{"id":10063,"date":"2023-08-22T16:48:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T20:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=10063"},"modified":"2023-08-23T17:57:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T21:57:11","slug":"engl4183-5183august23","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl4183-5183fall2023\/engl4183-5183august23\/","title":{"rendered":"August 23rd:\u00a0Introduction to the Class"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Plan For Tonight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2023\/08\/ENGL4183-5183Fall2023syl.pdf\">Syllabus and course requirements<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make sure you get copies of our textbooks:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kolln, Martha J. and Gray, Loretta S. <em>Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects<\/em> <span style=\"background-color: yellow\">(8th Edition)<\/span>. Pearson: 2017. {978-0-13-4080376}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Barrett, Grant. <em>Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking<\/em>. Zephyros P: 2016. {978-1-62315-714-2}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You will have specific exercises to do in the Kolln &amp; Gray textbook, so make sure you have the <strong>8th edition<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/canvas.charlotte.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Canvas<\/strong><\/a> Introduction; report back to class<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fabulous First-Day-of-Class Exam!<\/strong>&#8211;on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/canvas.charlotte.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Canvas<\/strong><\/a>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is a diagnostic for me to gauge the class&#8217;s familiarity and isn&#8217;t graded but required.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"background-color: yellow\">Not doing it will drop your <strong>Exam #1<\/strong> grade by 10%.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If we cover everything, we&#8217;ll move onto <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl4183-5183fall2023\/engl4183-5183august30\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"10074\">August 30th&#8217;s page<\/a><\/strong> to get ahead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8220;Technical Writing&#8221; vs &#8220;Technical Communication&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before we get too far into the specific reading, let&#8217;s consider the difference between &#8220;technical writing&#8221; and &#8220;technical communication.&#8221; Is there really a difference? Let&#8217;s focus on &#8220;writing&#8221; and &#8220;communication.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This course is not necessarily an introduction to <strong>editing<\/strong> because, presumably, you&#8217;ve already had that in English 2116 and other Technical Communication courses\/situations, or you&#8217;re a quick learner. Instead, this course is an intermediate (or advanced) step in your becoming effective technical communicators. Whether or not you actually become an employee with the title &#8220;Technical Writer,&#8221; is irrelevant: <strong>ALL OF YOU WILL HAVE TO COMMUNICATE TECHNICAL INFORMATION TO AUDIENCES<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make sure you&#8217;re reading the assigned material. Your three Exams (which are slightly cumulative) will be based nearly entirely on the reading. I&#8217;m going to try my best to make sure we use the vocabulary from the book because I think the concepts are very useful. In different contexts the terms might have&nbsp;different meanings, but the ideas and strategies the terms describe are practically universal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ethos, Pathos, Logos<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Although this isn&#8217;t a rhetorical theory class, we will need to understand rhetoric to help guide our writing and editing choices. Below is a quick overview of ethos, pathos, and logos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ethos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ethos<\/a><\/strong>: appeal or presentation of one&#8217;s character or credibility.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Titles: M.D., PhD, Sir, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dame\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dame<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dr._Dre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dr.<\/a><\/strong>, Count, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Occupations: Physicist, President, General, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Brand Recognition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pathos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pathos<\/a><\/strong>: appeal to emotions; evoking emotional responses.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>appeal to fear<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>appeal to patriotism<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>appeal to desires<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Logos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Logos<\/a><\/strong>: appeals to logic or facts in a message.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Syllogisms<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Argument_(logic)#Deductive_arguments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Deductive arguments<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Implicit or explicit message that &#8220;if you&#8217;re smart, successful, important, etc., you wil do something&#8221; (i.e., quit paying more for&#8230;)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Graphs, statistics, legal codes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Please consider the above elements when doing your assignments. Also, consider how you can craft your prose (or edit the prose of others) for a rhetorical effect. What can we say about the following advertisement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2018\/08\/LivingWithAddition-e1534972969795.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"960\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2018\/08\/LivingWithAddition-e1534972969795.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4976\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t mind living with &#8220;addition,&#8221; but I certainly don&#8217;t want to live with &#8220;multiplying&#8221;! What might the above ad do to the <em><strong>ethos<\/strong><\/em> of Palm Partners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Something that is difficult to catch&#8211;especially in our own work&#8211;is when we use <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Homonym\" target=\"_blank\">homonyms<\/a><\/strong>, which are words that sound the same but have different meanings, writing the same but are pronounced differently or both (c.f. homographs vs homophones: <em>-graph<\/em> for writing; <em>-phone<\/em> for sound). Spell checkers in word processors are pretty good and can even check multiple languages simultaneously. Grammar checkers aren&#8217;t as good, but they&#8217;re getting better. A grammar checker wouldn&#8217;t catch &#8220;addition&#8221; as incorrect, but it might catch the difference between the following homonyms from the above sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ad&#8230;add<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>do&#8230;due&#8230;dew&#8230;doo (ha! couldn&#8217;t resist)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider strategies to check for homonyms. I hate for you to right something