Read the following science fiction piece by Kurt Vonnegut. We'll discuss the following questions in class:
1) We currently have 27 amendments to our constitution. What is the significance of Vonnegut saying it’s the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments that make everyone equal? In other words, what might all those other amendments between now and 2081 have been for?
2) Given the communications technology we have, anybody who wants to can probably get a decent idea of what’s happening—good or bad—all around the world. We’re the first American generation in which even our poorer citizens have access to this kind of technology. Does that affect our obligation to help those in need? Put another way, can you think of a particular international problem that warrants more attention from the U.S., simply because we know about it?
3) Going along with that, can you think of a particular problem that we should stay out of, due to how much it might cost us—essentially, a situation in which we must compromise our morals in some way?
4) Let’s take that same line of thought and apply it to domestic policies—like the basic goal of ensuring equality for all. The philosopher Frederick Nietzsche one said, “The thirst for equality can express itself either as a desire to draw everyone down to one's level, or to raise oneself and everyone else up.” What’s the danger in aggressively trying to make everyone equal?
5) Same topic, different angle—what’s the danger in taking no serious action to fight inequality?
6) When Hazel suggests that George mess with his handicap, he says: “If I tried to get away with it,” said George, “then other people’d get away with it and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn’t like that, would you?” Remember what fallacy this is? If you don’t know the name, just try to figure out the basic flaw in his logic.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Poems raising social issues
English 103
Fall, 2010
I once had a professor tell me that if you hooked everybody in the room up to a polygraph test and asked the question, Are you going to die one day?, everybody would answer yes, but the polygraph would say that everybody was lying. In other words, very few of us actually believe that life is finite, that we're anything but indestructible and destined for greatness. That's not necessarily a bad thing; ignorance is bliss, after all. On the other hand, having a deeper understanding of the human condition--while troubling--can also give you a deeper, richer appreciation for the world around you.
The same can be said for the goal for your next paper, a "Researched Argument." By identifying a problem--not just something nebulous and distant that you don't really care about, but something you're genuinely concerned about or invested in--and maybe even trying to come up with a solution, we learn more about our society, more about ourselves, and most importantly, more about how to express ourselves in such a way that we might actually get somewhere.
With that in mind, read through the following poems—some openly controversial, some more subtle—and try to get a feel for what these are saying about identity, society, and/or human nature. In other words, whether the poets take an aggressive, humorous, or laid back approach, what issues are boiling beneath the surface?
Suicide Song
by Tony Hoagland
But now I am afraid I know too much to kill myself
Though I would still like to jump off a high bridge
At midnight, or paddle a kayak out to sea
Until I turn into a speck, or wear a necktie made of knotted rope
But people would squirm, it would hurt them in some way,
And I am too knowledgeable now to hurt people imprecisely.
No longer do I live by the law of me,
No longer having the excuse of youth or craziness,
And dying you know shows a serious ingratitude
for sunsets and beehive hairdos and the precious green corrugated
Pickles they place at the edge of your plate.
Killing yourself is wasteful like spilling oil
At sea or not recycling all the kisses you've been given,
And anyway, who has clothes nice enough to be caught dead in?
Not me. You stay alive you stupid asshole
Because you haven't been excused,
You haven't finished though it takes a mulish stubbornness
To chew this food.
It is a stone, it is an inconvenience, it is an innocence,
And I turn against it like a record
Turns against the needle
That makes it play.
Soldiering
by Daniel J. Langton
A gun on either side of me, a pond
with blood and foam, shit and corpses in it;
among the lily's pads, empty boxes
of bullets, bandages and processed food;
a quiet made up of too much blatant sound,
grass and weeds smashed by up-to-the-minute
shards of metal riven to find the fox's
hole I dug to do some transient good.
It is morning in her bedroom, soon she'll
dress and wander to her coffee, safe as sun,
while I huddle beneath a canopy
of shells, not sea shells, not the bursting shells
of peas, just chunks of murder left undone.
War is mere death, love made a man me.
Gone
by Douglas Goetsch
It’s easy to want someone dead.
Take this guy who removed
the muffler from his Harley,
now tearing down the block
at 3 a.m., or the dickhead
flicking a lit cigarette from his car
to the sidewalk. Something tells
me the woman tossing chicken
bones under the bus seat, now licking
her fingers, is of no use to the world.
Doubtless if they were weeping
in confessionals over their small
though highly revealing offenses,
or scribbling apologies in journals,
I’d feel differently. And don’t get
me wrong: I’d rather not be the one
to gun down the Harley guy—
though there are excellent sight-lines
from my fire escape. I’d just
as soon he plunge quietly into
a tectonic gap in 7th Avenue,
volunteer for long experiments
in orbit, beta test those new
exploding cell phones.
I never feel this way towards kids
I teach in the detention center,
though when they’re older, fully
tattooed and towering over me
with hardened contempt, hollering
back to one another as they march
in gangs through the subway car—
yeah, maybe then I’ll want them
gone. They tell me they want to die
young, draw graffiti that translates
to leaving a good corpse. They brag
to one another about throwing
their pets off the roof, and how
badly their stepfathers beat them.
When I was six my father’s father
shuffled to where I was playing
on the living room rug, took my
head in his hands and rammed it
into the coffee table. I later was told
he’d been down the hall trying
to take a nap and heard me laughing.
I was six and he flung my head
into a table. He’s dead now. What else
do you need to know about him?
A Certain Lady
by Dorothy Parker
Oh, I can smile for you, and tilt my head,
And drink your rushing words with eager lips,
And paint my mouth for you a fragrant red,
And trace your brows with tutored finger-tips.
When you rehearse your list of loves to me,
Oh, I can laugh and marvel, rapturous-eyed.
And you laugh back, nor can you ever see
The thousand little deaths my heart has died.
And you believe, so well I know my part,
That I am gay as morning, light as snow,
And all the straining things within my heart
You'll never know.
Oh, I can laugh and listen, when we meet,
And you bring tales of fresh adventurings, —
Of ladies delicately indiscreet,
Of lingering hands, and gently whispered things.
And you are pleased with me, and strive anew
To sing me sagas of your late delights.
Thus do you want me — marveling, gay, and true,
Nor do you see my staring eyes of nights.
And when, in search of novelty, you stray,
Oh, I can kiss you blithely as you go….
And what goes on, my love, while you're away,
You'll never know.
My Dad
by Ryan Croken
I was standing out looking over the field,
and my dad called and he asked what I was doing,
and I said I was waiting for the crop circles to appear,
and he said “oh, I saw that on the news,”
and for a moment my dad and I
were nearly in agreement
about something.
Her Soul
by Ryan Croken
Gave
To God
Her soul,
God
said: “Ok
I don't need
This
But Ok.”
Waiting
by George Bilgere
When the guy in the hairpiece and the dark suit
asks me if I want to see my mother
as she lies in a back room, waiting,
I remember her, for some reason,
in a white swimsuit, on a yellow towel
on the sand at Crystal Lake,
pregnant with my sister,
waiting for me to finish examining
the sleek fuselage of a minnow,
the first dead thing I had ever seen,
before we went back to the cottage for lunch.
I remember her waiting up for my father
to come home from God knows where
in a Yellow Cab at 2 a.m.,
and waiting for me in the school parking lot
in our rusted blue station wagon
when whatever it was I was practicing for ran late.
I remember her, shoulders thrown back,
waiting in the unemployment line,
waiting for me to call, waiting for the sweet release
in the second glass of wine
after a long day working at the convalescent hospital
where everyone was waiting to die.
And I remember her waiting for me
at the airport when I got back from Japan,
waiting for everything to be all right,
waiting for her biopsy results.
Waiting.
But when the guy in his ridiculous hairpiece
asks me if I’d like to go back there
and be with her in that room where she lies
waiting to be cremated, I say No
thank you, and turn and walk out
onto the sunny street to join the crowd
hustling down the sidewalk,
and I look up at the beautiful white clouds
suspended above the city,
leaving her to wait in that room alone,
for which I will not be forgiven.
Little League
by Paul Hostovsky
When the ump produces
his little hand broom
and stops all play to stoop
and dust off home plate,
my daughter sitting beside me
looks up and gives me a smile that says
this is by far her favorite part of baseball.
And then when he skillfully
spits without getting any
on the catcher or the batter or himself,
she looks up again and smiles
even bigger.
But when someone hits a long foul ball
and everyone's eyes are on it
as it sails out of play ...
the ump has dipped his hand
into his bottomless black pocket
and conjured up a shiny new white one
like a brand new coin
from behind the catcher's ear,
which he then gives to the catcher
who seems to contain his surprise
though behind his mask his eyes are surely
as wide with wonder as hers.
A Day in the Life
by Marge Piercy
She is wakened at four a.m.
Of course she does not
pick up, but listens
through the answering machine
to the male voice promising
she will burn in hell.
At seven she opens her door.
A dead cat is hammered
to her porch: brown tabby.
Hit by a car, no collar.
She hugs her own Duke of Orange.
She cannot let him out.
She has her car locked
in a neighbor’s garage,
safe from pipe bombs, but
she must walk there. She drives
to work by a circuitous route.
Never the same way twice.
Outside the clinic three
men walk in circles with photos
of six-month fetuses.
They surround her car.
They are forbidden the parking
lot but police don’t care.
They bang on her hood.
As she gets out, they bump
and jostle her. One thrusts
his sign into her face.
She protects her eyes.
Something hard strikes her back.
Inside she sighs. Turns on
the lights, the air
conditioning, the coffee
machine. The security system
is always on. The funds
for teenage contraception,
gone into metal detectors.
She answers the phone.
“Is this where you kill babies?”
The second call a woman
is weeping. The day begins.
A girl raped by her stepfather,
a harried mother with too
many children and diabetes,
a terrified teenager who does
not remember how it happened,
a woman with an injunction
against an abuser. All day
she takes their calls,
all day she checks them in,
takes medical histories,
holds hands, dries tears,
hears secrets and lies and
horrors, soothes, continues.
Every time a new patient
walks in, a tinny voice
whispers, is this the one
carrying a handgun, with
an automatic weapon, with
a knife? She sits exposed.
She answers the phone.
“I’m going to cut your throat,
you murderer.” “Have
a nice day.” A bomb threat
is called in. She has
to empty the clinic.
The police finally come.
There is no bomb. The
doctor tells her how they
are stalking his daughter.
Then she goes home to Duke.
Eats a late supper by the TV.
Her mother calls. Her
boyfriend comes over. She
cries in his arms. He is,
she can tell, getting tired
of her tears. Next morning
she rises and day falls
on her like a truckload
of wet cement. This is
a true story, this is
what I know of virtue,
this is what I know
of goodness in our time.
