"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
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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"

Some Good Mainstream Media Sources . . .

Want to know what is going on in the world? Here are sources that I follow. The focus of most is on business and economics. Use them to search for any topic relating to the world today.Anyone have any sources to add to this list?

• New York Times The best newspaper in America. Covers everything.
• Financial Times From London. I prefer it to the New York Times because it is clearer and more direct.
• Bloomberg Businessweek The best American newsweekly even though its focus is business. Here is a terrific story about global youth unemployment of the kind that sparked the revolution in Tunesia and Egypt. 
• Slate I don't follow this but young people do and it is very sharp.
• The Economist The world's best weekly, from England. Covers everything, despite its title.
• Real Clear Markets aggregates 20 new opinion pieces every day about finance, all culled from all over the Internet. Very intelligent choices.
• Weathering the Storm  My own site. Useful links on a) income disparity (rich/poor) and b) how (and whether) the world is recovering from global finance meltdown of 2007-2008
• Middle East Report The deepest coverage of the Middle East that I know of. Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt is fascinating.
• Drudge Report The most popular news aggregator. It's kind of right wing, yet I often find important stories here that are not covered in centrist (Chicago Tribune) or Leftish (New York Times) publications.
• Newser Another news aggregator. This one has a clever format: a grid of little photos for each story. Junk stories mix with serious stories.
• Scientific American For anything scientific! 
• Columbia Encyclopedia is  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"
   

Explaining Essay Assignment Sheet/Proposal and Revised Due Dates

Was it like this near you? I took this shot Wednesday at noon as the sun came out. Snow was still blowing off the roofs. OK, back to work. Here for both sections are materials and schedules for essay #2, Explaining. We will complete this work by the end of week 5. One change is unrelated to the big storm: in class I will show everyone how to create their a blog for the course. Fear now, blogs are easy to make and the benefits are real.

• EXPLAINING ESSAY PROPOSAL. THIS is your assignment sheet. You can download and begin work on it now. Because you will have ample time to complete your proposal, I suggest that you start freewriting NOW on portions of the body of your paper. Feel free to submit your writing to me along with your proposal for my review and suggestions.
• Section 003 - MW - proposal emailed to me by Sun Feb 6. Approved by me by Thu Feb 10.
• Section OW1 - SAT - emailed to me by Wed Feb 9. Approved by me by Sun Feb 13.

• Essay deadlines, first and final drafts:
• Section 003 - MW - First draft due: Mon Feb 16. Final Draft due: Wed Feb 23.
• Section OW1 - SAT - Final draft due Sat Feb 19: hard copy handed in at start of class. 

• Only for Section OW1 - SAT: our revised course schedule. 

Any questions? Ask them in comments below. Here's a snow ridge, looks like perfect sand dune - right in my own back yard. Peaceful.