The common ingredient that I find in all the writing I admire ... is something that I shall reluctantly call the rhetorical stance, a stance which depends on discovering and maintaining in any writing situation a proper balance among the three elements that are at work in any communicative effort: the available argument about the subject itself, the interests and peculiarities of the audience, and the voice, the implied character of the speaker. I should like to suggest that it is this balance, this rhetorical stance, difficult as it is to describe, that is our main goal.-- Wayne Booth
We have been reading and discussing many education topics for the last few weeks. Re-read the introduction for the Education section in your book (49). You might also want to review what you have written so far.
Do colleges and universities need to change to accommodate students once excluded from the university? ("Mission Satements," Rich, Rose, Sommers, Pollit, Fryer, Brooks)
Should colleges and universities emphasize a unified view of culture and the commonalities among people, or should they emphasize people's differences? (Newman, Rich, Rose, Pollitt, Fryer)
What is (or should be) the relationship between the college/university and society? (Newman, "Mission Statements," Spayde, Rich, Croissant, Rose, Sokolove, Tierney, Pollitt)
What is (or should be) the relationship between teachers and students in the classroom? ("Mission Statements," Slate's "College Makeover," Rose, Sommers, Fryer, Brooks)
In what ways is knowledge acquired, passed on, or made in college/university? Are some better than others? (Newman, "Mission Statements," Slate's "College Makeover," Spayde, Rich, Rose)
If you haven't already done so, take a look at the questions in your text after the articles for even more possibilities.
You may use the above questions as starting places to focus your paper, or you may wish to develop your own question for a focus and try to answer it. Please do not try to recycle a paper written for a previous class: teaching philosophy statements, while useful, will not fulfill this paper assignment. Outside research is not only not necessary, but also not called for in this assignment because you are asked to use the texts we have read together for the class. The material we have covered is sufficient for the assignment, and in fact, using more than two sources will likely cause too broad a focus for your discussion.
The final draft should be 5 pages minimum (double spaced, MLA format with a Works Cited page, not included in the final pagination). Initial first draft (3 pages) is due to your group by Feb 21 (post to forum). The second draft should be completed by Feb 25. The third draft is a careful edit, again working with your partners. Please follow the dates below as closely as possible in order to allow enough time for feedback from your partners.
I have set up a forum for people to use for workshop purposes. People who are familiar with their word processor's marking capabilities are free to send drafts to each other off-moodle, especially during the editing phase. However, for those who choose to do most workshopping off-moodle, I do ask for the second draft to be posted to the forum as my copy. I will also set up the actual assignment area to allow for multiple submissions.