English 229
Discourse Strategies Activity

I.  Using Boiarsky’s and Soven’s summary of Chapter 2 (67-70), each group (see below) will prepare a five minute presentation that analyzes effectiveness of the discourse strategies the instructor used for the syllabus.

A. Concentrate on the Discourse Strategies from Boiarsky and Soven assigned to your group (see below).  You may need to refer to main text of the chapter in order to do your analysis.

B.  In your presentation, refer specific examples from the syllabus that demonstrate the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the syllabus’s discourse strategies.  We'll show them on the screen at the front of the room.

C.  If the instructor mostly ignored one of the discourse strategies listed in your section of  Boiarsky’s and Soven’s summary, consider whether or not, based on the writer’s and readers’ purpose, discourse communities, etc., this was a good decision.

D.  remember that Boiarsky and Soven write about printed documents while the syllabus is on-line.  You may want to point how Web documents differ from printed texts as you analyze the syllabus.

E.  If you want, re-write sections of the syllabus and display your revisions during your presentation.  (The best way to do this will be to copy sections of syllabus into a Word Document, Do your revising, and then save it on a zip disk.  If your group doesn’t have a zip disk, the next best thing to do is to send your revision to skassner@umich.edu as an attachment.  I’ll help help with this.)

II.  Please Get into the Following 6 Groups
A.  Persuasion
1.  Nicole Batty
2.  Brian Berkin
3.  Nicole Bigelow
4.  Cindy Bourbeau
B.  Organization 1 (Points 1-6)
1.  Eric Blessing
2.  Karma Brown
3.  Lauren Buxbaum
4.  Joanna Coulter
C.  Organization 2 (Points 7-12)
1.  Peter Frankfort
2.  David Freibaum
3.  Joe Friedman
4.  Christy Gajewski
D.  Visualization
1.  Erica Grossman
2.  Andrea La Mothe
3.  Matt Passen
4.  Chad Peterson
E.  Readability 1 (Points 1-6)
1.  Stephanie Peterson
2.  Michael Shafrir
3.  Lashawna Taylor
F. Readability 2 (Points 7-14)
1.  Alison Shepard
2.  Sara Vander Laan
3.  Julie Wexler
4.  Melissa Williams