Topic: Discuss what conflicts are at the heart of two different texts from Module 2, examining how specific literary elements are used to convey them or make them more compelling. Remember to correctly punctuate the titles of literary works and include targeted examples for support.
(Preapproved List) page. Make sure you’ve selected a specific research topic and issue (as opposed to merely being interested in a broad category). Here, summarize your chosen topic by answering the following four questions (numbered as such):
1. Provide the specified topic (not merely the broad category). (E.g., universal basic income, Electoral College, etc.)
2. Name the specific conflict or issue within that topic. This must be done in 1-2 complete sentences.
3. Identify the sides of the conflict as you currently understand them. Use complete sentences. (E.g., Some individuals believe that the Electoral College should be abolished because it can be different from the popular vote and allows so-called “swing states” too much decision making power; others believe that we should keep it because it is a buffer against uninformed voters and ensures that candidates actively campaign in all stet’s, not just those with large numbers of electors.)
4. What sites/sources did you use to explore this topic?
Interview someone who works in the field you are considering for your own career. This can include a professional or a professor within your major.Your ultimate goal is too determine some problem related to your major or career and argue for a particular change that could realistically be effective for eliminating or at least addressing the problem.
As we have talked about, arguments are often shared to benefit a group of people rather than just to prove that we are “right” or “win” a debate. When we engage in persuasive exercises with people who share a community with us, whether at work, in our families, at school, or in our town, we have a greater chance of success when we carefully consider the different stakeholders and how our recommendations may affect them.
For this unit’s discussion, you will analyze different stakeholders’ positions in your argument and find one source that demonstrates an area of common ground you expect to find among the many stakeholders. Be sure to review this week’s learning activities on search techniques before searching for a source. Then, respond to the following prompts in at least two well-developed paragraphs:
Share your revised thesis and tell us who the key stakeholders are. Whom does this issue affect that we do not often hear from? What aspects of the argument do you expect most stakeholders to agree about? Identify three search terms you could use to find evidence that helps to illustrate the common ground between stakeholders.
Hint: The learning activity “Choosing & Using Keywords” can help you figure out what search terms to use as you seek out common ground sources.
Using the search terms above, find one source in the Purdue Global Library that helps to illustrate the problem and establish common ground with stakeholders. Identify one main idea from the source you want to use and why you selected that source.
Ask an open-ended question to classmates based on what help you need either finding common ground or doing the background research on your topic.
Finally, wrap up your post by sharing the author’s name, the title of the source, and the link to the source.
For peer feedback this week, think about what stakeholders may be missing from the post. Offer some other ideas about what the different stakeholders might agree about or answer the open-ended question.
NOTE: You can begin working on a references page for your upcoming assignments by tracking the key elements of each source:
In this unit’s assignment, you will develop ideas to support the persuasive thesis statement you worked on in the Units 3 and 4 Discussion Boards. This thesis statement advocates a solution to a problem in your community, and you will consider the various stakeholders, common ground you share with your audience, possible rival hypotheses, and ways you can use the logical appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos to convince your audience that your proposal should be implemented.
You will complete a chart for this assignment. Download the file, save it with a name like LastNameCM220Unit 4 Assignment, and fill in the chart.
In Part I, you will revise the provisional thesis statement that you generated in the previous unit’s discussion and identify the underlying assumption. What is the common ground you believe you share with your audience?
Make sure the thesis is concise (1–2 sentences) and clearly expresses a persuasive argument that offers a solution to a problem in your community. Use the enthymeme format (claim + reason/s).
In Part II, describe your purpose (what is the problem you want to solve and how do you plan to solve it?), audience (key stakeholders), and setting. You will provide details about whom you need to convince to bring about change and explain the community you are writing about.
Finally, in Part III, you will evaluate your argument based on the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos). For Part III, be sure to use complete sentences and offer specific examples. Aim for 5–7 sentences per section.
