BA7: Analysis of logical support and underlying assumptions in an argument

1. BA7: Analysis of logical support and underlying assumptions in an argument 03/29/2012

2. For today • Announcements • Brief Assignment 7: Analysis of Logical Support and Underlying Assumptions in an Argument • Full Class Discussion: What are appeals? How do they relate to purpose? • Small Group Work: BA7 Prep Assignment • In 2 parts • Draft 2.1 Prep Assignment & Homework

3. announcements • Sarah Handley: Have you replaced your ink cartridge yet? • Your second extra credit opportunity this semester will be to take a complete draft of your Draft 2.1 to the University Writing Center. If you want to take advantage of this, I suggest you make an appointment ASAP. Look at your calendar, figure out when you’ll start your draft, and find a day when you could visit the Writing Center. Then call and make an appointment!

4. ba7 • Objective: To demonstrate your ability to analyze the effectiveness of support in an argument and determine how the support relates to each author's underlying assumptions. • Description: Choose one of the articles below from your First-Year Writing text, and in a 600-750 word essay, identify and analyze the author’s use of support to make his or her argument. • Your essay will need to identify the writer’s audience and purpose (as many of you did last semester in your ENGL1301 rhetorical analysis), describe the authors’ assumptions about this purpose and audience that govern the choices he or she makes in his or her writing, analyze the ways in which the logical support demonstrates the authors’ assumptions about the audience and subject, and discuss the overall effectiveness of the essay. In addition to the questions listed after each article selection below, please use the following questions to guide your analysis:

5. ba7 • What type of evidence/logical support does the writer use? Why does the writer think this type of evidence is convincing? (For instance, does the writer use personal experience? Historical examples? Case studies? Statistics? Why does the writer choose one type over another?) • What does the author assume about his or her readers? How can you tell? Why would certain aspects of the logical support appeal to the readers that the author has in mind? Would any aspects of the logical support alienate a large group of readers? • What does the author assume about his or her subject? How can you tell? Which aspects of the logical support that would unconvincing to people who did not share the author's assumptions? Why? Is the argument still convincing, or is the author's bias detrimental to the argument's success? (Hint--you might consider the extent to which the author's profession has influenced his or her perspective).

6. ba7 • In addition to these questions, you may also refer to the checklist in Chapter 9a of the St. Martin's Handbook to help you structure your analysis. Remember, though, that it is important to analyze in detail--do not try to answer every question in the checklist, for example. • Article Choices (please choose only one article for the subject of your analysis): • * Science and Technology in World Agriculture: Narratives and Discourses (pp. 501-506)  -- How does Scandizzo try to persuade you that the World Bank “intervenes with a soothing message”? Where exactly does Scandizzo try to explain why the World Bank would want to offer a balance between the two sides? Which of Scandizzo’s methods of persuasion are least and most effective? • * Till Children Do Us Part (pp. 386-387) -- What kinds of evidence does Coontz use to support her argument? Is it effective for the audience that she is targeting in this article? • * Kant or Cant: The Myth of the Democratic Peace (pp. 431-444) -- Near the end of his essay, Layne describes democratic peace theory as “dangerous.” What in his article would most persuade you to agree with him—what evidence? What logical reasoning? Why do you think that some readers would respond passionately to this description of democratic peace theory? • Length: 600 - 750 words • Format: MLA style for internal citations and works cited.

7. A little fun to kick off… • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y

8. arguments • Purposes • To win • The writer or speaker aims to present a position that prevails over or defeats the positions of others (e.g. courtroom trial) • To convince • The writer wants to change his audience’s opinion on an issue. • To reach a decision or explore an issue • Argument to decide or explore does not seek to conquer or control others or even to convince. Your purpose in many situations—from trying to decide which laptop to buy to exploring with your family the best way to care for an elderly relative—will be to share information and perspectives in order to make informed political, professional, and personal choices. • To change yourself • Sometimes you will find yourself arguing primarily with yourself, and those arguments often take the form of intense meditations on a theme, or even of prayer. In such cases, you may be hoping to transform something in yourself or to reach peace of mind on a troubling subject.

9. Arguments, cont’d • Yes, it has come back to haunt you. Muhahahahaha. • Say hello to your old friends, the RHETORICAL APPEALS. • Ethos? • Logos? • Pathos?

10. Name logical appeals • Logical/Reasoning/Logos: • If…then • Either…or • Cause and Effect (be cautious with this one) • Costs and Benefits • Better and Worse • Examples • Facts and Data • Anecdotes • Evidence drawn from: • Observations • Interviews • Surveys and questionnaires • Experiments • Personal experience

11. Name emotional appeals • Emotional/Pathos: • Promise of gain • Promise of enjoyment • Fear of loss • Fear of pain • Expressions of anger or disgust

12. Name ethical appeals • Ethical/Credibility/Ethos: • Personal experience • Personal credentials • Good moral characters • Appeal to experts • Identification with readers • Admission of limitations • Expression of good will • Use of “insider” language

13. What do appeals tell you about the purpose? • Why would you use different appeals for the four different types of purposes?

