I was selected to help pilot a newly designed ENG 101 online course and, as part of that process, chose to complete the entire course alongside the students. While working through the material, I took notes intended to provide extra guidance and context. To make them easier to navigate, I have organized these notes by module and assignment type. You may notice some repetition—for example, many entries begin with “Hello Everyone!” or refer to the same assignments multiple times. This is because the notes were originally drafted as weekly announcements and reminders rather than compiled into a single document. I am sharing them here exactly as they were written, with minimal editing or revision.
EDIT: As of 7/29/2025, this is a perfect dump of all the notes I took during this class and shared with my students. These notes are still somewhat relevant and provide enormous value for anyone considering a college-level composition class.
Module 1
The Annotation Readings for this week are:
- Four Things Social Media Can Teach You about College Writing—and One Thing It Can’t by Ann N. Amicucci
- So You’ve Got a Writing Assignment. Now What? by Corrine E. Hinton
- What Is Rhetoric? A “Choose Your Own Adventure” Primer by William Duffy
The Duffy reading is the most important reading here in my opinion. I read the first two and attempted the quiz, and it wasn’t until I read the Duffy reading in it’s entirety did everything ‘click’ to me.
Ann N. Amicucci’s Essay uses Social Media to reveal a few things about rhetorical choices we make online and how they can relate to work done in academia. In this article we touch on concepts such as:
- Intertextuality – can be thought of as an explicit borrowing of ideas or material from other sources like infographics, memes and other data.
- Interdiscursivity – can be thought of as a rhetorical choice that is influenced by other writer(s). For Example, the way we format citations, or even the style in which we choose to start an essay (potentially with a statistic) may sometimes be implicitly learned from some other writer.
Ann does a good job explaining what rhetorical choices are without actually diving too deeply into what the word ‘Rhetorical’ actually means, which I think is hilarious.
William Duffy’s Essay is probably the best introduction to the question of “What is Rhetoric” that I’ve seen so far. I didn’t buy into the whole “Choose your own adventure” vibe so I just read the whole thing start to finish and it was Worth it! Personally, I don’t know why this one is last in the instructions queue, personally I think we should have all read this one first.
Corrine E. Hinton’s Essay really shines in the context of deconstructing writing assignments into smaller action items, which makes them more manageable both emotionally and intellectually. I really like this one and wish I had something similar in high school.
Finally,
- The Assignment Module 1: Introduction Discussion in Harmonize are kind of Self Explanatory. Pop-in, figure out how to post things and do an introduction post. I’ll be sure to comment on everyone’s post soon.
- The “Assignment Module 1: Writing Project 1: Literacy Narrative Instructions” is also an annotation assignment whose objective is for us to discuss how we will approach the Assignment Module 1: Invention Activity: Brainstorming.
Happy Writing Everyone!
-Karlton’s Essay really shines in the context of deconstructing writing assignments into smaller action items, which makes them more manageable both emotionally and intellectually. I really like this one and wish I had something similar in high school.
ENG 101 – News – It’s BrainStorm time!!
Hello Everyone,
Today is Thursday May 22, 2025. By now we should have all finished this stuff:
| Thu May 22, 2025 | Assignment Module 1: Annotation Activity |
| Thu May 22, 2025 | Assignment Module 1: Introduction Discussion |
| Thu May 22, 2025 | Assignment Module 1: Writing Project 1: Literacy Narrative Instructions |
You can still do all of that tonight for full credit if you haven’t already done so. I think I’ve said this already, it’s all easy points.
We have Three days to complete:
| Sun May 25, 2025 | Assignment Module 1: Invention Activity: Brainstorming |
All we got to do is Brainstorm!
I made a video for those of you who may want help getting those creative juices flowing. You can watch the video here:
https://youtu.be/wIbRtlNPdVILinks to an external site.
I Recommend going to you tube and watching it in full screen mode. The video is only 13 minutes, but it was actually at least 30 minutes of footage sped up 200%, so I’d recommend watching this on a desktop or laptop computer when you have the time. Let me know what you think about the audio or if I could have made changes to make things better.
In this video, I’ll show you how to use MindMeister to create a mind map as a way to brainstorm and organize ideas for a personal narrative. The goal of this assignment is to visually map out your thoughts by choosing a meaningful place or object that has influenced how you think, learn, or write—like a childhood bedroom, a coffee shop, a favorite notebook, or even a musical instrument. I chose the mind map method because it allows me to visually connect memories, emotions, and story ideas in one flexible layout. MindMeister also gives me the option to generate a clean, structured list from my map later on, making it easy to take my brainstorming into the drafting phase. If you’re looking for a creative way to organize your ideas or want to try a new invention method, this walkthrough will help you get started.
