This week in group discussions, you should be talking about the readings and the movie, but you will also be doing some workshopping on your concept papers. While it’s up to each individual group how you want to proceed, I have included a process below that should help everyone receive/offer productive and useful written feedback.
Note: this group discussion might go a bit longer than previous ones.
This week’s group tasks
Talk about the Material
Here are a few optional starter questions if you’re having trouble deciding on something to discuss in your groups or to talk about in the dialectical journals. Again, you don’t have to talk about these questions, so if you’d rather discuss something else about the course content, please do! I am listing these here just in case you would like some suggestions.
- What connections do you see between the materials on emotion and the concept of rhetoric as we have explored it so far? What does it mean to consider rhetoric in terms of emotional outcomes rather than in terms of language?
- How do emotions and language interact with one another? How do they influence each other in terms of both individual experience and larger societal systems?
- How can you draw connections between the materials and your own writing in various contexts? What takeaways are there in terms of your own writing on your audience? In relation to your tone? Word choice? Purpose?
Workshop Concept Papers
At this point, most everyone has a draft and should have enough material to receive feedback on. The group discussions are an ideal place to make this happen. And written feedback is extremely helpful, so folks can refer directly to it while revising. So, again, as I mention above, I’m providing you with a suggested approach for the workshop/peer response session, but your group can adapt it as you see appropriate and helpful.
- In Google Drive, everyone should have a copy of their draft accessible to others for feedback:
- You can create a new document and label it accordingly in your own individual folder and have others access it there OR
- You can create a group folder that everyone puts a copy of your draft in (I recommend this approach… feel free to create your new folder in our class Shared Drive)
- At the top of this draft, in a comment or in the document itself, write down at least 3 concerns or questions that you want your peers to focus on. While this is not the only thing your peers will be paying attention to, it will help you to ensure that you are receiving feedback that is helpful for you.
- Read a peer’s essay and comment in the margins.
- Ideally, everyone should be reading the same paper at the same time.
- Feel free to stop and ask questions or make comments… the process should be dynamic and should really emphasize getting feedback on one another’s writing
- Focus on content, structure, development, and clarity
- Write questions and comments as a reader
- “What do you mean here?”
- “Have you considered… ?”
- “So, what I get from this is… but…”
- “I think I get what you mean here, but do you have a specific example to help demonstrate….”
- Point out what is successful and why
- Comment on one another’s comments
- Offer suggestions for improvement at the end
- Discuss: Talk about it – offer help, ask questions, clarify – Be the immediate audience for your peers!
- Wash, rinse, and repeat for everyone’s essay
