Final Essay | Argument Essay with Research

Week 14 Mon April 18: Assignment

• MW Section: your Essay Proposal, with due dates, has been emailed to you.
• Sat Section: your Essay Proposal, with due dates. Couple format oddities showed up in Google docs. It's best use the version I'm sending everyone. Here's your "Final Exit" Ethanasia blog.

Week 13 Mon April 11: Assignment for Both Sections (MW section due April 13; SAT section due April 16)

• Read Reid, Chapter 10 (Arguing) pp. 295-306 and 328-336. 
• Here's a 5 minute video on Topic Selection and research, with focus on thesis statement.
• In your journal, make an entry entitled Essay #4. This entry will have four items, which should be numbered as below. I suggest you read all four Items and do a little free writing before you start answering any of them. Then, at any point in completing this assignment, feel free to do some research on your topic. (We will soon be hold special intensive research sessions at the Oakton library to advance your research. But do at least an hour of research while completing this assignment (due Monday for the MW section).
•  Item #1 Topic. State why your topic is of urgent and personal interest to you.
• Have you narrowed it down? 330
• Item #2 Topic sentence. This is your thesis. Reid uses the word "claim". 
• Write one or more preliminary topic sentences. 
• Feel free to use two sentences if you wish: one that identifies your topic and states its importance and a second that makes your claim, or argument, about your topic. 
• Item #3 Types of claim and types of appeal 298-306.  Identify the claims and appeals you will probably use in your essay.
• Item #4 Look at "Assignment for Arguing" 328 and identify your audience and possible genres for your paper.
• Do this work now and you will have a good grip on your paper. Put it off and you lose a week. I will be checking all journals in class. Good luck!

People: congratulations on the Fix the Budget project. Question for class: How many of you would like to spend LIMITED time in and out of class - perhaps 30 minutes a week total - completing this project by getting a better sense of each other's blogs and by following the current budget crisis debate?

On Thesis Statements

A good one takes a position, justifies further discussion, expresses one main idea, and is specific.

- Rindee Paul, writing tutor Undergraduate Writing Lab Academic  Success Center Alliant International University.

General Rule: Almost all pieces of good argumentative writing, no matter how complicated, answer a single question. This question is raised and answered in a thesis statement.

Thesis statements can be strong or weak. Strong ones are precise: they are a roadmap to the paper to come. Weak ones are are vague: they are a path or two paths leading nowhere.

A strong thesis statement has three parts: topic, claim or assertion, and reason(s) to be supported by evidence.

1. The topic is well defined, with 
2. A clear claim or argument about supported by
3. reasons to be backed in the paper by evidence. 

A strong thesis statement gives the reader a clear idea of what to expect from the paper. It makes a promise that the writer will keep:

The high cost of medicine in the United States puts undue economic strain on the elderly, forcing may to go with out their prescriptions or to seek medicines from questionable sources abroad.

Here note the clear and constant focus on the “economic strain” of the elderly: on their suffering and the risks they take in buying low cost medicine. It’s clear that the paper will evaluate two claims: that seniors must go without their prescriptions or seek lower cost drugs from risky sources.

In a weak thesis statement, the topic is poorly defined (usually in general terms), the claim about it is contentious, and the reason in support of the claim is already familiar to most readers:

Senior citizens are suffering today because the companies that make their prescription drugs are charging outrageously high prices.

This thesis shows strong anger but lacks focus. It mentions the suffering of senior citizens but shifts focus to the drug companies with an angry assertion completely unsupported by reasoning or the promise of evidence.

Where will the writer of this paper take us? Your guess is as good as mine!

Fix the Budget: TEMPLATE for All Item Posts on Your Blog

Greetings Budget Balancers!

Back from the drawing board with a simplified single-post template for ALL your research on a given Budget Item(s). Here are its benefits. 

