Week/ focus
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Session 1 |
Session 2 |
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UNIT 1: Writing the reflection summary (Oratory as the agency of the times) |
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Week 1
8 to 12 August
Orientation to the module |
No session on 8 August
Public holiday on 9 August
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Introduction: Expository writing, the module topic, and module readings
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Week 2
15 to 19 August
Planning/Drafting
Understanding a given reading’s arguments for its conclusions/ thesis |
Critical Reading Strategies 1: Annotating, summarizing and responding to a reading without plagiarizing
Readings:
“The power of rhetoric: Understanding political oratory” (Beasley, 2012)
“The study of speeches” (Parrish, 1954)
Supplementary:
“The rhetorical situation” (Bitzer, 1968)
“The rhetoric of Hitler’s battle” (Burke, 1938) |
- Overview of Paper 1: Functions of reflective summaries
- Critical Reading Strategies 2: Identifying intended audiences and rhetorical strategies to engage them in a reading’s ideas
Reading:
“Public address: A study in social and
intellectual history” (Wrage, 1947)
Supplementary:
“Form and cultural context in rhetorical criticism: Re-readingWrage” (Rosteck, 1998)
Reading text for Paper 1:
Mercieca, J. (2015 December 4). The rhetorical brilliance of Trump the demagogue. http://theconversation.com/the-rhetorical-brilliance-of-trump-the-demagogue-51984
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Week 3
22 to 26 August
Revision
Reviewing selection and organization of ideas
Editing the paper for language and mechanics |
- Critical Reading Strategies 3: Selecting and responding to a reading’s ideas
- Planning/drafting a reflective summary: Bringing together Critical Reading Strategies 1, 2, and 3 in a group discussion of a reading
Readings:
“Second inaugural address” (Lincoln,
1865 March 4)
“Dimensions of temporality in Lincoln’s second inaugural address” (Leff, 1988)
“’With malice toward none; with charity for all…’” (White, 2002) |
- Synthesis of the ideas from core readings of Unit 1
Sample text: Reflective summaries of Zarefsky and Frank (optional readings)
Readings:
“Obama’s rhetorical signature: Cosmopolitan civil religion in the inaugural address, January 20, 2009” (Frank 2011)
“The United States and the world: The rhetorical dimensions of Obama’s foreign policy” (Zarefsky, 2014) |
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Final draft of Paper 1 due on 9 September, Friday, 11.59 pm |
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UNIT 2: Writing a Comparative Essay (Oratory and intertextuality) |
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Week 4
29 August to 2 September
Planning/Drafting
Understanding the fit and/or tension between two given readings’ arguments for their conclusions/ theses |
Guided peer review: Selected summary drafts |
- Overview of Paper 2: Functions of comparative papers
- Models and components of argumentation: How argumentative functions in academic expository writing
- Group discussion of assigned readings
Readings:
“How to write a comparative analysis” (Walk, 1998) Available at http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-write-comparative-analysis
“The four parts of a lens essay argument” (Hogin, 2010) Available at http://harvardwritingcenter.wordpress.com/tag/lens-essay/
“Address to Congress following attacks of 9/11” (Bush, 2001 September 11).
“The discourse of the new world order: ‘Outcasting’ the double face of threat” (Lazar and Lazar, 2004) |
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Week 5
5 to 9 September |
- Group discussion of assigned readings
- Planning/drafting a comparative paper (1): Topic, problem, motive, analysis, and conclusions
Readings:
“National Day Rally Speech 1966” (Lee, 1966)
“Singapore’s National Day Rally speech: A site of ideological negotiation.” (Tan, 2007)
Supplementary readings:
“An investigative interview: Singapore 50 years after independence - 45th St. Gallen Symposium” (Shanmugaratnam, 2015) Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpwPciW74b8
“An open letter to Lee Hsien Loong” (Lim, 2015) Available at http://statestimesreview.com/2015/07/05/catherine-lims-open-letter-to-lee-hsien-loong/)
Texts for comparative analysis:
Three of 15 speeches by US President Barack Obama delivered after mass shootings in the United States. The speeches may be found in the article written by Neon Leyfakh for Slate.
