assignments

Web-Based ePortfolio

Why case studies? To provide context. In Burkean terms, to provide a “scene” having its own acts, agents, agency, and purpose. Case studies are developed scenes that satisfy, inform, educate, and entertain. Most basic business communication textbooks include snippets of workplace examples, which are inadequate for detailed rhetorical examination of workplace communication problems.

Objectives

• Write a profile essay (500–800 words) about a person or team/group assigned in class (we’ll use class time for interviews and observation).
• Observe, during the course of the assignment, the place where the person or team/group works or carries out activities that serve as the focus of the profile.
• Give an impression of the person’s, or group/team’s, unique characteristics.
• Work in teams of four in class to create a profile newsletter, using good design strategy and reading audience awareness.

Assignment

Revision of Former Essay

For this assignment, you will revise either your art-on-campus essay or your report. Revision here means more than editing: It means “re-seeing” the subject. As such, you should plan on including additional material, reorganizing your thoughts, and doing a significant amount of writing and rewriting. Your original paper, then, is simply a springboard for your revision.

Planning and Drafting

Report Assignment

Audience and Purpose

The audience for this assignment will be your English 104 instructor and other members of the class. The purpose is for you to investigate a controversial area within your field of study, enabling you to learn more about one phase of your future career.

Assignment

Readings

• Read Chapter 3: “Reports” in Writing in a Visual Age.
• Read Chapter 9: “Starting Research and Finding Sources” in Writing in a Visual Age

Inventing (pre-writing)

Proposal Assignment

Audience and Purpose

The audience for this assignment will be your English 150 instructor and other members of the class. The purpose of this assignment is for you to examine a problem within your field of study and propose a feasible solution.

Assignment

Readings

Profile Assignment

Audience and Purpose

The audience is your English 150 instructor and other members of the class. The purpose is to interview at least one person in a career within your major and to interweave observations, paraphrases, and quotes into the interview story and to include some type of visual portraying either the career or the individual. The goal is for you to learn new aspects about a career. If you have an open-option major, select a career field you are considering.

Assignment

Prior to the Interview

English 150
Diagnostic Writing (In-Class Writing–300 words)

Topic: Knowledge of, Attitude Toward, and Interest in Field of Study

The focus of this assignment is to describe your major and how it connects with your interests or goals. If you are an open-option major, describe one or more of the majors you are considering.

Planning and Drafting

To identify why you have chosen this major and what it means to you, think about your experiences with the following or other events:

• your first encounter with this career

English 104 Essay 4: Writing about ISU Art-on-Campus (500 words)

This assignment is part of the 5th Annual English 104-105 Foundations Essay Competition. Four $125 awards will be given in the spring of 2006. Instructors will submit the best essays to the Director of First-Year Composition by or before midterm of Spring 2006.

Purpose and Audience

The purpose of this essay is to describe and analyze art or cultural artifact(s) at ISU. Your essay should be of interest to the general public or people who have ISU connections.

Planning