Looking at Rhetorical Framework

Good morning everyone!

Let's begin by reading at the bell.

Today, you should have a draft of a personal statement.

You'll need a few tabs open:

• Your Writer's Notebook (where your draft should be)
• This view-only document on the Elements of the Rhetorical Framework (you can make yourself a copy if you wish)
• This form that you will be using to evaluate your draft.

Our goal today is to assess our personal statements in relation to the elements of the rhetorical framework. 

It's okay if you were not thinking about these elements when you were writing your draft. Today, we'll dig into them a little bit, and you can begin to think about what's successful and what's missing within your own work.

A number of you, at the beginning of the year, asked what we meant by rhetorical. Let's start there.

Rhetoric is how you craft your writing (or speaking) to be meaningful/purposeful, and effective.

To do this, you must think about more than simply writing it down. You must evaluate how you want to present yourself to your readers/listeners.

We'll look at these elements in relation to some advertisements.

Time to Draft

Fill out this form






"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them."

- Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

Do you feel like we don't do enough writing?

I feel like we don't do enough writing.

Today you will be working on the first draft of your essay.
Writing involves many drafts, especially when they are about personal experiences.
You will need to have your first draft written in your Writer's Notebook on Monday, which means that you'll need to do as much writing as you can today, and know that you may have to do some extra writing this weekend.

The document below gives you options for your personal statements.

Personal Statement Prompts

Please make sure to label your draft with your essay prompt and, if applicable, the college it applies to.

There are two ways to go about this:

Option 1: Just start writing. Forget about structure and organization because you can figure that out later. Writer's that choose this option should feel ready to write. They should know which essay they want to write and have a good idea what they want to present in their essays.

Option 2: Take some time to sketch out your paper using a planning chart like the in the Personal Statement Prompts file. It may be a good idea to choose a couple prompts and try out different approaches and/or subjects. Draw on what you read this week and have written over the past few weeks. Use this to draw out your sense of purpose for your essay. Then move on to writing.

Student Models, Day 2

Books out!

Let's read!

Yesterday you read from a selection of student models that all took different approaches to writing the personal statement.

Today, you will meet in groups to share what you have read, and provide your group members with what those approaches look like.

These are not the only ways to approach your personal statements. They are simply some examples.

With your group, ask each other the following questions (though you can ask more than just these). You do not have to write anything down, simply discuss:

• Can you give us a brief summary of your personal statement?
• What was the writer's purpose in writing the essay they did?
• What are some of it's strengths? Weaknesses? Can you give evidence?
• What are some powerful sentences in the essay that we should hear?
• How can we apply techniques from this personal statement to our own?

With the remaining time, reflect on the following in your Writer's Notebook, at the top, under today's date, as a freewrite.

How can I tell my story?

"____________ is a keen interest of mine......"
"My story begins with......"
Try a technique: Dialogue, flashback, reflection, a description

Looking at Student Models

Guess what day it is!

Let's read.

You'll need to get yourself to this blog, and open your Writer's Notebook.

Yesterday you did a little bit of research and individual work based on your needs.

Let's get ourselves focused on the upcoming task. We're going to spend the next couple days looking at some student models. These are real personal statements that high school students wrote. 

Right now you only need to focus your attention on one of the following. I will tell you which link to click on.

Example ONE

Example TWO

Example THREE

Example FOUR

Copy and Paste the following questions into your Writer's Notebook:

1. Which model are you reading?
2. What does the writer want you to learn about her/him? What was his or her goal in telling you this particular story?
3. How does the writer introduce their essay? How is it effective or not effective?
4. What are 1 or 2 powerful sentences that show who this person is and what they are trying to convey?
5. What part of their writing was most successful? (Voice, word choice, story arc, clear ideas, etc)
6. Do you see any instances of ethos (credibility), logos (logic), or pathos (emotion)? How do the affect the writing?
7. How might you apply these techniques to your own writing?
8. What could make their essays better or stronger?

Research Day

Hello! Happy Tuesday!

Please get your netbooks and your books out.

