Vampire Forensics

"Twilight Zone" provides us with an interesting historical context of the vampire and his rise to fame within our culture. It also, and perhaps convincingly so, shows how the line between what is considered myth and what is considered reality can become blurred  inside people's minds. To support his research, Collins Jenkins provides "interpretive" data shown through a historical lens. Deconstruct his chapter and find a sentence, a paragraph, a theme, etc that you might consider a researchable topic in relationship to the vampire (i.e. a researchable question could be: in the 21st century, do we still consider the vampire to be highest level of supernatural species?).  Discuss how you might go about researching the topic. What would you need to know and why? How might you connect to a larger theme that isn't just something based around a literary analysis  (i.e. given the example question above, you might bring in different anthropological theories to provide a context for how species understand a top-down order to living)?


Do some brainstorming in this blog post to see what you can begin to come up with in terms of research and vampires. I'm looking for you to be able to start to "dig deep" and see connections between vampires and research that extends beyond literature and literary analyses. 


Shoot for 250-400 words. And do engage with one another. 


Due: Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by class time. 

Investigating Key Terms

As we briefly discussed in class the first day, key terms give you a vocabulary by which you can begin to understand writing, create a writing identity, and learn new knowledge about writing. In this in-class assignment, you are going quickly investigate key terms. Begin by defining the key terms audience, genre, and rhetorical situation in your own words and use Bitzer as support. Some of these terms Bitzer did not explicitly defined, but I want you to still draw from him--this is you beginning to synthesize. Next explore the key terms relationship within the context of writing, specifically good writing.What key terms do you think about before you write? Why? How do you define yourself as writer, in other words, what does your writing identity look like? Conclude by issuing a decree: what do you believe is important about writing and where do you believe this belief came from? 

Your response should be as long as it needs to be. Don't rush through. Think. Muse. Reflect.

This is extension of your blog post for homework, so think of it as furthering your thinking through the use of key terms. Your homework worked with rhetorical situation in a more global sense, and I want this post to be about you as an individual writer.  

Rhetorical Situation

Guidelines: 
Blog posts are free and open; their language is casual. I expect to see four things in your posts: (1) that you read the piece; (2) that you can make connections to yourself as a writer and the class; (3) that you understand the genre conventions of a blog; and (4) that I can begin to see who you are as a writer—through your voice, style and language choices. 
**Comment back to this post, do NOT create a new post. 


In about 500 words or less, I want you to explore the following questions. Be specific in your responses. You can use direct quotes from Bitzer’s piece (and, in fact, this might be the most helpful in your explanation of a rhetorical situation). 


According to Bitzer, what is rhetoric? What is a rhetorical situation? Why are both important in the understanding of how to write? What do you believe comes first—the writing or the rhetorical situation? Do you believe all writing needs a rhetorical situation in order to write? Why or Why not? Connect rhetorical situation to this class: what connection do you see?


If you are NOT the first one to post, you need to mention at least one or two of your peers’ responses in your entry i.e. you may agree or disagree with what someone else’s definition of rhetoric. You cite this person in your response and note why you are citing this person. Don't forget to do this as it is part of the assignment.


Due: Thursday, March 29, 2012 by class time.