KU Composition Conference Program

Here it is folks: the KU Comp Conference program!

2011 KU Composition Conference Program

Fund Our Future: Monday rally in Harrisburg

Dear fellow Advanced Compers,

Given that our class revolves around issues in higher education, I thought it would be appropriate to share this event that is being sponsored by SGB, ACE, and UGC.

The PASSHE schools are coordinating together for a new, EARLIER date!!!

Please be advised that several student organizations are sponsoring an educational excursion to the Capital Building in Harrisburg, PA to demonstrate the proposed budget cuts.  The “Fund Our Future” campaign will consist of a letter writing, pre-rally social and a bus trip to the Capitol.  Details follow:

On Thursday, March 24^th 12 – 6pm in MSU 223 ACE & SGB will be hosting a pre-rally social.  Students, are invited to make protest signs and write letters and make phone calls to legislators.  All materials will be provided by SGB and ACE.   Donations of stamps and envelops will be accepted.

Then, on Monday, March 28th ACE, UGC and SGB will be sponsoring 3 buses to the Capitol Building in Harrisburg, PA to protest the proposed budget cuts.  The bus will leave KU by 9am [departing from the MSU] and return by 6:30pm.  There is room for 140 students!  SPACE IS LIMITED!!!

Bus sign-ups for students will be available in MSU 153 starting this Tuesday, March 22 at 11am and will continue until all seats are filled.

 

visual representation of white paper project

Here is the visual representation of our group white paper project that I put up on the board today.

coffee house theory of education

From a discussion overheard this morning in Global Libations:

A college degree is basically a way of showing the corporate world that you know how to read and write.

It’s just one more box to check off a checklist.

 

Hey

Ho

Liz Coleman’s Call to Reinvent Liberal Arts Education

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(re)writing ira glass

So, I just left class and thought I would get this post out right away…for those of you who are rushing over the computer lab right now because you can’t wait to start bloggin’.

Anyway, your blogging assignment (if you choose to accept it) is to rewatch the four videos of Ira Glass discussing the craft of storytelling.  As I said in class, I want you to think about his advice–directed at people interested in broadcasting or video pods–in terms of writing.  That is, not everything he says about broadcasting will apply to the kind of writing you do.  However, both writing and broadcasting use “storytelling” so there might be some interesting connections.

Looking at the videos as writers, what can you take away from his advice?  Does what he says seem relevant?  Do you see connections to your own processes, struggles, and experiences as writers?

I’d like you to post your thoughts to the blog.  If you have any difficulties accessing your WordPress account, you can simply comment on this post.

Here’s to the first weekend of the semester!

This is my new post

Ha. Ha.

New to the blog

Hey, I’m new to the blog

welcome to mahoney’s advanced comp blog

Hey all,

Well, another semester is upon us and here we go with ENG 230 Advanced Composition — Mahoney style.

The title of this course, “Public Pedagogy: Managed Discourse and Available Means,” signifies that this course has a rhetorical bent and is interested in how discourse is “managed,” controlled, and manipulated in our current world. The rhetorical approach of this class means that we will be looking at the social and political contexts of discourse and will inquire into how we can intervene in this context.

This blog will be part of the little experiment we have going.  We will be talking about writing as an on-going conversation all throughout this class. In his book The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action, Kenneth Burke, a literary and rhetorical scholar, gave us the following metaphor of a “parlor” to highlight the conversational nature of knowledge making and, I would argue, writing:

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument, then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him [or her]; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself [or herself] against you, to either the embarrassment of gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress (110-111, brackets mine).

So, let the conversation begin…I’m looking forward to our little late-afternoon rhetorical parlor…Welcome!!!

what’s up with class this week

Hey all,

Just in case you did not receive the email(s) I sent through Profs Online, I am posting it here as well in hopes that between the two you’ll see that THERE IS class today and Wednesday!

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Dear all,

OK, I’ve spoken with Dr. Chernekoff and we’ve discussed my classes for the week…and, yes, there will be class today and Wednesday.  I know, bummer.

Anyway, I want to set the tone a bit for class and what I hope you can bring to class today and Wednesday.  First, I know the Chomsky and Herman and the Gramsci texts are a bit on the difficult side.  I know that and do not expect you to understand everything you read.  However, you all have proven yourselves to be excellent critical thinkers, readers, and writers thus far, so I am sure you will find rungs to latch onto in each of the readings.

I want you to come to class prepared to write a bit about Chomsky and Herman’s text (and on Wednesday, Gramsci).  You will also spend some time in groups working to generate a list of key concepts and questions you have about the readings.  What are the intersections between Chomsky and Herman and the other texts we have read (including _The Persuaders_)?  How might you put Chomsky and Herman in dialogue with, for example, Luntz and Lakoff?

I also would like you to make sure to post your responses to the blog (as listed on the syllabus) and I will be reading those and responding as well.

Hope that makes some sense!  Looking forward to my return…although, I must admit, it’s going to be incredibly hard to leave our little one!

Kevin Mahoney

P.S. If you’re just dying to see more of little Rowan, you can check this out: Introducing Rowan

paper #1: rhetorical travels

Hey all,

I just wanted to let you know that the assignment for the first paper and this weeks conference schedule are posted here.  You can find that paper assignment under the “Course Materials” tab.  You’ll find the conference schedule on the right hand side of this page under the “conferences” category.

I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Fred Thompson’s speech @ the RNC 9/2/08

 

Consider this speech by former Senator from Tennessee and the kind of cultural readymades he invokes.

Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC

Consider Michelle Obama’s use of cultural readymades in her speech to the Democratic National Convention, 8/26/08

Welcome to Mahoney’s Advanced Comp!

Hey all,

Well, another academic year is upon us and here we go with ENG 230 Advanced Composition–Mahoney style.

The title of this course, “Public Pedagogy: Managed Discourse and Available Means,” signifies that this course has a rhetorical bent and is interested in how discourse is “managed,” controlled, and manipulated in our current world. The rhetorical approach of this class means that we will be looking at the social and political contexts of discourse and will inquire into how we can intervene in this context.

This blog will be part of the little experiment we have going.  We will be talking about writing as an on-going conversation all throughout this class. In his book The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action, Kenneth Burke, a literary and rhetorical scholar, gave us the following metaphor of a “parlor” to highlight the conversational nature of knowledge making and, I would argue, writing:

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument, then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him [or her]; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself [or herself] against you, to either the embarrassment of gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress (110-111, brackets mine).

So, let the conversation begin…I’m looking forward to our little late-afternoon rhetorical parlor…Welcome!!!