Grade Breakdown
The following table represents the grade breakdown of this course.
| Activities and Assignments | Weight (%) |
|---|---|
| Introduce Yourself | Ungraded |
| Blogora Participation | 10% |
| Weekly Reading Responses | 20% |
| Essay | 30% |
| Final Examination | 40% |
Important Final Examination Update + Poll
Dear students,
In the wake of the University’s decision to cancel all final examinations over concerns about the COVID-19 virus, instructors have been asked to develop contingency plans that compensate for the cancelled exams. Therefore, I wanted to let you know that I am currently working on designing assignments that would make up for that component of ENGL101B course: what I would like you all to do is to take the poll that I have created and vote for the option that you would prefer to replace your final exam. I am proposing either
- an online examination worth 40% (time limited), or
- an essay worth 30% and a short assignment worth 10% (total of 40%). The rationale behind this option is to give you more time to complete your assignments. The instructions for these assignments will be posted by no later than March 25, 2020 so that you have enough time to work on both.
Here’s the poll:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G96B3HH
You will have until Monday, March 16, 2020 at 11:45 PM to vote for one of these options. After that, the poll will be closed. I will update you with the poll results on Tuesday, March 17 and proceed with designing the option that the majority of you have voted for.
Please note that your weekly assignments, i.e. the reading responses and Blogora posts, are not affected by the mentioned University decision and you are required to observe your deadlines throughout the rest of the semester.
Stay safe,
Zahra
Poll Results
Hello everyone,
Thank you to those who responded to the survey. As you can see below, the second option had the majority of your votes with 64%. Therefore, I will be working on designing your new assignments and will update you as soon as the instructions are ready to share.
Your New Assignments
Hello everyone,
Below, please check your new assignments instructions and due dates. I have also posted these descriptions in the “Ask the Instructor” forum for your easy access. I understand that the current situation might be stressful for some of you, so I would like to emphasize that I am working with you so you all finish the course successfully and achieve the goals that you set for yourselves at the beginning of the term. To alleviate some of the stress/anxiety related to the situation, I have
- pushed your new assignment deadlines as late as possible. Do note that there is a specific window of time by which I have to publish your grades as an instructor and the stated due dates for your new assignments are the latest possible deadlines that I could set for both.
- reduced the length requirements for both assignments significantly so that you have enough time to develop your ideas and produce essays of good quality.
- designed similar assignments to the ones that you are already familiar with and have worked on so far. If you have followed the syllabus throughout the semester and taken proper notes for each reading, writing these assignments should not be a problem for you.
Here are your assignments descriptions:
Rhetorical Analysis (10%)
Write a 500-word rhetorical analysis of an article of your choosing, published in 2020 (between January 1st, 2020 and April 15, 2020). This could be from any area of your interest: education, health, entertainment, sports, lifestyle, etc. For your analysis, you should apply the theories/tools of the course to interpret the main idea or ideas of the text: you can do so either by using the Aristotelian triad of appeals (ethos, pathos, logos), or using another writer’s theories as your framework. If there is an image accompanying the article, you may include that in your analysis too.
Your assignment will be graded on 1) the quality of your analysis, 2) clarity, 3) argumentation, and 4) grammar.
Notes:
- Provide the article link and its proper citation in your submission.
- Your assignment should be submitted in doc/docx format only. Otherwise, it will not be eligible for marking.
- Include your name, student ID, class name and number, and date on your paper.
Format: 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, double-spaced.
Your Rhetorical Analysis assignment is due April 15, 2020, at 11:55 PM (ET). After this deadline, the dropbox will close and I will accept late assignments only with a medical note.
Essay 2 (30%)
Write an essay (1600 words) in which you evaluate three course readings and how they contribute to the field of rhetorical studies. What do these texts teach you about rhetoric? Are theses rhetorical concepts/theories applicable to real life and actual situations? In your essay, you should demonstrate an understanding of these texts and their content, avoid merely summarizing their ideas, and support your arguments with evidence from each text. Remember that you are NOT allowed to use the same readings that you have already analyzed in Essay 1 for this assignment. Rather, you should choose different works for your Essay 2. If you wish, you may use secondary sources in your essay.
Your assignment will be graded on 1) argumentation, including use of evidence, 2) content, 3) structure and coherence, 4) grammar, 5) style and clarity.
Notes:
- If one of your three selected texts has been used in Essay 1, I will mark your assignment out of 70, and if two of these three texts have been used in Essay 1, I will mark your assignment out of 35.
- Your assignment should be submitted in doc/docx format only. Otherwise, it will not be eligible for marking.
- Include your name, student ID, class name and number, and date on your paper.
- All works should be cited properly following MLA guidelines.
Format: 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, double-spaced.
Your Essay 2 assignment is due April 17, 2020, at 11:55 PM (ET). After this deadline, the dropbox will remain open but late essays will be penalized 5% per day.
Remember that I am here to help you, so do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Best of luck,
Zahra