A Work of Artifice
by Marge Piercy
The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
But a gardener
carefully pruned it.
It is nine inches high.
Every day as he
whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,
It is your nature
to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
how lucky, little tree,
to have a pot to grow in.
With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth:
the bound feet,
the crippled brain,
the hair in curlers,
the hands you
love to touch.
Breaking Silence - For My Son
by Patricia Fargnoli
The night you were conceived
your father drove up Avon Mountain
and into the roadside rest
that looked over the little city,
its handful of scattered sparks.
I was eighteen and thin then
but the front seat of the 1956 Dodge
seemed cramped and dark,
the new diamond, I hadn't known
how to refuse, trapping flecks of light.
Even then the blackness was thick
as a muck you could swim through.
Your father pushed me down
on the scratchy seat, not roughly
but as if staking a claim,
and his face rose like
a thing-shadowed moon above me.
My legs ached in those peculiar angles,
my head bumped against the door.
I know you want me to say I loved him
but I wanted only to belong—to anyone.
So I let it happen,
the way I let all of it happen—
the marriage, his drinking, the rage.
This is not to say I loved you any less—
only I was young and didn't know yet
we can choose our lives.
It was dark in the car.
Such weight and pressure,
the wet earthy smell of night,
a slickness like glue.
And in a distant inviolate place,
as though it had nothing at all
to do with him, you were a spark
in silence catching.
The Thumb
by Peter Schneider
In a nanosecond David lost his thumb,
the one his mother painted
with pine pitch when he was four
to keep him from forever sucking it.
Unable to distinguish human flesh
the McCormick silo filler
sliced it off—
nail, bone, knuckle—
and blew it skyward
an ounce of humanity
in a thousand tons of silage.
Taken by surprise
David suppressed the truth.
Before the rush of blood
he held up the stump
saw the clean cut
grey bone marrow visible
and thrust it in his mouth
where the memory
of childhood security lay.
Then he swore,
tears rushing to his eyes, and ran
holding the stump with his good hand
blood oozing between his fingers.
Joe, a huge bulk of a man
and a constant neighbor,
jumped from his wagon
caught David like a child
held him to his chest
not intimidated by blood
or the tears of a grown man.
The Five Stage of Grief
by Linda Pastan
The night I lost you
someone pointed me towards
the Five Stages of Grief
Go that way, they said,
it's easy, like learning to climb
stairs after the amputation.
And so I climbed.
Denial was first.
I sat down at breakfast
carefully setting the table
for two. I passed you the toast---
you sat there. I passed
you the paper---you hid
behind it.
Anger seemed so familiar.
I burned the toast, snatched
the paper and read the headlines myself.
But they mentioned your departure,
and so I moved on to
Bargaining. What could I exchange
for you? The silence
after storms? My typing fingers?
Before I could decide, Depression
came puffing up, a poor relation
its suitcase tied together
with string. In the suitcase
were bandages for the eyes
and bottles sleep. I slid
all the way down the stairs
feeling nothing.
And all the time Hope
flashed on and off
in detective neon.
Hope was a signpost pointing
straight in the air.
Hope was my uncle's middle name,
he died of it.
After a year I am still climbing, though my feet slip
on your stone face.
The treeline
has long since disappeared;
green is a color
I have forgotten.
But now I see what I am climbing
towards: Acceptance
written in capital letters,
a special headline:
Acceptance
its name is in lights.
I struggle on,
waving and shouting.
Below, my whole life spreads its surf,
all the landscapes I've ever known
or dreamed of. Below
a fish jumps: the pulse
in your neck.
Acceptance. I finally
reach it.
But something is wrong.
Grief is a circular staircase.
I have lost you.
To A Daughter Leaving Home
by Linda Pastan
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
Fall, 2010
I once had a professor tell me that if you hooked everybody in the room up to a polygraph test and asked the question, Are you going to die one day?, everybody would answer yes, but the polygraph would say that everybody was lying. In other words, very few of us actually believe that life is finite, that we're anything but indestructible and destined for greatness. That's not necessarily a bad thing; ignorance is bliss, after all. On the other hand, having a deeper understanding of the human condition--while troubling--can also give you a deeper, richer appreciation for the world around you.
The same can be said for the goal for your next paper, a "Researched Argument." By identifying a problem--not just something nebulous and distant that you don't really care about, but something you're genuinely concerned about or invested in--and maybe even trying to come up with a solution, we learn more about our society, more about ourselves, and most importantly, more about how to express ourselves in such a way that we might actually get somewhere.
With that in mind, read through the following poems—some openly controversial, some more subtle—and try to get a feel for what these are saying about identity, society, and/or human nature. In other words, whether the poets take an aggressive, humorous, or laid back approach, what issues are boiling beneath the surface?
Suicide Song
by Tony Hoagland
But now I am afraid I know too much to kill myself
Though I would still like to jump off a high bridge
At midnight, or paddle a kayak out to sea
Until I turn into a speck, or wear a necktie made of knotted rope
But people would squirm, it would hurt them in some way,
And I am too knowledgeable now to hurt people imprecisely.
No longer do I live by the law of me,
No longer having the excuse of youth or craziness,
And dying you know shows a serious ingratitude
for sunsets and beehive hairdos and the precious green corrugated
Pickles they place at the edge of your plate.
Killing yourself is wasteful like spilling oil
At sea or not recycling all the kisses you've been given,
And anyway, who has clothes nice enough to be caught dead in?
Not me. You stay alive you stupid asshole
Because you haven't been excused,
You haven't finished though it takes a mulish stubbornness
To chew this food.
It is a stone, it is an inconvenience, it is an innocence,
And I turn against it like a record
Turns against the needle
That makes it play.
Soldiering
by Daniel J. Langton
A gun on either side of me, a pond
with blood and foam, shit and corpses in it;
among the lily's pads, empty boxes
of bullets, bandages and processed food;
a quiet made up of too much blatant sound,
grass and weeds smashed by up-to-the-minute
shards of metal riven to find the fox's
hole I dug to do some transient good.
It is morning in her bedroom, soon she'll
dress and wander to her coffee, safe as sun,
while I huddle beneath a canopy
of shells, not sea shells, not the bursting shells
of peas, just chunks of murder left undone.
War is mere death, love made a man me.
Gone
by Douglas Goetsch
It’s easy to want someone dead.
Take this guy who removed
the muffler from his Harley,
now tearing down the block
at 3 a.m., or the dickhead
flicking a lit cigarette from his car
to the sidewalk. Something tells
me the woman tossing chicken
bones under the bus seat, now licking
her fingers, is of no use to the world.
Doubtless if they were weeping
in confessionals over their small
though highly revealing offenses,
or scribbling apologies in journals,
I’d feel differently. And don’t get
me wrong: I’d rather not be the one
to gun down the Harley guy—
though there are excellent sight-lines
from my fire escape. I’d just
as soon he plunge quietly into
a tectonic gap in 7th Avenue,
volunteer for long experiments
in orbit, beta test those new
exploding cell phones.
I never feel this way towards kids
I teach in the detention center,
though when they’re older, fully
tattooed and towering over me
with hardened contempt, hollering
back to one another as they march
in gangs through the subway car—
yeah, maybe then I’ll want them
gone. They tell me they want to die
young, draw graffiti that translates
to leaving a good corpse. They brag
to one another about throwing
their pets off the roof, and how
badly their stepfathers beat them.
When I was six my father’s father
shuffled to where I was playing
on the living room rug, took my
head in his hands and rammed it
into the coffee table. I later was told
he’d been down the hall trying
to take a nap and heard me laughing.
I was six and he flung my head
into a table. He’s dead now. What else
do you need to know about him?
A Certain Lady
by Dorothy Parker
Oh, I can smile for you, and tilt my head,
And drink your rushing words with eager lips,
And paint my mouth for you a fragrant red,
And trace your brows with tutored finger-tips.
When you rehearse your list of loves to me,
Oh, I can laugh and marvel, rapturous-eyed.
And you laugh back, nor can you ever see
The thousand little deaths my heart has died.
And you believe, so well I know my part,
That I am gay as morning, light as snow,
And all the straining things within my heart
You'll never know.
Oh, I can laugh and listen, when we meet,
And you bring tales of fresh adventurings, —
Of ladies delicately indiscreet,
Of lingering hands, and gently whispered things.
And you are pleased with me, and strive anew
To sing me sagas of your late delights.
Thus do you want me — marveling, gay, and true,
Nor do you see my staring eyes of nights.
And when, in search of novelty, you stray,
Oh, I can kiss you blithely as you go….
And what goes on, my love, while you're away,
You'll never know.
My Dad
by Ryan Croken
I was standing out looking over the field,
and my dad called and he asked what I was doing,
and I said I was waiting for the crop circles to appear,
and he said “oh, I saw that on the news,”
and for a moment my dad and I
were nearly in agreement
about something.
Her Soul
by Ryan Croken
Gave
To God
Her soul,
God
said: “Ok
I don't need
This
But Ok.”
Waiting
by George Bilgere
When the guy in the hairpiece and the dark suit
asks me if I want to see my mother
as she lies in a back room, waiting,
I remember her, for some reason,
in a white swimsuit, on a yellow towel
on the sand at Crystal Lake,
pregnant with my sister,
waiting for me to finish examining
the sleek fuselage of a minnow,
the first dead thing I had ever seen,
before we went back to the cottage for lunch.
I remember her waiting up for my father
to come home from God knows where
in a Yellow Cab at 2 a.m.,
and waiting for me in the school parking lot
in our rusted blue station wagon
when whatever it was I was practicing for ran late.
I remember her, shoulders thrown back,
waiting in the unemployment line,
waiting for me to call, waiting for the sweet release
in the second glass of wine
after a long day working at the convalescent hospital
where everyone was waiting to die.
And I remember her waiting for me
at the airport when I got back from Japan,
waiting for everything to be all right,
waiting for her biopsy results.
Waiting.
But when the guy in his ridiculous hairpiece
asks me if I’d like to go back there
and be with her in that room where she lies
waiting to be cremated, I say No
thank you, and turn and walk out
onto the sunny street to join the crowd
hustling down the sidewalk,
and I look up at the beautiful white clouds
suspended above the city,
leaving her to wait in that room alone,
for which I will not be forgiven.
Little League
by Paul Hostovsky
When the ump produces
his little hand broom
and stops all play to stoop
and dust off home plate,
my daughter sitting beside me
looks up and gives me a smile that says
this is by far her favorite part of baseball.
And then when he skillfully
spits without getting any
on the catcher or the batter or himself,
she looks up again and smiles
even bigger.
