Day Two, College Composition II

1. Day Two, College Composition II

2. Today’s Agenda • Set-up your Engrade Account/Access • Take the auto-quiz on last class meeting’s lecture material You may use your notes and resources this week** • Mini-lecture: Improving your Introduction (Term Paper) • Discussion: What is an Argument? Examples and what an Argument is not • Peer Partner Exercise:Don’t Believe Everything You Think (#2)—grasping satire, exaggeration, and the complexity of classical Argument • Handout: How to Analyze an Argument • Handout: “A Modest Proposal” • Political Rhetoric  (video clips/discussion in-class, if we have time) • Journals #1 and #2—final hour workshop/chance to work on the work so far

3. Engrade www.engrade.com will be used in addition to http://coursemaerials2012.wordpress.com this term for course materials and resources. • Select to “signup” for access (if you do not already have an account created for another course) • Select that you wish to create a “student” account **Alternatively, you might have received an email from me yesterday when I added you to my class roster; if so, you may use it to enter the site • You’ll be prompted to enter an access code; I have those and will distribute them on slips of paper now • You will only see YOUR scores and course materials • Attempt to login and raise your hand if you cannot; I’ll help • Once to the main access for the course/gradebook, stop and allow anyone still working to catch-up • I’ll cover some of the basics of the site for the next few minutes

4. Reading Review/Quiz #1 • Take a few minutes to get your notes and materials in order; if you were absent last week, please do not attempt to take the quiz now. Instead, go to the Course Materials site and review some of that material. All quizzes are multiple choice and focus on recall and comprehension of the previous course meeting’s content. • Each quiz is worth 30 points; you may use your notes and resources on the first THREE quizzes  • Each quiz is limited to one hour; if you finish early, please begin the reading (pages/handout)

5. Introductions: Strengthening your Claim • The introduction is a key paragraph for both readers and writers. • First impressions matter. The reader will be more inclined to read a paper and consider a position if the initial paragraph is clear, organized, and engaging. • For the writer, a carefully crafted first paragraph acts as a springboard, establishing the order and direction for the entire paper.

6. Introductions: Strengthening your Claim In general, your introduction should • capture the reader’s attention • reflect the question raised by the assignment • provide essential context for your topic • define key terms

7. Introductions: Strengthening your Claim Most importantly, your introduction should • convey the pattern of organization you will follow in the paper • build to the thesis sentence: a clear, concise statement of the specific position you will explore in your paper

8. Introductions: Strengthening your Claim Start focused • Avoid broad openers; start your argument right away. Do not open with empty filler such as “Since the beginning of time” or “For thousands of years, men, both good and evil.” • Open with a sentence that launches your argument: “J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians explores the latent meanings of deformity.” Use substantive statements • Each sentence should contribute to the development of your argument. Avoid fact-only sentences such as “Jane Austen uses letters to reveal important information.” • Incorporate facts into more substantive statements: “Austen’s use of letters allows her to relay key narrative information in a concise and engaging way.”

9. Introductions: Strengthening your Claim Revise • Many writers mistakenly assume the first draft of their introduction is the final draft; take the time to revise your introduction once you’ve completed the paper. • Make sure that the introduction reflects what you have discovered through the process of composing the full argument.

10. Thesis as CLAIM When composing your thesis statement, • •make sure your thesis reflects the full scope of your argument. • •avoid using a thesis that is too broad to be defended in the your paper or too narrow to be a full response to the assignment. • argue as conceptually rich a position as you can support. Ask yourself How? and Why? questions to deepen your thesis. • make sure your reader can easily identify your thesis sentence. • claim your own position.

11. Thesis A thesis sentence that is too broad: • The Catholic Church’s influence on the formation of labor unions in the nineteenth • century was extremely significant. A more focused thesis sentence: • The Catholic Church, by means of the pulpit and the purse, greatly influenced the labor • movement in the United States during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Note that the second sentence concisely summarizes a specific argument that can be managed in a short paper. It also sets up the pattern for discussion; the writer will focus first on the Church’s direct instruction and then on its financial influence. Also note the effect of using the stronger verb “influenced” in the second sentence rather than “was” in the first sentence.