EDIT:
In the video I said something to the effect of “Don’t worry about rhetorical choice right now” but what I forgot to mention was; that your definitely going to want to check your rhetorical choices BEFORE you hand anything in! Our good Professor Erin Stalcup could use a little amusement, but other teachers may not be so chill!!!! You have been warned! watch those rhetorical choices.
Module 2
ENG 101 – Hope you all had a Chill sunday!
Happy sunday Everyone! I hope you are all adequately relaxed and chill. I found this gif on Tenor.com and i thought i’d share it with you all.
Today is May 25, 2025. By now, we should be finishing up;
| Sunday, May 25, 2025 | Assignment Module 1: Invention Activity: Brainstorming |
Earlier this week, I posted an announcement containing a video of me doing the brainstorming activity in a web app called mind meister, to help some of you get the Brainstorm juices flowing. It’s time to start considering the following assignments, if you have not already done so:
| Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | Quiz Module 2: Quiz |
| Thursday, May 29, 2025 | Assignment Module 2: Annotation Activity |
Once again, the Quiz is somewhat dependent on the readings in the Annotation Activity, I’d advise everyone to at least read those, then go breeze through the quiz. The Annotation readings for this week are:
- “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott
- “Storytelling, Narration, and the “Who I Am” Story” By Catherine Ramsdell
- “Reflection as a Rhetorical Genre”, Handout.
“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott is my absolute favorite and I literally can’t Interact with the annotations enough here. The Rhetorical purpose here is to entertain and inspire budding authors with the sentiment that “Everyone writes shitty first Drafts”, the goal here is to get the audience (Newbie writers like us) to be less ashamed of our first drafts and just dive right in. Anne Lamott makes some really endearing rhetorical choices in this essay, Rhetorical choices that frankly, I didn’t think I could get away with before now. Can you imagine the stress of being a full time writer? The stress she describes here is understated in my opinion. Writers live and die by public opinion. The more of yourself that you share, the more that you need to share. Does anyone understand what I mean here? Let me know in the comments.
“Storytelling, Narration, and the “Who I Am” Story” By Catherine Ramsdell was a rough read for me, i’m curious if anyone out there considers this reading to be there favorite for this week, so if it is, let me know in the comments. What did you like most about this story? If I had to summarize this one it would be difficult because of the many different layers of meaning her Rhetorical choices could and should have, but one way to summarize it’s rhetorical purpose is to remind us that while storytelling is primarily seen as a form of entertainment nowadays, storytelling serves a more important function of conveying, expressing, and generating meaning. The “Who I am” story is kind of like a form of personal disclosure whose rhetorical purpose is to entertain and convey rhetorical messaging about the author. In my opinion, she implicitly gives us an example of how “Who I am” stories can backfire.
“Reflection as a Rhetorical Genre”, Handout didn’t have an author and i’m somewhat puzzled why this is an annotation document. We go from the rhetorical rich readings by Catherine Ramsdell & Ann Lamott into this? Why? This annotation is essentially just some notes about the Personal Reflection genre of writing. Who knows? Maybe some of you found this annotation document to be the most helpful. Let me know in the comments.
Happy Writing Everyone!
-Karl
ENG101 – Just a reminder
Today is May 27, 2025. By now, we should be finishing up;
That’s all folks! Check out this YouTube video I found!
ENG101 – Shitty First Drafts
Sorry for the late post today guys.
Today is still May 29, 2025. By now,we should be finishing up;
| Thursday, May 29, 2025 | Assignment Module 2: Annotation Activity |
It’s time to start considering the following assignments, if you have not already done so:
| Sunday, June 1, 2025 | Assignment Writing Project 1: Literacy Narrative Draft |
I didn’t need to work on this assignment with you, but I chose to. The hardest part was deciding whether to focus on a specific place or an object, so I tried to keep things interesting and tie everything back to my chosen place. I’m leaving my “shitty first draft” here for anyone who wants to read it. If you’d like feedback on your own draft, drop it in the comments and let me know what you are most worried about.
ENG 101 – Assignment Updates + Memes
Hello Everyone,
I Hope you are all having as great a Sunday as this little guy is having.
It’s June, 1 2025 and today we should all be finishing,
| Sunday, June 1, 2025 | Assignment Writing Project 1: Literacy Narrative Draft |
By now, we should all be setting our sights on:
| Tuesday, June 3, 2025 | Quiz Module 3: Quiz |
| Tuesday, June 3, 2025 | Assignment Module 3: Annotation Activity |
I’ll make a more substantial post later on in the week.
