Claims

These are the claims each class identified from the text. Spend a bit of time thinking about these in terms of the article and in general in terms of our society. Be prepared to discuss, even if you don't usually talk.

Period 2

• Self-governance is more essential than governance itself. (par. 5)
• The press is a serious entity and should focus on real life, not fantasy.
• The public needs hard information in order to self-govern.
• The need to make money sometimes leads the media to sacrifice truth for what their audience wants to hear.
• The American press has often been powerful and sometimes feared.
• The marketplace can be the ally rather than the enemy of a strong, free media.

Period 3

• Self-governance is more essential than governance itself. (Value)
• The press should be a serious member of the media family. (Policy)
• The need for public news has been a cornerstone of America’s system almost from the start. (Fact)
• Abraham Lincoln articulated this content most succinctly (value) when he said, “Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe.”  (Policy)
• The issue of whether a free press is the best communications solution in a democracy is much too important at the close of this century (fact) and needs to be examined dispassionately. (Policy)
• The choices (media choices) may be larger, but a case can be made that they are not deeper. (Value)
• For the public to believe the press, their product must be credible. (Value) (Fact)

Toulmin Model

Stephen Toulmin

For some notes on the Toulmin method we looked at today, click here. We'll look at a piece tomorrow that demonstrates another argument approach, and we'll try to apply Toulmin to it as well. Happy writing!

This I Believe

Ninja Nakayla Chan

Your This I Believe essay is due on Wednesday January 25th. It should be uploaded to your blog and you will be reading it aloud in class as well. Here are the requirements adapted from the This I Believe submission page (I encourage you to submit them to This I Believe if you wish). Keep the following in mind when you write your essay:

1. Limit your essay to 350-500 words.
2. Describe an event that shaped your beliefs or a person who inspired them.
3. Avoid sermons and editorials—no soapbox declamations, please!
4. Read more of the This I Believe essay-writing tips.

You can peruse multiple examples at http://thisibelieve.org. Often the ones put on the radio are a bit better, but not necessarily so.

Andrea Kang's (Class of 2009) This I Believe essay. They re-posted it from its original posting so all of the comments are gone, but her essay is there.

Break Reminders

A scene from somewhere where it isn't supposed
to rain over Christmas 

Remember that you have a paper to work on over break (cue music..."He's a grinch...").  It is due on the 6th at the end of the day.

I you want to take advantage of the rewrite/revise a paper opportunity, remember to make a copy of your original Google Docs version and edit the NEW one. That will be due on the 3rd when we get back.

Otherwise have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Enjoy the holidays and the bowl games!

Structuring Arguments et al

originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle 

For Monday, read Chapter 6 from Everything's an Argument. We'll discuss Toulmin and his method of argument using the text and another simpler model.

Here is the file that will allow you to play with your prospective AP test performance to your heart's content.

By popular vote, the SAT Vocab Final will be held after break. Though 4th period was fairly evenly split, 6th period went overwhelmingly toward after break. The test will NOT be the day we get back, but will be later that week or even the following week depending on our paper that is due that Friday.

Speaking of your paper, please choose your prompt by Monday.

Some thoughts on argument analysis

1. Published arguments seldom begin with a thesis (and may not end with one). Frequently, the thesis is only implied. 
2. An analysis of an argument is rarely “right” or “wrong,” but some answers are much better than others. The answer that explains the text in the most thorough way is superior. 
3. Thinking of yourself as a member of the intended audience for an argument is essential to analyzing argument. 
4. Often when we reject an argument, it is because we are not part of the intended audience. 
5. The analyst needs to pay attention to assumptions concerning the reader’s race, nationality, and gender. 
6. Pay close attention to pronouns. They shift references. 
7. An analytic explanation rarely occurs in a chronological order; it usually involves moving backward and forward within the text being analyzed. Using chronological order usually moves an analysis to summary. 
8. While knowing Aristotle’s three modes is important, it is also important to know the work of Rogers (the psychologist) and Toulmin (the logician). 
9. Whether or not an argument contains fallacies is not germane to understanding it rhetorically. 
10. Analyses need to measured against the evidence of the text itself. 
11. It is usually more important to consider what is implied. 
12. When you read an argument, you should try to determine why it was written in the way it was written. 
13. The analyst needs to determine whether the thesis is direct, indirect, implied, deliberately hidden, or subversive (A Modest Proposal is an example of a subversive thesis).

doc

Don't forget to do the assignment in the previous post. Also, check out the link under writing on the left for notes on good writing entitled the YES Writing Guide .