14. Small group work • Get in groups of three. Open your textbooks to pp. 462, to the article called “Apathy Among the Educated” by HassinaSherjan. Read it. • Answer the following questions as a group: • What is the author’s purpose? Why/why not? • Can you note SPECIFIC types of emotional, ethical (credibility), and logical appeals the author was using? If not, look for some and talk about them as a group. • For this part, I would suggest taking out your First Year Writing textbooks and looking at pages 207-210 for explanations about specific types of these appeals. • How do the appeals/proofs support and/or explain the author’s purpose?

15. Underlying assumptions • How do we figure out our own underlying assumptions? • Looking at examples of beauty in different centuries.

16. A beautiful woman circa 18th century

17. A beautiful woman today…(arguably)

18. Underlying assumptions, cont’d • How does this translate into argumentative statements? Let’s look at some: • Killing an innocent person is wrong. Therefore, abortion is wrong. • Underlying assumption? Abortion involves the killing of an innocent person. • Giving students a failing grade will damage their self-confidence. Therefore, we should not fail students. • Underlying assumption? We should not damage students' self-confidence. • There is nothing wrong talking on a mobile phone during lectures. Other students do it all the time. • Underlying assumption? If an action is done by other students (or people) all the time, then there is nothing wrong with it. • Hint: This one should be very familiar. I’m sure your parents have said it to you many times.

19. Small group work • Now, get back into your original groups and discuss any underlying assumptions that the author is using in this article • (you might want to refer to the introduction preceding these article first).

20. Argument--thesis • What are some ways to find the thesis in an argument? • For help with this for BA7, you’ll need to look at chapter 9 in the ehandbook. We will be going over structures of theses for an argument in more depth next week. • Looking at abstracts or editor’s introductions • Some examples on the following slide

21. Abstract samples • Electric-Shock Therapy, by Rhonda Neitzel, JennniferCarlile, Scott Noe, and James Taylor • The purpose of this research was designed to help understand the therapeutic effects that electrical stimulation has on body tissue. Specifically, the research explored AC and DC currents and how these currents move through the body to produce beneficial effects. The documented research proves that the body acts like a parallel and series circuit to effectively use electrical stimulation to help assist with decreasing swelling, controlling pain, facilitating muscle contractions as well as various other therapeutic benefits.

22. Abstract samples • “Jonathan Swift’s Latin Quacks: ‘A Consultation of Four Physicians upon a Lord that Was Dying’” by Paul William Child • This essay gives new critical appreciation to Jonathan Swift's muchneglected 'Latino-Anglicus' satire on academic medicine, 'A Consultation of Four Physicians upon a Lord that Was Dying'. Although Swift himself dismissed the piece as a 'trifle', it brilliantly satirises the performative nonsense of the learned doctors of his day and their abuses of language. The essay argues that the 'Latino-Anglicus' form of the work itself both undermines the doctors' pretensions to medical authority and corresponds with the 'disordering' of Swift's own body, as he suffered increasingly from the symptoms of Ménière's disease.

23. Tips for BA7 • You HAVE to either quote or explain the thesis of the article, preferably in your introduction. • You HAVE to state what the purpose of the article is; note: this will be closely connected with the thesis statement of the article. • You HAVE to explain to the reader who the audience of the article is. If you do not do this, you cannot effectively analyze the type of support being used because you cannot show how it would be effective or ineffective for that particular audience. • For the love of <insert own belief here>, please break your assignment up into a introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You will also need a WORK CITED list in MLA FORMAT. • You MUST provide a thesis statement for your assignment. • You may want to begin the thesis like this: “The <author> uses logical appeals such as <specific appeal>, <specific appeal>, and <specific appeal> to convince his/her audience of <the argument>.” • You HAVE to give specific rhetorical appeals being used in the article to provide support for the argument. • Note: I would suggest only focusing on one type of appeal (logos OR pathos OR ethos).

24. Warning about one of the articles for BA7 • Many of you will probably choose the Coontz article for BA7. I stress that you should READ THE ABSTRACT/EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION for this article. Because of the short length of the article, the thesis may not necessarily be at the beginning. • Things you may want to look for: • Are there any sentences in the essay that resemble the title? This will not be something you can do for all essays, but for some, it may be helpful. • Look at all of the reasons the author is using to support their argument—look also at the type of support they’re using. If you choose a thesis from the article, ALL of the reasons/support HAVE to prove that thesis.

25. For next class • Reading 11—On the Syllabus • BA7 due on Tuesday, April 3rd by 11:59:59pm!! • Draft 2.1 Prep Assignment • Due in class on Thursday, April 5th. • You will be gearing up for Draft 2.1 by formulating your working thesis statement and outlining each paragraph. • See the handout for Draft 2.1 Prep Assignment under “Prep Assignments” on the class blog.