If anyone wants feedback on their draft, i’m always here, and can provide feedback within 24 hours. I can even jump on a zoom call too, providing you give me some notice in advance.
- If you are interested in getting feedback, send a copy of your draft to my email at K.barclay@asu.edu and provide a clear description of what you are most worried about
- If you want to do a zoom, then you can send me an email with a few dates and times that work for you and we can negotiate from there.
On an unrelated note: Does anyone want to help me find some memes to post alongside my announcements? I’d really appreciate the help! Let me know in the comments or just send me an email.
I hope this helps!
-Karl
Module 3
By Today is Technically, still June 4, 2025, these were due yesterday.
| Tue Jun 3, 2025 | Quiz Module 3: Quiz |
| Tue Jun 3, 2025 | Assignment Module 3: Annotation Activity |
Sorry guys, this announcement was originally supposed to go up yesterday. I think we can forgive some late work but you’ll need to email me us we can keep track. By now, we’ve learnt that rhetoric can be thought of as a critical area of communication. The components of this area are:
- What is the purpose of the writing?
- Who is the intended audience?
- What strategies are used to persuade or connect?
- How do cultural, historical, or social contexts affect what a text means?
You may already be able to guess this even if you haven’t reviewed the learning materials yet, but Rhetoric is a survival skill. Learning Rhetoric “isn’t limited to formal arguments; it is something we engage with constantly, from social media to advertising”
It’s the act of attempting to shape beliefs, objectives, communities and ideals. Rhetoric relates to: child rearing, project management, theater club, bed buying, propaganda, board meetings and politics. It is the art and practice of communication and/or persuasion.
This week’s quiz relates to the YouTube course “Rhetoric and Composition by the YouTube Channel Study Hall, I highly Recommend watching the entire series when you have the time, or even just leave the whole playlist playing in the background while you do something else. This weeks videos are
My summary of these videos is that:
- Prof Zarka sums this all and says that this skill is “transferable”. She introduces the concept of the rhetorical lens and builds on the analogy for us to arrive at the conclusion that rhetoric involves critical thinking.
- We revisit the concept that “Rhetorical Analyses essentially means looking through a piece of writing carefully to determine what it means for it’s specific audience, and how it’s accomplishing its purpose or how it may even be accidentally doing something else.
- Rhetorical analyses includes the act of Annotating and note taking in order to identify key details that help us evaluate a text more appropriately.
- Katie Azevedo goes over what annotation vs note-taking is and when they can be useful. They both require a purpose and the both aid in comprehension.
- Annotating is when you mark the text with a highlighter or pen. This means your notes remain in the book and this can impact on the brevity of these notes. Annotations are good if you own the book as a physical or copyable file.
- Note-taking, better for processing ideas and can be thought of as an extension of the highlighting process. Note taking is an extractive process. If you don’t own the hard copy, or the file, or whatever it is can’t be copied, then you need to take notes.
Also, if you like Study Hall, you’ll LOVE Crash Course. Let me know if you like Crash Course in the comments. My favorite was Crash Course Philosophy.
I’ll make a video of the annotation process for this incoming assignment tomorrow.
| Thu Jun 5, 2025 | Assignment Module 3: Invention Activity: Annotated Op-Ed |
You’re All doing Good! Keep up the good work, and I hope this helps.
-Karl
ENG 101 – Module 3 – Invention Activity Annotated Op-Ed
Hello Everyone!
Today, the following assignment is due:
| Thu Jun 5, 2025 | Assignment Module 3: Invention Activity: Annotated Op-Ed |
I made a video that might help, or at least help get the juices flowing and you can watch it here:
Once you’ve gotten that assignment squared away, it’s time to start considering these assignments due:
| Sun Jun 8, 2025 | Quiz Module 4: Quiz |
| Tue Jun 10, 2025 | Assignment Module 4: Annotation Activity |
I’ll post another announcement soon with a few notes regarding these two. Until then, Happy Writing everyone!
I hope this Helps!
-Karl
Module 4
Hello Everyone!
Today is June 8, 2025 and today this deliverable is due:
| Sun Jun 8, 2025 | Quiz Module 4: Quiz |
This other deliverable is due soon too:
| Tue Jun 10, 2025 | Assignment Module 4: Annotation Activity |
This week we took a longer look at invention strategies in the context of performing a rhetorical analysis. Last time we used these invention strategies, it was in order to complete a reflective assignment, the first draft of our literacy narrative.
