The Power of Vunerability

For this assignment, you need to read the essay titled, “‘Finding Your Way In’: Invention as Inquiry Based Learning in First Year Writing,” by Steven Lessner and Colin Craig. As you will see, you have already had some practice with the first strategy the authors present: reading rhetorically. In this writing assignment, you will practice a different strategy for “entering the conversation.”
2-3 pages
Due on Monday, Sept. 20 on Canvas by 11:59 PM.
After reading the essay, I want you to watch the Ted Talk by Brene Brown called, The Power of Vulnerability. In this case, you are WATCHING and HEARING the text, not “reading” it. Nonetheless, you are being invited (by me) to “find your way into” the subject, the conversation of which Brown is offering.
Using the “Critical Freewriting” strategy that is explained in the essay by Lessner and Craig, I want you to “critically freewrite” about the Ted Talk. Remember, “critical freewriting gives you permission to grapple with an idea and even explore the basis for your own beliefs about a topic. It involves going beyond writing freely about a subject, and placing it in relationship to larger existing conversations. Critical freewriting provides you the opportunity to use reflection and inquiry as inventive strategies towards exploring multiple angles into a writing topic.” It also means that your critical freewriting can be “a reflection process that includes:
• asking questions
• responding
• engaging with opposing points of view
• developing new perspectives and then asking more questions
With that in mind, make your “critical freewriting” a 2-3 page reflection on Brown’s Ted Talk. Feel free to refer to other texts or conversations we’ve had that may relate to the Talk’s subject and content. You are not analyzing Brown’s rhetorical strategies. You are critically responding to what she says.

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