Category: Prompts

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Overview for Week of 6/15

We begin Unit 2 this week, during which each of you will identify and begin to plot out your research path and assemble a body of sources to carry your inquiry along. For many of you, this will mean continuing to build on something you learned in Unit 1, but you are not limited to that topic. Our work will continue to unfold beneath the big umbrella of “diversity and organizational culture,” but as you’ve seen from how your classmates have taken up this work, there are a whole lot of possibilities to explore. Read on for an overview of this week’s assigned work.

Readings

Writing Assignments

Blog post in which you list at least 5 rhetorical moves you see Bogost making in “The problem with diversity in computing”–in other words, 5 different places in the text where you see that how he says something helps you as a reader understand what he is trying to say. Think about how he works to make a connection with the reader, how he introduces key ideas/evidence, how he tries to make a point stick.  Quote these briefly so we know what you’re talking about, and try to name/explain what you see him doing there (due on blog by Wednesday, 6/17)

Complete the Focusing Flowchart exercise on Blackboard (due in Unit 2 dropbox by Sunday, 6/21)

Discussion work on blog. See this post for the prompts and instructions (due by Thursday, 6/18): 

Discussion prompts for week of 6/15

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Discussion prompts for week of 6/15

As we move forward into Unit 2 this week, our focus will be twofold:  identifying and practicing rhetorical strategies (thinking about how we say what we do) and working to articulate the specific issues we’re interested in exploring further beneath this big umbrella of organizational culture. This will be foundational to the larger work of Unit 2: exploring.

For this week’s discussion work, please respond to question 1 and either of the other questions. Your posts are due by Thursday, 6/18–an extension from the original date, as you have a brief analytical exercise due by Wednesday (see the Unit 2 schedule of assignments and the associated dropbox on Blackboard).

  1. Our primary purpose in Unit 1 was to expand the body of shared knowledge on the subject of diversity and organizational culture, and each of you has made an individual contribution to that effort. Now I’d like you to review your classmates’ contributions to see what they’ve added–click on “canon” in the tag cloud to read these. What have you found interesting and significant in what you’ve read in their posts? Please be specific in naming the issues that have stood out to you and in pointing us toward 1 particular media element (graphic, video, link, etc.) that really made an impression on you. Taking these contributions as a set, how are you seeing the idea of “diversity and organizational culture” differently?
  2. “Flashpoint” is one of those buzzwords used in lots of different ways, in fields as far removed as management and gaming and exercise and chemistry. And since it’s proven to be so flexible, in rhetoric, too. For our purposes, it refers to a sort of rhetorical spark, a moment in the text when we see an important genesis or shift—when something important suddenly becomes clear. Pick such a flashpoint in “The Problem with Diversity in Computing,” and walk us through your chain of thought using one template from TSIS that’s designed for presenting the reaction you want to capture. (Chapters 4 and 5 of TSIS offer lots of ideas)
  3. Crafting effective transitions can be a real challenge for writers, but we can learn a lot from examining how others approach the task. Consider how Bogost uses transitions to develop his argument by focusing on a specific passage—the movement between one paragraph and another or between one section and another. How does he lay the groundwork for the move? How does he pick up on one of those pieces to move forward with? Be specific—quote and analyze in detail.

Please categorize your posts as “Discussions/Homework,” and Tag with “unit 2,” “week of 6/15,” and [your name]. Read through your classmates’ posts later this week, and respond where you see fit.