This time we’ll kick things up a notch and begin to focus on using these invention strategies with a specific rhetorical purpose in mind. What do I mean by this? For example, sometimes when I write, I tend to wait for a “Flash of inspiration” and a stream of consciousness just sort of flows from fingertips into the keyboard and then, unto the screen, almost like a wizard casting a spell.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not sustainable. What I’ve noticed; is that sometimes, I’ll address one audience and then halfway through the essay I’ll end up addressing another audience entirely. I realize now that this hurts my Rhetorical purpose and makes me ineffectual as a writer. This week’s study hall videos were designed to help us in this regard.
If I had to sum up what these videos were about, I’d say that they introduced:
- The “Timed Freewriting” Strategy. This is when we set a timer and write for a predetermined amount of time without too much worry about punctuation or anything like that. The trick here is to do many shorter free writes and pull the best stuff from each free write and use that in the next free write.
- The “List making” Strategy which is kind of like a “To-do list”, which is kind of like an even rougher free-write. Instead of writing complete sentences we can use a list!
- The “Mind mapping” Strategy, which is useful when your list making goes to far and your lists start having their own lists.
- The “Outlining” strategy, which to me feels like the final form of a mind map since outlines will start to have a chronological order to them.
- Writing is like going to the gym. The more we do it, the more “writing muscles” we build, and the better writing we are able to produce good writing. The same is true for rhetorical analysis.
- Rhetorical analysis is essentially when we try to uncover the goal that the writer of the piece is trying to accomplish. This “Goal” can be distilled into a thesis statement.
- Example Thesis Statement:
- Rhetorical Analysis can be done without writing. I did this back when I was working as a graphic designer in the printing industry, and this week’s video provides an example of how one can perform rhetorical analysis in the context of being a DJ. I think some of my friends here in this class who already do customer-facing work may call just this “PTSD” but no, it’s actually just a fear induced, impromptu rhetorical analysis.
I Hope my notes were helpful! Happy writing!
-Karl
ENG 101 – Module 4 – Annotation Document Notes
Hello Everyone,
Today is June 10, 2025, and we are more than half way through our class together! Can you believe it? By now we should all be finishing up:
| Tue Jun 10, 2025 | Assignment Module 4: Annotation Activity |
We should also be shifting our focus towards:
| Thu Jun 12, 2025 | Assignment Writing Project 2: Rhetorical Analysis |
Annotation Document Notes:
This week’s annotation materials were:
- Understanding Visual Rhetoric – By Jenae Cohn
- An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing – by Melanie Gagich
- Developing Projects that Analyze – “Rethinking your Writing: Rhetoric for Reflective Writers”, Chapter 16: Developing Projects that Analyze” – by Shelley Reid
As usual I’ll try to provide a rough summary of each text. The comments section of my announcements are always open for questions or comments. Please feel free to drop your own notes in a comment too, or just post memes!
Understanding Visual Rhetoric – By Jenae Cohn
This reading reminded me a lot of my Visual Communications class (MCO 450). As Cohn points out, “In a writing class, students do not always think that they will need to be attentive to visuals,” but visuals are a critical aspect of communication, meaning-making, and rhetorical purpose.
Think about the Oren’s Hummus menu for example: the items are laid out uniformly to guide the eye through the document. The implied lines create a structure that helps readers organize information and pull meaning from the menu, so they can order with greater ease and efficiency. Part of designing things this way is understanding that, as writers and designers, we must be mindful of the cognitive load we place on our readers and reduce it wherever possible. Instead of wordsmithing together verbally nuanced reviews, we often snap photos and post them on Yelp or Google Reviews; likewise, we use color to influence emotion, and space and size to augment meaning.
As writers and designers, our minds are purpose-built for deconstructing the connotative and denotative meanings of the writing and design choices in our environment, and for using that unique perspective to create new meaning through those rhetorical choices. It’s like awakening to the fact that you are bi-lingual.
An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing – by Melanie Gagich
This reading shifts focus from analyzing multimodal texts to composing them for our own purposes, and it offers advice on defining our rhetorical situation, outlining multimodal invention strategies, and explaining why multimodalities matter.
We learned how to tailor messages to a specific audience, genre, and medium (like print versus web), and how redefining “text” to include any medium boosts our rhetorical success. That’s the heart of “multimodal”: moving from a single mode; “words”, to several wherever possible.
From what I can understand, the data says we are showing a significant preference for visual communication, and this has been the trend for quite some time now. So, communicating via; audio, video & photo, in addition to text is now essential. Some messages can only land through a multimodal approach. That’s why I started a YouTube channel, and why many of us will work to communicate in a similar way online, for both professional and personal purposes.