But when someone hits a long foul ball
and everyone's eyes are on it
as it sails out of play ...
the ump has dipped his hand
into his bottomless black pocket
and conjured up a shiny new white one
like a brand new coin
from behind the catcher's ear,
which he then gives to the catcher
who seems to contain his surprise
though behind his mask his eyes are surely
as wide with wonder as hers.
A Day in the Life
by Marge Piercy
She is wakened at four a.m.
Of course she does not
pick up, but listens
through the answering machine
to the male voice promising
she will burn in hell.
At seven she opens her door.
A dead cat is hammered
to her porch: brown tabby.
Hit by a car, no collar.
She hugs her own Duke of Orange.
She cannot let him out.
She has her car locked
in a neighbor’s garage,
safe from pipe bombs, but
she must walk there. She drives
to work by a circuitous route.
Never the same way twice.
Outside the clinic three
men walk in circles with photos
of six-month fetuses.
They surround her car.
They are forbidden the parking
lot but police don’t care.
They bang on her hood.
As she gets out, they bump
and jostle her. One thrusts
his sign into her face.
She protects her eyes.
Something hard strikes her back.
Inside she sighs. Turns on
the lights, the air
conditioning, the coffee
machine. The security system
is always on. The funds
for teenage contraception,
gone into metal detectors.
She answers the phone.
“Is this where you kill babies?”
The second call a woman
is weeping. The day begins.
A girl raped by her stepfather,
a harried mother with too
many children and diabetes,
a terrified teenager who does
not remember how it happened,
a woman with an injunction
against an abuser. All day
she takes their calls,
all day she checks them in,
takes medical histories,
holds hands, dries tears,
hears secrets and lies and
horrors, soothes, continues.
Every time a new patient
walks in, a tinny voice
whispers, is this the one
carrying a handgun, with
an automatic weapon, with
a knife? She sits exposed.
She answers the phone.
“I’m going to cut your throat,
you murderer.” “Have
a nice day.” A bomb threat
is called in. She has
to empty the clinic.
The police finally come.
There is no bomb. The
doctor tells her how they
are stalking his daughter.
Then she goes home to Duke.
Eats a late supper by the TV.
Her mother calls. Her
boyfriend comes over. She
cries in his arms. He is,
she can tell, getting tired
of her tears. Next morning
she rises and day falls
on her like a truckload
of wet cement. This is
a true story, this is
what I know of virtue,
this is what I know
of goodness in our time.
A Work of Artifice
by Marge Piercy
The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
But a gardener
carefully pruned it.
It is nine inches high.
Every day as he
whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,
It is your nature
to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
how lucky, little tree,
to have a pot to grow in.
With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth:
the bound feet,
the crippled brain,
the hair in curlers,
the hands you
love to touch.
Breaking Silence - For My Son
by Patricia Fargnoli
The night you were conceived
your father drove up Avon Mountain
and into the roadside rest
that looked over the little city,
its handful of scattered sparks.
I was eighteen and thin then
but the front seat of the 1956 Dodge
seemed cramped and dark,
the new diamond, I hadn't known
how to refuse, trapping flecks of light.
Even then the blackness was thick
as a muck you could swim through.
Your father pushed me down
on the scratchy seat, not roughly
but as if staking a claim,
and his face rose like
a thing-shadowed moon above me.
My legs ached in those peculiar angles,
my head bumped against the door.
I know you want me to say I loved him
but I wanted only to belong—to anyone.
So I let it happen,
the way I let all of it happen—
the marriage, his drinking, the rage.
This is not to say I loved you any less—
only I was young and didn't know yet
we can choose our lives.
It was dark in the car.
Such weight and pressure,
the wet earthy smell of night,
a slickness like glue.
And in a distant inviolate place,
as though it had nothing at all
to do with him, you were a spark
in silence catching.
The Thumb
by Peter Schneider
In a nanosecond David lost his thumb,
the one his mother painted
with pine pitch when he was four
to keep him from forever sucking it.
Unable to distinguish human flesh
the McCormick silo filler
sliced it off—
nail, bone, knuckle—
and blew it skyward
an ounce of humanity
in a thousand tons of silage.
Taken by surprise
David suppressed the truth.
Before the rush of blood
he held up the stump
saw the clean cut
grey bone marrow visible
and thrust it in his mouth
where the memory
of childhood security lay.
Then he swore,
tears rushing to his eyes, and ran
holding the stump with his good hand
blood oozing between his fingers.
Joe, a huge bulk of a man
and a constant neighbor,
jumped from his wagon
caught David like a child
held him to his chest
not intimidated by blood
or the tears of a grown man.
The Five Stage of Grief
by Linda Pastan
The night I lost you
someone pointed me towards
the Five Stages of Grief
Go that way, they said,
it's easy, like learning to climb
stairs after the amputation.
And so I climbed.
Denial was first.
I sat down at breakfast
carefully setting the table
for two. I passed you the toast---
you sat there. I passed
you the paper---you hid
behind it.
Anger seemed so familiar.
I burned the toast, snatched
the paper and read the headlines myself.
But they mentioned your departure,
and so I moved on to
Bargaining. What could I exchange
for you? The silence
after storms? My typing fingers?
Before I could decide, Depression
came puffing up, a poor relation
its suitcase tied together
with string. In the suitcase
were bandages for the eyes
and bottles sleep. I slid
all the way down the stairs
feeling nothing.
And all the time Hope
flashed on and off
in detective neon.
Hope was a signpost pointing
straight in the air.
Hope was my uncle's middle name,
he died of it.
After a year I am still climbing, though my feet slip
on your stone face.
The treeline
has long since disappeared;
green is a color
I have forgotten.
But now I see what I am climbing
towards: Acceptance
written in capital letters,
a special headline:
Acceptance
its name is in lights.
I struggle on,
waving and shouting.
Below, my whole life spreads its surf,
all the landscapes I've ever known
or dreamed of. Below
a fish jumps: the pulse
in your neck.
Acceptance. I finally
reach it.
But something is wrong.
Grief is a circular staircase.
I have lost you.
To A Daughter Leaving Home
by Linda Pastan
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
"Blood of Dresden" by Kurt Vonnegut
Read the following nonfiction piece, written by Kurt Vonnegut, a celebrated American author, about his experiences in World War II. Vonnegut was a POW in the German city of Dresden while it was being bombed by Allied planes.
Famous Quote Activity
Famous Quote Activity
Read these famous quotes, all of which have to do with identity—religious identity, personal identity, national identity, etc. Many of these are controversial. Try to paraphrase the author’s statement. Then discuss whether you agree or disagree. How could you go about finding evidence to back up your view? Note: all of this is potential fodder for your Argument papers!!!
1) “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” —Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
2) “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” —Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
3) “The unexamined life is not worth living.” —Socrates (469 BC-399 BC)
4) “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” —Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940)
5) “Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.” —Barry Switzer (1937- )
6) “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” -Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)
7) “What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom ‘to’ and freedom ‘from.’” —Marilyn vos Savant (1946- )
8) “You can be loyal to Jesus just as you’re loyal to your own country. But you’re not serving your country if you think it’s necessarily the best of all possible countries. That is doing a disservice to your country. It is refusing to be critical where criticism is proper. So of religion. Every religion should be self-critical or else it soon degenerates into a self-righteous hypocrisy. —Alan Watts (1915-1973)
9) “A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.” —George William Curtis (1824-1892)
10) “Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.” —Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
11) “There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him—early.” –Mark Twain (1835-1910)
12) "Not all that glitters is gold. Not all who wander are lost." -JRR Tolkien (1892-1973)
13) “We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings.” F.H. Bradley (1846–1924)
14) "Learn the rules, and then forget them." —Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
15) “An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain - the equality of all men.” -Ignazio Silone (1900-1978)
16) “I don't know what kind of weapons will be used in the third world war, assuming there will be a third world war. But I can tell you what the fourth world war will be fought with -- stone clubs.”
–Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
17) “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” —Blaise Pascal, a Catholic philosopher (1623-1662)
Read these famous quotes, all of which have to do with identity—religious identity, personal identity, national identity, etc. Many of these are controversial. Try to paraphrase the author’s statement. Then discuss whether you agree or disagree. How could you go about finding evidence to back up your view? Note: all of this is potential fodder for your Argument papers!!!
1) “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” —Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
2) “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” —Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
3) “The unexamined life is not worth living.” —Socrates (469 BC-399 BC)
4) “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” —Wilhelm Stekel (1868-1940)
5) “Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.” —Barry Switzer (1937- )
6) “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” -Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)
7) “What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom ‘to’ and freedom ‘from.’” —Marilyn vos Savant (1946- )
8) “You can be loyal to Jesus just as you’re loyal to your own country. But you’re not serving your country if you think it’s necessarily the best of all possible countries. That is doing a disservice to your country. It is refusing to be critical where criticism is proper. So of religion. Every religion should be self-critical or else it soon degenerates into a self-righteous hypocrisy. —Alan Watts (1915-1973)
9) “A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.” —George William Curtis (1824-1892)
10) “Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.” —Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
11) “There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him—early.” –Mark Twain (1835-1910)
12) "Not all that glitters is gold. Not all who wander are lost." -JRR Tolkien (1892-1973)
13) “We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings.” F.H. Bradley (1846–1924)
14) "Learn the rules, and then forget them." —Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
15) “An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain - the equality of all men.” -Ignazio Silone (1900-1978)
16) “I don't know what kind of weapons will be used in the third world war, assuming there will be a third world war. But I can tell you what the fourth world war will be fought with -- stone clubs.”
–Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
17) “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” —Blaise Pascal, a Catholic philosopher (1623-1662)
MLA Citation Lesson/Crash Course
Citations and Plagiarism
(aka How to Look Smart and Not Fail a Class)
For full guidelines, check out The Brief Penguin Handbook. Here’s a crash course, though. For MLA internal citations, list in parentheses the author’s last name (or the editor’s last name, or one of the editors’ last names, if there are multiple authors, like in a textbook), plus the page number for written sources and the paragraph number (if possible) for online sources. The period goes after the last parenthesis. Like this:
However, there is one exception—when you give the author’s name earlier in the sentence.
If there’s no author, just list the name of the website or source (example: ABC News).
For MLA citation on a work cited page, you can also use the citation generator found on http://www.palomar.edu/dsps/actc/mla/. For you own information, though, this is how it’s done:
Article in a Printed, Scholarly Journal:
Jacobson, Elmer. “10 Causes of Global Warming.” Newsweek. pp. 23-42. March 3rd, 2006.
Internet News Site:
Last name, First name. “Name of Article.” Name of site. Date of last update. Date you accessed the site.
