Sample assignments and activities are divided up by how they meet each of the course objectives.
Course Objective 1
Practice writing as a process involving inquiry, research, feedback, and revision.
Suggested Assignments
Initial Research Activity
Ask students to explore an assigned or chosen topic by conducting “initial research” (in class or at home) in order to learn more about the “conversations” within the topic.
Once the initial research is completed, discuss how to develop a strong “research question” and have them create their own.
Ask students to create and submit an outline that provides the working thesis statement and organizes the evidence they have found within the research process.
Before the final drafts are due, set aside class time for a peer review. For this activity, students will pair up, read one another’s work, and provide feedback through instructor guided questions.
Course Objective 2
Analyze a rhetorical situation within a discourse community.
Suggested Assignments
Create a lesson where the instructor begins to unpack the definitions of both “discourse communities” and “rhetorical situations,” and ask students to help you generate a list of examples.
Then ask students to reflect and write down three discourse communities that they participate in and have them explain why each should specifically be defined as a discourse community.
Finally, ask students to consider and/or investigate any “tensions,” “conflicts,” “disagreements,” and/or “specific areas of interest” within that community.
Course Objective 3
Identify an issue relevant to a discourse community, a research question, a research plan, and digital and/or print media and genre(s) in which to present research findings to an audience.
Course Objective 4
Access the feasibility of the research inquiry.
Course Objective 5
Build a body of research in the various stages of the research process.
Suggested Assignments
Course Objective 6
Evaluate the credibility of a variety of sources.
Course Objective 7
Analyze arguments presented in sources.
Suggested Assignments
Provide students with a sample reading and practice note-taking.
Task students with reverse-outlining a reading.
Assign a Review Essay, where students must summarize a reading and address the ways the reading utilizes rhetorical techniques.
Course Objective 8
Develop research-supported arguments that address an issue relevant to a discourse community.
Suggested Assignments
In Class debates as a “low-stakes” research and argument assignment.
Instructors (or students) choose a debate topic that is in some way connected to the class material and readings for the week.
Then the instructor splits the students into “teams.” These teams can be assigned or students can choose which “side” of the debate they would like to be on.
As a group, students then develop the “thesis” of their argument and find evidence to support that thesis through research and an analysis of the class texts. This evidence can be quotes, statistics, etc.
Once the debate begins, each group presents their thesis. Then each group begins to present their first section of evidence. After that, the opposing group presents their rebuttal and their first section of evidence. This cycle continues as long as you like (or time permits).
Connect the final project to local DuPage or COD community organizations or events.
Research-Based Argumentative Essay
Course Objective 9
Incorporate responses from instructor(s) and peers as part of the revision and editing process.
Suggested Assignments
Offer students guided questions for peer-review day.
Course Objective 10
Create researched print and/or digital texts that respond to rhetorical situations.
Suggested Assignments
Remediate final essay into a research poster or infographic (includes presentation component).
Poster Project
Task students with presenting their research in a format that can be accessed online (such as a blog or web page).
Course Objective 11
Use suitable methods of citation.
Suggested Assignments
Task students with creating a sample Works Cited page based on sources that are either provided to them by the instructor or that they found themselves.