INSTRUCTIONS 

1. You want your blog to look like this one. Check it out.
2. Keeping this window open, OPEN a new window and a LAUNCH a second copy of your blog.
3. In your second copy, CREATE a new post to which you will transfer all the data between the ++++++ lines below. 
4. SCROLL down and COPY the content between the ++++++ lines and PASTE it into your new post. This is your new template (with examples).
   
5. Now you can start TRANSFERRING information from your current blog to your single-post template.
6. CLEAN UP your formatting and DELETE examples and instructions.
7. SAVE and POST your new template, DELETE your old blog entry/entries and you are DONE! 
   
8. Due date for the transfer: March 21 after spring break. (Both sections)
9. Hope this helps. Let me know of any bugs in all this info.
10. Enjoy the Break! 

P.S. - If you need them - TIPS on handling bullets:

1. TAB advances a bullet to the right
2. Moving a bullet to the left is tricky. Best way I know is first to unhighlight the bullet number in your blog editing toolbar, and then create a new bullet
3. To delete bullets and move text up, use Backspace.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Name of your blog] (your name - nothing else - make changes in Settings)

[Post Title] Area 1 - Domestic and Foreign: Cut Foreign Aid In Half [font: large]

[copy and paste the appropriate Budget Item language from Fix the Budget puzzle - font size: small] 

Example: 

CUT FOREIGN AID IN HALF                                                              $30 BILLION

At a time when the United States is facing large deficits, some budget analysts argue that the country should significantly reduce the money it spends helping other countries. Others say that foreign aid already represents a smaller share of the budget here than in other rich countries and that it expands American influence.

[Reasons in favor of cuts - font size: large + underline] 


[Give reason #1 - font size: normal + bold]

• [Author]. [Title of article - hyperlinked]. [source]. [date].
• Quote:
• [brief author bio - found at end of article or in Wikipedia]
• [your comment/opinion on the article: why is it important?]

Example: 

Reasons why foreign aid should be cut

• Foreign Aid corrupts the countries that receive the aid
• Bandow, Doug. "Foreign Aid, Or Foreign Hindrance." Forbes. 2/22/11.
• Key Quote: “Systematic foreign aid creates opportunities for corruption, cultures of dependency, and disincentives to development. The aid faucet misaligns incentives between donors and recipients, making it extremely difficult to turn off the flow.”
• “Douglas (Doug) Bandow (born ca. 1954) is a former columnist with Copley News Service and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He served as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and as a Senior Policy Analyst in the 1980 Reagan for President campaign.” (Wikipedia)
• Comments:
• Agree: Countries like Egypt, El Salvador, and Ethiopia are examples of corruption caused by foreign aid.
• Disagree: Foreign aid will not balance the budget, and cutting it will create tensions with the countries that are dependent on the aid.

[Reasons against cuts - font size: normal + underline]

[Give reason #1 - font size: normal + bold] 

• [Author] [Title of article - hyperlinked] [source] [date]
• Quote:
• [brief author bio - found at end of article or in Wikipedia]
• [your comment/opinion on the article: why is it important?

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"FIX THE BUDGET" Launching Pad for Essay #3 (Problem Solving)

For all material pertaining to this essay please visit Fixthebudget102.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR OAKTON STUDENTS

One may be right for YOU! More to come as time permits.

• $250 Simon Essay Contest prize for best essay on how Oakton has changed/improved your life. Extra credit for anyone who writes this essay
• 
  

PEER REVIEW SHEET

Peer Review Sheet

On Egypt and one or two other things . . .

This link expands on my recent comments in class about the situation in Egypt. I offer it to you as an example of how your blog can convey all kinds of information from diverse sources and organize this information into a clear and powerful argument. (My argument is of course debatable but I think I have made it strongly and compellingly.)

It took me only an hour to find the first half dozen sources given at this post. But took about 15 hours to find all the other sources and to organize them into an opinion piece (or "op ed" piece) that describes what I see as one of the dominant historical trends of our time.  I have revised the language of this post at least 20 times. Every time I read the darn thing, I always find little errors and also ways to clarify and strengthen it. 