Twin, Alexandra. “Fed Can’t Save Stocks.” CNN. October 8, 2008.
Warning: if you type this then press “enter”, it’ll turn the web address into a hyperlink. On a PC, press control and Z at the same time to undo this.
When you have more than one source, list them alphabetically on your Works Cited page.
*
OK, and now an important word on plagiarism…
Plagiarism is basically using someone else’s ideas, research, statistics, or descriptions without giving them proper credit. Note: It’s possible to cite something and still commit plagiarism!
Whenever you cite something but don’t use quotes, you’re indicating that you’re paraphrasing (i.e. significantly changing something into your own words), or referencing some raw fact or idea you used. If what you cite as a paraphrase is actually identical—or close to identical—to the original, this constitutes plagiarism and results in a failing grade, just the same as if you copied a paper or paragraph directly off the internet.
Remember, you have to cite EVERYTHING you put in a paper that you didn’t already know/that isn’t common knowledge. If you use the author’s/website’s/article’s words directly, you MUST put them in quotes with an internal citation immediately after. In general, a student who shows me their rough draft but tells me that they “haven’t put their citations in yet” is immediately on my radar because it’s much easier (and safer) to put in your citations as you go.
Again, if you give an internal citation WITHOUT quotes, but you haven't really changed the phrasing very much, that’s just as bad as providing no citation at all. So if I find that phrase (or a very similar one) online or in an article, you’ve technically plagiarized. And you fail.
Don't panic—just take a look at this short example to show you what I mean. If you have questions, ask me (or the Writing Center). Here’s a fictitious passage by John Smith, from paragraphs 14 and 15 of Ancient History:
The biblical story of Noah is by no means the only story of an ancient, cataclysmic flood. In fact, many religions and peoples from the Greeks to the Aztecs have similar stories; this leads scientists to speculate that some sort of ancient cataclysm might actually have occurred. Some scientists further speculate, based on geographical evidence, as well as patterns in the distribution of these myths, that the flood was caused by a massive meteor strike in the Indian Ocean in 2084 BC. Such a meteor strike would have triggered great tsunamis and other destructive climate changes.
This calamity was relatively mild compared to other cataclysmic changes our planet has endured, though. You may have heard that a meteor strike caused the death of the dinosaurs, but did you know that most scientists and paleontologists agree that there have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of our planet, each resulting in the loss of at least 50% of animal species around at the time of the extinction?
Here are two examples of situations in which the above passage is cited. The first constitutes plagiarism; the second does not.
Plagiarized Version (which results in failure):
There are many stories of floods in the ancient world. The Greeks and Aztecs have similar tales, which has led scientists to think that some sort of ancient flood actually took place. Some even speculate, based on geographical evidence and patterns in the distribution of these stories, that the flood was caused by a massive meteor in the Indian Ocean in 2084 BC. Such a strike would have triggered tsunamis and other climate changes. However, this was not the first time life on earth was nearly wiped out; in fact, most scientists agree that it’s happened at least five times (Smith, 14-15).
Acceptable Version:
In John Smith’s book, Ancient History, he notes many intriguing similarities between the story of Noah and the flood, found in the Bible, and other flood myths throughout the world. He also points out that these similarities and other evidence has prompted scientists to theorize “…that the flood was caused by a massive meteor strike in the Indian Ocean in 2084 BC” (Smith, par. 14). However, our planet has endured worse. For example, there may have been “…at least five mass extinctions in the history of our planet,” like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs (15). Such events illustrate how fragile the ecosystem of any given species really is.
The Plagiarized Version is plagiarism because it isn’t clear what ideas come from the author of the paper,
and which ideas come from John Smith. Also, the phrasing is nearly identical in many places. The
Acceptable Version makes clear which ideas the author is citing, but more importantly, it also puts forth
some original ideas.
When in doubt, don’t just restate the passage you read; ask yourself why it’s important. Also, you can try
setting aside whatever source you’re quoting and restating it from memory. This is a good way to help put it
in your own words. Finally, never just drop a quote in a paper; always set it up first.
*
Now, a quick lesson on commas and semi-colons. This may not seem like a big deal but small mistakes in grammar really affect how smart your reader thinks you are. In other words, typos make you look stupid. They can also cost you a job in the real world.
A semi-colon and a period are basically used for the same thing—to separate two independent clauses (aka what could be a complete sentence). Commas, on the other hand, usually denote sequence or are used to separate independent and dependent clauses.
Exception: if you have a sequence that would normally be separated by commas (like items you bought at a store), but you want to group some of them, you can use semi-colons to separate the groups. Example:
While I was at the store, I bought skim and whole milk; white, wheat, and rye bread; and a big-ass box of frozen chicken.
OK, now for some practice. What should go in the blanks below: a comma or a semi-colon?
1) Poor class participation means a loss of participation points and unexcused absences for disruptive behavior ____ as a general rule, rude students cannot pass discussion-based classes.
2) I like pizza _____ it’s my favorite food.
3) Jonathan Swift doesn’t actually think we should eat babies ____ in fact, “A Modest Proposal” is a famous work of satire, or deliberate exaggeration to prove a point. In this case, Swift was illustrating the apathy of the rich towards the starving poor in 18th century Ireland.
4) I have lived in Osage, Iowa _____ Iowa City, Iowa _____ Carbondale, Illinois and Muncie, Indiana.
(aka How to Look Smart and Not Fail a Class)
For full guidelines, check out The Brief Penguin Handbook. Here’s a crash course, though. For MLA internal citations, list in parentheses the author’s last name (or the editor’s last name, or one of the editors’ last names, if there are multiple authors, like in a textbook), plus the page number for written sources and the paragraph number (if possible) for online sources. The period goes after the last parenthesis. Like this:
When it comes to grammar, the evidence is clear that, “readers equate correctness with the writer’s competence” (Bullock 80).
However, there is one exception—when you give the author’s name earlier in the sentence.
When it comes to grammar, Bullock believes that, “readers equate correctness with the writer’s competence” (80).
If there’s no author, just list the name of the website or source (example: ABC News).
For MLA citation on a work cited page, you can also use the citation generator found on http://www.palomar.edu/dsps/actc/mla/. For you own information, though, this is how it’s done:
Article in a Printed, Scholarly Journal:
Last name, First name. “Name of Article.” Name of magazine. page numbers. Date.
Jacobson, Elmer. “10 Causes of Global Warming.” Newsweek. pp. 23-42. March 3rd, 2006.
Internet News Site:
Last name, First name. “Name of Article.” Name of site. Date of last update. Date you accessed the site.
Twin, Alexandra. “Fed Can’t Save Stocks.” CNN. October 8, 2008.
Warning: if you type this then press “enter”, it’ll turn the web address into a hyperlink. On a PC, press control and Z at the same time to undo this.
When you have more than one source, list them alphabetically on your Works Cited page.
*
OK, and now an important word on plagiarism…
Plagiarism is basically using someone else’s ideas, research, statistics, or descriptions without giving them proper credit. Note: It’s possible to cite something and still commit plagiarism!
Whenever you cite something but don’t use quotes, you’re indicating that you’re paraphrasing (i.e. significantly changing something into your own words), or referencing some raw fact or idea you used. If what you cite as a paraphrase is actually identical—or close to identical—to the original, this constitutes plagiarism and results in a failing grade, just the same as if you copied a paper or paragraph directly off the internet.
Remember, you have to cite EVERYTHING you put in a paper that you didn’t already know/that isn’t common knowledge. If you use the author’s/website’s/article’s words directly, you MUST put them in quotes with an internal citation immediately after. In general, a student who shows me their rough draft but tells me that they “haven’t put their citations in yet” is immediately on my radar because it’s much easier (and safer) to put in your citations as you go.
Again, if you give an internal citation WITHOUT quotes, but you haven't really changed the phrasing very much, that’s just as bad as providing no citation at all. So if I find that phrase (or a very similar one) online or in an article, you’ve technically plagiarized. And you fail.
Don't panic—just take a look at this short example to show you what I mean. If you have questions, ask me (or the Writing Center). Here’s a fictitious passage by John Smith, from paragraphs 14 and 15 of Ancient History:
The biblical story of Noah is by no means the only story of an ancient, cataclysmic flood. In fact, many religions and peoples from the Greeks to the Aztecs have similar stories; this leads scientists to speculate that some sort of ancient cataclysm might actually have occurred. Some scientists further speculate, based on geographical evidence, as well as patterns in the distribution of these myths, that the flood was caused by a massive meteor strike in the Indian Ocean in 2084 BC. Such a meteor strike would have triggered great tsunamis and other destructive climate changes.
This calamity was relatively mild compared to other cataclysmic changes our planet has endured, though. You may have heard that a meteor strike caused the death of the dinosaurs, but did you know that most scientists and paleontologists agree that there have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of our planet, each resulting in the loss of at least 50% of animal species around at the time of the extinction?
Here are two examples of situations in which the above passage is cited. The first constitutes plagiarism; the second does not.
Plagiarized Version (which results in failure):
There are many stories of floods in the ancient world. The Greeks and Aztecs have similar tales, which has led scientists to think that some sort of ancient flood actually took place. Some even speculate, based on geographical evidence and patterns in the distribution of these stories, that the flood was caused by a massive meteor in the Indian Ocean in 2084 BC. Such a strike would have triggered tsunamis and other climate changes. However, this was not the first time life on earth was nearly wiped out; in fact, most scientists agree that it’s happened at least five times (Smith, 14-15).
Acceptable Version:
In John Smith’s book, Ancient History, he notes many intriguing similarities between the story of Noah and the flood, found in the Bible, and other flood myths throughout the world. He also points out that these similarities and other evidence has prompted scientists to theorize “…that the flood was caused by a massive meteor strike in the Indian Ocean in 2084 BC” (Smith, par. 14). However, our planet has endured worse. For example, there may have been “…at least five mass extinctions in the history of our planet,” like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs (15). Such events illustrate how fragile the ecosystem of any given species really is.
The Plagiarized Version is plagiarism because it isn’t clear what ideas come from the author of the paper,
and which ideas come from John Smith. Also, the phrasing is nearly identical in many places. The
Acceptable Version makes clear which ideas the author is citing, but more importantly, it also puts forth
some original ideas.
When in doubt, don’t just restate the passage you read; ask yourself why it’s important. Also, you can try
setting aside whatever source you’re quoting and restating it from memory. This is a good way to help put it
in your own words. Finally, never just drop a quote in a paper; always set it up first.
*
Now, a quick lesson on commas and semi-colons. This may not seem like a big deal but small mistakes in grammar really affect how smart your reader thinks you are. In other words, typos make you look stupid. They can also cost you a job in the real world.
