EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 1 Discussion
Your Experiences with Academic Writing
For this discussion, you are being asked to reflect on your own experiences as a writer.
Offer Your Initial Thoughts
Please begin the Module by writing a few sentences or a brief paragraph that considers the questions below:
What kind of writing have you done?
What kind of process (if any) have you followed?
What have your experiences been like?
Are they positive, negative, or do you have some of both?
Also, please share one quote from the Irving or Bakke essay that really speaks to you as a writer.
Why did you choose this quote?
What does this quote tell you about what academic writing is?
Your initial post is due by Thursday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
Connect With Classmates
Make connections to your classmate’s experiences and your own. What can you share with your classmate to provide encouragement? What do you have in common? What are some of your differences?
EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 2 Discussion
Rhetorical Analysis Peer Review
Peer review is an important part of the writing process because it gives us an opportunity to gain insights and feedback from outside readers. Essentially, peer review offers us a chance to test out our writing on an audience in a very low-stress way. As a peer reviewer, remember you do not have to be an expert writer to offer feedback to someone.
Offer Your Initial Thoughts
In your initial post, share the rough draft of your rhetorical analysis essay. This essay is described in M2A1: Rhetorical Analysis and will be turned in on Sunday.
Your initial post is due by Tuesday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
Connect With Classmates
Please read the Sample Rhetorical Analysis (Links to an external site.) from St. Louis Community College; this will help you target your feedback to your peers.
Select one of the posts which have not yet received peer feedback. After carefully reading the essay, please address the following questions in your response:
How does the author present the purpose of the essay? Is it effective? What advice do you have for making sure the purpose of the essay is clear?
How does the author clearly address the following rhetorical principles (in both discussion and example)?
Purpose
Audience
Ethos
Pathos
Logos
Is the essay well organized for you as a reader? Explain your response.
Did you notice any issues of clarity or any errors that impacted your understanding of the essay? If so, be sure to point out a specific example(s).
What do you see as the strengths of your classmates’ rhetorical analysis essay? Be specific.
Remember, you do not have to be an expert writer to provide quality peer review feedback. You will be sharing your thoughts as an informed reader, and your classmate will then be able to consider this feedback during the revision process.
EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 3 Discussion
Practicing Genre in Social Media
Let's Talk About Writing
Before You Begin
Before you begin this discussion, be sure to review the reading materials this Module on writing expectations in certain genres. Then, think about how you use genre conventions in your own life, when you write a text, make a Facebook post, or send out a tweet on Twitter.
Offer Your Initial Thoughts
For this discussion, you are required to write three sentences or passages for different genres. The sentences can be on any topic you choose, but you will be writing the same sentence in three different ways. Just make sure the content is appropriate to share with the class.
First, you should write it as a semi-formal sentence or passage that you might share with classmates and professors in a college class.
Second, you should share the same content as a text message written to someone you are very close to. If you would like to share a screenshot of a text that includes emojis, please feel free to do so.
Finally, share the same message as you would on social media. You can choose a Facebook post, a Tweet, or an Instagram post. Just be sure to specify which social media platform you chose and include the image if you have one.
Your initial post is due by Thursday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
Connect With Classmates
In your peer responses, review the three passages and evaluate them based on genre conventions.
What differences do you see in the passages?
What kinds of content and style decisions did the student author make in the posts?
What did you learn about genre conventions from your analysis of these three passages?
EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 4 Discussion
The Ingredients of Research
Let's Talk About Writing
Before You Begin
Before you begin this discussion, review the assigned reading for this module, Walk, Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources (Links to an external site.) by Cynthia Haller.
Offer Your Initial Thoughts
For this discussion, you are going to consider possible research scenarios. The scenarios can be from real life, work, or your academic courses (like the examples provided on pages 204-206 of the Haller article). In your initial post, create a research scenario for your classmates to respond to.
Here are some sample research scenarios to give you some ideas as you work to create an original scenario for your initial post:
You are hoping to purchase a new car by the end of the year, and you want to consider a wide variety of factors including budget, safety, reliability, and gas mileage.
Your company has asked you to be a part of a committee to help research a new location in the United States for a branch office. Sales take place online, so sales are not a factor. However, your committee must consider the cost of living, quality of living, and cost of office space.
In your economics class, you are being asked to write a paper analyzing the factors that led to the financial crisis of 2008. You are required to use at least one scholarly source and at least one popular source.
Your initial post is due by Thursday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
Connect With Classmates
Respond to the posts of at least two of your fellow students. Your response posts should use the model from the Haller article (pp. 204-206), describing the ingredients, processes, and product you would use to carry out the research project described in your classmates’ scenarios. Remember, there are many ways to approach a research scenario, so you may have different responses than your classmates, even if you chose the same scenarios.
EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 5 Discussion
Selecting a Topic
Let's Talk About Writing
Offer Your Initial Thoughts
During Module 5, you will choose a topic for your research essay due at the end of Module 6. Please follow the steps below before making your initial discussion post. In your post, you will communicate the topic and question that you have developed by going through this process.
Step 1: Start by identifying a topic, issue, or problem related to your field of academic study or your work. Since your research essay must persuade your audience of something, rather than merely providing them with information, it is important to select a topic or problem that does not have a simple, easy answer. Since your research essay should be 4-5 pages long, make sure that you select a topic that can be covered well in this amount of space. If your topic is too broad, you may need to focus on just one part of it. If your topic is too narrow, you may need to select a different topic where there is more to write about.
