This is ONLY for those students who have signed up on the signup sheet for Week $5.$ Other students in the class are welcome $($and encouraged$)$ to read the reading. But only those students who signed up for Week $5$ must submit the assignment.

If you are working individually, you should be submitting a mini$-$essay $(<500$ words$).$ Your essay should be structured along the lines of all academic essays. It should have an intro; a body; and a conclusion. If you are working in pairs, then you should be submitting a video that engages with the reading. Please see the example video on the main course page. $**$ For those doing mini$-$essays, please only send Word files, so I can offer you comments. No PDFs$!****$ For those doing videos, your video should be $<5$ minutes $($which actually makes it more challenging; because you have to prep it in advance, and make sure you pack in a lot of information in those five minutes. I recommend writing a script first and$/$or some notes at the very least$).**$

Strong projects, either written or videotaped, will feel well$-$prepared. If you just riff $($offer stream$-$of$-$consciousness, rambling thoughts$),$ then you are likely not going to get a very good grade!

Here are some more details about the mini$-$essay$/$video assignments. I will post this information on the main course page as well so that everyone sees it$.$

The mini$-$essay and$/$or video assignments are an analysis assignment. You might be wondering: "What does this reading have to do with the course?" or "What does this reading have to do with communication?"

The point of the exercise is to see how well you communicate and engage with an important topic and$/$or contemporary issue....based on a reading that I think is appropriate. The reading for this week is slightly more challenging!

For your responses $($either written or videotaped$),$ I urge you to include references $($logos$)$; but they are not mandatory for these mini$-$assignments.

For this assignment, I am mostly looking for your analysis, and, most importantly, for it to be in your own words. Do not worry if your English is not perfect; I am not looking for perfect English. But you SHOULD be using the spell$-$ and grammar check function in Word $($email me if you are not clear on how to do this$).$ Responses with sloppy spelling or grammar mistakes will result in point deductions!

But, as discussed in Week $3\text{'}$s lecture $($on Zoom; video attached for those who missed class$),$ I would use a combination of ethos, logos and$/$or pathos in your response.

Ethos would be to tell me why YOU are the perfect person to engage with this topic $($what about your background and$/$or lived experience qualifies you to talk about this topic$).$ Logos would be corroborating evidence $($i$.$e$.,$ academic references, news reports, research reports $-$ which you would then include in the citations at the end of your paper, or verbally describe in your video, e$.$g$.$ "according to a report that we saw published by$....").$ Pathos would be some kind of personal story and$/$or experience that draws an emotive connection to the subject matter.

Strong answers do not need to include all three of those elements; just one is fine $($for example, if you just want to focus on corroborating evidence, i$.$e$.,$ logos$,$ to support your analysis, that is fine$).$ In fact, I think it is almost too much to expect these mini$-$assignments to have all three of those communicative elements. But I would think about drawing on at least two. Keep in mind that your personal opinion, lived experience, work experience, etc. are great elements to draw upon to offer analysis on a particular issue. The use of the pronoun "I" or $"$we$"$ is encouraged in your answers.

Don't forget that spell$-$ and grammar check!

One last thing. I know I said that students can use ChatGPT for research purposes, much like you would use Google. But for this assignment, you really do not need to do that. Once again, I am keen to see how you engage with the reading. It is all about the quality of your analysis and engagement.

Please email me if you have any questions.