Essay III Final Draft Due today.
Required Components:
1. Final Draft (on top)
2. Edited Rough Draft
3. PRIII document
4. Signed Film Analysis Worksheet
5. Rubric (fill in your name and partner's name)
Position Paper/Argument Example:
Presenting a position: "What do you think about X?"
Describe a position prompt that motivated Manjoo's argument.
Describe the position prompt that motivates Zinczenko's response in "Don't Blame the Eater."
What specific argument is Zinczenko responding to?
How is he responding?--understanding the argument that you need to respond to/summarize effectively to avoid misrepresenting an author's argument.
Analyzing the Context
1. Who is the author? How does this information affect our understanding of the essay?
Author: David Zinczenko
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/fashion/03davez.html?_r=1
2. Who is the Audience?
3. The larger conversation: connections to other works?--the cultural conversation
4. What motivated the publication of the essay?
NY Times, 2002
Fast Food Law Suit:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,58652,00.html
The Burger Bill:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4506670/ns/msnbc_tv-the_abrams_report/
Textual:
1. Summarize the argument
-the main claim, reasons for support
Strategies to support his position
-how is the essay arranged?--what are the components? why are they presented in this order?
examining the purpose of each paragraph
2. Supporting the argument--what appeals are used?
Logos (appealing to the readers' reasonableness)
Pathos (emotional appeal)
Ethos (the author's credentials, research, knowledge, personal experience)
3. Style
Is it formal, informal, satirical, etc.?
Tone
Language: Word Choice, Metaphors, Imagery
3 Ways to Respond
When you think about it, all responses can be classified in to one of three modes:
Disagree
Agree
Agree and Disagree (combo)
1. Disagree
Example:
Position: We should blame fast food companies for America's obesity epidemic.
Your Thesis: We should not blame fast food companies for America's obesity epidemic.
Does this work as a thesis? Why or Why not?
Disagree and explain WHY
Disagreeing means more than adding "not" to what someone else has said.
Such a response merely contradicts the view it responds to and fails to add anything interesting or new. To make an argument, you need to give reasons why you disagree: because another's argument fails to take relevant factors into account; because it is based on faulty or incomplete evidence; because it rests on questionable assumptions; or because it uses faulty logic, is contradictory, or overlooks what you take to be the real issue.
I disagree with X's view that (_________) because (_A, B, and C___________).
2. Agree but with a difference
You need to do more than just echo views you agree with. Even as you agree, it's important to bring something new and fresh to the table, adding something that makes you a valuable participant in the conversation.
Zinczenko's Argument: Multiple factors play a role in America's obesity epidemic.
Your thesis: Zinczenko's claim that multiple factors play a role in America's obesity epidemic is valid.
Does this work as a strong thesis? Why or why not?
Examples: (pg. 57)
I agree with Zinczenko's claim that multiple factors play a role in America's obesity epidemic because his argument acknowledges the complexity of the issue which is also demonstrated by the diverse cultural, social, and political initiatives to remedy this ongoing problem.
3. Agree and Disagree Simultaneously: Arguments are rarely one-sided
The "yes and no" approach
Yes, but...
this type of response helps us to get beyond the yes/no or right/wrong mentality that often characterize unsophisticated arguments
IE: Although X makes the valid point that ( ), X's argument about ( ) is less convincing because of A and B.pg. 60
Although Zinczenko makes a valid point that we are all responsible for America's obesity epidemic, his suggestion that fast food companies need to better warn and educate their consumers is misguided because such measures, as we have seen, do little to deter individuals from eating fast food.
A good thesis is elegant and maintains parallelism.
Parallelism in thesis statements:
pg. 187-189 in Handbook
- Parallelism is the act of making sentence structures parallel, or grammatically even. It is when you give structures in sentences the same grammatic slope. Not every sentence need to maintain perfect parallelism, but your thesis statement should strive for as perfect a parallelism as you can muster. Remember: when in doubt, break your sentence into several sentences and look at the structures.
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Parallelism Practice
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My English conversation class is made up of Chinese, Spaniards, and some are from Bosnia.
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The students who do well attend class, they do their homework, and practice speaking in English.
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The language skills of the students in the evening classes are the same as the day classes.
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My English conversation class is made up of Chinese, Spaniards, and Bosnians.
(The items are all nouns.)
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The students who do well attend class, do their homework, and practice speaking in English.
(The items are all verbs+complements.)
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The teacher wanted to know which country we came from and what our future goals were.
(The items are both noun clauses.)
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The language skills of the students in the evening classes are the same as the language skills of the students in the day classes.
(The items are both noun phrases.)
Page 190 in Handbook: Parallelism Practice
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Worksheet: Part 10 Unit 6: Modifiers and Parallelism
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