Rhetorical Appeals

A useful link to a sketch of the three types of rhetorical appeal is available here from Durham Technical College.

More discussion to follow in Wednesday's lecture...

New background article

Today's Arts & Letters Daily has this blurb to a new article online at the New Statesman:

The idea that religion is destined to die out is itself a confession of faith. No evidence will persuade secular believers they are on the wrong side of history... more»

As mentioned in lecture, New Statesman is a credible Left-Centre journal, founded by the Fabian Society, that gives us a trustworthy place to find cultural background to cultural engagements with religion for & against.

Course Reading Break

A Reading Week is a great idea: opportunity during Term to read the course texts for the second time through.

Accordingly, there are no lectures or tutorials in English 105W on the week of May 18th-20th (Monday the 18th being of course Queen Victoria day.)

Grades Incentive

Strong attendance, the politeness of full punctuality, and the courtesy of concentration provided by cell-phones & PDA kept out of sight: these lecture protocols are all not only contributions to effectiveness but standard expectations in professional life.

To promote these, this course will add a class-wide five percent bonus to the Final Exam and retroactively to the Mid-Term revision if these established norms are sustained throughout the Term, based on the Lecturer's observations.

Links....

Via today's Arts & Letters Daily, a link to an article on conspiracy theories.

Here is the link to a C. Hitchens' article condemning Dan Brown's writing

The da Vinci Code sequel is being released, and the director approves of it while others don't.

Lecture: Slides

This post will be used to link to certain lecture slides periodically uploaded throughout the Term. The full lecture slides will be posted fourty-eight hours before the Final Exam for review.

• Periodical slides from lecture.

Mid-Term Assignment Criteria

Here is the arrangement and the schedule of dates for the Mid-Term Essay, two thousand words and revision. The assignment is worth thirty-five percent of the Course grade, of which twenty percent is for the Mid-Term essay and fifteen percent for the subsequent revision.
Eight-week writing track:

1. Wednesday June 9th: choice of topics posted on the website.
2. Wednesday June 23rd: mid-term essay due in lecture.
3. Wednesday July 7th: essay returned with comments & grade.
4. Wednesday July 21st: revision due in lecture.
5. Wednesday Aug 11th: revision returned with comments & grade.

• The mid-term essay is an opportunity to get your ideas, argument and structure down on paper. Your Tutorial leader will mark the important errors which require revision. You are encouraged to bring the draft to Office Hours for additional and thorough-going help.
• The subsequent revision will be graded according to the improvements made to the mid-term essay from the directions made on your mid-term essay by your Tutorial leader.

Proof-Reading Symbols in Mid-Term Marking

Follow this link for a legend of the standard proof-reading and copy-editing symbols. These might be used during the grading of the essay assignments.

More here. And here.