12. Thesis In The Craft of Argument, Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb suggest the following ways of deepening the thesis: To add a reason, include a reason-clause beginning with because, or if, or a phrase beginning with by or in order to (84). • Because of their emphasis on the broad impact of individual decisions, environmentalists exhibit values consistent with the American tradition of civic mindedness.

13. Thesis To acknowledge an alternative point-of-view or reason, or to limit the scope of your claim, add a concession-clause beginning with although, while, or even though, or a phrase beginning with despite or regardless of (85). • Although Emma and Levin define spirituality differently, their self-centered perspectives confine them to a state of permanent disillusionment.

14. Sample Introduction Claims that the American environmental movement undermines traditional democratic values are wrong. In fact, the movement emphasizes a commitment to compromise and a concern for the greater good that characterize the American democratic tradition. Critics argue that supporters of the environmental movement threaten fundamental constitutional rights, such as people’s ability to use their property as they see fit. Critics also question environmentalists’ use of lobbying to achieve goals, arguing that these tactics result in disproportionate attention given to environmental concerns.

15. Sample Introduction While it is true that environmentalists often advocate the adoption of policies that may restrict individual behavior, they do so within legally sanctioned bounds, recognizing that they are but one player in the formulation of public policy. By vigorously advocating for more stringent environmental standards, supporters of the environmental movement seek to persuade the American population to look beyond individual desires and to consider the broader impact of individual decisions. In so doing, environmentalists exhibit values consistent with the American tradition of civic mindedness, in which collective interests, rather than individual desires, represent the highest priority.

16. What is an Argument? • When people think of an argument, they usually think of a fight between two people (‘they’re having an argument’). • In contrast, in rhetoric, an argument is a piece of reasoning for the truth of a certain claim. Thus, one person can give an argument for or against something. • An argument has any number of supporting claims, and 1 supported claim. • The supporting claims are the premises of the argument. • The supported claim is the conclusion.

17. What is an Argument? Example: • ‘We shouldn’t get pepperoni on the pizza, because pepperoni makes me sick.’ 1 premise: ‘Pepperoni makes me sick’ conclusion: ‘We shouldn’t get pepperoni on the pizza’

18. What is an Argument? A good argument needs to satisfy 2 criteria: 1. The conclusion should follow from the premises; the truth of the premises should make the conclusion (likely to be) true 2. The premises should be acceptable; the premises should (likely to be) true • An argument is valid if it satisfies the first criterion. Otherwise, it is invalid. • An argument is sound if it satisfies both criteria. Otherwise, it is unsound.

19. Deduction/Induction A deductive argument is one where the truth of the conclusion is (claimed to be) guaranteed by the truth of the premises. • Mathematics is deductive An inductive argument is one where the truth of the conclusion is (claimed to be) more likely given the truth of the premises. • Science (and most of real life) is inductive

20. Attacking an Argument • You attack arguments by showing that it does not satisfy one (or both) of the criteria of a good argument. • Thus, either you show that the premises are unacceptable, or you show that it is unreasonable to draw the conclusion as stated, even if the premises would be true. You do not attack an argument by showing that its conclusion is false!

21. Attacking an Argument • As we saw, you can’t attack an argument by giving an argument for the opposite conclusion. • However, the reverse holds as well: even if you do successfully attack an argument with a certain conclusion, you have thereby not given any argument in favor of the opposite conclusion. • In sum, attacking an argument for a certain conclusion is completely different from giving an argument in favor of the opposite conclusion.

22. Avoiding Fallacies • Bad arguments are called fallacies. • There are many fallacies of which many people think that they are good arguments. • Fallacies usually follow certain patterns, so there are several categories of common fallacies. • You can see fallacies around you all the time once you recognize these patterns.