You will want to discuss rival hypotheses and how you plan to address them, research you will need to conduct to support your claims, and strategies you can use to connect with your audience. Be sure to discuss at least one source you can use to support claims and to identify a specific logical fallacy your argument could be susceptible to and how to avoid that fallacy.
In this week’s readings and learning activities, you focused on choosing a topic, narrowing it down, and crafting a thesis statement. For this week’s discussion, respond to the following questions in at least two well-developed paragraphs:
unit 3 discussion board
Tell the class about a community problem that you have some knowledge of and would like to try and improve. Who are the people in your community most affected by this issue (key stakeholders)? Who in the community is in the best position to bring about a change? What challenges have kept them from solving this problem already?
Share your preliminary thesis statement. Use the brainstorming chart below to help you develop your thesis.
In your thesis, be sure to identify your target audience, a concrete action the audience can take to solve the problem [solution], and a reason for action [problem/benefit].
Example: The San Antonio School District [target audience] should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet [solution] because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates [benefit].
Do not worry about getting your thesis perfect this week. At this stage, your thesis is more of a hypothesis that needs to be tested and refined as you dig further into the problem you will attempt to solve.
Finally, wrap your post up with an open-ended question.
Identify the community problem you wish to address.
Write a research question that could help you to understand the problem.
Who is your target audience?
What is the action that could solve the problem?
What are the reasons that this solution is needed?
Create an enthymeme with a claim (what should be done) + Because + the reason(s) this should be done.
For an extra challenge in your peer feedback this week, try to determine the underlying assumption of your classmate’s thesis by using what you learned from the “Enthymeme section” of the Logical Argument Tutorial and then tell the class if you agree with the assumption or if you have some concerns with it. Those concerns can help your peers fine-tune the thesis statement.
Hint: To determine the assumption (major premise), you can replace the “action” in the solution part of the thesis with “something” and the word “because” with “if.” The minor premise is the problem statement.
Example: The San Antonio School District should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
Major Premise: The San Antonio School District should do something if it encourages more learning outside of the classroom, increases mastery of skills, and increases college acceptance rates.
Minor Premise: Tablets encourage learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
In class, we have reviewed excerpts from Mastermind and Critical Thinking in addition to Prof. Levy’s “Validity” and Prof. Hopper’s “Aristotle’s Proofs of Rhetoric” and “Loving Lit,” and we have discussed the ways in which a writer can approach or attract an audience. Michel Butor and Paul Theroux utilize strategies to target their audiences and offer myriad and oppositional ways of thinking about travel experiences. This way of thinking is what we call critical reasoning. Now, you will choose a selection (e.g. a page, a paragraph, a subsection) from either the Theroux or Butor selections and write a thesis-driven analysis of that section. You will discuss one specific flaw in the writer’s reasoning, in the way he misuses or manipulates information to try and explain away personal responsibility for travel. When necessary or relevant, you may refer to other sections of the text. Apply some of the “structured procedures” (Konnikova 73) of critical reasoning we have covered in our class discussions to investigate the writer’s claims about reasons for travel.
Choose one of the following options as you discuss the flawed aspect:
How effectively does your selected author use evidence? Does the evidence make the premises and conclusions of the argument strong? Is the evidence accurate, relevant, representative, and sufficient enough to prove the point? What is the source of the evidence? What authorities are cited to support the premises? Are these authorities reliable and credible? Has the evidence been manipulated in questionable ways?
How does your selected author engage or fail to engage a specific community in his paper? How does the writer treat the targeted community as he or she develops his paper?
Before you begin this assignment, make sure you have read and thought about Chapters 1-3 in The Essentials of Technical Communication (see Required Reading for Weeks 1-4) .
Find a passage of approximately 400-500 words from a technical blog post or other online article aimed at specialists in your field. This should be something that would be difficult for a non-specialist to understand. Revise the posting for a specific group of readers outside your field who might need to know this information (e.g., business managers, city officials, school administrators).
