CTYOnline - Writing Analysis & Persuasion

 Detailed Course Information - Web-based format

Cultural Studies and the Capstone Essay

Cultural studies approaches social interaction as a "text" to be analyzed, interpreted, and critiqued. Three  assignments -- 6, 8 and 10 -- depend on observing a cultural group, (brother's Cub Scout pack, mom's finance group,  friend's computer club: any group where there is significant social interaction).

Students write an informal proposal of the observation -- a description of the group, how to arrange the logistics(parental okay, how often to meet, transportation to and from, etc.), and, most importantly, WHY the group will make an interesting observation. The instructor approves the group and the logistics.

• Observations must have begun by the time students begin writing Assignment 6
• Observations must be completed by the time students begin writing Assignment 8

The capstone essay, Assignment 10, is a substantial revision of Assignment 8. This revision is intended to incorporate all the skills and rhetorical modes that students have worked on.

The Difference in Formats

Although the formats cover the same concepts, they differ in approach. 

In the email format, students email finished essays to instructors and receive detailed critiques of those essays.  Assignments in this format can be individualized to address a particular student's needs; thus, assignments may vary by instructor and from student to student. 

The flexi-paced format uses a web-based course management system that delivers assignments, receives finished essays, and returns instructor critiques. Students and instructors use the course management system's messaging module to communicate. Because due date schedules vary by student, peer review workshops are not possible. Students and instructors need not be online at the same time.

The web-based format is an interactive, process-oriented course featuring frequent peer discussions of readings and writings in an online, asynchronous workshop. Students and instructor need not be online at the same time. The majority of assignments apply the strategies of classical rhetoric (narration, definition, argument, persuasion, and so forth) to the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies, which is concerned with the production of meaning in society.  Students read essays by authors including Susan Orlean, Joan Didion, and Anne Lamott as well as more traditional writings about argument by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren.

Integral to all formats is a substantial metacognitive dialogue with the instructor about writing.

Sample Assignment

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