Week 11: Mon 3.30/Wed 4.1

The markups on food via delivery services range from 7-91% more than what you would pay if you bought the meal directly from the restaurant.

Notes:

• This amended schedule:

• Is subject to change pending the situation with Covid-19—see this website for the most up-to-date information
• Takes into account that we will NOT be resuming face-to-face class meetings for the remainder to semester
• Weekly Zoom meetings will happen Mondays from 6-7 p.m.
• From this point on, all work must be submitted electronically via Canvas
• Multimedia Presentations should be should be completed by their original dates and submitted via Canvas
• All the week’s required materials (e.g. PowerPoints) will be emailed to you on Sundays
• eReader (eR) articles will remain below

Week 11: Mon 3.30/Wed 4.1 (No class—Spring Break)

Upcoming:

Week 12: Mon 4.6/Wed 4.8
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.6 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Read: eR—“The 100 Best Infographics” (Creative Bloq), “10 Tips for Designing Better Infographics” (DotDash), “12 Warning Signs that Your Infographic Sucks” (Visme)
Due: DRAMATISTIC PENTAD (SUMBIT VIA CANVAS)

Week 13: Mon 4.13/Wed 4.15
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.13 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ROGERIAN ARGUMENT/INFOGRAPHIC (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS)

Week 14: Mon 4.20/Wed 4.22*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.20 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Materials: PowerPoint—“Research Projects: A How-To”
Due: REFLECTION 4 (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS) 
*Partners should have their research paper outline formulated

Week 15: Mon 4.27/Wed 4.29*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.27 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
*Partners should be up to slide 5 of their research project

Week 16: Mon 5.4/Wed 5.6*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 5.4 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Materials: PPT—“The Self-Reflection Essay and ePortfolio: A How-To”
*Partners should be up to slide 10 of their research project

Week 17: Mon 5.11
Zoom Meeting: Mon 5.4 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: RESEARCH PROJECT, FINAL DRAFT (EMAIL VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

***

Final Exam Meeting Times:

Sec. 5- Week 17: Thu 5.14
Zoom Meeting: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

Sec. 8- Week 18: Mon 5.18
Zoom Meeting: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

Research Project: The $15 Minimum Wage in Effect

Overview:
For your final research project, you are tasked with investigating the debate over a national $15/hour minimum wage. Using Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed as a foundation, you will create a compelling presentation for or against raising the minimum wage, specifically exploring its effects on workers in either the cleaning services, retail, and restaurant industries—you will focus only one.

Directions:

1. Choose one of the following industries highlighted in a section in Ehrenreich’s book to focus on: cleaning services, retail, or restaurant.
2. You must choose a specific worker or workers highlighted from that particular section (e.g. Melissa from Wal-Mart in Minneapolis). This person will become the “face” of your presentation. Explore the challenged this person or persons face as a part of the “low-skilled” labor force. Also, this person can have composite elements, meaning he, she, or they can be representative of workers in that industry. 
3. Investigate the current debate over a $15 minimum wage. Who is for it? Who is against it? How realistically is it to happen nationally? In those places that do have it, how has it worked out? Illustrate both sides fairly. 
4. Based on your research, take a position for or against a $15 minimum wage.
5. Apply this position to the economic realities facing your selected worker or workers. In other words, illustrate why a $15 minimum wage would help OR hurt them. This must include at least two concessions.

You have the choice of doing your research project alone OR with one partner. If you choose to work alone, there is no need to notify me. If you would like to work with a partner and have one, let me know in the comments section below no later than April 8. If you would like a partner, but do not have one, also use the comments section below to see if anyone else is looking to pair up.

Solo presentation outline (12 slides, plus a works cited):

1. Introduction (one slide)
2. Introducing ___________________ [e.g. “Introducing Marge, a Maid from Maine] (three slides) 
3. The Debate Over a $15 Minimum Wage (four slides)
4. Why a $15 Minimum Wage Would Help OR Hurt ___________________ (three slides)
5. Conclusion (one slide)
6. Works cited (one slide)

Two-person presentation outline (16 slides, plus a works cited):

1. Introduction (one slide)
2. Introducing ___________________ [e.g. “Introducing Marge, a Maid from Maine] (three slides)
3. The Debate Over a $15 Minimum Wage (five slides)
4. Why a $15 Minimum Wage Would Help ___________________ (three slides)
5. Why a $15 Minimum Wage Would Hurt ___________________ (three slides) 
6. Conclusion (one slide)
7. Works cited (one slide)

Your presentation must:

• Have a cohesive design, including illustrations—how does the overall design support the goal?
• Fairly contextualize the $15 minimum wage debate
• Persuasively illustrate a pro or against position on the $15 minimum wage debate (with solid rationale). Additionally, it must include at least two concessions.
• Have clean spelling an grammar

Due: Fri 5.8 (via Canvas)

Week 10: Mon 3.23/Wed 3.25 (Online Revise)

For the second year in a row, Hilton, which includes the DoubleTree and Embassy Suites brands, topped Fortune's 2020 "Best Places to Work" survey