When the bell rings, we'll be reading.

In your Writer's Notebook, labeled with today's date:

Which career/college path am I planning for? Write one word at the top of your document to describe what this is. (If you aren't sure, or are still deciding, pick one for now.)

I will give you directions from there.

By the end of today, you should be able to walk out of this class knowing what essay you are going to be writing, and, if applicable, the college it applies to. A more detailed description will be given to you later this week. Your choices are:

• Write a personal statement that you can tailor to your future job (like a statement of purpose) that explains who you are, what matters to you, and/or the skills that you possess that will show why you will be an excellent "candidate" for employment. It should probably be between 500 and 700 words.
• A specific college application essay from a college that you are applying to. If the required essays have a 250 or 300 word limit, pick two. (Trust me, you'll be happier if you're working on two at once.) You may, of course, choose an essay from the Common App.

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Places to start:

HELPFUL LINKS:

• Common App essays (plus Stanford Essays)
• UC Schools Personal Statements (If you want to write towards a career path, instead of a specific school, I would recommend checking out these essays. You can choose one of these as your prompt.)
• For questions about colleges, a good place to start is College Board
• Choosing a Career Path and/or Major
• If you're planning to attend a local community college, make sure you look at the website for admissions requirements. And if you plan to transfer to a 4-year university, remember you'll still need to write transfer application essays!)

Career-bound topics of research:

• skills or abilities needed to enter their career
• what a typical day looks like, or common tasks you would be doing
• job security - Is this field hiring? How does it treat its employees?
• What does a statement of purpose look like?

College-bound topics of research:

• Deadlines/admission requirements
• Financial aid requirements or opportunities
• What it means to choose a major, and opportunities in that field
• What does the college's town look like?
• Which application essay do you want/need to write?

BEFORE YOU LEAVE, FILL OUT THIS FORM
I would like to know what direction you're heading with your essay before we sit down to write in a couple days.

Also, here's a link to an interesting article you might like. It's called 7 Strange Questions that Help You Find Your Life Purpose

Library Day

Good Morning!

You do not need your netbooks.

After I take attendance, we will go to the library.

You need your ID. 

If you already have a book, bring it.

You can read in the library.

 

1. Now that we're back, we'll read for ten minutes! This will be a daily thing. You must bring your book.
2. One of the Common Application questions asks the following: "Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?"
   
   Let's look more closely at this through writing.

One thing to keep in mind is that you need to tell a story and/or paint a picture. How can you create the most vivid picture for your reader?

Letter to a Friend

Over the past week you've read two articles, watched a few TED talks, and worked to respond to those texts using your own thoughts and experiences.

At this point, I want you to forget about making the perfect essay.

Today, write a letter to a trusted friend or family member

Some ideas to get you started:

• Ask for advice about your ideas and explain why you need the advice
• Explain why you are prepared for the next stage of your life
• Describe your concerns
• Tell about an even that shows your skills, including strengths and weaknesses
• Write questions you have about the next stage of your life and answer them 

Write without consulting your notes. Write freely. If you feel like you've written all you can about an idea. Try tackling it from another angle. Let yourself get side-tracked. It is a letter to a friend, after all.

The goal is to produce as much as you can. It doesn't matter how good it is. Just push your ideas further.

Don't Stop Writing.

Reminder:

You need to make sure the assignments in your Writer's Notebook are completed.
This includes:

• 9/19 - Letter to a friend
• 9/18 - Reflective Questions about the texts
• 9/16 - Three Truths and Freewrite
• 9/11 - Angel Perez Advice/comments table and description of a time you were "less than perfect."

If you don't know what these are, scroll down to check the blog posts from those days, ask me, or email me.

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There is one change that's going to be made starting Monday.
Each day when you come to class and are waiting for your computers to load, we will take the first ten minutes of class to read.

"For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style." (Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries, 1640)

I have reserved time for you to go to the library on Monday if you need a book (You will need your ID). You are also welcome to bring one of your own. Either way, you will need to bring a book to class every day starting Tuesday.