Devry ENGL112 All Weeks Discussions Latest 2020 MAY

ENGL112 Composition

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 ELEVATOR SPEECH

This week you will introduce yourself by creating an elevator speech - an important skill in any professional industry.

Imagine walking into an elevator and seeing the CEO of the company you have long dreamed of working for.  He or she presses the button for the 50th floor, and asks you what floor you need.  You choose 51, even though you were really heading to the 7th floor to see a friend.  Based on the speed of the elevator, you estimate you've got about a minute.

This is your chance to make an elevator speech, to make a positive impression that you hope will lead to future employment. What will you say?

In your initial post, share your elevator speech.  It needs to be concise, clear, and convincing. 

In your follow-up posts, provide helpful feedback to at least two other students.  Scroll down and look for students who haven't gotten any replies first.

To earn full credit, each post should be a thoughtful, well written paragraph of several sentences written in your own words.

DQ2 PROFILES

For your first essay, you'll be writing a profile.  A profile is an essay about a person, place, or event.  Topic choice is key.  Choose a topic that you have personal experience with: a person you know, a place you've visited many times, or an event you have attended.  In other words, you should not write about LeBron James (unless you know him personally), or the planet Mars (since you haven't been there), or the end of the world (since it has not happened).  Remember the old adage: write about what you know.

In your initial post, tell us about your topic choice.  It's ok if it is tentative at this point, or if you have more than one idea.  In this post, tell us who or what your topic is, why you've chosen it, and what you want your readers to learn from your essay.

After writing your initial post, read the posts of your fellow students, and provide helpful, detailed, and constructive feedback.  Scroll down through the posts and reply to students who have the least number of replies first.

To earn full credit, each post should be a thoughtful, well written paragraph of several sentences written in your own words. 

ENGL112 Composition

Week 2 Discussion

GETTING STARTED WRITING

Drawing on one of the strategies for writing introductions outlined in your text or the lesson, post a draft of your introductory paragraph(s) of your profile essay as your first post. Then, provide helpful, constructive, and specific feedback to at least two of your fellow classmates. Scroll down through the posts and look for students who haven't received any replies yet first. Note how or why an introduction caught your attention and explain what impression it gives you about the essay’s larger purpose. Also explain how your classmate’s voice, tone, or diction contributes to the overall effectiveness of the introduction.

To earn full credit, be sure to post your introductory paragraph, to provide two thoughtful replies to your fellow classmates, and to participate on at least three different days.

ENGL112 Composition

Week 3 Discussion

ANALYZING PERSUASIVE MESSAGES

This week you will practice analyzing a persuasive message by studying an advertisement. This will serve as an opportunity to focus your ideas and begin your draft for your Week 4 Rhetorical Analysis Essay.  Consider this exercise and important part of the pre-writing process!

In your initial post for this discussion, select an advertisement and post the image you have selected. Then, in 2-3 paragraphs, answer the following questions:

Why did you choose this ad?

How, specifically, does this ad use the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, and pathos)?

What is the central goal of this ad, and is that goal achieved?

In your two (minimum) additional posts for the week, respond to at least two of your peers. In these responses, give feedback to your classmate's analysis and provide suggestions for improvement or clarification. One of the best ways you can help a fellow student is to point out additional examples of the rhetorical appeals in the advertisement that he or she did not mention.

ENGL112 Composition

Week 4 Discussion

REVISING AND REFINING

Conduct a self-analysis of a portion of your essay. In your initial post (due Wednesday or earlier), copy and paste the paragraph of your Rhetorical Analysis essay that describes your chosen advertisement. After you have posted the paragraph, explain how you might revise specific sentences to include more vivid details. Remember, the goal of this very important paragraph is to provide a picture in words to your reading audience.  Write as though your reader cannot see the ad, and must rely solely on your description to understand it.

As peers, reply to at least two of your fellow classmates' posts, providing helpful, constructive, and specific feedback on what is working well, as well as suggestions for more vivid description.

ENGL112 Composition

Week 5 Discussion

BEGINNING RESEARCH

One of the most important research skills you will learn is the ability to summarize a source in your own words. Once you have settled on a topic for your Rhetorical Strategies Persuasive Essay (see the assignment description under Week 5: Assignments, for more details), you'll need to start searching for appropriate sources.

Once you have found a source, summarize it in a post below. Then discuss the credibility of the source by identifying the author's background, credentials, and relationship to the topic. Make an overall assertion regarding whether or not the source is credible, and explain why. Finally, use the APA resources in class and Chapter 29 in your text to write out the full reference of the source, and include that in your post.

Please follow these steps to find a source using the DeVry Online Library:

Go to http://library.devry.edu/ (Links to an external site.)

Click on Databases.

Select EBSCOhost

Enter search terms in the top box. Click "Search." (As you are typing, a list of suggested topics will appear below your search terms to help guide you.)

Your results list will appear. Browse, focusing in closely on the article title, publication date, date, and length of the article to help you decide which ones are most useful.

Search Tips:

Use short phrases

To make the results list more manageable, use limiters, such as "Full Text," or narrow the publication date range.

How to Create a Reference in APA format:

In EBSCOhost, click on an article in the result list.

Look to the right side of the screen. Click on "Cite."

Scroll down to APA. Copy the reference.

Make capitalization corrections as needed. For author names, only the first letter of the last name, and the initial, are capitalized. Article titles use sentence capitalization style, meaning only the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle, and any proper nouns are capitalized.

ENGL112 Composition

Week 6 Discussion

INTEGRATING RESEARCH IN APA STYLE

Last week, you were introduced to the DeVry Library (Links to an external site.)and its databases through the library tutorial in your lesson. In your initial post, share one paragraph with us from your essay that shows how you’ve integrated a source into your writing. The source should be summarized, paraphrased, or directly quoted. Additionally, an in-text citation and author tag should be present. Finally, provide the full end reference in APA style with us here as well.  After your initial post, provide helpful, constructive, and specific feedback to at least two of your fellow classmates.

ENGL112 Composition

Week 7 Discussion

PRESENTATION EXPERIENCES

Due to advances in technology and changes in the nature of work, presentations have evolved tremendously.  In general, we can think of presentations as consisting of these three main types:

Live, co-present (in front of a live audience that is in the same room as you)

Live, virtual (via WebEx, Skype, or something similar)

Recorded (using PowerPoint with audio or audio-visual accompaniment)

In your initial post, tell us about your experiences making presentations.  Which type of presentation (1, 2, or 3) do you prefer?  in your follow-up posts, respond to the ideas and experiences of your fellow students.