ENG 140: Introduction to Writing and Rhetoric

Writing Assignments

on this page:

Essay of Introduction
Interview with Faculty Member
Essay on Orwell and Language
Essay of Definition of Rhetoric

Essay of Introduction
This essay will introduce you as a reader and writer to the class as a whole.  I'd like you to be prepared to have peers read it during class on Tuesday, 9/9.  To get you thinking about the range of your writing experience, please use the Inventory of Writing Experience.  Since you are English majors, you'll probably want to mention your reading tastes as well, though if you prefer, you may keep the emphasis on your writing.

Interview with an English Department Member
This is a collaborative assignment, which means you will work with one or two other students.  You will contact a faculty member in the English Department and set up a brief interview.  You can request about 1/2 hour of the professor's time--but be warned:  we are talkative!  Plan together on some specific questions to ask the professor.  Your interview will focus on the place of reading and writing in his or her life.  You may want to find out what the professor reads for pleasure, what he/she reads for scholarly purposes, what his/her favorite book is, what kind of writing he/she does, what articles or books or poems he/she has recently published, etc.  Take good notes (and this is a good reason for going with another student), so that you can share the interview data with the class on Tuesday, 9/23, and hand in a collaboratively written version on Thursday, 9/25.

Writing Your Interview:  Typically, an interview is presented with a short introduction followed by the actual questions and answers.  For an example of this, see this interview with Ann Patchett on Powell's Books' Website.

Who are the English faculty members?  (We need to update the Department's Web pages!)  Dr. Elick, Prof. Cook, Prof. Covington, Dr. Duncan, Dr. Galloway, Dr. Huffstetler, Dr. Sheridan, Dr. Trevitte, Prof. Wolfe, Prof. Sorge-Way (who teaches one section of ENG 101 and PDP 150 for us)--and me, of course.

Essay on Orwell and Language
Whole books have been written on George Orwell's insights into the political uses of language.  Reflecting on 1984 and Orwell's other writing, especially "Politics and the English Language," discuss Orwell's commentary on the uses to which language may be put, the ways it may be manipulated to deter people from thinking rather than encourage reflection and analysis.  Your essay may take any direction that you find satisfying.  You may discuss the concept of doublethink in the context of current campaign rhetoric or oversimplified media portrayals of complex ideas (for example, scientific principles or research) or advertising.  Or you may reflect more personally on language and memory, say, the way that a particular word or name might call up a specific memory.  Another possibility is to discuss the representation of history, how the subtle use of language can significantly influence our views of a topic.  You may want to discuss language and our concept of reality.  Whatever your topic, you will want to draw substantially on 1984 and, if you wish, other texts by Orwell, using quotations and citing them MLA-style in your essay.

This should be a substantial piece of writing.  Four to six pages is about right, but if you don't have that much to say, don't pad your essay.  We'll look at the draft together in class in a peer response session (10/7), after which you may revise before handing it in to me (10/9), and I'll ask you to revise at least once more before including it in your final portfolio.  

Research on a Writer
An important focus in this course is the work of the writer.  For this project, you will want to select a writer who is currently writing or who has only recently died, someone who has achieved substantial recognition, as a subject for research.  Your research will focus more on interviews and comments by the writer on his or her writing inspiration and practices than on critiques of specific works, though you are encouraged to read at least excerpts from them.  If you were to choose Jhumpa Lahiri, for instance, you would find that she is a fine short story writer so you could read some of her stories to extend your insight.  Much of your research may be online, but you may be surprised to find books in our library like Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft or Conversations with Don DeLillo (edited by Thomas DePietro).  Be sure to check the online catalog.  You'll also find lots of information in the database Contemporary Authors, accessible from the library's Web pages.

Your project is to create a portrait of this writer as a writer.  You will want to let your reader know the major works he/she has written, elements of biography that are of interest or particularly relevant to his/her writing (including college or graduate school classes or teachers), significant influences (like Ann Patchett's citing of novelist and teacher Allan Gurganus), books that the writer loves, music he/she listens to, writing practices or habits, choice of pseudonym, inspiration for an important work, etc., etc.

Completed project due--November 11

Essay on Defining Rhetoric
We have considered Orwell's ideas about language, some definitions of "rhetoric," Mary Pipher's suggestions for writers who want to make a difference in the world, and some information about Classical Rhetoric, and we have practiced rhetorical techniques and paid attention to how the candidates used language effectively in their speeches. Now, I'd like you to consider all of these sources and select the most powerful ideas you have encountered to write your own extended definition of rhetoric.  Some brief suggestions for writing an essay of definition are available at http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/definition.html.  We'll devote the class period on 11/13 to working on this essay, and it will be due on 11/18.

Technical/Scientific Writing Project
Select a scientific or technical process or concept that you will explain to a general audience (me).  You may want to consider a scientific topic that has come up in your PDP class or one that has been mentioned during the campaign.  But keep it narrow--you are not writing a big research paper on global warming.

Your sources of information will include both some print texts and, an expert whom you will interview to get information about your topic.  After you have gathered your information, present it as clearly as you can, using any visual aids you feel are useful (e.g., diagrams, tables, etc.).  You'll want to choose a style appropriate to scientific and technical writing--no rhetorical flourishes.  I think you'll find these Technical Writing Guidelines useful. Note that, given the succinctness of scientific/technical writing, your paper will be fairly short.

We'll do some of the writing in class, so that you may consult me on style and presentation of information.  The paper will be due in your final portfolio.

Web page
Every versatile writer should be able to create a basic Web page. Web page writing requires a different kind of thinking from essay writing and creative writing. The visual elements play a major role, and Web writing is necessarily linked into a huge hypertext--the WWW itself.  Therefore, I'll ask you to create a "front door" Web page with some visual elements and links.

Creative Writing Project
For your final portfolio, please work on a piece of creative nonfiction, a complete short story, or a collection of three to five poems or song lyrics, or a substantial excerpt from a longer piece of fiction, if you are already working on a fiction project for personal purposes. Please feel free to draw from your Notebook writing and develop one of those texts into finished writing.

Updated by Dr. Trupe Sept. 4, 2008