23. Satire • Saturday Night Live (occasionally), The Onion (example: http://www.theonion.com/articles/industrial-revolution-provides-millions-of-outofwo,2877/) • Satire, as it's traditionally understood, is the ridicule of some vice or imperfection — an attack on someone or something by making it look ridiculous or worthy of scorn. • Although satire is usually funny, it differs from comedy in at least one important way: whereas comic laughter needn't be directed at any particular target, satire is always derisive. • Satire, most of the accounts say, began as simple invective. • Satire is not the same thing as parody, although satire can use parody as a technique.

24. Satire—Start with SOAPS • Why not just present the problem and the solution in a realistic way? Why not just directly present an issue? What does satire accomplish? • Subject: What is this article about? • Occasion: Why was it written? What is going on at the time that the author is mocking? • Audience: Who is this article aimed at? • Purpose: What does the author hope to achieve by writing it? • Speaker: How does the author establish himself/herself as an authority on the subject?

25. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (1667-1745) • - b.1667 of English parents in Dublin, Ireland • - divided his time between London and Ireland (he served Sir William Temple in London as a secretary, reading, writing, and tutoring Esther Johnson who would become “Stella” in Swift’s work) • completed an MA at Oxford • - Swift made several trips back to London 1700-1704 and was slowly making his name in literary circles (with Addison and Steele, for example) • - 1704, publishes Tale of a Tub, a highly satiric attack on the contemporary intellectual scene (Swift’s name was not attached to the satire)

26. St. Patrick’s Addison and Steele (famous as essayists and publishers of Tatler and the Spectator

27. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal - though Swift’s initial literary recognition came from Whig circles, he would later gravitate towards the Tory wits (Swift himself was an Anglican and was intolerant of Dissent, particularly individual “enthusiasm”: a fanatical belief in personal inspiration and revelation) - Swift befriended and benefited from Lord Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford; by 1711 Swift was enjoying success in London, could afford to concentrate on his writing (mostly political and religious tracts), and had met John Dryden - in 1714, however, the Tory government under Queen Anne fell to a new Whig administration; Swift moved to Ireland to avoid recrimination and because his chances for preferment had disappeared - in addition to championing causes for Ireland through political prose, Swift began work on Gulliver’s Travels in 1720 (published in 1726) - a Modest Proposal appeared in 1729

28. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (1667-1745) – political context long period of power under Sir Robert Walpole (1721-1742) accession of George III (3rd in the Hanoverian line) brings Tory control in 1760 Whigs Tories conservative supported the Crown and aristocracy; opposed military foreign policy; reached its peak under Queen Anne (1702-1714); with Robert Harley as “prime minister” progressive supported the power of the Parliament over the Crown; made up mostly of landed gentry and merchants (the “free trade,” mercantilists of the 17th century) the Glorious/Bloodless Revolution of 1688 put William of Orange in power and deposed James II (for his overtly Catholic views); from this split the Tory and Whig parties solidified “Whig” is not because they wore wigs – it’s more likely derived from the Scottish whiggamor, a peasant farmer, used in the 17th century to identify dissenters

29. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal - Swift’s most enduring legacy is that of “misanthrope”: one who distrusts, dislikes, and thus avoids “mankind” - however, Swift’s supposed misanthropy should be understood in the context of his work as a satirist and also balanced by knowledge of his good works (he fought for justice in Ireland, gave substantially to charity, and also carried on deep, personal relationships throughout his life) - as a satirist, Swift worked out of “fierce indignation” (the classical idea that what fuels satire is not dislike for an individual, but rather knowledge of an injustice which the satirist believes needs correcting) - in this sense satire serves an important political and social purpose; its aim is to identify and correct the ills of society

30. Homework • Complete Quiz #1 if you haven’t already (Engrade) • Complete Journal #1 • Complete Peer Partner Exercise #1 (last week) • Read Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” (we’ll work on it in class next week) • See Journal #2 for reading that will prepare you for our workshop next week on your Term Paper