A semi-colon and a period are basically used for the same thing—to separate two independent clauses (aka what could be a complete sentence). Commas, on the other hand, usually denote sequence or are used to separate independent and dependent clauses.
Exception: if you have a sequence that would normally be separated by commas (like items you bought at a store), but you want to group some of them, you can use semi-colons to separate the groups. Example:
While I was at the store, I bought skim and whole milk; white, wheat, and rye bread; and a big-ass box of frozen chicken.
OK, now for some practice. What should go in the blanks below: a comma or a semi-colon?
1) Poor class participation means a loss of participation points and unexcused absences for disruptive behavior ____ as a general rule, rude students cannot pass discussion-based classes.
2) I like pizza _____ it’s my favorite food.
3) Jonathan Swift doesn’t actually think we should eat babies ____ in fact, “A Modest Proposal” is a famous work of satire, or deliberate exaggeration to prove a point. In this case, Swift was illustrating the apathy of the rich towards the starving poor in 18th century Ireland.
4) I have lived in Osage, Iowa _____ Iowa City, Iowa _____ Carbondale, Illinois and Muncie, Indiana.
"What Would You Have Me Do?" by Pia Ehrhardt
What Would You Have Me Do?
by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
We’d driven from Baton Rouge to Myrtle Beach to see my husband’s son. Rodney was twenty-one and had been working in South Carolina for the summer. Mornings, he strapped kids into go-carts at Sand Kastle Kingdom, and afternoons, he ministered on the beach. He was raised a Catholic, but during the divorce his mother joined an evangelical church and had him rebaptized when he was fifteen.
“Why’d you let her do that?” I asked once.
“How could I stop her?”
“A court order,” I said, but he didn’t answer.
Rodney had spoken to his father a few times by phone, hadn’t sounded homesick but like he’d be OK with a visit. He was waiting for us at the Pancake Shack with a pretty girl and got up from the table. He had on a kelly-green uniform from the amusement park and a Confederate baseball cap.
“Do you know the meaning of that flag?” Matthew, my husband, said, pointing to Rodney’s head.
“Yeah.”
“Then take it off,” Matthew said, extending his hand. He pulled his son close, and they clapped each other on the back.
Rodney introduced us to Marguerite. She wore dangly turquoise earrings, white denim cutoffs, and a black-ribbed tank top. They’d gone skydiving that morning. “The instructor taped us free-falling,” he said, wagging the video at us, a done deal.
Our five-year-old son, Logan, pushed his chair closer to Rodney’s and wanted to know if he could jump, too.
“No,” I answered.
Matthew asked the waitress to bring ice water. “At any point did you want to change your mind?” he said.
“Never,” Rodney said. “They train you by making you jump off a three-story building.”
Marguerite nodded her head, his thrill pal. “We smiled the whole way down, right, Buddy?” she said. “The Lord kept his hands under us.” She cupped hers to show us how.
Rodney ordered what he always ate, one egg sunny side up, grits, buttered white toast, but he’d started drinking coffee with cream and sugar.
“Remember how I used to trick you at breakfast with that rubber egg?” his father said.
Rodney shook his head. “I was a sucker back then.” He leaned over and shoveled food into his mouth like the plate was on fire.
Logan flooded his pancakes with syrup. “Dad tries giving me that egg.”
“You’ll learn,” Rodney said.
Logan forked food in his mouth as fast as his brother. “Quit eating like Vikings,” I said to them. Rodney gave me a dirty look that stung me. We’d never had a cross word, but I’d never corrected him. He’d always been someone else’s kid, and I tried to curry favor by staying out of his way, unless he needed me to run interference with his dad. Or wanted someone to listen to how things happened. When he was ten, eleven, twelve he’d recount long, detailed plots of the movies he’d just seen, backtracking when he messed up some bit of it. I was grateful that he thought I cared.
“You got taller,” Matthew said.
“Measure hands.” Rodney pressed his palm against his father’s, and his nail-bitten fingers hooked over Matthew’s.
“Do me!” Logan said, knocking over his glass of milk. He looked over at me, worried.
“It’s OK,” I said. I tried to downplay spilled drinks because my mother had berated me when I made a mess, but the first look on my face—“Can’t you be careful?”—is what Logan saw.
So did Matthew, who wiped up the mess, calm, because he knew what to do for this son. “The job’s going okay?” he asked Rodney, because we couldn’t talk about the religion, his zeal, the Real Work he’d come to do.
“I could live here,” Rodney said, splitting a piece of carrot cake with Marguerite. “Next, we’re bungee jumping off a bridge.”
Marguerite leaned forward. “They say it’s like suicide with your second chance built in.”
Matthew didn’t comment, just asked for the check. He was sure of what she would never know: his son was careful, shy, susceptible.
Rodney kissed Marguerite good-bye so he could show us to our hotel. He waited in the lobby while we changed into swimsuits because Logan needed to swim immediately.
“Throw me high,” he instructed his half-brother, and Rodney did.
“Easy,” I said, because the pool was kidney shaped, and I didn’t trust him right then with the one who was mine.
“Come here, little baby,” Rodney said, launching Logan again.
“I’m in kindergarten.”
“That’s enough,” I said.
Rodney had lost weight and had a deep tan and a washboard stomach. Every muscle was sharp cut. On whose watch did these changes happen? Suddenly there was a stack of reasons I would never again be with a boy like him: age, impropriety, religion, his disregard. I was forty, furtive, righteous, and angry at Rodney for proselytizing, angry at his father for letting the ex dunk a boy who used to be curious and rational, angry at myself for not riding out this troubling visit on a wave of near-mother love.
Rodney sat with his dad and me on the side of the pool. In the middle of his back was a rug burn in the shape of New Jersey that probably matched the states on Marguerite’s knees.
“Do you still think about medical school?” I said, because I didn’t want to give up.
“Bible college,” he said. “I want my own church one day.”
“So you’re not going to finish LSU?” his father said.
“They’ve asked me to stay on in Myrtle Beach and work with the youth group.”
Matthew was too quiet, so I took a breath, got ready to question Rodney, but Matthew touched my arm to protect Rodney, which made me jealous. My heart dehydrated. I might not always be a wife, but Rodney was a son for good.
“This area has a hundred and sixty golf courses,” Rodney said. Chamber of Commerce stuff because none of us played. His eyes were hidden behind dark wraparound glasses.
“Can I buy you a beer?” his father said.
“I don’t drink,” Rodney said. “I’m gonna need to get over to the beach for Sunset Service. I’m preaching, and I’d like it if you came.”
“I don’t think, son,” Matthew said. “Religion is personal.”
Rodney looked disappointed and like he had an answer to that reaction.
“I want to go,” Logan said, kicking water at his father.
“We’re gonna stay and swim,” Matthew told Logan.
“Here, pal,” Rodney said, handing the skydiving cassette to Logan. “Watch me on the tape.”
“I’ll take it,” I said, so it wouldn’t get wet.
Matthew poured the rest of his beer into a Styrofoam cup he could take up to our room. “Christ. It’s ugly here,” he said when Rodney was gone.
This place wasn’t a beach. It was one arcade built on top of another arcade across the street from dirty sand and waves.
Clouds darkened and drew closer. The heat index was 107, and I hoped a thunderstorm would let go on top of us and stop all the sun. Rain would drive us all back inside to turn off the lights, grab a pillow, and order a movie.
Logan, bored without Rodney, wanted to go up to the room and watch cartoons.
“What are we doing here?” Matthew said, sitting down on the double bed. “He’s gone.”
“Mom,” Logan said, digging in my purse. “Put in Rodney’s tape.”
The video was bleached out and grainy, but it took us through their training, the harnessed jump off a thirty-foot wall, them stepping into orange jumpsuits and slipping their arms through parachute harnesses, the patchwork of views from the open door of the plane, nervous laughter, muffled prayer, and then Marguerite jumped out first, her body starfishing through space. Rodney looked at the camera, and his face was pale.
“Go!” the instructor said.
“I can’t,” Rodney said.
His father moved toward the TV as if to reach through the screen and pull him inside.
“Go! With me!” the man said, and he grabbed Rodney’s hand and they jumped out together and somehow caught up to Marguerite. The three jumpers held hands. The camera mounted on the instructor’s helmet caught the two newbies smiling, yes, but ready to pull the chutes, and the free fall that I had imagined was akin to fucking at ten thousand feet looked more like pained waiting. “Pull!” the instructor said, and everyone got jerked up by invisible strings. The float down was all release and joy, too personal for me to watch, so I looked at my bare feet on the thin carpet.
Theirs finally touched ground, and Matthew took a deep breath. “I think I could do that.”
“I could, too,” Logan said. He jumped high on the bed, his hands clutching imaginary parachute straps.
Again, I tried to understand how Matthew had given up dominion over his older son. “Does it upset you that you can’t tell him what to do anymore?”
“I don’t want to push him away,” he said.
“So what do you do with the worry?” I said, but the question was mean, a poke in a wound.
“What would you have me do?” he said, popping open a cold can of beer. I lived on the wrong side of the arc of this story. He’d forgiven Rodney and taken to the sky, because he lived in his boy and trusted he wouldn’t crash to earth.
The tape turned to static. “I’m afraid of heights,” I said. The truth: I’d always been afraid of how irrevocably parents love their children. Afraid of how terribly I loved Logan—so much I often forgot he was Matthew’s, too.
“Play it again,” Logan said, and I showed him the rewind so he could look at his brother and Marguerite skydive thirty more times.
Our window faced the water, and from up there we could see Rodney’s Bible group advance across the beach, how they interrupted two girls on their stomachs on bright blue towels. Someone staked a wooden cross into the sand.
“They’re encouraged when people shoo them away,” Matthew said. “It makes their work seem misunderstood and righteous.”
When he was fifteen, Rodney brought a book home from science class that illustrated how the human body flexed and bent and torqued, and he counted its odd-numbered proportions: five appendages to the torso, five fingers or toes on four of these, and five openings to the face. Our bodies made asymmetrical sense! He had me hold my arm out straight and with a stubby finger traced every muscle, tendon, and joint before he pointed out the twenty-seven bones in my human hand. Me, surprised and relieved to be touched on purpose by my stepson.
Lightning knifed the ocean, and thunder cracked. Logan ran to the window and counted, “Five-Mississippi, six-Mississippi.” People hurried off the beach. A lightning bolt hit the lifeguard stand, then another hit the beach. The hotel’s power went out. Three-wheelers arrived from every direction, and people ran back toward a girl on the sand in a red bikini. The crowd circled her with concern until medics pushed their way through. From our window, the danger was so clear; but out there no one was taking shelter.