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Responses for Week of 6/8

  1. For this weeks assignment, I am choosing to focus on Salecl’s talk about choice, and how paralyzing it can be. In terms of her rhetorical approach, she engages the audience by starting with a few quotes. These quotes are relevant to the rest of her speech as she incorporates them throughout her talk by ending by talking about one. She ended with restating that she had then choice to include the quote by Samuel Johnson, and she is choosing to end with the same quote. She also engages the audience by retelling a series of stories that while humorous at times, drove home her overarching message of how we as individuals have the choice to change things not only for ourselves, but our environment. Each story played a different role in her topics,  as she touches upon how we are often paralyzed by the looming choices and we tend to overthink. As humans, we often take choices too seriously which may induce anxiety and think that what we do now will affect the future, or the choice we make now may contradict what we choose later on in life. I thought her argument was eloquently put together as she related experiences of others and herself to many feelings that the audience may have. She incorporated relevant examples, of taxing the rich or wanting a healthier lifestyle, that the listener can relate to themselves in order to completely understand her points. Her ability to generalize then personalize her message I believe was the most significant part of her delivery, and even made me reevaluate how seriously I take choices and how I too become paralyzed.
    3. I choose to do Jason Fried’s Ted Talk on why work does not happen at work to add to the body of knowledge we already have from organizational culture. Jason Fried is a writer and entrepreneur who created the software company basecamp who offers three possible to solutions to why work does not get done at the workplace. He offers the view of how working in an office can allow for short bursts of time to do work, instead of focused uninterrupted time to truly let the creative brain take over. He also touches upon how working from home allows for voluntary distractions, when someone needs a break, compared to the involuntary distractions of working in the office, where someone may approach you and ask you to do something other than what you are already doing. He poses the idea that managers and meetings are the true issue as they are place holders and distractions that add to the inability to work in an office. In order to counteract this, he gives three suggestions to remedying this deficit. I saw a connection between what we have been learning about organizational culture and his solutions for a better work environment. Below, I have detailed them in a Venn diagram to physically show the connections that can be drawn while also highlighting the differences that I have noticed.
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Discussion prompts for Week of 6/8

This week you will be watching three TED talks and reading another article that all intersect with our big umbrella topic of organizational culture. (Think of this like a Venn diagram:

Venn diagram

I think this can be a helpful analogy because it is much the same tactic that we take in research: we are not simply looking for the one “perfect” source but rather for a source that interacts with our ideas in someway that move them forward. And the more voices we hear from in that research (the more perspectives we incorporate), the more likely we will arrive at a fuller understanding of the topic we’re examining.

For this week’s discussion I would ask that each of you respond to question #1 and then either #2 or #3. Please categorize your list as “Discussions/ Homework” and tag it with “week of 6/8,” “unit 1,” and [your name].

  1. We use the term “rhetoric” to discuss how we make arguments (what we do and how and why, not just what we say). Since a hefty portion of your work in this upcoming Expanding the Canon blog post hinges on rhetorical analysis, let’s do some practice–working with one of the TED talks for this week (Heffernan’s, Fried, or Salecl), talk to us about what you find interesting in their rhetorical approach. How do they engage the audience? What kinds of strategies do they use to explain their ideas? What do you think is interesting or significant about the way that they present their arguments and appeal to their listeners?
  2. Choose one of the talks that you watched this week and examine how this speaker works with evidence. What kind of evidence do they use? How do they explicate the connections between their evidence and their claims?  Be specific. How do they walk the audience through their argument? What are some of their argumentation tactics that you find effective? Note that you will need to watch the talk at least a second time, and take notes while you are doing it; you can also access a full transcript of the talk on the TED website.
  3. Choose one of the talks, and discuss how this presenter adds to our body of knowledge around organizational culture. Who is the speaker/author, and what kind perspective do they contribute? (You may need to do a quick Google search to get a sense of who they are.)  What kind of connections do you see between this take and other things we have been learning about organizational culture? If you were to make a Venn diagram (or a few) articulating the connections between this text and other ones that we’ve read, what would it look like? You can have some fun with this using an online Venn creator like this one or by sketching it out by hand and incorporating the image(s) into your post):

    Venn Diagram Maker Landing Page

    Please post your responses by the end of the day on Wednesday, 6/10, and respond to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts by the end of the day on Saturday, 6/13.

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Overview of Week of 6/8

We’ll be closing out Unit 1 this week, so that means your first Unit assignment deadline is approaching (Sunday, 6/14).