incorrect that wood effect you&#8217;re ethos&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>David Frike&#8217;s \u201cThe E Street Band Keep Rolling in \u201909\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At some point, I decided that this class needed a <em>writing reviews<\/em> component. Even though this is a &#8220;technical writing&#8221; class, I&#8217;m trying to provide assignments that might broaden your professional writing profile. Basically, if you can focus on how your prose communicates, you&#8217;ll be better able to adapt to a variety of communication settings. Also, word economy and efficiency are overall goals for technical communication, so these short reviews will be helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The article I wanted you to read for this week is supposed to demonstrate an intangible in writing. Of course, this isn&#8217;t a class on music history, so I&#8217;m not asking you to read this for information. Instead, consider how the author describes the album <em>Working on a Dream<\/em>. By the way, what&#8217;s going on with subject verb agreement in &#8220;The E Street Band Keep&#8230;&#8221;? Don&#8217;t we write &#8220;keeps&#8221; for singular subjects? This is something for you to ponder for the next 15 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fricke\u2019s article is a series of prepackaged ideas that carry his discussion of the Springsteen album. Phrases such as \u201cpop stomps loaded with Beatlesque guitar jangle,\u201d \u201c1966-Beach Boys vocal harmonies,\u201d and \u201cpedal steel guitar <em>a la<\/em> Bob Dylan\u2019s Nashville Skyline\u201d (para. 3) are loaded with information\u2013hypercompressed\u2013and are references requiring readers to have fairly good music knowledge. Consider audience, purpose, and situation (context).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article was originally in print, but <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/the-e-street-band-keep-rolling-in-09-68021\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>it has since gone online<\/strong><\/a>. What are some differences you notice between the print (PDF) and online versions? The print version is on Canvas, so check that out if you haven&#8217;t already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/dd57c616-1478-445b-9f0a-b1861edd1fd4\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Suzy Feay&#8217;s review of the Netflix series <em>Away<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can only access the above webpage once, so I recommend saving it using the Adobe Acrobat extension. I didn&#8217;t realize this until after I had already closed out and tried to re-access it. You should be able to re-access it on a different computer. Fortunately, UNC Charlotte has a <em>Financial Times<\/em> subscription, so I have the PDF of it up on Canvas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both reviews are similar in that they use a montage approach to listing attributes of their media. However, even though Feay is absolutely correct that <em>Away<\/em> is garbage, her review is sloppy, depending on a pastiche approach that throws references from the show together but doesn&#8217;t <em>weave<\/em> them into an appropriate review that provides a fuller interpretation. Fricke makes many references to other musicians&#8217; works, but he doesn&#8217;t just list them; he uses references to weave together an impression. Consider these passages from both:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fricke<\/strong>: Ironically, \u201cTomorrow Never Knows\u201d is not the Beatles\u2019 <em>Revolver<\/em> song but a Springsteen original outfitted with fiddle, strings[,] and pedal steel guitar \u00e0 la Bob Dylan\u2018s <em>Nashville Skyline<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Feay<\/strong>: \u201cSpacewalk is like war!\u201d snarls Misha (Mark Ivanir, respectable). \u201cI can do it\u201d\u2019 \u201cYou\u2019re crazy!\u201d \u201cWhat the hell is she doing?\u201d The Brit starts praying. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost visual!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Fricke&#8217;s word economy compares a song to two well-known albums; whereas, Feay lists out-of-context lines from a new, not-very-well-known TV show. Again, Feay&#8217;s review is correct that <em>Away<\/em> is a trite, poorly written show with a run-of-the mill plot that puts Hilary Swank, an Oscar-winning actress, into a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.razzies.com\/razz-newz.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Razzie-winning<\/strong><\/a> <em>Lifetime Network<\/em> role. This review would get a 70% grade and not because its 432 words are nearly half the required length. In order to truly understand the banal nature of the show based on this review, you&#8217;d have to watch the show. This review didn&#8217;t paint an appropriate picture, so I had to watch the show, and that&#8217;s an hour I&#8217;ll never get back. Reviews are to pique the interest of readers: writers are not trying to provide in-depth descriptions or full synopses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the way, <em>trite<\/em>, <em>banal<\/em>, and <em>run-of-the-mill<\/em> are all synonyms for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesaurus.com\/browse\/common\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>&#8220;common.&#8221;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Language Authorities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If we haven&#8217;t covered <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/edited-american-english-or-eae-1690630\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Standard Edited American English (SEAE)<\/a><\/strong>, we&#8217;ll discuss that here. This class privileges SEAE, but that is by no means the only type of English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What or who are language authorities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Next Week<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The books have been listed on the bookstore&#8217;s website since March, so you should have them by today, but I hope you have them by next week. Review the syllabus to keep up with the reading. Here&#8217;s what you should have read before next week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Rhetorical Grammar<\/em> \u201cIntroduction\u201d (pp. 1-3) and Ch. 1 (pp. 5-16)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Perfect English Grammar<\/em> \u201cIntroduction\u201d (pp. 11-15) and Ch. 1, 2, &amp; 3 (pp. 16-38)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In two weeks, you&#8217;ll have homework based on the exercises in <strong>Kolln &amp; Gray&#8217;s 8th edition<\/strong>, so get these books soon if you haven&#8217;t already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan For Tonight &#8220;Technical Writing&#8221; vs &#8220;Technical Communication&#8221; Before we get too far into the specific reading, let&#8217;s consider the difference between &#8220;technical writing&#8221; and &#8220;technical communication.&#8221; Is there really a difference? Let&#8217;s focus on &#8220;writing&#8221; and &#8220;communication.&#8221; This course is not necessarily an introduction to editing because, presumably, you&#8217;ve already had that in English [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":10057,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10063","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-2Cj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10063"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10082,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10063\/revisions\/10082"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}