Developing Projects that Analyze – “Rethinking your Writing: Rhetoric for Reflective Writers”, Chapter 16: Developing Projects that Analyze” – by Shelley Reid
By the time I started reading this portion of the annotation documents, I began to think that multimodality and visual communications might be the theme for this week—and I was right, at least somewhat. This reading can be embodied as the idea that “writers can benefit from seeing analysis not just as reaction to a situation, but as creation of new knowledge: your role as an analyst is to provide insights to readers that they haven’t already fully articulated or explored”.
“Inter- pretive analysis explores the details of a text, data set, or performance, to draw conclusions about what it means or implies, especially when that meaning isn’t immediately clear or agreed upon”
“Causal analysis explores a chain of events or behaviors to draw conclusions about how or why one factor leads to or is influenced by another, particularly when the interactions are complicated, obscure, or variable.”
In either case we need to consider how credible we really are in a given rhetorical context, I’m no Logician, but I can research my concerns via plain ol Principles of Sound Reasoning (PHI 103), classes or Business Ethics (PHI 360) classes, to find a Framework that can be used to further whatever Rhetorical Objectives I may have in mind.
These frameworks are typically popularized by the “Big doggs” in a given rhetorical context, like Jung in Psychology, or Durkheim in Sociology. Learning these frameworks can equip us to handle popular rhetorical strategies, become prepared for new rhetorical perspectives and how they influence the concept of value.
In my opinion, this essay could be boiled down to focusing on “The importance of humility and reflection” in analysis writing. Accept that you know nothing, ask questions, try to draw conclusions, then ask more questions.
On a personal note, I found a youtube video that feels rhetorically relevant to this conversation imo. Much of this story’s narrative is conveyed through inference and critical thinking.
Spoiler Alert! It’s from an anime called “Big O”, it’s set in a world where one nation managed to not only wage war on the rest of the world, but usher in an age of peace for themselves through military might and Giant Robots! The story is set within one such winning nation; in a collective perpetual state of amnesia. This video takes place in the voice of a newspaper writer as he strives to unveil the truth about that condition of helplessness and amnesia, a goal which ultimately drives him mad.
ENG 101 – Hosting Weekly Workshops — Your Input Needed!
Hey everyone,
I’m thinking about hosting a weekly synchronous workshop. It’s basically a casual Zoom session open to anyone in the class. You can drop in if you need help with your work, have questions about assignments, or just feel like hanging out and connecting with classmates.
I’ll be there the whole time to offer support, but there’s no pressure to stay the whole session or even to participate actively. It’s just a flexible space for collaboration and community.
Before I set anything in stone, I’d love to know:
What day of the week works best for you?
Drop a quick comment below with your preferred day, or feel free to email me if you’d rather share privately.
Once I hear back from everyone, I’ll send out another announcement with the finalized details.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
-Karl
ENG 101 – Module 4 – Writing Project 2: Rhetorical Analysis
Hello everyone, today’s due date is:
| Thu Jun 12, 2025 | Assignment Writing Project 2: Rhetorical Analysis |
We should all be finishing up this assignment and shifting our focus unto:
| Sun Jun 15, 2025 | Quiz Module 5: Quiz |
| Sun Jun 15, 2025 | Assignment Module 5: Annotation Activity |
This announcement will be short. I’ll add my rhetorical analysis later if I can.
Module 5
Hello Everyone,
I hope you’re all having a chill sunday! Today, these are the following due dates:
| Sun Jun 15, 2025 | Quiz Module 5: Quiz |
| Sun Jun 15, 2025 | Assignment Module 5: Annotation Activity |
We should be shifting our focus towards:
| Tue Jun 17, 2025 | Assignment Module 5: Invention Activity: Revision Plan |
Module 5 Notes
This week is all about revising to suit your intended audience and goals.
Learning Material Notes
Kill your Darlings
This is a metaphor that was constructed with the intended rhetorical purpose of reminding us that, even though we may love the delivery of a sentence or story, sometimes we still need to change that story to better suit our rhetorical purpose or intended audience. In my opinion, it’s a metaphor that only artists and writers typically even know about—let alone care about. This is because these kinds of people tend to become attached to their work and may also have the tendency to view the commodification of their work as “damaging” in some way, or as a threat to their creative voice as a whole.
