Unit 1 Overview/Due Dates

English 101 Unit 1: Why Should I Care About This Story?

We’ve all read a newspaper. We’ve all watched the television news. Maybe we even remembered what we read or watched hours later. Maybe not. Regardless of how you feel about the genres of print, online, and television news articles and scripts, you will now be asked to work with one of them—creating your own piece in the process.

First, we’ll decide what stories we care about and what news items we think ISU students should know about. After we decide on these stories, you will get to pick the story that you want to work with in particular as well as what specific genre you will follow this story on—print newspaper, online paper, or television news script. After picking your topic, you will find at least 3-4 examples of your chosen topic in your chosen topic—just with different audiences so you get a feel of how that particular topic changes even with written genres. (Take a look at the learning blog entry for an example of this). Your classmates will become important as you work with your stories, helping you to analyze their language and content across contexts, coming up with how you could localize your story for ISU students, creating with a rubric for your article, and, ultimately, writing it. Consider these people like your support system for this particular unit.

Throughout this unit, we will not just be focusing on the ultimate goal of writing a news article for an audience of your peers. We will also begin to learn how to analyze how the language used within these various genres is constructed, how content is set up and implemented, and how other important criteria play a role in the creation of these genres. Don’t worry—we will practice all of these along the way!

Important Dates to Remember… although they are subject to change! This is what to do before class:

Monday, January 30	Topic/news story and examples stories due (post on blog)
Wednesday, February 1	Read “Playing well with Others…” in GRWJ; pg. 35
Friday, February 3	Bring tentative rubrics and analysis notes
Monday, February 6	Learning Blog #1 Due; “Final” Rubrics due
Monday, February 13	Rough drafts of articles due; bring to class
Friday, February 17	Learning Blog #2 Due; Project 1 Due

  Your final grade on this project must include these aspects turned in on the due date:

·         The news story you composed

·         The rubric that you formulated for this

·         The analysis as well as the articles that you analyzed to create your story and your rubric

·         Keep in mind, the learning blogs are just as important as they document your learning!

Particular aspects that will be taken into consideration in assessing these projects

The News Story

·         How well did you follow your rubric?

·         How well did you localize it for ISU students?

·         Did you include at least one interview and cite accordingly?

·         How much effort seems to be made?

The Rubric

·         Do the criteria make sense for the genre/audience you have chosen?

·         Is this clearly produced?

The Analysis

·         Did you include the articles/scripts you analyzed with the final project?

·         How well did you consider language use throughout the various contexts?

·         How well did you consider content use throughout the various contexts?

·         How well did you consider other aspects/criteria specific to your specific genre/topic?

The Learning Blogs (although a separate grade…)

·         See handout for further explanation on this