Getting Started and the Indomitable Thesis

One of the most difficult things to write is your thesis statement. This is due to the fact that we often attempt to write it first, yet the thesis guides the whole paper. How can we write it before we know where we're going? One answer is in stages. After thinking. A lot. Check out the following two excellent college level resources on writing your thesis.

University of North Carolina Writing Center
Dartmouth Writing Center

Cornobble: An example for a study break.

JFK Paper

Please do questions 1-4 and 1-9 on pages 55-6 of the TLC book. Due Wednesday October 31st.

If you feel like you've been cornobbled by this JFK assignment and are lost in a collieshangie with rhetorical devices, remember to step back, take a breath, and reacquaint yourself with the purpose you are dealing with in each paragraph/section. Focus on how he attempts to fulfill each purpose using rhetorical strategies. Remember that rhetorical strategies can include such things as diction & syntax, appeals (both classical and various, i.e. patriotism, pride, compassion, etc.), choice of detail, figurative language, imagery, organization, etc.

Remember the rhetorical situation: speaker, occasion, audience, purpose(s) as well.

Thesis work on Wednesday.

We will be in the Library Lab to work on this paper on Thursday and Friday this week. More specifics on the paper Wednesday. 

Please bring your books this week!

Here's the speech file if you need a clean copy.

Best of luck with this paper. Don't over-think it. Just identify a purpose and show how he tries to accomplish it in his speech.

Hmmm, wouldn't cornobbled and collieshangie be great words to add to a vocabulary test?

Extra Credit...whaaaa?

He said, he said

Alas, things took a bit longer than I'd hoped in first period this morning, so we did not get to the activities that would have led to your homework. I know you're all sad about that. Given that you likely now have nothing to do this evening, I suggest that you watch/listen to the final presidential election debate tonight at 6:00 PM. Various networks will likely carry it and it will be streamed live on Hulu and YouTube (more options are listed in this article).

If you watch the debate and evaluate the rhetorical techniques of the candidates on your blog, you will earn extra credit. Focus on how effective they were at making their points, not whether you happen to agree with one or the other more or less.

Here's the video we mentioned in first period as an interesting rhetorical move by Obama after the second debate. Echoes of Jeff Foxworthy, don't you think? The punchline comes toward the end of course.