Writing and literature podcasts

Rhetoric introduction

Rhetoric, also known as the art of persuasion, is the topic of this audio lecture. Rhetoric is an important concept in the COM course is actually made up of three parts. This is the idea of rhetoric. Rhetoric is an ancient approach to communication that considers how we persuade other people when we communicate. The ancient Greeks broke down the art of persuasion into several concepts, three of which are really important for students in university and college writing courses. These concepts are ethos, pathos, and logos... [6 mins]

References section of your essay

The References section is another part of your paper in which it is very easy for the instructor to see how much effort you put into researching and organizing your sources. So, let's go over here some basic things that I will want to see in your References list (APA style!). (3 mins)

Critical response

In the critical response, I want you to say how you agree or disagree with the article, and to clearly explain why.  However, let's go over what you should or should not do in a critical response. ...

Conjunctive adverbs

A conjunctive adverb can also be used to connect a sentence. But it works very differently than a coordinating conjunction, which is a word like AND or BUT. In fact, there are a lot of other words that we use to connect sentences - words like consequently, meanwhile, and on the other hand. These words, called conjunctive adverbs, or adverbial conjunctions, are a bit fancier. They are formal...

Why and how to use quotations in your body paragraph

It is extremely important to quote from the assigned reading, also known as the source, in any critical response or literary essay. Quoting from the source accurately often is the difference between passing or failing, or between increasing your grade from C to B, or from B to A. In this lecture I'm going to cover how you can quote from the source in a way that satisfies your instructor - in this case, me. 

How to avoid patchwriting

Patchwriting is a kind of plagiarism that can result in a student getting zero on their essay and possibly failing the course, so it's something you definitely want to avoid. Now that I've got your attention, let me tell you what patchwriting is, and how to avoid it. Patchwriting means to take patches of words from a source that you've read. Then you rearrange the words ...

How to structure your paragraph

In this lecture I'll discuss structuring your body paragraph and writing a longer paragraph. If you got comment 8A or 8B, then this comment indicates that you need to work on transition words. But this comment also relates to a problem with structuring your overall paragraph. Longer paragraphs of 250 words or more require more attention to how your ideas hang together.

How to structure your introduction in your essay

In this lecture I'll discuss structuring an introductory paragraph for your essay. I will be using these terms: paraphrase, topic sentence, thesis, overview sentences, and body paragraph. If you get comment 19D on your essay, this lecture is for you.

Empathy in Do androids dream of electric sheep

Empathy in Do androids dream of electric sheep - 3 minutes. What is empathy? Does Rick feel empathy? Do we feel empathy toward animals in our world? What defines an android in Rick Deckard's world?

Science fiction as a hybrid genre - Do androids dream of electric sheep

A 9 minute podcast talk about Do androids dream of electric sheep - the graphic novel, art by Tony Parker, words by Philip K. Dick. Science fiction as a hybrid genre, materialism, Rick Deckard, Isidore, film, comics, and the history of pulp fiction (pulp, sex, violence, cheapness).