Upcoming Assignments

In the coming classes, you will work on public speaking while, at home, you will work on your research paper. Please observe the following due dates for the first five pages of your research paper. Email each step to me with the indicated subject line.

Thursday, Jan. 29: Write a paragraph that summarizes the first five pages of your research paper. Use the subject line paragraph summary. The first five pages of your research paper will be due on Friday, Feb. 6. Also, bring to class the text or video clip of a favorite speech of yours. It could be from a movie, a historical event, a recent political event; really, any moment, real or fictional, where a person stands in front of a group of people and addresses them.

Monday, Feb. 2: Write at least two pages of your academic research paper. Use the subject line first two pages. Bring to A Pocket Style Manual to class.

Wednesday, Feb. 4: Write at least two additional pages of your academic research paper. Email subject line: second two pages Send the two pages that were due on Monday. If you already sent those two pages, you don't have additional work to turn in for this class.

Friday, Feb, 6: Write at least one additional page of your academic research paper.  Email subject line: additional page

Tuesday, Feb. 10: Turn in at least five pages of your academic research paper. Email subject line: five pages

Assignment for Tuesday, January 27

Prepare for the rhetorical analysis of a passage from Much Ado about Nothing. The prompts for each block are posted to the right. Block A met first block on Friday; Block C met after senior snack on Friday. You will have forty minutes to write the essay.

Also, please bring your copy of The Craft of Research to class.

Assignment for Thursday, January 15

This assignment is slightly different than what I described in class. In Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing , find examples of three of the following kinds of prose. Then, identify language techniques employed in those examples (alliteration or other kinds of repetition, figurative language, allusions, puns or other kinds of word play, etc.) and explain the effects of those techniques.

1. Young women talking together excitedly or irritably; a young woman flirting and making jokes with undertones.

2. Young men joking uneasily; drunken men speaking cynically; old men speaking disapprovingly to a young woman.

3. A man choosing his words carefully so as not to offend his superior; a man offended by his superior but trying to hide it. 

4, A man desperately trying to make sense of his own sudden and overwhelming beliefs.

Be sure to write the original sentence(s) and refer to its scene and line numbers. 

Assignment for Wednesday, Jan. 7

Read and annotate Act 2 of Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing. As you read, identify any (but at least three) phrases or sentences that stand out because of their language.