medium. If I think of ethos, I think of the speaker– so maybe I’ll go with that– speaking, presenting. They will be both my subject matter and my method. So one mode will definitely be speech, the medium will be digital audio (speakers). And if I’m going with presenting, I’ll want image- but what puts together speech and image for presenting? Prezi or powerpoint, I guess. That will give me speech, image (and some text) for modes; speakers and screen for media. Now I’ll need to explore what affordances and facilities these modes and media give me for expressing what I want to say about ethos…

——————————–

Add your frame as a comment on this post…

19 Jan

Class Notes & Helpful Links

Posted by taschima in Uncategorized. Leave a comment

I thought I’d put the “class” notes in here so that we could all find them with much more ease. This page will be updated each time a new class note is posted on the Wiki.

Bitzer- The Rhetorical Situation

Bitzer- The Rhetorical Situation Class Image

Covino & Jolliffe- What is Rhetoric?

Covino & Jolliffe- The 5 Cannons

Kress- Gains & Losses

Kress- Multimodality

Palfrey & Gasser – Born Digital

Negroponte – Being Digital

Jenkins from Convergence Culture

Yancey “Made Not Only in Words”

Strunk & White from The Elements of Style

Williams- “Phenomenology of Error”

Bolter & Grusin from Remediation

Lessig from Remix

RiP: Remix Manifesto

Yancey- “Portfolios in the Writing Classroom”

Birdsell & Groarke-“Outlines of a Theory of Visual Argument”

Helpful Links Main Page

Purdue Online Writing Lab

10 Jan

No Media Weekend

Posted by MattD in Uncategorized. 2 comments

So here’s the story I was telling you about. Turns out my memory is flawed and that the whole thing was closer to what we’re actually trying to do.

From the NPR site– listen and read here: University Declares a Week Without Social Media — just be glad this isn’t a mandated university blackout…

More about it on Friday…

10 Jan

Journal 1- Applying the Rhetorical Situation and/or the 5 Canons of Rhetoric

Posted by MattD in Uncategorized. 17 comments

The activity in class today asked you to visually represent either Bitzer’s rhetorical situation or the material from Covino & Jolliffe. As the title of this post says, this journal will ask you to apply what you know about either Bitzer’s rhetorical situation or the 5 canons of rhetoric (as described in Covino & Jolliffe) to the activity. In other words, in about 200 words you’ll use either the rhetorical situation or the 5 canons to describe the activity that you began– keep in mind that you do not have to use the theory that you illustrated. Here are some questions to guide you (meaning you don’t have to answer them all one-after the other-after the other)…

The rhetorical situation: how can the concept of the rhetorical situation help us understand the activity? What was the exigence? Who was the audience? Who was the rhetor? What rhetorical discourse did he/she/they create? And what were the constraints on the situation?

The 5 canons: how can the 5 canons help us understand what happened in the activity? What was invented, and who did the inventing? Did arrangement occur? How? What stylistic decisions were made– and why? How was memory involved? Finally, how did delivery play in? What delivery technologies were important?

Leave your response as a comment…

5 Jan

Welcome to the WEPO blog!

Posted by MattD in Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Hey class,

Welcome to the blog. This is one of those ‘composing spaces’ we were talking about– a digital space where we will get together to post entries on readings, propose project ideas (and comment on them), and link to interesting class-related bits we find on the web. It will run in tandem with our course wiki here. Feel free to use both however is most convenient.

4 Jan