It should begin with a 500-1000 word reflection on the class, on your writing, how your writing has progressed throughout the summer, and an explanation of why your portfolio is designed the way it is (template/page design, colors, arrangement of pages, etc.).

Then, for each of the three Projects from the class you will need a section that contains a link to the Original Word document (including works cited), a link to the revised Word document (including works cited), and a 500-1000 word revision explanation/reflection. You should detail the changes you made, give the reasoning behind those changes, and reflect on what you noticed when reworking the assignment.

You should feel free to split this reflection up – to talk about writing the original and then about the revision process – and should be sure to include some specific examples of what you revised in your reflection (N.B., these examples do not count toward your 500-100 word requirement for each reflection).

Remember, I want to see revised versions of each assignment. Take chances, revise with gusto. A project that contains little to no revision will do much worse than one that tried an important revision and didn’t quite succeed.

These are due Monday, August 2, and you will need to be prepared to present your web portfolio to the class in 3-5 minutes. You will also be critiquing your classmates’ portfolio presentations as part of your grade.

Please email me with any questions and/or stop by conferences Thursday, July 29.

Prospectus blog:
Part one due Monday, July 19 BEFORE class.
Comments on 3-4 other students’ Part ones due Monday, July 19 at the end of class.
Part two due Thursday, July 22 at 11:30 am.

We will begin this assignment by discussing the basic format of proposals. Then, on Wednesday, July 14 we will do an in class writing identifying a problem you see in the Purdue community and working towards a solution.

For this assignment you will be creating a prospectus for your proposal argument on your WordPress blog and then writing an academic essay of 1800-2200 words.

We will develop possible topics either via email, in class, or in conferences during the week of July 12-16. The purpose of your essay will be to identify a meaningful problem in the Purdue community and propose a solution. We will discuss the components of a proposal argument in the weeks leading up to the due date. Your essay will need to give an idea of the current situation, and provide a feasible, substantial solution to problem that combines your own observations and opinions with the observations and opinions of experts.

You must have my approval for your topic no later than Friday, July 16.

Your Prospectus will be several interconnected pages on your WordPress blog:
Part one:
• A 500+ word explanation of the problem you have identified and your proposed solution.
• A 200+ word research strategy for answering your question and making your proposal, including who you will interview and survey, and where you will look for sources.
As part of your prospectus grade, you will need to read and comment on three of your classmates’ prospectus blogs. I will inform you of your commenting groups in class on Monday, July 19.

Part two:
• An annotated bibliography for the project, including at least four sources you plan on using in your essay.
• A 200+ word reflection about your choice of topic and your research process.

The sources you use for this paper may include articles from the internet, news media, journals, interviews, and books. You will need to provide copies of the relevant sections of all resources you used (including transcripts of interviews) with quoted and paraphrased material highlighted.

• You will need at least four sources, including:
At least two interviews or one interview and one survey
At least one newspaper or periodical
At least one institutional document (relating to Purdue or an institution at Purdue)

You should exercise critical judgment in choosing your sources—not all sources are equal. For example material from The Lafayette Journal and Courier is much more reliable than material from a personal website; an interview with a respected professor or administrator on a topic within her area of expertise or a survey of 100 Purdue students is much more valuable than a casual opinion from one of your friends.

You’ll need to turn your final draft of this essay via email and via print on Wednesday, July 28. For this assignment, the ‘Accompanying Material’ will consist of your blog posts, including the in class writing from July 14, your prospectus, and your comments on your peers’ prospectuses, and your peer reviewed rough draft. Your folder should include the print copy of your essay and your peer reviewed rough draft.
You’ll also need to email me a Word or rtf formatted copy of your essay.

For this assignment, I want you to create a visual argument in comics form. Your comics should identify and make an argument about a group or subculture that exists at Purdue. When choosing a group, make sure it’s a one that you can spend some time investigating and observing.
I will expect between 12 and 24 panels for a comic, but we should have enough time to plan and discuss these that if you make a strong case for being outside of those numbers, it will be okay, as long as you have my approval.
To hand in your assignment, bring a copy of the visual argument with your reflection. Your 500 word reflection should include why you chose the form you did, why you chose or created the images you did, and how you went about making the visual argument. You will also need to turn in a bibliography for any and all sources you used in the assignment, including all images you did not create.
Be creative with this assignment. Make your subject clear and understandable to your viewers. Explain something to them.

As always, try to pick something that interests you, as you’ll be spending some time with it.

You’ll begin this project by completing the Drift Worksheet.

On Wednesday, 6/30, you’ll spend some time in class developing field research questions about your group.

Pay attention to your field research questions. Try to focus on the behaviors of the group and use them to show (not tell) your reader how the behavior is important and what it does for the group and its individuals. Think about these questions: What does the group do? What is it supposed to do? Does it actually do that? What purpose does it serve for members? What kind of identity do the members construct by being in this subculture, or what does being a member say about them and who they are? Is this a good or a bad thing?

You’ll be using your field research to rhetorically analyze this group, the functions of the group (what it does, how group members interact), its subject (the “why” the group exists, its main idea or what it portrays about its members), its context (surroundings, atmosphere), and its audience (or viewers, people outside the subculture like recruits). The point of this visual argument is to understand how these things work together to support the group’s purpose and communicate some aspect of that to the reader.

