To be or not to be?

Should the state make that decision?

You have now read two articles on the death penalty. The first was by H.L. Mencken who thought it a good idea, but that it was cruel to make people wait months (I wonder what he would think of us now that we make death row inmates wait years?). The second was by Coretta Scott King, who thought the use of the death penalty degraded our society. Using these two perspectives and your own background knowledge, write your own argument for or against the death penalty either in America or in general. Make sure that you make a nuanced claim that recognizes the complexity of the issue and that you support that claim (or those claims).
Some of you may feel passionately about this. This is not meant to be a full blown essay, so cap this off at about 300-400 words (about the size of the assertion journals -- you could even use that as a model for doing this if you want to).

PS See a couple of posts down for a link to the Toulmin model. Also, see this model. We'll talk about that soon.

See if downloading this works. It will likely be seen better on a computer than a phone. You need to be logged into your Fifeschools account to download this one.

Just read...

...the packet you got in class today (Friday). Well, not the whole packet. Read the introduction (pp. 483-4), then read H.L Mencken's The Penalty of Death on pages 485-7 and Corretta Scott King's The Death Penalty Is a Step Back on pages 488-490. In other words, read from page 483-490.

Before you read each of the two short essays, peruse the comprehension questions for each essay as they may aid you in focusing on their argument (the rhetoric questions deal with how they are making that argument). No blog this weekend. Just read and be ready to discuss.

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!