Notes:

• This amended schedule:

• Is subject to change pending the situation with Covid-19—see this website for the most up-to-date information
• Takes into account that we will NOT be resuming face-to-face class meetings for the remainder to semester
• Weekly Zoom meetings will happen Mondays from 6-7 p.m.
• From this point on, all work must be submitted electronically via Canvas
• Multimedia Presentations should be should be completed by their original dates and submitted via Canvas
• All the week’s required materials (e.g. PowerPoints) will be emailed to you on Sundays
• eReader (eR) articles will remain below

Week 10: Mon 3.23/Wed 3.25
Zoom Meeting: Mon 3.23 @ 6-7 p.m. – (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Read: eR—“Moderate Democrats Should Stop Pretending That Free College is a Giveaway to Rich Kids” (Slate), “Should Free College Give Rich Kids a Free Ride?” (US News & World Report)
Coursework: PowerPoints—“Finding the Middle Ground: The Rogerian Argument” and “Infographics 101”

Upcoming:

Week 11: Mon 3.30/Wed 4.1 (No class—Spring Break)

Week 12: Mon 4.6/Wed 4.8
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.6 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Read: eR—“The 100 Best Infographics” (Creative Bloq), “10 Tips for Designing Better Infographics” (DotDash), “12 Warning Signs that Your Infographic Sucks” (Visme)
Due: DRAMATISTIC PENTAD (SUMBIT VIA CANVAS)

Week 13: Mon 4.13/Wed 4.15
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.13 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ROGERIAN ARGUMENT/INFOGRAPHIC (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS)

Week 14: Mon 4.20/Wed 4.22*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.20 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Materials: PowerPoint—“Research Projects: A How-To”
Due: REFLECTION 4 (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS) 
*Partners should have their research paper outline formulated

Week 15: Mon 4.27/Wed 4.29*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.27 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
*Partners should be up to slide 5 of their research project

Week 16: Mon 5.4/Wed 5.6*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 5.4 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Materials: PPT—“The Self-Reflection Essay and ePortfolio: A How-To”
*Partners should be up to slide 10 of their research project

Week 17: Mon 5.11
Zoom Meeting: Mon 5.4 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: RESEARCH PROJECT, FINAL DRAFT (EMAIL VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

***

Final Exam Meeting Times:

Sec. 5- Week 17: Thu 5.14
Zoom Meeting: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

Sec. 8- Week 18: Mon 5.18
Zoom Meeting: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

Dramatic Pentad: Wealth on Film

Film is our window into the world of the wealthy. Through film, we have unlimited access into the inner workings of rich people's lives. Perhaps that is why so many popular films feature them. Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad offers us a useful tool for deciphering the motivations in film scenes, including those depicting the rich's interactions with money. Below you will find scenes from eight films. You will use the Dramatistic Pentad to identify specific rhetorical elements in three of those scenes illustrating the ways the wealthy engage with their money.

Additionally, you will analyze the ratio between two elements.

Directions:

1. Choose three scenes from below. Also, choose one ratio with which to examine all three scenes (e.g. purpose:agent, scene:agency).
2. Using the Dramatistic Pentad, identify what you believe to be each of the five elements (agent, agency, etc.) for each of the three scenes (or “artifacts”)—see model below.
3. In one paragraph, examine how your chosen ratio functions in each of the three scenes. For example, what is revealed by examining the scenes through this specific ratio? Are there similarities? What are the differences? You might also consider how this particular ratio informs us versus another.
   

Example:

• Commercial: “Start the Day Write” from Kellogg’s
• Artifact Description: A boy sluggishly wakes up for school. After a bowl of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, he is more animated. Later, at school, the boy enthusiastically answers his teacher’s questions thanks to the boost he got from the cereal.

The Dramatistic Pentad:
1. Act: A boy’s morning sluggishness is only helped by eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes cereal.
2. Agency: In order to pep up her sleepy son, the boy’s mother purposefully serves him a sugary breakfast cereal.
3. Agent: The boy’s mother, who serves her son a sugary cereal in order to wake him up.
4. Scene: Split between his home and his classroom.
5. Purpose: The boy’s mother, needing an efficient means to ready her sleepy son for school, feeds him a bowl of sugary cereal. She succeeds in that he is very engaged soon after in school.

***

Choose three scenes from the following for your analysis:

1. "I Do Love Our Adventures" from Downton Abbey (2019)

2. "He's like the Asian Bachelor" from Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

3. "There is No Nobility in Poverty" from The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

4. "It's Not Too Much, is It?" from Marie Antoinette (2006)

5. "Why on Earth Would You Pick Me to be Your Princess?" from The Princes Diaries (2001)

6. "Are You of the Boston Dawsons?" from Titanic (1997)

7. "I Actually Have a Way Normal Life for a Teenage Girl" from Clueless (1995)

8. "Really Offensive" from Pretty Woman (1990)


Required:

• MLA Style
• Approximately 250 words

 Due: Wed 4.8

Week 9: Mon 3.16/Wed 3.18 (Online Revise)

Universal's Cats grossed only $74.6 million, against a production budget of $95 million. Including marketing costs, loss estimates range from $71–100 million.

