Today we got in groups to discuss the president's State of the Union Address. Here is a link to transcripts and footage and commentary.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/State_of_the_Union/state-of-the-union-2011-full-transcript/story?id=12759395#.TyCvMqWJdIE and

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/27/state-of-the-union-2010-full-text-transcript_n_439459.html

Bring in notes for tomorrow. In groups students will write a 3-4 paragraph essay discussing topics of interest to the group, analyzing the president's speech, weighing it for effectiveness and overall performance. Not to mention evaluating the writing, the crafting of the message which students will paraphrase in the critique.

Have at least 1-2 quotes in the essay response. Bring your books They Say, I Say and Diana Hacker Rules for Writers. We will look to see if there is a model we might employ. There will be homework from They Say, I Say over the weekend.

We'll start Mighty on Monday. I don't think it will take us more than a couple of weeks to read it. Monday the Pidd workshops begin. We'll start with an exam to see where people are. Again the time is 10:30 to 11:30 AM at my office D-219. If lots of students show up, we'll move to the LRC or Learning Resource Center.

If you haven't emailed me yet or responded to the syllabus, don't stress, you can have more time if you need it. Get it all in by Monday. Even if you hand work into me, so it isn't late, if it is a cyber-assignment, you still need to email the assignment to me as well.