If you don't have a conference time, stop by my office and sign up for one. Openings are available from 1:40 to 3:00 on both Monday and Tuesday. I can stay a little later each day if need be. Wednesday times are available, but only as a last resort as you will have very little time to get your revisions done to submit for the portfolio readings.

Send it via email, to bradb AT spokanefalls DOT edu by midnight tomorrow, which is Wednesday, February 1.

Sample Introduction

hook Most people would rather go to a restaurant or a grocery store for their food as opposed to rooting around in their backyard or their neighbor’s yard. context/background Foraging for food has been passé for a good many centuries and for good reason. There’s not really all that much good stuff out there, especially compared to what can be found at the grocer’s or the neighborhood pub. Because of this, very few people look for food in the neighborhood’s yards or parks. springboard passage “The lifestyle of hunter-gatherers has become increasingly less rewarding over the past 13,000 years, as resources on which they depended (especially animal resources) have become less abundant or even disappeared” (110). in the video Urban Foraging: The Edible Neighborhood, viewers see Rebecca Lerner as she forages her Portland, Oregon neighborhood for edible foodstuffs. thesis Lerner’s video is unlikely to reach many people in a way that will compel them to go out into their yards and scrounge around for food. Most people are too comfortable with how things are, with someone else doing the work of bringing the food to the store, or knowing what they are getting when they shop, as opposed to not being comfortable with making these decisions for themselves.

topic statement One reason views of the video are unlikely to embrace Lerner’s message are due to the depicted actions in the video. importance of topic People show the actions they think will be most important to getting across a certain message, such as eating these weeds is not just okay, but smart. Even when Lerner shows viewers about the edibility of dandelions and described how they are bundled and sold in grocery stores. Explain why this does not overcome our reluctance to eat weeds from the yard.

topic statement Another concern is the background location where Lerner is foraging, her neighborhood in the middle of a busy city.
topic statement Readers may also not be as excited about foraging as Lerner, who comes across as overly enthusiastic and uncritical. Ethos. Naive.
topic statement Builds only on her personal experience. Lack of solid logos.
topic sentence Background sounds of cars and trucks and all the exhaust and general pollution that one finds in a high traffic area.

Have the whole of Part II annotated by class Monday so we don't get too far behind. See you then.

Please send your essay as an attached word processing file (MS Word, Open Office, whatever) to my campus email address--bradb AT spokanefalls DOT edu--by midnight Wednesday, January 18. Start reading an annotating Part II of Guns Germs and Steel. See you Thursday so we can start on essay two!

There are at least a couple of people who were not able to make it to class. If you were one of them, log into the blog using your first initial and last name as both your username and password. You should probably change your password after that. Having done that, click on "create content" and then "blog entry" and paste your essay into the space. Title it "firstname's essay," such as you see under the "recent blog posts" heading.

Having done that, click on the “assignments” link in the upper right hand corner and then click on essay one. Next, scroll down the page a bit and find the “summary response rubric” and click on that You might want to print that or open it in another window. From there, go and look for an essay to respond to. click on "add comment" and answer each question in regards to the essay by adding a comment to her draft.

The essays you will want to respond to will all be above the "Tanner Bokma" entry. Contact me if you have any questions or need help.

For Tuesday, bring in a printed copy of your essay, having done as much revision as possible based on the feedback you received.

There are three parts to the rhetorical triangle. Initially, there were four, forming more of a pyramid, and Aristotle lamented the loss of that fourth element, memoria (memory). The loss of memory is, at least according to Aristotle, but most scholars agree with this, because of the emphasis on a written rather than spoken rhetoric. There are three elements that we are concerned and which you are expected to address in your assignment: Logos, Ethos, and Pathos.

Logos

We will not have class on Friday, January 6 because I will be attending the Modern Language Association conference. This is the same MLA who has determined just how it is we "style" our essays. Your task, should you choose to accept it, and you should because it's part of the first assignment and not only a requirement but a necessity to being successful, is to read and annotate the first three chapter, Part One, of Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.

• If you submitted your portfolio, and you received a "pass" then you are in good shape. If you have submitted all work, including annotations, drafts and revisions, then you are guaranteed at least a 2.0 for the class.
• If you passed the portfolio, and did all that you were supposed to do, and missed no more than a week of class, I will add a 0.3 to your final grade.
• Your portfolio grade is a matching of the highest grade earned over the course of the class. Additionally, I will drop your lowest grade on any one submitted and revised essay. You may not skip an essay or required revision and have that failing score dropped.
• If you received a "no pass one" for your portfolio, that essay must be resubmitted and re-read as part of the portfolio process. It would be wise to talk to me about what needs to be done to bring the essay up to standard.
• Final Revisions for essays three and four are due by the end of the day Monday, December 5, which means before I get here on the morning of December 6, dead day.
• If you missed more than two weeks worth of class, or any of the annotations, essay drafts, essays or required revisions, you will not receive more than a 1.9 for the class and very likely will receive a 0.0.

If you have questions, get in touch with me and I'll help however I can.

Cover sheets for essays three and four are attached. Please be sure to fill the correct one out and staple it to the essay you submit for your portfolio submission.