Take-Home Final Due May 15th by 9:30am

After completing the final blog entry below, turn to your textbook. Choose one chapter from our book which you find particularly helpful (NOT THE SHORTEST! Ha ha....) Next, choose two other chapters that you found interesting, or learned something important in, or skipped and can now go back to joyfully.

Clearly indicate which chapters you've selected as MAIN: and SUPPORT:

Create a written piece with a title, demonstrating understanding and using vocabulary from these chapters (underline 10 terms please) and creative ideas. For instance: You could choose the persuasive chapter and then as support, the audience and listening chapters. Then create a screenplay about a student trying to convice her parents to let her go out on a school night--you can use quotations, write dialougue, write a really long poem with ryhming, write the piece as a long 'rap' or song, write a scene from a movie OR post your response on You Tube (give me the url), write a short play, write a journal with daily entries, write a recipe, design a graphic novel, sketch and draw with captions, make a "map" for speaking success--design a board game, write a children's story, or have me approve another idea.

Present briefly (show and tell style) on these final pieces in class during our potluck next week. Plan to spend about 2 1/2 hours compiling your masterpiece! Writing should be equal to about 3 pages of material total--grammar and references will not affect grade as long as I can understand your work, please type whenever possible. (70% of final grade). Do NOT post your actual finals here, but questions and discussion are welcome on comments below!

Final Blog

Wow--what a pleasure to work with such dedicated and curious students! Thanks for everything you've taught me! As I reflect on a few of the highlights of our class this semester: you know, gulping down coffee together, numb limbs from sitting for so long, desperately passing the book back and forth in lieu of purchasing it-the dogs in the classroom, the free Red Bull (oh that's right, we haven't had one yet...) I find myself reviewing the fabulous, sophisticated and academically elevating topics we've explored: Making salad from bags, the Mayan apocalypse, bad fashion choices, great hair, crop circles, boiling eggs, how sitting can KILL you, oil changing, cutting class and making paper airplanes.... Well, we've really grown haven't we??!?? I mean what about here on our blog--who knew 'poo' could offer such a rich and helpful source for Toulmin reasoning? Seriously, you people are deep! Ummm...anyway...You all finish this class better than you were when you began, a testament to facing your fears and practice--Hope your public speaking skills help you in life! For this blog (20% of your final grade) Select a current event and a key concept from the text--Paraphrase the CAPITALIZED concept in your own words and site the page number. Also use the current event (or classroom example)as evidence of your concept. Do not repeat another person's concept. For instance:

ETHOS (p. 377) is characterized as speaker credibility or the amount of credence an audience will give to a speaker based on their 'expertise' and ethics--it's someone's 'character' and can make a good speaker effective in persuasion --A good example of this took place in our classroom when Lashonda taught Sandra the phrase "I look a hot mess"--both fashionable women had selected casual attire that day and now I want to use Toulmin in my example of ETHOS:
Claim: (so) Sandra desperately wants to remain 'hip' despite the aging process and
Warrant: (since) Lashonda is an authority in our class on professional and stylistic choices,
Data/evidence: (because) Lashonda shared the phrase: "I look a hot mess" with poor Sandra!

This is reasoning by authority by the way, the type of reasoning that most heavily relies on ETHOS! Ok--your turn--carefully read ALL previous entries--If you repeat another persons concept from the book you will recieve a zero on this part of the final!

Yeesh--I am a blog slacker!

Sorry gang--I forgot to post for the past week--I completed my interpersonal posting but forgot about good ole' 301! So I'll count this one double to make up for it! Good news, good news--The end is near! Great speecheslast week and yes, it's time for some Toulmin--remember earlier in the semester we encountered Toulmin logic and I suggested you wait until later in the semester to try it out--Now's the time! Basically, you reason your argument by taking data (or evidence) and basedon that data you make a claim, for instance: Data: (Because) I see puddles of water everywhere so (claim): there has been a late spring storm...'so' and 'because' help you to sign post your data (because) and your claim (So,...) Next... you look at the data and claim together and examine the reasoning behind them...in my example, it would be 'sign reasoning' as puddles are a 'sign' of rain--get it? You can use analogies or examples to reason as well, or even cause and effect! So for my example, my warrant is something like: (Since) water is a sign of rain...(since is the signpost for your warrant)

...now all together: (Since) Water is a sign of rain (So) we must have had a spring storm last night (because) I see puddles everywhere! Ta-dah! A Toulmin argument with all 3 parts!

Now you try it: State evidence or data and label it (because), then make a claim labeled by (So) and consider your reasoning (a sign, cause/effect, analogy, authority or examples) And finally state the warrant--warrants are brief and more abstract than the data and claim, that is they apply the bigger picture...rain as evidence becomes WATER in the warrant, snow and ice as data become BAD WEATHER in the warrant--see? It always gets more abstract. Finally the warrant is never "qualified" meaning you won't find words such as "sometimes" and "usually" in a warrant,it's short and sweet, abstract and obvious. For instance in my example above, do we really need to say "water is a sign of rain?" Warrants are so obvious we often don't say them out loud! Ok--your turn!

1. Evidence or data (because)
2. Claim (so)
3. Reasoning? (analogy, example, sign, cause, authority)
4. Warrant (Since)

Try using someone else in class to make this fun! ..."Since tardiness is a sign of intelligence.."