Killing your darlings, in plain speech, means doing what you’ve got to do to get paid. It means changing your tone or word choices out of a desire for your audience to continue engaging with your work. If you want to get political, it’s a form of alienation that we must learn to accept if we wish to continue our commercial endeavors as writers and artists. Marx and Engels are just two of the most famous people to have written about the topic of “alienation” and often give the entire concept a bad rap as a result of being associated with them. If you have a problem with “Killing your darlings”, then you may need to re-examine the purpose of your art, and/or re-align your financial objectives appropriately.
Editing vs Revising
If you’ve never been to college, it’s easy to see how one could have the connotative and denotative meanings of such words mixed up.
- Editing, in this context, can be thought of as minor changes that fix things like punctuation and spelling.
- Revision, in this context, are major changes to a text, think entire paragraphs being re-written or omitted.
Discovery and Alignment
The goal of revision is typically to ensure that the text is aligned with its purpose and audience. Revisions also usually occur as a result of discovery, which means new information has been uncovered and needs to be included in the text to ensure it contains the most accurate information available. Finally, if you’re like me, you may also revise in order to restructure a draft to improve its clarity, which often means reorganizing the draft.
Audience
This is just my personal understanding, but the study of rhetoric is the study of how we adjust our messaging for a given audience. The goal of any kind of rhetoric is to improve the persuasiveness of the given message. We use the word “rhetoric” because it’s simply a more all-encompassing word than a words like “persuasiveness” or “vibe” but can be expanded to include such words. The second video in this weeks learning materials covers all of this in a super cerebral way.
Annotation Material Notes
This week’s reading annotations are:
- “Why visit your campus writing center” by Ben Rafoth
- Rethinking your Writing: Rhetoric for Reflective writers by Shelley Reid, Chapter 10, “Revising from Feedback and Reflection”
“Why visit your campus writing center” by Ben Rafoth
- Rafoth kicks off this reading by getting us all to acknowledge the fact that “It feels good to be social, doesn’t it?” This is one key element of any writing center. In my opinion, too often we forget that writing is a social act.
- Conversation is the key idea behind writing centers. In my opinion, the bandwidth of any given conversation can far exceed that of any given article. This makes conversation the perfect laboratory for experimental ideas. Rafoth supports this idea later on by saying that mentors create “idea-rich” conversations.
- Through repeated conversations with Writing Mentors, students gain a sense of their audience that persists long after the consultation is over, enabling them to make better rhetorical choices based on the intended audience of a given writing project.
Rethinking your Writing: Rhetoric for Reflective writers by Shelley Reid, Chapter 10, “Revising from Feedback and Reflection
- We are asked to enter into “Experimental Mode”, first drafts are prototypes aren’t they?
- Annotate constructively don’t lose earlier draft, start a new document with a specific objective in mind.
- Avoid Generalized Praise when giving feedback, review as a professional using rhetorical analysis framework. Ask questions like “Am I targeting my audience appropriately”, “how do I want to come across”.
- Be honest & Specific, shift perspective where necessary.
ENG 101 – Module 5 – Quick Update & Thanks
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who reached out about the Module 5 assignment. I was pleasantly surprised—and honestly impressed—by how many of you either asked for help or offered thoughtful feedback. I haven’t forgotten anyone, and I know some of you are hoping for a synchronous workshop. I appreciate your patience.
Today I spent some time really diving into the assignment, and I now have a much clearer understanding of its scope. This module gives you a lot of freedom in terms of the direction you choose, the audience you’re writing for, and the purpose you want your work to serve. Because of that flexibility, I decided to convert the assignment materials into a series of short, on-demand videos using OpenAI’s text-to-speech API. If you’re interested, you can watch the full series below:
https://youtu.be/GzSbjW7TBiULinks to an external site.
All the videos are on youtube, but this is how they are organized:
Revision Scenario # 1 – Travel Blog Article
https://youtu.be/bBpam0QhkvILinks to an external site.
- I converted a few Travel Blog Articles to Speech for anyone who needs it here:
- https://youtu.be/p3j95ogHfbg Links to an external site.
- I converted the Travel Leisure’s Guide (for submitting work to them) to speech, watch it here:
Revision Scenario # 2 – Scholarship committee oriented Literacy Narrative
https://youtu.be/Y7aQexTphzg Links to an external site.
Revision Scenario # 3 – Mental Health Blog Post for use in ASU’s student Wellness Blog
https://youtu.be/8wxkFJmY0pkLinks to an external site.
- I converted the sample Article to speech here:
Once You’ve Selected a Revision Scenario and watched all the associated examples that i’ve found associated with each example, if you need to, you can watch this video here summarizing the next steps of the process:
ENG101 – Invention Activity:
Revision Plan – End Here
Each video is segmented by topic, so you can quickly jump to whatever part you need. I also converted a few of the sample articles to audio for those of you who prefer to listen instead of read.