Notes:

• This amended schedule:

• Is subject to change pending the situation with Covid-19—see this website for the most up-to-date information
• Takes into account that we will NOT be resuming face-to-face class meetings for the remainder to semester
• Weekly Zoom meetings will happen Mondays from 6-7 p.m.
• From this point on, all work must be submitted electronically via Canvas
• Multimedia Presentations should be should be completed by their original dates and submitted via Canvas
• All the week’s required materials (e.g. PowerPoints) will be emailed to you on Sundays
• eReader (eR) articles will remain below

 
Week 9: Mon 3.16/Wed 3.18
Read: eR—"Buttigieg is Wrong—Free College Should be Free for All, Including Children of the Rich” (Los Angeles Times), “Bernie Sanders is Running on a Plan to Bail Out Rich Kids” (Washington Post), "Klobuchar and Buttigieg are Right About Free College for Rich Kids” (Forbes)
Materials: PowerPoint—“Inside Kenneth Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad”

Upcoming:

Week 10: Mon 3.23/Wed 3.25
Zoom Meeting: Mon 3.23 @ 6-7 p.m. – (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Read: eR—“Moderate Democrats Should Stop Pretending That Free College is a Giveaway to Rich Kids” (Slate), “Should Free College Give Rich Kids a Free Ride?” (US News & World Report)
Coursework: PowerPoints—“Finding the Middle Ground: The Rogerian Argument” and “Infographics 101”
Due: DRAMATISTIC PENTAD (SUMBIT VIA CANVAS)

Week 11: Mon 3.30/Wed 4.1 (No class—Spring Break)

Week 12: Mon 4.6/Wed 4.8
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.6 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Read: eR—“The 100 Best Infographics” (Creative Bloq), “10 Tips for Designing Better Infographics” (DotDash), “12 Warning Signs that Your Infographic Sucks” (Visme)
Due: ROGERIAN ARGUMENT/INFOGRAPHIC (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS)

Week 13: Mon 4.13/Wed 4.15
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.13 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: REFLECTION 4 (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS)

Week 14: Mon 4.20/Wed 4.22*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.20 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Materials: PowerPoint—“Research Projects: A How-To”
*Partners should have their research paper outline formulated

Week 15: Mon 4.27/Wed 4.29*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 4.27 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
*Partners should be up to slide 5 of their research project

Week 16: Mon 5.4/Wed 5.6*
Zoom Meeting: Mon 5.4 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Materials: PPT—“The Self-Reflection Essay and ePortfolio: A How-To”
*Partners should be up to slide 10 of their research project

Week 17: Mon 5.11
Zoom Meeting: Mon 5.4 @ 6-7 p.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: RESEARCH PROJECT, FINAL DRAFT (EMAIL VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

***

Final Exam Meeting Times:

Sec. 5- Week 17: Thu 5.14
Zoom Meeting: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

Sec. 8- Week 18: Mon 5.18
Zoom Meeting: 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. (Meeting ID: 730-096-752)
Due: ENGLISH DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT (SUBMIT VIA CANVAS BY 5 P.M.)

Week 8 - Mon 3.9/Wed 3.11

Investing app Acorns reports that the average American spends about $1,100 per year on coffee, which breaks down to roughly $92 a month.

Week 8 - Mon 3.9/Wed 3.11
Read: Nickel—Three: Selling in Minnesota
Class: Reading discussion; Multimedia presentations

Upcoming:

Week 9 - Mon 3.16/Wed 3.18
Read: eR—“Buttigieg is Wrong—Free College Should be Free for All, Including Children of the Rich” (Los Angeles Times), “Bernie Sanders is Running on a Plan to Bail Out Rich Kids” (Washington Post)
Class: Reading discussion; Multimedia presentations
Due: DRAMATISTIC PENTAD

Financial News 3.3

• Billionaire Mike Bloomberg's primary campaign flounders on Super Tuesday (Guardian)
• Post Malone shows off his extravagant jewelry collection (GQ)
• Study says restaurants should better cater to solo dinners (Forbes)
• Lab-grown diamonds are trending in 2020 (EcoWatch)
• Study: College majors can predict a female's gander wage gap (Phys.org)
• Inside Aaron Paul's "rustic" Idaho home (Architectural Digest) 

 

Week 7 - Mon 3.2/Wed 3.4

Nearly three in 10 (28%) American adults have no emergency savings. One in four have a rainy day fund, but not enough money to cover three months’ worth of living expenses.

Week 7 - Mon 3.2/Wed 3.4
Read: Nickel—Two: Scrubbing in Maine
Class: Reading discussion; Multimedia presentations; Lecture—“Inside Kenneth Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad”
Due: REFLECTION 3

Upcoming:

Week 8 - Mon 3.9/Wed 3.11
Read: Nickel—Three: Selling in Minnesota
Class: Reading discussion; Multimedia presentations