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- Synthesis of core readings of Unit 2
- Planning/drafting a comparative paper (2): Thesis and supporting arguments
Sample text: Comparative analysis of Martin Luther King (1963) and Nelson Mandela’s (1964) touchtone speeches
Speeches:
- “I have a dream” (King, 1963 March 28)
- “An ideal for which I am prepared to die” (Mandela, 1964 April 20)
Supplementary reading:
“The rhetoric of Nelson Mandela: A qualified success” (Sheckels, 2001) |
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Week 6
12 to 16 September
Revision
Reviewing selection and organization of ideas
Editing the paper for language and mechanics |
- Planning/drafting a comparative paper (3): Selecting relevant, sufficient, and representative evidence
- Planning/drafting a comparative paper (4): Organizing arguments
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Drafting the comparative essay |
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RECESS WEEK (17 to 25 September) |
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First draft of Paper 2 due on 20 September, Tuesday, 11.59 pm
Final draft of Paper 2 due on 7 October, 11.59 pm |
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UNIT 3: Writing the Expository Essay (Oratory and the (re)shaping of public discourse) |
Week 7
26 to 30 September
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Conferencing for paper 2 |
Conferencing for paper 2 |
Week 8
3 to 7 October
Planning/Drafting
- Understanding the fit and/or tension between multiple readings’ arguments for their conclusions/ theses
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- Overview of the Paper 3: Functions of the expository paper
- Planning an expository paper (1): Reading sources (a reading, film, etc. for an idea around which a researchable problem can be formed)
- Planning an expository paper (2): Collecting and analyzing ideas from primary sources to investigate the researchable problem, drawing conclusions, determining and formulating a thesis from the conclusions’ contestable aspects
Required reading:
“Where is public address? George W. Bush, Abu Ghraib, and contemporary moral discourse” (Condit, 2009)
Supplementary readings:
“Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies” (Benoit, 1995)
“Crafting virtue: The rhetorical construction of public morality” (Condit, 1987)
“A pentadic analysis of Senator Edward Kennedy’s Address to the People of Massachusetts, July 25, 1969” (Ling 1970/2000) |
- Planning an expository paper (3): Re-enforcing the documentation of sources to avoid plagiarism
- Planning/drafting an expository paper (4): Selecting, relevant, sufficient, and representative evidence
Sample texts: Expository papers from previous classes
Required readings:
“Strategic maneuvering in political
argumentation” (Zarefsky, 2008)
“A pentadic analysis of ideologies in two gay rights controversies” (Brummet, 1979)
Supplementary reading:
“The presidency as pastiche” (Heidt, 2012)
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Week 9
10 to 14 October
- Independently finding source material
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Library session
- Planning an expository paper (5): Using secondary sources to help analyze primary sources to respond to the researchable problem in ways that increase one’s understanding of the problem and the possibilities of resolving the problem
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Student presentations (formative): progress reports on Paper 3
- Topic
- Analytical framework
- Secondary sources
- Tentative insights
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Week 10
17 to 21 October
Revision
Reviewing selection and organization of ideas |
Student-teacher conferences on topic outlines |
Student-teacher conferences on topic outlines
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Week 11
24 to 28 October
Presentations |
Student-teacher conferences on topic outlines |
- Presentations of papers
- Critique of papers’ arguments
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Week 12
31 October to 4 November
Presentations |
- Presentations of papers
- Critique of papers’ arguments
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- Presentations of papers
- Critique of papers’ arguments
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Week 13
7 to 11 November |
- Presentations of papers
- Critique of papers’ arguments
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Synthesis |
First draft of Paper 3 due 24 to 28 October (Paper should be submitted a week after scheduled conferencing)
Final draft of Paper 3 due on 11 November, Friday, 11.59 pm |