Only a very few of us are born chess or violin or baseball players. And sorry folks, but only a few of us are born writers. I have met a couple of them in my life and believe me what they can do on a first draft amazes me. So but the rest of us, myself included, have to work at it. That said, practice does make perfect, and when you really get into it, practice does becomes a pleasure in itself. How so?

Well you begin to feel that you are in touch with something special in yourself, an important part of yourself to which writing - and writing alone - gives you access.  That's how poets and novelists feel. And that's how, if we are lucky and hardworking, all of us will feel at some point this semester.  

But then comes something much bigger and more enduring: the reward - the thrill - of seeing something in print - something YOU wrote - that goes way, way, way beyond any ability you thought you had to think deeply and profoundly. But there it sits, deep and profound, waiting for ready for others to read it. And it sits there simply because you worked hard to get your thoughts and ideas down on paper (or at your blog) clearly and compellingly. 

Anyone who wants to do so is welcome to use my blog format for their papers as opposed to the standard hardcopy paper format. In fact I encourage it. I think that for the purposes of English 102 the blog format is a better way to convey information. So feel free to use it. And now I am running late for my 2:00 pm class. 

Rhetorical Situation in a Nutshell

First, the memorize this acronym and get it down cold:

1. Writers
2. Often
3. Purposefully
4. Avoid
5. Great           (Gooey
6. Conflicts      (Chocolate

Now to the nitty gritty, with examples for each of the six components

1. WRITER: your connection to your topic.
• I write about Bulgaria because I am Bulgarian or my best friend is Bulgarian. 
• I write about nursing because I will be a nurse or a doctor.
2. OCCASION: what motivates or inspires you write to about this topic now. 
• I write about Egypt because I am Egyptian or because Egypt is has just had a revolution.
3. PURPOSE: the effect and/or benefits you want your paper to have on your audience. 
• EFFECTS: I want to entertain/surprise/alert/arouse/amuse/inform/persuade my audience with [information/writing] that increases their [understanding/apprecation] of [narrowed topic].
• BENEFITS: I want to benefit my audience by giving them information about [narrowed topic] that will help them make better choices in the area of [general topic]
4. AUDIENCE: the specific, targeted group - perhaps yourself - who will benefit from your paper.
• OTHERS: 
• YOURSELF:
5. GENRE: the kind, type or format of writing that will deliver maximum benefits to your audience.
• Remember your essay will always be one of the four types for this course: Expository ("Tell Me"), Explaining, Problem-Solving, Arguing 
• Decide whether your essay will take the form of an online blog (with in text links to research) or a hardcopy research paper (with in text links to a Works Cited List).
• Be creative: ask how you can best get your message through to your target audience? 
• Be imaginative: ask if your audience might prefer one of any number of formats: brochure, how-to manual, encyclopedia entry,  newspaper opinion piece, magazine article, a poem or even a cartoon with research appendices attached.
6. CONTEXT: background information to help your audience see clearly and at once exactly how your topic relates to them. Although context is number six on this list, it always belongs in the introduction to your paper. Think first about your audience: what they probably know or don't know about your topic. Then give them information that will connect and get them involved in your topic. Examples:
• Context for an Explaining paper on how to prepare for a career in nursing:
• Facts: Nurses are in demand (give stats), qualifications of a good nurse, types of nurse   
• Personal: I am in my second year of training to be a nurse
• PERSONAL: inform your audience of YOUR connection to your topic
• GENERAL: use a good dictionary or encyclopedia to get context information. Begin with Wikipedia. Then go to Columbia Encyclopedia, a magnificent one-volume reference work. And guess what: it's  online at the Oakton Library Database. In Find It, go to Facts and Encyclopedias >  - All Subjects Credo ReferenceSearch > Encyclopedias (right hand column) > The Columbia Encyclopedia (under Encyclopedia/General) and then
1. Enter your search in "Search for" at the top and not "Heading contains" a little farther down.
2. Avoid misspellings, which give this message: "No hits for [misspelled topic]  in The Columbia Encyclopedia"