One other thing I noticed: Russia currently has zero articles posted on the travel site. If any of you are interested in writing about travel to or within Russia, this could be a great opportunity to help flesh out that section of the site.
Lastly, I’ll be catching up on all your emails and announcement replies later tonight now that I’ve had time to properly engage with the assignment. Thanks again for your patience—I’ll be getting back to each of you soon.
I hope this Helps!
-Karl
ENG 101 – Google Meet – Sign-Up Link!
Hey everyone,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to some of you—I’ve finally had a chance to fully dig into the Module 5 assignment. I hope you’ve been enjoying the announcements so far and finding them helpful!
If you want to chat one-on-one about your ideas, questions, or anything else, feel free to grab a time slot here:
👉-Link redacted-
Looking forward to catching up with those of you who want to talk things through. Thanks again for your patience and all the great energy you’ve brought to this class so far.
Best,
Karl
ENG 101 – Module 5 – Invention Activity: Revision Plan
Hello Everyone,
Today, is the due date for the following assignments:
| Tue Jun 17, 2025 | Assignment Module 5: Invention Activity: Revision Plan |
We should be shifting our focus to
| Thu Jun 19, 2025 | Assignment Module 6: Annotation Activity |
| Thu Jun 19, 2025 | Quiz Module 6: Quiz |
Once again, Sorry for the delay in getting back to some of you—I’ve finally had a chance to fully dig into the Module 5 assignment. I hope you’ve been enjoying the announcements so far and finding them helpful!
If you want to chat one-on-one about your ideas, questions, or anything else, feel free to grab a time slot here:
👉-link redacted-
I’m Looking forward to having some idea rich conversations with you all. Thanks again for your patience and all the great energy you’ve brought to this class.
-Karl
ENG 101 – Optional Educational & Inspiration Videos by other cool people on the internet
Hello Everyone,
I’ve been having fun talking to all of you about your new Writing Project. A few of you chose to write about mental health, and I kept mentioning the following video—so I thought I’d post it here for anyone who needs the added inspiration:
https://youtu.be/WVeBE_aSRJQ?si=0U4cr2ljNYMyz2PjLinks to an external site.
I found this video a long time ago, but it recently occurred to me that while I treat you all as writers who will go on to do paid writing work, perhaps you don’t yet see yourselves that way. This video does a good job of highlighting the power of writing and motivating us (or perhaps just me) to write:
https://youtu.be/oXr4sWVSbz0?si=T1f8oBnWQF0MBouLLinks to an external site.
I was reflecting on my writing habits after speaking with one young Marine earlier today. He made me think about the idea that rhetoric is just “sugar-coating” things. This video helped me realize that I was wrong to embrace that notion. Just as the horror genre embraces one audience’s expectations, the travelogue genre embraces a completely different set.
The voice of a writer is what determines the audience they attract. So, if a Marine writes an article and the reader can tell from the voice that it’s written by a Marine, then that Marine might attract an audience because of it. That voice can become valuable depending on the audience—but we won’t know its value until it’s released into the world. This guy lays it all out way cooler than I can:
https://youtu.be/EOmTvC77p9w?si=OHLpqBHpryPHSgtvLinks to an external site.
Finally, for anyone else interested in doing a travelogue: I look up to this creator. If I were to write travelogues, I’d likely emulate his style, since I like Japan and the way he writes. That doesn’t mean you should write like this—but it’s one way to get the job done:
https://youtu.be/YDvKkG1FTbU?si=OQyFCeGeqPJlt8yJLinks to an external site.
https://youtu.be/tLExSqNNMPc?si=5oY0VJLsFeqafdBGLinks to an external site.
I hope this all Helps!
-Karl
ENG 101 – Module 6 – Notes
Hello Everyone,
Today, these are our current due dates:
| Thu Jun 19, 2025 | Assignment Module 6: Annotation Activity |
| Thu Jun 19, 2025 | Quiz Module 6: Quiz |
We should be shifting our focus towards:
| Sun Jun 22, 2025 | Assignment Writing Project 3: Revision |
My Notes:
Moving forward we are going to apply all the skills we’ve learnt so far. Using our newly acquired pre-writing process, our newfound rhetorical awareness and visual communication strategies, we will re-imagine a reflective writing project into a COMPLETELY different project for a separate rhetorical audience and objective.
Personal Thoughts and Reflections:
Some of you may wonder; “Why the hell would we structure the class this way?”, the answer to that question is equally bewildering.