Matthew ran from the room and headed for the exit; I grabbed Logan’s hand, and we started after Matthew down twenty-three flights, but it was slow going. “Wait for us,” I said, and Matthew paused on a landing, picked Logan up, and carried him the rest of the way in his arms. On the beach, many of the boys wore baseball caps. We couldn’t tell which kid was Rodney.
The lightning had stopped, but rain was coming down hard. I tried to keep Logan with me under the hotel’s overhang, but he pulled my arm, said, “I want to go with Dad.”
Matthew found Rodney next to the lifeguard stand, watching EMTs work on the injured girl. Marguerite held Rodney’s hand, and they closed their eyes and began, quietly, to pray. We stood off to the side and waited for them to finish.
“Do you know her?” Matthew asked.
Rodney shook his head. “They said she’s from Georgia.”
“Do you want to come back up to the room with us? Dry off?” his father said.
“I could make popcorn in the microwave,” I said.
“Service is at six-thirty,” Rodney said, and he extended his hand. “See ya, Pop.” He gave me a hug, and laid his palm out flat for Logan to slap.
We had breakfast together the next morning, dinner the next night, and Logan spent two days at Sand Kastle Kingdom, shadowing his brother. Logan rode the rides for free, and won yards of tickets in the arcade that he traded in for homework snatchers, bouncy balls, a spider ring for me, a sand globe for his father, a detailed planet earth no bigger than a Ping-Pong ball, which Rodney hung from the rearview mirror of his truck.
Our drive back to Baton Rouge was quiet. Logan slept in the backseat under an LSU blanket he’d brought from home. We were leaving Rodney behind, but I didn’t want to gig Matthew about what couldn’t be changed. He’d raised his son to be a freethinker. The interstate was crowded with families headed to and from their vacations, and double-decker tour buses, and eighteen-wheelers that stayed too long in the left lane. I kept my eyes on the road, and missed the boy who was never quite but always my own.
Ehrhardt, Pia Z. “What Would You Have Me Do?” Narrative Magazine. Spring 2006.
by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
We’d driven from Baton Rouge to Myrtle Beach to see my husband’s son. Rodney was twenty-one and had been working in South Carolina for the summer. Mornings, he strapped kids into go-carts at Sand Kastle Kingdom, and afternoons, he ministered on the beach. He was raised a Catholic, but during the divorce his mother joined an evangelical church and had him rebaptized when he was fifteen.
“Why’d you let her do that?” I asked once.
“How could I stop her?”
“A court order,” I said, but he didn’t answer.
Rodney had spoken to his father a few times by phone, hadn’t sounded homesick but like he’d be OK with a visit. He was waiting for us at the Pancake Shack with a pretty girl and got up from the table. He had on a kelly-green uniform from the amusement park and a Confederate baseball cap.
“Do you know the meaning of that flag?” Matthew, my husband, said, pointing to Rodney’s head.
“Yeah.”
“Then take it off,” Matthew said, extending his hand. He pulled his son close, and they clapped each other on the back.
Rodney introduced us to Marguerite. She wore dangly turquoise earrings, white denim cutoffs, and a black-ribbed tank top. They’d gone skydiving that morning. “The instructor taped us free-falling,” he said, wagging the video at us, a done deal.
Our five-year-old son, Logan, pushed his chair closer to Rodney’s and wanted to know if he could jump, too.
“No,” I answered.
Matthew asked the waitress to bring ice water. “At any point did you want to change your mind?” he said.
“Never,” Rodney said. “They train you by making you jump off a three-story building.”
Marguerite nodded her head, his thrill pal. “We smiled the whole way down, right, Buddy?” she said. “The Lord kept his hands under us.” She cupped hers to show us how.
Rodney ordered what he always ate, one egg sunny side up, grits, buttered white toast, but he’d started drinking coffee with cream and sugar.
“Remember how I used to trick you at breakfast with that rubber egg?” his father said.
Rodney shook his head. “I was a sucker back then.” He leaned over and shoveled food into his mouth like the plate was on fire.
Logan flooded his pancakes with syrup. “Dad tries giving me that egg.”
“You’ll learn,” Rodney said.
Logan forked food in his mouth as fast as his brother. “Quit eating like Vikings,” I said to them. Rodney gave me a dirty look that stung me. We’d never had a cross word, but I’d never corrected him. He’d always been someone else’s kid, and I tried to curry favor by staying out of his way, unless he needed me to run interference with his dad. Or wanted someone to listen to how things happened. When he was ten, eleven, twelve he’d recount long, detailed plots of the movies he’d just seen, backtracking when he messed up some bit of it. I was grateful that he thought I cared.
“You got taller,” Matthew said.
“Measure hands.” Rodney pressed his palm against his father’s, and his nail-bitten fingers hooked over Matthew’s.
“Do me!” Logan said, knocking over his glass of milk. He looked over at me, worried.
“It’s OK,” I said. I tried to downplay spilled drinks because my mother had berated me when I made a mess, but the first look on my face—“Can’t you be careful?”—is what Logan saw.
So did Matthew, who wiped up the mess, calm, because he knew what to do for this son. “The job’s going okay?” he asked Rodney, because we couldn’t talk about the religion, his zeal, the Real Work he’d come to do.
“I could live here,” Rodney said, splitting a piece of carrot cake with Marguerite. “Next, we’re bungee jumping off a bridge.”
Marguerite leaned forward. “They say it’s like suicide with your second chance built in.”
Matthew didn’t comment, just asked for the check. He was sure of what she would never know: his son was careful, shy, susceptible.
Rodney kissed Marguerite good-bye so he could show us to our hotel. He waited in the lobby while we changed into swimsuits because Logan needed to swim immediately.
“Throw me high,” he instructed his half-brother, and Rodney did.
“Easy,” I said, because the pool was kidney shaped, and I didn’t trust him right then with the one who was mine.
“Come here, little baby,” Rodney said, launching Logan again.
“I’m in kindergarten.”
“That’s enough,” I said.
Rodney had lost weight and had a deep tan and a washboard stomach. Every muscle was sharp cut. On whose watch did these changes happen? Suddenly there was a stack of reasons I would never again be with a boy like him: age, impropriety, religion, his disregard. I was forty, furtive, righteous, and angry at Rodney for proselytizing, angry at his father for letting the ex dunk a boy who used to be curious and rational, angry at myself for not riding out this troubling visit on a wave of near-mother love.
Rodney sat with his dad and me on the side of the pool. In the middle of his back was a rug burn in the shape of New Jersey that probably matched the states on Marguerite’s knees.
“Do you still think about medical school?” I said, because I didn’t want to give up.
“Bible college,” he said. “I want my own church one day.”
“So you’re not going to finish LSU?” his father said.
“They’ve asked me to stay on in Myrtle Beach and work with the youth group.”
Matthew was too quiet, so I took a breath, got ready to question Rodney, but Matthew touched my arm to protect Rodney, which made me jealous. My heart dehydrated. I might not always be a wife, but Rodney was a son for good.
“This area has a hundred and sixty golf courses,” Rodney said. Chamber of Commerce stuff because none of us played. His eyes were hidden behind dark wraparound glasses.
“Can I buy you a beer?” his father said.
“I don’t drink,” Rodney said. “I’m gonna need to get over to the beach for Sunset Service. I’m preaching, and I’d like it if you came.”
“I don’t think, son,” Matthew said. “Religion is personal.”
Rodney looked disappointed and like he had an answer to that reaction.
“I want to go,” Logan said, kicking water at his father.
“We’re gonna stay and swim,” Matthew told Logan.
“Here, pal,” Rodney said, handing the skydiving cassette to Logan. “Watch me on the tape.”
“I’ll take it,” I said, so it wouldn’t get wet.
Matthew poured the rest of his beer into a Styrofoam cup he could take up to our room. “Christ. It’s ugly here,” he said when Rodney was gone.
This place wasn’t a beach. It was one arcade built on top of another arcade across the street from dirty sand and waves.
Clouds darkened and drew closer. The heat index was 107, and I hoped a thunderstorm would let go on top of us and stop all the sun. Rain would drive us all back inside to turn off the lights, grab a pillow, and order a movie.
Logan, bored without Rodney, wanted to go up to the room and watch cartoons.
“What are we doing here?” Matthew said, sitting down on the double bed. “He’s gone.”
“Mom,” Logan said, digging in my purse. “Put in Rodney’s tape.”
The video was bleached out and grainy, but it took us through their training, the harnessed jump off a thirty-foot wall, them stepping into orange jumpsuits and slipping their arms through parachute harnesses, the patchwork of views from the open door of the plane, nervous laughter, muffled prayer, and then Marguerite jumped out first, her body starfishing through space. Rodney looked at the camera, and his face was pale.
“Go!” the instructor said.
“I can’t,” Rodney said.
His father moved toward the TV as if to reach through the screen and pull him inside.
“Go! With me!” the man said, and he grabbed Rodney’s hand and they jumped out together and somehow caught up to Marguerite. The three jumpers held hands. The camera mounted on the instructor’s helmet caught the two newbies smiling, yes, but ready to pull the chutes, and the free fall that I had imagined was akin to fucking at ten thousand feet looked more like pained waiting. “Pull!” the instructor said, and everyone got jerked up by invisible strings. The float down was all release and joy, too personal for me to watch, so I looked at my bare feet on the thin carpet.
Theirs finally touched ground, and Matthew took a deep breath. “I think I could do that.”
“I could, too,” Logan said. He jumped high on the bed, his hands clutching imaginary parachute straps.
Again, I tried to understand how Matthew had given up dominion over his older son. “Does it upset you that you can’t tell him what to do anymore?”
“I don’t want to push him away,” he said.
“So what do you do with the worry?” I said, but the question was mean, a poke in a wound.
“What would you have me do?” he said, popping open a cold can of beer. I lived on the wrong side of the arc of this story. He’d forgiven Rodney and taken to the sky, because he lived in his boy and trusted he wouldn’t crash to earth.
The tape turned to static. “I’m afraid of heights,” I said. The truth: I’d always been afraid of how irrevocably parents love their children. Afraid of how terribly I loved Logan—so much I often forgot he was Matthew’s, too.
“Play it again,” Logan said, and I showed him the rewind so he could look at his brother and Marguerite skydive thirty more times.
Our window faced the water, and from up there we could see Rodney’s Bible group advance across the beach, how they interrupted two girls on their stomachs on bright blue towels. Someone staked a wooden cross into the sand.
“They’re encouraged when people shoo them away,” Matthew said. “It makes their work seem misunderstood and righteous.”
