Eula Biss and Rhetorical Analysis

Eula Biss: Bring printed out Eula Biss reading for discussion

1.)    Are students being robbed by “the system?” (middle of page 135) On whom does the author say that responsibility for university students’ education rests?  Where do you think the responsibility lies?

2.)    What point(s), if any, is the author trying to make in this essay?

3.)  At the end of the passage, the author quotes, “But the students, the victims and the villains of that place, were still sitting on their porches, still tossing beanbags on Jefferson Street, and still drinking.” What  do you think she meant by this concluding sentence? Who are the victims and the villains?

4.)  What is the importance of the phrase the author quotes on a sign after the Iowa City tornado, “Toto, is this Kansas?” (pg 143, end of second paragraph) Could it be an underlining theme, hence the title of the essay?

5.) How does Biss compare the Katrina survivors to her frat boy neighbors?

6.) Why isn’t college life - the drinking, the theft, and the sexual violence publicized? Do you agree with the author when she says it might be because the older generation sees students “as the dying sparks of our former selves?”

 7.) Why do you think the theft due to the aftermath of the tornado that swept through Iowa City was not acknowledged in the local news? Why are the Midwesterners trying to hide the villains of college life?

8.) Is the author substantiated in her claim that students are  “becoming the kind of thick, docile citizens the Midwest expects them to become.” 

Rhetorical Analysis PPT

Group Activity: Each group should discern what the central claim is for the image. Then individual groups will answer their specific questions based on the aspect of analysis they are assigned and be prepared to report back to the class.

Assignment 2 Introduced

Homework:
By Thursday 1/26

1) Everything’ s an Argument p.441-451 - Bring Everything's an Argument to Class Thursday

2) Come with questions about Assignment 2. 

3) Start work on Assignment 2 DUE 2/9 posted to Blackboard by end of day.

By Tuesday 1/31

1) Annie Leonard The Story of Stuff- view online at http://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

2) Watch Grizzly Man. Links to online film are in the readings folder on Blackboard.