Read on for an overview of how we’ll be moving toward that:

Look for feedback from me in the next couple of days on the summary of your article that you submitted yesterday. You’ll work with that feedback to finalize your summary, which will become part of your Unit 1 blog post (along with your commentary on how this article would enrich our understanding of the specific organizational culture issue/area you’re exploring). Be sure to review the unit 1 assignment sheet. Consider your purpose carefully.

show & tell

While you’re waiting for that feedback, start thinking about and looking at your options for a media component (link, video clip, image, etc.) to incorporate into your post. You’ve got a lot of latitude to work with here. I suggest using the assignment’s purpose as your starting point. Here’s what I mean: while you’ve read this article (probably multiple times by now), your classmates probably haven’t. You’re suggesting that this text ought to be part of our canon, that looking at it would enrich our knowledge and understanding of this important issue. You need to show and tell us how that’s the case. You’ll be offering summary, analysis, and commentary. The media element is there to round that out. For example, your media component might:

  • provide some background knowledge that would be crucial to our understanding (i.e. through a link or a video)
  • contain some visual context for the scope or complexity of the issue (i.e. an infographic) or assist with our understanding of change over time or comparison (i.e. graph, chart)
  • offer an opportunity to explore this issue further (i.e. through a link) for those who want to learn more

You may incorporate more than 1 element if you would like; just make sure you have at least 1. Also be sure to attend to the following:

  • if using a link, make sure it is functional–use the “Add Media” button in the +New Post window to “Insert from url”
  • if using an image, make sure it is high-resolution so that it’s legible–again you’ll use the “Add Media” button to “Upload files” and “Insert into post”
  • if using an image, provide a caption that includes the source information (where you found the image–the actual web page, not just “Google search”)
  • whatever your media component, be sure that you explain its relevance in your post–don’t leave your reader to draw their own conclusions about its significance. Walk us through what you want us to learn from this item.

Here’s the other work on tap for this week:

  • draft of your blog post (let’s extend the deadline here to the end of the day on Wednesday, 6/10)
  • a few TED talks to watch (linked from Blackboard) for more perspectives on diversity and organizational culture (and in preparation for this week’s discussion)
  • discussion work on the blog–see the prompt here:

    Discussion prompts for Week of 6/8

I’ll be reading your drafts (due Wednesday) and getting you feedback by the end of the day on Friday. Your final version of the blog post is due by the end of the day on Sunday, 6/14.

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6/1 Responses

  1. The type of material I will be looking for in order to expand the canon are pieces that are centered around the success of EAP’s in the work place. For my specific topic, I will be looking at EAP’s that are targeted towards those with addiction. This topic will follow up on the Kaplan and Donovan article, as well as play on the article presented by Austin and Pisano. Not only will this topic incorporate those, but the article about organizational culture will also come into play when considering how to expand the canon. The expert articles I will be searching for will be those who have experience with EAP’s with employees with addiction, and studies that reflect the positive benefits on implementing these procedures in the workplace. I will be looking on the summons page on the Syracuse Libraries page to be looking for scholarly articles to narrow my search. I will also be looking on APA and other Psychology resources to find my material. Using keywords to narrow my search is something I will be using when I begin my search to make finding these articles easier and faster.
  2. When discussing diversity inclusion in the workplace, a question that may arise is what steps are there to take to break down the barriers of biases. In Austin and Pisano’s article, they direct their approach on how the individuals will benefit from programs centered around tailoring to needs. On the other hand, Kaplan and Donovan remind us that in order to tackle diversity, it needs to happen at all levels of management to create a domino effect. My personal view is a combination of both of these tactics the authors propose, that including those who require a tailored workplace to satisfy their needs, all levels of a company need to be in agreement and aware of the circumstances that it will take to achieve a suitable work environment.
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Overview of Week of 6/1

Now that we’re getting our feet under us in terms of what organizational culture is, why diversity and inclusion are part of the conversation, and how thinking about rhetorical situation can help us to engage with complex texts, it’s time for us to build on that.

As a group, we’ve all been working with the same set of texts, and that gives us a shared foundation of knowledge. What I’ve tried to assemble here is a set of texts that function as a canon–works that are essential to an understanding of the subject matter, important and influential works. But there’s so much more out there to explore, and that will be your primary work for the week–looking around to locate an additional text that you think should be part of the canon.