Synthesize these findings into an argument about this group. This should lead you to a statement of the importance or nature of the group or its members, which can serve as a thesis in your visual argument. Remember, you may never come out and state your thesis in your comic, but an argument about the group should be clear to those reading the comic.

On Friday, 7/9, we’ll be Peer Reviewing this visual argument in class. You’ll need to bring a heavily developed draft to class and be prepared to read and comment on a classmate’s draft. Failure to show up with your draft, or meaningfully participate in Peer Review will result in the loss of participation points and mean you’re missing one of the components (a Peer Reviewed argument) of this project.

The comics should be 12-24 panels. If you used sources other than your own pictures or research, you should include a MLA bibliography. For help with this, feel free to email me, discuss it in conferences, or come by my office hours. You’ll also need a 500 word reflection talking about the compositional and organizational choices you made in creating your comic.

As is the standard for all assignments in this course, you’ll need to turn your final draft of this essay in a folder containing all other components of this project (the ‘Accompanying Material’), in this case:
• The Drift Worksheet
• Peer Reviewed draft from both 7/9
•Your 500 word reflection on this assignment.

N.B.: Blog posts and comments will form part of the accompanying material for this assignment, but do not need to printed out. They do need to be available on your class blog.
You’ll also need to email me a digital copy of your assignment.

The goal of this project is to investigate and analyze a space on campus you’ve selected and scouted out. Your goal is to explain the place and why people interact with it (and with each other in it) in the way that they do. This might be a place you’ve never given much thought to before, or a place you go to every day. Make sure it’s a place that you can spend some time in relatively inconspicuously investigating and observing. (Common rooms, eating areas, library or study spaces, outdoor areas, etc.)

For this assignment, “space” is being defined as the location and context of real, physical objects that have been deliberately and permanently placed there. For example, the union, a dorm, and the library have been deliberately planned to create an environment and convey a message.

You’ll begin this project by completing the Place Worksheet over the first weekend of the semester.

On Tuesday, you’ll spend some time in class developing an idea and an argument about that place.

When thinking about your space you’ll want to consider questions like these:
•What sort of argument is the design of the space attempting to make? What is the space trying to convey?
•How do people interact with this place, and how is that interaction different from how they interact with other places? Why is it different? What causes this difference?
•How does this place influence people to behave in a certain manner?
•If this place were arranged differently, how would it affect the movement and interaction of people within it?

Keep asking questions like these as they come to you. You will most likely need to make several visits to your space to expand on or revise your answers.

Don’t forget to investigate the history of the space: check Purdue’s website, look for plaques, cornerstones, or memorials, ask at the information desk in the Union. Then consider how this history affects your vision of the place and how people interact with the location.

Next, ask yourself what this all means. Take your specific examples and observations, answers to the analysis questions, any interviews or information you may have gathered, and write an essay that analyzes the space rhetorically.

For the purposes of this assignment, a rhetorical analysis asks you to discuss its context (surroundings, atmosphere, a description of the space and how it functions), audience (or viewers, or people milling around, or even the people who are intended to view it but who might not be there), author (or architect/institutional creator), subject (its main idea or what it portrays, its “main point” or argument), and style (formal, informal, comfortable, useful, etc.). The point of a rhetorical analysis is to understand how all these things work together to support its purpose.

Try to synthesize all of your findings into a new observation about its history, intended purpose and actual use. That new observation should lead you to a coherent statement of its importance which can serve as a guiding (“thesis”) statement to your analysis. By putting together all of the work you’ve done, you should have a paper that covers several of the following: In other words, what is the place supposed to do? Does it actually do that? What kind of image is the space trying to portray? Is it successful? Do people use the space as intended? Is this a good or a bad thing?

On Friday, 6/25, we’ll be Peer Reviewing this essay in class. You’ll need to bring a heavily developed draft (at least 1000 words) to class and be prepared to read and comment on a classmate’s draft. Failure to show up with your draft, or meaningfully participate in Peer Review will result in the loss of participation points and will mean you’re missing one of the components (a Peer Reviewed essay) of this project.

The analysis should be 1500 to 2000 words long and properly formatted in MLA style. For details, please refer to the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) and its MLA Formatting and Style Guide.
The Basics:
Typed, double-spaced, proper headings, page numbers, a real title, 12 point Times New Roman or Courier font, 1-inch margins, indented paragraphs, MLA citation of any sources used, and a works cited page, where necessary.

Feel free to include appropriately positioned pictures of your place if they help illustrate points of your argument.
For help with this, feel free to email me, discuss it in conferences, or come by my office hours.

As is the standard for all assignments in this course, you’ll need to turn your final draft of this essay in a folder containing all other components of this project (the ‘Accompanying Material’), in this case:
•the Place Worksheet
•Pictures of your place or space
•In-Class Writing from Friday, 6/18
•Peer Reviewed draft
•200-300 word reflection on this assignment.
Please email me a .doc or .rtf electronic version of your final paper as well.