Step 2: Do some preliminary research on your topic by searching for related terms (keywords) using the OneSearch function on the Excelsior Library Web site. (Links to an external site.) One way to find good sources is to check the box under the OneSearch entry field next to the words “Limit to Peer Reviewed Journals.” If you are having trouble finding high-quality sources, contact the Excelsior College Librarians. (Links to an external site.) They should be able to help you with this.
Step 3: Finally, you should develop a research question based on your topic. Your research question is the question that your research essay will attempt to answer. For example, if your research topic is clinical depression, you might use one of the following research questions:
What causes clinical depression?
What is the impact of clinical depression on the American economy?
What role does depression play in the educational achievement of American school children?
Notice how each of the examples above takes the broad topic (clinical depression) and narrows the focus to something that is more manageable in a short research paper. There are many ways to narrow down this topic:
You could focus on depression in one particular population group (teenagers, college students, postpartum mothers, women, men, the elderly, etc.).
You could focus on a particular environment (the military, schools, businesses, etc.).
You could focus on different aspects of depression: causes, effects, treatments, etc.
You could focus on one particular theory or approach, for example, cognitive behavioral therapy and the treatment of depression.
Once you have worked through the three steps above on your own, make an initial post in this week’s discussion. In your initial post, include the following:
Share your research essay topic with the class.
Share your process of preliminary research that led you to choose this topic. What research did you do, and what kinds of sources did you find?
At the end of your first post, share your research question for that topic.
Your initial post is due by Thursday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
Connect With Classmates
Respond to at least two classmates providing feedback on their research essay topics. Do the research topic and question fit the assignment requirements? If so, why? If not, why not? You may also offer tips or suggestions for how to find good sources, based on your experiences during the week.
EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 6 Discussion
Drafting and Revision
Let's Talk About Writing
Offer Your Initial Thoughts & Connect with Classmates
In this discussion assignment, you will be engaging in a formal peer review process for your research essay assignment. Remember, you do not have to be an expert writer in order to provide sound feedback as a reader on someone else’s writing. Also, as a writer, remember that your peer review feedback is for you to consider as you revise. Ultimately, the changes you make to your essay are up to you as a writer.
In your initial post, include the rough draft of your research essay as an attachment. Be sure to attach your paper as a Word file. In the body of your message, write a short memo to your classmates providing two pieces of information:
Where are you in the drafting process? What are your known struggles?
What specific areas would you like a peer reviewer to focus on in your essay?
Your initial post is due by Tuesday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
As soon as you post your essay, please find an essay posted by one of your peers and respond to their post with the comment "I will review this essay." You do not have to review it at that time; you are just signing up for the review. This helps guarantee that everyone's essay is peer-reviewed. Please do not sign up for an essay which has already been "claimed."
The next step is to review your peer's essay. Please read the memo in the initial post and then the attached paper. Complete the peer review CARES formPreview the document and respond to the questions in the memo written by your classmates. Peer review feedback is due by Friday at 11:59 PM EST.
EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 7 Discussion
Visual Rhetorical Analysis
Let's Talk About Writing
Offer Your Initial Thoughts
In this discussion, you will prepare for creating your own presentation or photo essay by discussing visual presentations and photo essays created by others. For your initial post, you can choose a presentation or photo essay you find on the web yourself or you can select one of the examples at the links below.
Stec, C. (n.d.). 21 Great Examples of PowerPoint Presentation Design [+Templates] (Links to an external site.)
Schwab, K., & Schwab, K. (2018, July 09). The Best Photo Essays Of 2017. (Links to an external site.)
Share the link and then explain which presentation or photo essay you chose and why. You do not have to provide an official analysis. Just present your choice and then write a few sentences about what attracted you to this example and why you chose it.
Your initial post is due by Thursday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
Connect With Classmates
In your peer response, please select at least two of your classmates and provide a rhetorical analysis of their visual presentation or photo essay. You should answer the following questions in your peer responses:
Is the information in the visual presentation or photo essay arranged in a way that viewers can understand? Explain your answer.
Are the important aspects of the message emphasized? What are those important aspects?
Are the typography and graphics clearly presented? How so?
Is the content balanced? Explain your answer.
What is the tone of the presentation or photo essay?
Does the author of the piece establish credibility and trust with the audience? Why or why not?
EXCELSIOR ENG101 Advanced Composition
Module 8 Discussion
Share a Portfolio Draft
Let's Talk About Writing
Offer Your Initial Thoughts
In your final discussion for this class, you will be sharing a draft of your portfolio for an informal review by your classmates. It is okay if your portfolio is not yet complete. You will be sharing your work in progress with the class and getting some general feedback on your cover letter and portfolio pieces. Just be sure you have a draft of your cover letter ready to share.
In your initial post, share links to each of your portfolio artifacts in Portfolium. In addition to the link, write a few sentences about where you are in your process. Please see the following instructions if you need a refresher on using Portfolium - Module Notes: Using Portfolium.
What have you completed?
What are you still working on?
How far along is your cover letter draft?
Additionally, share with the class areas in which you would like some feedback. What do you need advice on?
Your initial post is due by Tuesday at 11:59 PM EST. You will not be able to see posts written by your classmates until you create your initial post.
Connect With Classmates
In your peer responses, respond to at least two classmates. Offer general advice on their portfolios. What are the strengths and weaknesses you see in the draft so far? Be sure to respond to your classmates’ requests for help if you can.