Canonical works are substantive–building on careful and thoughtful research. They provide new insights and ideas, and don’t simply re-present known information. They work well for their audience, so that they can contribute to the world of knowledge.

Chances are you’ll need to look at several articles to find one that does all this and that meets the particular criteria that are set forth on the unit 1 assignment sheet . The SU libraries’ website is a good place to start here. You can use the Advanced Search functions there to help filter the results so they meet some of the basic criteria to start with. You’ll find a number of useful tutorials on the library site if you’re not already familiar with using it. This search tips page is a good place to start.

(A quick note on using SU libraries vs. Google Scholar–you’ve already paid for the SU services and won’t ever bump into a paywall; on Google Scholar, you often will. The library also provides free research support, which you can’t get on Google.)

So, where to begin? Here’s an overview of your tasks for the week:

Reading assignments:

  • chapters 2 and 3 of TSIS
  • chapter 1 of Rewriting by Joe Harris (PDF on Blackboard)
  • “Understanding key D&I concepts” (PDF on Blackboard)
  • your selected article (that you plan to contribute to the canon)–to write an effective summary, you will need to read this carefully and probably more than once. Be sure to consult the close reading handout and the handout on summary.

Discussion/writing assignments:

  • write a 100-200 word summary of either the Kaplan and Donovan article from this week OR the Austin and Pisano article from last week, and submit this on the blog (categorize as “Discussions/Homework”; tag with “K&D” or “A&P” as appropriate, along with “week of 6/1,” and [your name] (due Weds., 6/3) 
  • respond to 2 of this week’s discussion questions (available here). Categorize as “Discussions/Homework”; tag with “week of 6/1,” “unit1,” and [your name]. (due Thurs., 6/4): 

    Discussion prompts for Week of 6/1

  • respond to at least 2 of your classmates’ discussion posts on the blog (due Sat., 6/6)
  •  write a 200 word summary of your selected article. Include a link to or PDF of the article you’re working with, and reference the author and title of the text you are summarizing. Categorize this as “Expanding the Canon”; tag it with “summary,” “week of 6/1,” and [your name]. (due Sun., 6/7)
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Discussion prompts for Week of 6/1

This week you’ll begin injecting into this conversation about diversity and inclusion that we’ve been reading about. Each of you will suggest an article to add to this body of information, so that we can all continue to expand our understanding of the issues. Please be sure to reread the last page of the  unit 1 assignment sheet.

First, a quick refresher on rhetorical situation. This is the idea that everything is written by someone, for someone, for some purpose, and within some broader context. Considering these different elements of a text can give us a window into how the text works, why it looks the way it does, whether it is likely to be successful for its intended reader, etc. You’ve already seen rhetorical situation represented in visual form like this:

Just a little something to keep in mind as we move into discussion for the week–we’ll be thinking a lot this week about how authors respond to their writing situation in order to produce successful communications, and in particular about how an author’s audience connects to his/her purpose in writing.

On to the prompts–this week everyone should respond to the 1st question and then select 1 of the other 2 to answer. Responses should be >150 words each. Please tag your responses with “unit1,” “weekof6/1,” and [your name]. Categorize as “Discussions.”

