Class Exercise 1 – Good Character

 

Allow students 15/20 minutes of class time to wander around campus and take a selfie of themselves. This selfie should show one or two specific positive aspects of the author’s character, taken from the list below. When students come back to class, have them pair up and have them write captions for each other’s selfies about the aspects of the person’s character the audience sees. The student who writes the caption can refer to the list below, too. After this writing activity, students can check if the audience’s caption matches the author’s intention. After the pair discusses each other’s choices, conversation can be opened up to the whole class, focusing on what elements in the selfie communicate that specific positive trait of the author’s character.

 

List of character traits: Accountable, Adventurous, Ambitious, Authentic, Brave, Calm, Candid, Charismatic, Committed, Compassionate, Considerate, Creative, Curious, Dedicated, Easygoing, Empathetic, Energetic, Enthusiastic, Faithful, Fearless, Friendly, Generous, Happy, Hard working, Independent, Innovative, Intelligent, Joyful, Knowledgeable, Loving, Loyal, Open minded, Optimist, Playful, Polite, Powerful, Practical, Resourceful, Responsible, Self confident, Sincere, Spiritual, Spontaneous, Strong, Successful, Supportive, Trustworthy, Warm, Wise.

 

This exercise is useful to allow students to reflect on how an audience interprets character presentation.

 

 

Class Exercise 2 – Persuasion

 

Allow 15/20 minutes of class time for students to brainstorm about activities that reveal aspects of their good character. Ask students to think about how that activity reveals the author’s character. Introduce aspects of the Toulmin model to the class: writing (even visual writing) is based on a logical succession of statements: Datum, Claim, and Warrant.

 

Datum: Common knowledge

Claim: a SO clause

Warrant: a SINCE clause

 

Ask students to create links between the activity revealing an aspect of themselves and the Toulmin model.

 

Example: A student wants to portray herself as playful. Activities that reveal a playful character can be: doing funny faces, doing the horns gesture behind a friend’s head in a group selfie, posing in a comical posture, among others.

 

Datum: it is common knowledge that being playful reveals a positive nature

Claim: so I make a funny face to convince my audience that I am playful

Warrant: since my audience will likely be amused by my actions.

 

Ask students to translate their persuasive thinking into a selfie. This exercise allows students to apply rhetorical strategies to visual representations.

 

 

Class Exercise 3 – Identification

 

Introduce Burke’s Identification to the class: what happens when the audience relates to the author’s character. Burke argues that an audience that identifies with an author feels a degree of consubstantiality: the author and the audience are “substantially one.” However, Burke also suggests that this consubstantiality creates a division between the community created by the author and the audience, and other communities that do not partake in the same discourse. Finally, Burke asserts that even though author and audience are part of the same discourse community and are separated from other communities, this discourse community is based on a desire to belong.

 

In order to practice what Burke defines as identification, instructors can use a basic identity wheel: a wheel with a number of cells in which students can insert some of the traits that define their identities: nationality, gender, school major, political affiliation, club or organization affiliation, some character traits that can be taken from the list on exercise 1, and so on.

 

After students have filled their cells, instructors can ask students to identify the discourse community they want to engage with their selfies, and then choose one or more identities that would create a connection between students and those discourse communities. Once students have identified their traits, students can start thinking of ways to include those traits in their selfies.

 

Example: A student from the University of Michigan who wants to create identification with her audience will take a selfie with some garments showing the block M (the logo of the university). This will create consubstantiality with people who also attend or attended the university, division between the author and an audience that attends a different school, and desire to consider school affiliation an essential part of somebody’s character.

 

This exercise helps students situate themselves as active participants in a discourse community.

 

 

Exercise 4 – Discursive Formation

 

To practice discursive formation, the instructor can refer back to the identity wheel in exercise 3. Students can choose three identities that they think their audiences might identify with. Students can then imagine some visual and graphic features that they can link to those identities: colors, shapes, backgrounds, phrases, images, objects, and so on. Once students have decided on an object, students can practice making that object the focal point of the selfie. That object will speak of some identity traits of the person.

 

Example: if a student chooses an identity trait as music lover, that student can think of objects that are connected to music: a record player, a vinyl LP, a musical instrument. By taking a selfie that focuses on that object, the student attempts to let that object create a discourse that includes the student. A selfie whose focal point is a musical instrument tells the audience that the person participates in a discourse community of music players.

 

This exercise helps students identify an external discourse they want to participate in.