Your revision should be entirely in your own words. (Don’t use any kind of article spinning/rewriting/paraphrasing tool.)
Choose one hypothetical audience group only. In a separate paragraph at the beginning of your response, include a link to the original, and a brief (50-word minimum) explanation of who your hypothetical audience is and what the context or situation is. Include the link and the explanation of your audience in both your rough and final drafts.
Keep in mind “the qualities of good technical writing” discussed on page 8.
Your purpose is to explain the concept to a non-technical audience and to explain why they should care.
You are free to format this in any way you think would be most effective to your purpose and audience.
Your rough draft should be 400-500 words long (not including your 50-word-minimum audience description).
Your final draft should be 500-700 words long (not including your 50-word-minimum audience description).
Your initial reading assignment required that you read and study carefully the following UNC Writing Center Handout: Literature Reviews. You were also provided with sample literature reviews. After you have digested these materials, please complete this three-part assignment:
Respond in at least 250 words (your own words) to the following questions:
What is a literature review? Why do scholars write them–and read them? How are they organized? How does the researcher determine the issues to be discussed? Does the literature review simply summarize, or does it involve synthesis as well? How does it differ from a traditional research paper?
Turning your attention to the samples provided, select one, and analyze it in about 150 words:
What is the primary subject? What separate issues are discussed? How many sources are included, and what is the date range? In about 100 words, how will you use these resources as you plan, research, and write your own literature review?What is a literature review? Why do scholars write them–and read them? How are they organized? How does the researcher determine the issues to be discussed? Does the literature review simply summarize, or does it involve synthesis as well? How does it differ from a traditional research paper?
Turning your attention to the samples provided, select one, and analyze it in about 150 words:
What is the primary subject? What separate issues are discussed? How many sources are included, and what is the date range? In about 100 words, how will you use these resources as you plan, research, and write your own literature review?
Purpose
Write an analytical essay connecting the ideas in a poem to a nonfiction text.
Summary
In this assignment, you will write an analytical essay connecting the ideas in a poem to the ideas in “A Defence of Poetry” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The essay is worth 100 points.
Assignment Prompt
Write an analytical essay in which you explain how a poem reflects Shelley’s ideas about poetry. Use a word–processing program to write and submit your work.
Assignment Instructions
Step 1: Review the central ideas of Shelley’s essay.
a) Review Shelley’s essay “A Defense of Poetry” and consider some of its central ideas, including:
a. Poetry elevates any topic.
b. Poetry preserves fleeting moments of beauty.
Step 2: Choose a poem.
a) Find a poem that you think reflects ideas in Shelley’s essay.
b) Consult anthologies, literary magazines, and the websites of literary nonprofits.
c) Evaluate the credibility of your sources.
Step 3: Connect Shelley’s ideas to the poem.
a) In an analytical essay, explain how the poem you found in your research reflects the central ideas of Shelley’s essay.
b) Use text evidence to support your explanation.
Step 4: Evaluate your essay using the checklist.
Answer these questions to see if you are ready to submit your essay.
Does your essay explain the central ideas in Shelley’s essay?
Does your essay connect Shelley’s ideas to a poem you found through research?
Does your essay support your explanation with evidence from the texts?
Does your essay have well–developed paragraphs, including an engaging introduction and a strong conclusion?
Step 5: Revise and submit your essay.
a) If you were unable to check off all of the requirements on the checklist, revise your essay and save it before submitting it.
b) When you have completed your essay, return to the Virtual Classroom and use the “Browse for file” option to locate and submit your assignment. Congratulations! You have written an analytical essay.
c) Ask your teacher for further instructions about presenting your essay to an audience of your peers.
Essay #1 Personal Essay – Admiral William H. McRaven Make Your Bed
This is not a “story.” You are not to use dialogue (characters speaking to each other). Pick a topic and write about the topic – your goals.
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