  1. It’s time to get moving along with your unit 1 assignment. For this assignment, you will be adding to the set of sources we’re reading about diversity and organizational culture (which amount to a canon of sorts–a collection of important texts). We’ll expand this canon by suggesting additional valuable resources. So, for your first discussion post this week, please tell us a little about how you’re doing that: what kinds of material are you looking for? what topic are you following up on? what sort of expert(s) do you think we need to hear from? how are you looking (i.e. what particular databases or search tools are you using)? what techniques or strategies are proving helpful?
  2. This week’s readings move from the theoretical conversation about diversity that unfolds in the pages of scholarly journals to the practical–consideration of what is actually involved in creating and maintaining a diverse workforce, this time through the lens of (dis)ability. Let’s start to put the pieces together, as we’re adding to our growing foundation of knowledge: construct a they say/I say sentence (or series of sentences) that connects one of this week’s readings about disability inclusion with one of the readings from the last 2 weeks. (There are a number of templates in chapter 2 of TSIS that might help you with this work.) You are welcome to include yourself as an I in this formulation, but you may also choose to use 2 theys here–i.e. While Austin and Pisano contend that…. Kaplan and Donovan suggest that… Be creative, and use this work to further your understanding both of the texts you’re employing, as well as your own perspective.
  3. In chapter 1 of Rewriting, Joe Harris asks us to consider a writer’s project when we’re trying to make sense of a particular text. That is, he encourages us to think of “something far more complex than a main idea, since it refers not to a single concept but to a plan of work, to a set of ideas and questions that a writer ‘throws forward (Latin, pro + jacare)” and to recognize that “a project is something that a writer is working on–and that a text can only imperfectly realize” (Harris 17). Thinking in these terms, how would you characterize the project that Kaplan and Donovan undertake in “Key D&I Concepts”? That is, what do you think they are “working on” in this article? (Review Harris’s steps at the bottom of page 15.)
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Responses week of 5/25

  1. One approach from Chapter 1 of They Say / I Say which I will be taking is: In discussions of organizational diversity, one controversial issue has been if having organizational diversity policies show any changes among employee minorities’ self perceptions and goals, and if these changes are positive or negative. On the one hand, Gundemir argues that Mulitculturalism and Value-in-Individuality Differences prove to have a positive effect on the self perceptions and goals of minorities. On the other hand, the Value-in-Homogeneity policy emphasizes equality and uniformity of treatment rather than individual uniqueness, which is what several companies may choose to follow. I definitely found this approach to framing quite useful because it made me think outside of the box. Now I understand what the preface / introduction was talking about when they mentioned templates. I feel as though having this guide made me reference back to the article by Gundemir and dive much deeper into the content and comprehend it, rather than just read the paragraphs over and over again without understanding the information displayed.
  2. The readings for this week strengthened my thoughts on why diversity is so important, and why I look forward to reading more passages in this class. As I was reading Gundemir’s article, I associated the connection to improving the minorities’ self perceptions and goals just with overall self confidence, and what this can do for a person. By using the policies of Multiculturalism and Value-in-Individual Differences, there is so much room for self growth which can they be carried into a work environment. As a result, these policies make it easier for those not belonging to majority groups to feel more comfortable in who they are, radiate happiness, and boost their self – esteem. In just the two weeks that I’ve enrolled in this course, I already have become way more educated on the topic of diversity which I am very grateful for. Having a company that includes many different mindsets / outlooks / perspectives on life that people of all races and ethnicities can bring to the table is much more beneficial than just a bunch of employees doing every single task with the same idea, which is hopefully a bold step that more businesses are looking to take in the near future.
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Responses Week of 5/25

  1. The sentences I chose to write are the following:
    In discussions of workplace diversity climate, one controversial issues has been that there is an indirect relationship between diversity policy and minorities leadership goals. On the one hand, Gundemir et al argues that diversity policies positively impact minority employees goals of leadership.

    I used the basic template that Graff and Birkenstein used for opening a debate. I used one of the hypothesis that was proven to be false as the counter and the conclusion that the study drew as the argument for Gundemir et al. This approach framing was useful as it was able to filter my thinking. Usually when I write, I include other information or “fluff” that does not need to be included. However, this framing was able to filter my thinking and have me think about what exactly is important and needs to be included, and what isn’t.

  2. Gundemir et al and Austin and Pisano created a deeper level of understanding to diversity in organizations. For Gundemir et al, diversity inclusion gave hope to those in the minority and made them feel more comfortable going for authoritative opportunities and achieving their goals. This type of environment reflects a society that we as a whole hope to have one day — one where anyone can achieve their goals. Those who disabilities are also included in this, which Austin and Pisano elaborate on. Not only is diversity about race and ethnicity, it is about ability or disability or any identity. These articles cemented the idea that those who are given the opportunity, will thrive just like everyone else. As a member of SU and someone who is aspiring to become part of the work force, these articles further my drive to be apart of a job that doesn’t discriminate against anyone.