“Conquering others is strength, but conquering yourself is true power” -Lao Tzu
This saying embodies our approach to intellectual cultivation at ASU. Every ASU student is a reflective writer, and every single class you will take henceforth will require you to dig deep within yourself in order to understand the world around you.
In my opinion, the philosophical tradition that underpins the logic behind the structure of this class, and other classes like this one at ASU, is rooted in a concept known as Rationalism. My references may need some double checking, but at its core, I think rationalism is the belief that knowledge can be gained through introspection and reason. It’s the idea that truth is not just something we observe in the outside world, but something we can uncover through self-reflection and introspection. Thinkers like Plato and Descartes argued that the most reliable insights come not from experience, but from reflection. In this way, your reflective writing isn’t just a personal exercise, it’s a philosophical one. The point is: you’re doing more than just telling your story; you’re practicing a mode of inquiry that philosophers have relied on for centuries to make sense of the world.
That’s enough of me yapping about how philosophical this school is. Time to move on to this week’s video summary.
Learning Materials Notes:
In these weeks study hall video we are introduced to some Practical Strategies that can be used to influence the trajectory of your revision process.
- The “Talk To” method is a kind of like talking to yourself as though you actually were someone else. I’ve been doing this since elementary school, and it really fills me with joy to see this being taught as a viable revision strategy. The gist here is that “talking to yourself” isn’t just something crazy people do, it’s something that highly creative people may need to do in order to stay organized and move their writing projects in the direction that they want it to go in. The key here is learning to change your perspective and see yourself, outside yourself.
- The Triage Method is the less eclectic revision strategy. By taking notes about the objectives of a given writing project, we can quickly satisfy those goals and complete said writing project more quickly and effectively than the other strategy.
Optional Youtube videos:
Writing, as a discipline, requires so much interdisciplinary learning. I think this video might help because by knowing how we think we can become more effective as learners which also has the unconscious effect of making us better Writers.
https://youtu.be/UBVV8pch1dM?si=zOkusXGTBhTbI2U-
This video is more centered on How to learn and by extension, how to teach:
https://youtu.be/_f-qkGJBPts?si=ND0gDn2RJuKMCoZn
This video highlights the importance of rest in the context of learning:
https://youtu.be/DMTpyUs50Us?si=uw3LFaxNdVQcv8ZL
This last video is by a lesser known youtuber, i couldn’t find the youtube videos that i found back in the day that led to me creating my own “learning formula” but I think this video is good enough. Let me know if you found any better videos in the comments.
I hope this Helps!
-Karl
Module 7
This is the end of the course. During our time together, you’ve been asked repeatedly to reflect on your personal experiences.
Was it difficult? If so, why?
Have you changed at all as a result of any of the reflections you’ve written—or even just thought about—during this class?
Was it worth it?
Be honest. If you believe you’ve undergone any changes, try to find evidence that supports them.
Learning Materials:
Reflection is one path to self-improvement. That’s why reflective essays are how we “use evidence, personal experience, and intentional commentary to tell the story of your growth.”
Based on this week’s video, we learned that:
- According to Dr. Zarka, we can use reflective essays to take the time to contemplate how we use our time and the effects that our use of time has on our work. (Evidence and Explanation) For example, I used to spend two hours a day watching YouTube videos. As a result, I had a ton of ideas for conversations. But when I spent just 30 minutes writing each day instead, I found myself asking deeper questions that actually pushed my agenda forward.
- Reflection aids in knowledge transfer. For example, “A person learns how to ride a bicycle. Later, when learning to ride a motorcycle, they already understand how to balance on two wheels.” That earlier knowledge helps them learn the new skill faster.
- We can transfer knowledge from one area to another in almost every field of study.
- Reflective essays are based on our lives. Our primary audience is ourselves—then any external readers who may have a stake in our growth, like teachers or mentors.
Personal note:
Once we finish that, we’ve finished this class. How does it feel? What classes are some of you taking next? Do you feel like you’ve changed at all as a person? Let me know in the comments.
ENG 101 – Module 7 – Reflection
Hello Everyone!
Today is the final Due date for this class:
| Thu Jun 26, 2025 | Assignment Module 7: Reflection |
I liked interacting with you all over the past few weeks. I’ll miss y’all. By now, we’ve all come full circle and re-acknowledged our reasons for enrolling in our respective degree programs with Arizona State University. Knowledge limitations, scarcity, community, whatever limitation you may encounter moving forward, I hope you approach them as a writer. Good Luck and Godspeed.
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