Never argue with an elephant

Elephant:1; tour bus: 0

unless you have to write this paper:

Looking for some homework? Bummed that we didn't finish talking about Orwell today? Well, I've got just the cure! Check out this essay assignment! We'll talk about it later this week, but I thought some of you might want to start thinking about this now.

Gender Essays/Discussion/Paper

For those of you in Junior Conferences today, read Professions for Women by Virginia Woolf  (p 356) and I Want a Wife by Judy Brady. Start taking notes on the reading using the Gender Discussion Notes graphic organizer. You will need to bring that to use during the discussion on Thursday and it will be due immediately after the discussion. We also talked about our next paper. You'll need to use two of the sources listed in the paper instructions and two quotes from the discussion in your paper (read the paper handout and the discussion notes graphic organizer).

Click on and download all the links above.

Take care and I'll see you tomorrow.

Autumn of the Multitaskers?

Read The Autumn of the Mutitaskers tonight for class tomorrow.  If you wish to print it out, here is a pdf version.  We will analyze it in class and you may very well have some homework using this article tomorrow night.  (Who am I kidding?  Yes, you will have some homework on this tomorrow night.)

You also may wish to check out the Forum I set up and keep forgetting to mention in class.

The dialectical relationship of the self to society

Based on our discussions of the dialectic to the right, blog your thoughts on this “feedback loop” between the self and society.  Use Frontline’s video essay Merchants of Cool as a basis for your arguments. You may wish to consider the following questions in your write-up.

• What do you think of the premise put forth by Frontline and by the dialectic model above?


• Do you see an authentic way to take control of your relationship between the, or rather your, self and society?

Have a great Spring Break!!  And don't forget to do the reading and blog posts noted in the other post!

Extra Credit: The Most terrifying Video You’ll Ever See

Write up an argument analysis with an eye to establishing its foolproof construction or its downfall.  I will give extra credit for a well-done analysis (whoo hoo!).  If you don’t want the extra credit, just watch the video for your own interest in his argument. If you do want to try for extra credit, blog your analysis by Monday.

Note: The author has taken the video off of YouTube and replaced with hours of videos detailing the argument in a much fuller way than he intended on doing.  I found it elsewhere here along with a transcript.  (The video link below is for looks, it’s broken.) Update: It seems the link isn't broken anymore...it's smaller on my site though (I re-sized it), so if you want it bigger, search YouTube for "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See" or click the link above.

This video was made by another amazing University of Puget Sound alumnus.

To see his whole argument that he’s updated, visit YouTube here. In the box on the right with his username (wonderingmind42), click “more info”.  He has an index of all his videos pertaining to this one argument there.

Structuring Arguments

Read pages 139-147 in Everything’s an Argument.  Review pages 147-171 as well.  We have already discussed the content of those pages in class, but skimming them and reading the examples will help you understand Toulmin better.

Remember that we have a quiz on pages 20-32 of Everything’s and Argument tomorrow.

Extra Credit?!

Write up an argument analysis with an eye to establishing its foolproof construction or its downfall.  I will give extra credit for a well-done analysis (whoo hoo!).  If you don't want the extra credit, just watch the video for your own interest in his argument. If you do want to try for extra credit, blog your analysis by the end of the week.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/zORv8wwiadQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

This video was made by another amazing University of Puget Sound alumnus.

Don't forget to scroll down for your actual assignment!