A Boring Blog

At current status, we are in research mode, which means not much is going on other than reading, note taking, and claiming. Today the first four sources and claim were due.

Organizing Arguments

During today's class, we created an outline for an argumentation essay on women in the military. The process, which you may use when constructing your actual essay, commences with brainstorming possible claims, selecting the claim that would have the most evidence or be easiest to argue, listing evidence, grouping similar evidence, and composing warrants for each evidence grouping. Phew! However, we were not finished with argumentation. Next up, you selected a counterclaim (which could be one of your brainstormed claims), incorporated evidence to support the counterclaim, composed a rebuttal statement with evidence, and finished off the writing with a concluding sentence.

For the remainder of class, we discussed your argumentation essay and the requirements for its completion. While we did not finish all the due dates and steps, you are more than welcome to start your source pages for the textbook essays.

Argumentation

During today's class, we worked on the second half of argumentation with counterclaims and rebuttals.

Counterclaims are a second position that you take on a topic. It is not the opposite of the original claim. To create a strong counterclaim, you also include evidence to show its validity.

Rebuttals return the focus to the original claim's position. While a rebuttal does show how the original claim is better, the rebuttal does not "trash" the counterclaim as wrong.

For homework, you will be reading and annotating 3 essays on women in the military. We will use this information and your thoughts on the topic during class on Monday.

Digital versions of the essays:
http://beta.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/2003/04/30/women_in_combat_will_take_toll_on_our_culture
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29269-2003Mar25.html
http://www.newsweek.com/uncle-sam-and-aunt-samantha-149413

Presentation Prep

Today's was a work day for our rhetorical analysis presentations tomorrow. After that, we will commence our last unit: argumentation.

Meryl

To prep for our rhetorical group presentation, we watched and annotated Meryl Streep's commencement speech at Barnard College.

You can watch the speech at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-a8QXUAe2g
Here is another transcript copy in case you were absent or would like a digital one to peruse: http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0069-streep.htm

Following our viewing and annotation, I split the class into 2 groups to prep for the presentations, which will occur on Wednesday. Tuesday will be a prep day.

Persuasive Appeals

After finishing up and sharing our tone maps, we used a text to identify logos, ethos, and pathos and how the other manipulated these appeals to reflect his purpose. At this point, you have worked with syntax, diction, tone, logos, ethos, and pathos, all strategies that you will work with next week in a group assessment.

Tone Mapping

During today's class, we worked on the tone mapping technique, a visual method to comprehend tone shifts and patterns in writing for rhetorical analysis.

So, how do you create a tone map?
1. Read the text and make sure you understand the content and the author's purpose
2. Identify tone shifts - I usually draw a line
3. Specify the type of tone used in each section of the text - do not repeat the same tone word throughout the activity.
4. Select 2 of the tone words to construct a range - all the other tone words should be within these two words
5. Construct a map
6. Analyze the tone patterns

We will complete steps 5 & 6 on Friday. If you were part of the absent group, you will have to complete this activity fairly quickly.

Team Diction Essay

During class, we split into 2 teams to construct an essay answering this prompt: How does Emerson use diction to reflect his purpose in "Education"? Each student contributed to the essay by writing one paragraph. (If you were absent, you will need to construct one body-style paragraph in response to the prompt.)

Following evaluation of these essays, we began to look at tone via handouts and verbal activities.

Diction

To begin class, we had a surprise syntax quiz in which you had to identify the types of syntax. MP, you can make this up next week, and it takes about 10 minutes.

For the remainder of the class, we worked with diction: noticing patterns of diction, repetition, and author's purpose. We will continue analyzing diction on Monday.