When he was fifteen, Rodney brought a book home from science class that illustrated how the human body flexed and bent and torqued, and he counted its odd-numbered proportions: five appendages to the torso, five fingers or toes on four of these, and five openings to the face. Our bodies made asymmetrical sense! He had me hold my arm out straight and with a stubby finger traced every muscle, tendon, and joint before he pointed out the twenty-seven bones in my human hand. Me, surprised and relieved to be touched on purpose by my stepson.
Lightning knifed the ocean, and thunder cracked. Logan ran to the window and counted, “Five-Mississippi, six-Mississippi.” People hurried off the beach. A lightning bolt hit the lifeguard stand, then another hit the beach. The hotel’s power went out. Three-wheelers arrived from every direction, and people ran back toward a girl on the sand in a red bikini. The crowd circled her with concern until medics pushed their way through. From our window, the danger was so clear; but out there no one was taking shelter.
Matthew ran from the room and headed for the exit; I grabbed Logan’s hand, and we started after Matthew down twenty-three flights, but it was slow going. “Wait for us,” I said, and Matthew paused on a landing, picked Logan up, and carried him the rest of the way in his arms. On the beach, many of the boys wore baseball caps. We couldn’t tell which kid was Rodney.
The lightning had stopped, but rain was coming down hard. I tried to keep Logan with me under the hotel’s overhang, but he pulled my arm, said, “I want to go with Dad.”
Matthew found Rodney next to the lifeguard stand, watching EMTs work on the injured girl. Marguerite held Rodney’s hand, and they closed their eyes and began, quietly, to pray. We stood off to the side and waited for them to finish.
“Do you know her?” Matthew asked.
Rodney shook his head. “They said she’s from Georgia.”
“Do you want to come back up to the room with us? Dry off?” his father said.
“I could make popcorn in the microwave,” I said.
“Service is at six-thirty,” Rodney said, and he extended his hand. “See ya, Pop.” He gave me a hug, and laid his palm out flat for Logan to slap.
We had breakfast together the next morning, dinner the next night, and Logan spent two days at Sand Kastle Kingdom, shadowing his brother. Logan rode the rides for free, and won yards of tickets in the arcade that he traded in for homework snatchers, bouncy balls, a spider ring for me, a sand globe for his father, a detailed planet earth no bigger than a Ping-Pong ball, which Rodney hung from the rearview mirror of his truck.
Our drive back to Baton Rouge was quiet. Logan slept in the backseat under an LSU blanket he’d brought from home. We were leaving Rodney behind, but I didn’t want to gig Matthew about what couldn’t be changed. He’d raised his son to be a freethinker. The interstate was crowded with families headed to and from their vacations, and double-decker tour buses, and eighteen-wheelers that stayed too long in the left lane. I kept my eyes on the road, and missed the boy who was never quite but always my own.
Ehrhardt, Pia Z. “What Would You Have Me Do?” Narrative Magazine. Spring 2006.
Millennial Students
Now, let’s move on to the next section—sharpening your critical reading and discussion skills, in preparation for your first major paper assignment. Since this assignment (like much of the course) focuses on identity, I would like you to first read a few brief essays describing how people (especially academics) feel about you.
Essay 1
Essay 2
Essay 3
Essay 1
Essay 2
Essay 3
Major Projects/Paper Prompts
Paper Assignment #1: Memoir
The first of your four formal papers for this class will be a Memoir. You should have a rough draft completed by Friday, September 10th. The final draft will be due in class, printed or emailed as an attachment (doc, docx, or rtf), along with your rough draft, on Monday, September 13th.
Formatting: your paper must be at least four full pages in length, NOT three and a half (shoot for 4 and a half to 5 pages), with standard 1 inch margins and a thesis (preferably a creative one) in your first paragraph, along with topic sentences starting every paragraph (or at least most of them). Use a normal, non-gigantic font, like 12-point Times New Roman. Double-space your paper with your name, my last name, your section, and the date in an upper corner. Also, your pages must be numbered!
What is a Memoir?
As adults, we are required to make our own way in the world, which necessitates the establishment of our own personal, independent identities; however, we are inexorably shaped by the experiences that got us here. In other words, like it or not, a big part of who we are remains tied up in who we were, where we came from, etc. In a sense, then, our past can either be our foundation, or something we are rebelling against (perhaps even a little of both).
With that in mind, I would like you to critically examine the story of your own family, your own origins, the roots of your own beliefs and value systems, etc. I am not asking you to tell me your entire life story here; rather, come up with several traits or beliefs that you think serve to illustrate your family story, then tell me about them. If you wish, you can choose the motif of viewing photographs as a “lens” through which to view this assignment. Otherwise, you can choose a different motif such as family videos, reunions, phone conversations, letters, emails, or just your own personal recollections. Feel free to be creative with this one!
If you are having trouble getting started, here are some things to ask yourself: who was “in charge” in your family when you were growing up, or was this power shared? Did you grow up in a “traditional” household with two married parents, or was your household non-traditional in some way? Also, how do you think this shaped your views on family? What economic class do you think best describes your family? What effects (positive and/or negative) do you think this has had on you? Can you think of one viewpoint, opinion, or prejudice that you have only because it’s shared by your family, i.e. it wasn’t something you arrived at on your own?
Remember: as I hope at least one of your previous English teachers was honest enough to tell you, one of the primary goals of good writing is to be entertaining, regardless of whether the overall story is joyful, tragic, melancholic, humorous, etc. However, a word of caution—the way to make your narratives entertaining is not by exaggeration (an easy but transparent mistake to make), but by working to produce smooth, descriptive sentences that develop a relationship with your reader through honest, straight-forward storytelling. When in doubt, remember the five senses!
The Benefit of this Assignment:
As writers, we gain an enormous advantage in both the academic and the “real” world when we strengthen our perspective over what events (positive, negative, or both) got us here in the first place. That also serves to clarify our purpose and inspire us for whatever challenges lay ahead.
In a more immediate sense, though, being able to write descriptively and with conviction about one’s own background is absolutely essential when writing Personal Statements for graduate school applications, and to some degree, even when writing cover letters for job applications or conducting in-person interviews.
If you are having trouble with this assignment or want to go over an idea or draft with me, please feel free to discuss it with me during office hours, before or after class, or via email. You are also encouraged to visit BSU’s Writing Center for further assistance. As a general rule, I provide extra credit if you have the Writing Center notify me that you went there for an appointment.
Paper #2: Visual Rhetoric Analysis
With this second major assignment, we’ll be taking the theme of personal and familial identity tackled in your first paper and expanding it to cultural identity. In essence, your assignment is to choose a piece of visual rhetoric and analyze: 1) what argument is being made (whether explicitly or implicitly), 2) how you know this (i.e. what methods the piece is using to get its point across, such as slogans, facts, use of color and sound, what subconscious effect it’s going for, etc.), and, if possible, 3) what assumptions the piece is making about its audience (i.e. the audience’s cultural background, expectations, etc.). At the very least, the thesis of your paper should address #1 and #2.
The first step, of course, is to choose what you want to analyze. You are required to choose a music video, television commercial, printed ad, newspaper or magazine photograph, or political cartoon of your choice. Then, in 4-5 pages, analyze the piece of your choice.
For example, if a political ad talks about “change” or a company’s advertisement mentions “troubled economic times”, what are they referring to, who is their audience, how are they appealing to said audience, how do you know, etc.? Here’s another example: consider the documentary, “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo”, and ask yourself if the explorers are making any subtle commentary on American culture, what we gain from expanding our knowledge of other cultures, our place in the world, etc.
If you are unfamiliar with the process of analysis, here are just a few questions you can ask to get started: 1) What product or course of action is being advertised or encouraged by this piece? 2) Does this piece of visual rhetoric present a certain view on politics, gender, sexuality, prosperity, race, etc.? 3) Does this view strike you as traditional, nontraditional, idealistic, pessimistic, optimistic, or skewed, based on your own experiences and research? 4) Does this piece reinforce, counter, or parody stereotypes? 5) Does this piece reflect larger trends or viewpoints in society? Also, what are the implications of this piece? 6) What is the cultural context of this piece of visual rhetoric? In other words, what assumptions do you think its author is making about its audience? 7) Is this piece making an argument? If so, how do you know what the argument is since it’s not explicitly stated? 8) Does the piece speak to a situation that has since changed?
Whenever you start asking these types of questions, you are engaging in analysis because you are digging below the surface of an issue. Furthermore, you are closely examining the natural, instinctual response prompted by an image and asking yourself why you are having that response.
The formal stuff: your paper should be 4-5 full pages long with your name, section, and the date in the upper left corner. Your pages should be numbered as well. MLA citations should be provided for any research, including the source of the piece of visual rhetoric you are analyzing. This includes parenthetical citations and a work cited page. The final draft is due in class, printed, on Monday, October 4th.
We will conduct conferences the week before the paper is due. That means you’ll come to my office for a one-on-one tutoring session in which I give you feedback on how to revise your paper. These conferences will replace regular class on Sept. 27th, Sept. 29th, and October 4th. Please note that failure to show up at your scheduled conference WITH a finished draft of your paper could result in three unexcused absences.
The benefits of this assignment:
Analysis is something you have been doing all your life, including any time when you questioned someone’s motives or wondered if someone was telling the truth. Being able to analyze—and express your analysis—is a required skill throughout college (regardless of your major) as well as in problem-solving situations in the business world. Being able to analyze is also just about the best thing someone can do to avoid being, well, ignorant and easily taken advantage of. It also pays to be productively self-critical—to question what you’ve been told and taught—for the same reasons.
Paper #3: Researched Argument
No person, institution, company or country is infallible. However, by refining one’s ability to critically analyze, argue, compare and contrast, we as individuals and as a society are better able to learn from these mistakes. Naturally, this leaves us better equipped to deal with whatever struggles lie ahead. With that in mind, this third paper assignment calls on you to utilize the analysis skills you developed with your second assignment and take them a step further. You will be identifying a problem related to the issues raised in our discussions, further researching this issue, then making a strong argument of your own.
In short, tell me something about your culture, country, college, or community that you think is wrong, why it’s wrong, and if possible, how to fix it. I also want you to play “Devil’s Advocate.” That is, examine the other side of the argument, characterize it as fairly as possible, then respond. Finally, think back on our early discussion over ethos, pathos, and logos as they relate to audience. Assume your audience is somebody who may or may not disagree with you, i.e. you want to sound passionate without insulting somebody with whom you might otherwise be able to reach a compromise.
