Discussion Topic

Up to this point in the course, we have applied the concept of “reading rhetorically” to analyzing the audience, purpose, context, and persuasive techniques of the authors we’ve read. However, this concept can also be applied to assessing the credibility and relevance of sources we find via research.

As explained in the?Reading?and?Essay?content items this unit, you will search one of the online databases for?two articles?that discuss some historical event or figure. Use these articles to test, extend, and complicate your thesis from last unit’s essay. The sources you find will be unique in the sense that they will not be shared by anyone else in the course, except in the rare event of a?coincidental?match between you and a colleague. You will locate these sources using the Park University McAfee Memorial Library’s?online databases.?(I recommend JSTOR and EBSCOhost.)

For the purpose of this unit’s revision project, you should seek articles that meet the following criteria:

• longer than 500 words
• available in full text format

You should feel free to imagine a wide range of possibilities for integrating the sources into your revised essay, as long as the end result is consistent with the rhetorical aims of the assignment. You should also know that exploring fifteen to twenty items deep in any search is probably necessary. In other words, for the best results, be diligent about exploring beyond the top three hits of any single search.

In your post to this discussion thread, first compose MLA-formatted Works Cited entries or APA-formatted References entries for each of the two scholarly sources you found for this unit’s essay. Then, write a two-paragraph post that:

• Briefly comments on how each article has affected your thinking on issues related to access, power, teaching methods, and higher education ? in other words, how each article is helping you “re-see” your thesis from last unit’s essay;
• based on Greene and Lidinsky’s criteria for evaluating source, explains how you know the sources you located are suitable (i.e., credible) for academic conversations.

Because I want you to spend most of your time this unit drafting and responding to other writers in the?Peer Review?thread, I am not requiring you to re-enter this area to respond to peer posts. (You should also note that there is only one topic in this unit’s?Discussion.) However, I do want you to re-enter this thread?between Thursday and Sunday?to note any comments I have made, which may alert you to errors in your citation format or concerns about the credibility of your sources.