We will be discussing an essay and a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, plus several poems discussing social issues, and finally, a couple controversial documentaries: Religulous and White Light/Black Rain. Consider the views and arguments put forth in these texts, decide whether you agree or disagree, then form an argument based on solid, legitimate research. Warning: avoid biased sources like Fox News, MSNBC, blogs, the NRA, etc.!
Requirements: like the other major papers, your Researched Argument paper should be 4-5 pages in length, double-spaced, 1 inch margins and standard font (say, Times New Roman 12), with a title and page numbers. However, on this one, I am requiring at least FIVE SOURCES! If you choose to use Wikipedia, bear in mind that anyone can tinker with those pages so make sure the information provided there is accurate! In fact, that goes for ANY source. Just because it says so on the internet doesn’t make it true! Always try to verify any “fact” or statistic you find. Also, Wikipedia counts for only one of your sources. Finally, you must provide MLA-formatted internal citations and a Work Cited page (which does not count towards your 4-5 page length). The final draft of your Researched Argument paper will be due on Wednesday, November 17th. As before, final and rough drafts should be printed or emailed as an attachment (doc, docx, or rtf). We will have conferences instead of classes (like we did for the last paper) on Nov. 10th – Nov. 15th.
For this assignment, I will be paying close attention to: 1) the clarity and specificity of your thesis, 2) the logic of your argument (be sure to avoid fallacies), 3) the organization of your paper (topic sentences are key here), 4) how fairly you examine the counter-argument, and 5) the proper use and citation of sources.
I will not be grading based on whether or not you agree with me; in the past, students have gotten As on this assignment for writing good papers that I completely disagreed with. So definitely choose a topic you feel passionately about! The only “off limits” topics are abortion and the death penalty, only because I’ve already read about a zillion papers over those topics.
As always, I encourage you to come to me with questions and/or visit the Writing Center for help at any stage of the writing process.
Paper/Project #4 Group Presentations
Step 1: Get in groups of 4-5 people. It’s a good idea to organize according to some common interest (like people who have the same major).
Step 2: Identify a local problem (something to do with Ball State or Muncie in general).
Step 3: Come up with at least one person you could interview to get some information/perspective on the problem.
Step 4: Come up with a solution to the problem.
Step 5: Prepare some visuals (like a PowerPoint and, if possible, images and video) to accompany your presentation.
Step 6: When you actually give your presentation, everyone in the group should contribute. You want your presentation to take about 10 minutes. In the presentation, you must do the following:
1) Identify the problem.
2) Tell us why it’s a problem, i.e. back up your case.
3) Propose a solution.
4) Play Devil’s Advocate, i.e. explain any possible difficulties/problems/objections to your solution.
5) Counter those counter-arguments. In other words, explain why your solution is still a good one.
Remember early in the semester when we talked about the different types of audiences? Assume your audience is undecided on this issue. That means you should use different appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) to try and convince us to agree with you.
In the past, students have addressed such topics as problems with the Health Center, problems with meal plans and how they can be fixed, trouble with the current parking situation (and how to fix it), admissions standards for Ball State University (whether they should be raised or lowered and why), etc. This assignment is MUCH easier if you choose a topic that you actually care about.
Also, even though we’re not actually giving the presentations until the end of the semester, it’s a good idea to get started early because it may take a few days to set up interviews or conduct surveys and research. For example, if you’re going to give a presentation on the Health Center, you might want to interview a nurse or two. If you’re presenting on the meal plan, you might want to interview someone in charge of Ball State dining, plus a student from another university that you think has a better plan.
The first of your four formal papers for this class will be a Memoir. You should have a rough draft completed by Friday, September 10th. The final draft will be due in class, printed or emailed as an attachment (doc, docx, or rtf), along with your rough draft, on Monday, September 13th.
Formatting: your paper must be at least four full pages in length, NOT three and a half (shoot for 4 and a half to 5 pages), with standard 1 inch margins and a thesis (preferably a creative one) in your first paragraph, along with topic sentences starting every paragraph (or at least most of them). Use a normal, non-gigantic font, like 12-point Times New Roman. Double-space your paper with your name, my last name, your section, and the date in an upper corner. Also, your pages must be numbered!
What is a Memoir?
As adults, we are required to make our own way in the world, which necessitates the establishment of our own personal, independent identities; however, we are inexorably shaped by the experiences that got us here. In other words, like it or not, a big part of who we are remains tied up in who we were, where we came from, etc. In a sense, then, our past can either be our foundation, or something we are rebelling against (perhaps even a little of both).
With that in mind, I would like you to critically examine the story of your own family, your own origins, the roots of your own beliefs and value systems, etc. I am not asking you to tell me your entire life story here; rather, come up with several traits or beliefs that you think serve to illustrate your family story, then tell me about them. If you wish, you can choose the motif of viewing photographs as a “lens” through which to view this assignment. Otherwise, you can choose a different motif such as family videos, reunions, phone conversations, letters, emails, or just your own personal recollections. Feel free to be creative with this one!
If you are having trouble getting started, here are some things to ask yourself: who was “in charge” in your family when you were growing up, or was this power shared? Did you grow up in a “traditional” household with two married parents, or was your household non-traditional in some way? Also, how do you think this shaped your views on family? What economic class do you think best describes your family? What effects (positive and/or negative) do you think this has had on you? Can you think of one viewpoint, opinion, or prejudice that you have only because it’s shared by your family, i.e. it wasn’t something you arrived at on your own?
Remember: as I hope at least one of your previous English teachers was honest enough to tell you, one of the primary goals of good writing is to be entertaining, regardless of whether the overall story is joyful, tragic, melancholic, humorous, etc. However, a word of caution—the way to make your narratives entertaining is not by exaggeration (an easy but transparent mistake to make), but by working to produce smooth, descriptive sentences that develop a relationship with your reader through honest, straight-forward storytelling. When in doubt, remember the five senses!
The Benefit of this Assignment:
As writers, we gain an enormous advantage in both the academic and the “real” world when we strengthen our perspective over what events (positive, negative, or both) got us here in the first place. That also serves to clarify our purpose and inspire us for whatever challenges lay ahead.
In a more immediate sense, though, being able to write descriptively and with conviction about one’s own background is absolutely essential when writing Personal Statements for graduate school applications, and to some degree, even when writing cover letters for job applications or conducting in-person interviews.
If you are having trouble with this assignment or want to go over an idea or draft with me, please feel free to discuss it with me during office hours, before or after class, or via email. You are also encouraged to visit BSU’s Writing Center for further assistance. As a general rule, I provide extra credit if you have the Writing Center notify me that you went there for an appointment.
Paper #2: Visual Rhetoric Analysis
With this second major assignment, we’ll be taking the theme of personal and familial identity tackled in your first paper and expanding it to cultural identity. In essence, your assignment is to choose a piece of visual rhetoric and analyze: 1) what argument is being made (whether explicitly or implicitly), 2) how you know this (i.e. what methods the piece is using to get its point across, such as slogans, facts, use of color and sound, what subconscious effect it’s going for, etc.), and, if possible, 3) what assumptions the piece is making about its audience (i.e. the audience’s cultural background, expectations, etc.). At the very least, the thesis of your paper should address #1 and #2.
The first step, of course, is to choose what you want to analyze. You are required to choose a music video, television commercial, printed ad, newspaper or magazine photograph, or political cartoon of your choice. Then, in 4-5 pages, analyze the piece of your choice.
For example, if a political ad talks about “change” or a company’s advertisement mentions “troubled economic times”, what are they referring to, who is their audience, how are they appealing to said audience, how do you know, etc.? Here’s another example: consider the documentary, “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo”, and ask yourself if the explorers are making any subtle commentary on American culture, what we gain from expanding our knowledge of other cultures, our place in the world, etc.
If you are unfamiliar with the process of analysis, here are just a few questions you can ask to get started: 1) What product or course of action is being advertised or encouraged by this piece? 2) Does this piece of visual rhetoric present a certain view on politics, gender, sexuality, prosperity, race, etc.? 3) Does this view strike you as traditional, nontraditional, idealistic, pessimistic, optimistic, or skewed, based on your own experiences and research? 4) Does this piece reinforce, counter, or parody stereotypes? 5) Does this piece reflect larger trends or viewpoints in society? Also, what are the implications of this piece? 6) What is the cultural context of this piece of visual rhetoric? In other words, what assumptions do you think its author is making about its audience? 7) Is this piece making an argument? If so, how do you know what the argument is since it’s not explicitly stated? 8) Does the piece speak to a situation that has since changed?
Whenever you start asking these types of questions, you are engaging in analysis because you are digging below the surface of an issue. Furthermore, you are closely examining the natural, instinctual response prompted by an image and asking yourself why you are having that response.
The formal stuff: your paper should be 4-5 full pages long with your name, section, and the date in the upper left corner. Your pages should be numbered as well. MLA citations should be provided for any research, including the source of the piece of visual rhetoric you are analyzing. This includes parenthetical citations and a work cited page. The final draft is due in class, printed, on Monday, October 4th.
We will conduct conferences the week before the paper is due. That means you’ll come to my office for a one-on-one tutoring session in which I give you feedback on how to revise your paper. These conferences will replace regular class on Sept. 27th, Sept. 29th, and October 4th. Please note that failure to show up at your scheduled conference WITH a finished draft of your paper could result in three unexcused absences.
The benefits of this assignment:
Analysis is something you have been doing all your life, including any time when you questioned someone’s motives or wondered if someone was telling the truth. Being able to analyze—and express your analysis—is a required skill throughout college (regardless of your major) as well as in problem-solving situations in the business world. Being able to analyze is also just about the best thing someone can do to avoid being, well, ignorant and easily taken advantage of. It also pays to be productively self-critical—to question what you’ve been told and taught—for the same reasons.
Paper #3: Researched Argument
No person, institution, company or country is infallible. However, by refining one’s ability to critically analyze, argue, compare and contrast, we as individuals and as a society are better able to learn from these mistakes. Naturally, this leaves us better equipped to deal with whatever struggles lie ahead. With that in mind, this third paper assignment calls on you to utilize the analysis skills you developed with your second assignment and take them a step further. You will be identifying a problem related to the issues raised in our discussions, further researching this issue, then making a strong argument of your own.
In short, tell me something about your culture, country, college, or community that you think is wrong, why it’s wrong, and if possible, how to fix it. I also want you to play “Devil’s Advocate.” That is, examine the other side of the argument, characterize it as fairly as possible, then respond. Finally, think back on our early discussion over ethos, pathos, and logos as they relate to audience. Assume your audience is somebody who may or may not disagree with you, i.e. you want to sound passionate without insulting somebody with whom you might otherwise be able to reach a compromise.
We will be discussing an essay and a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, plus several poems discussing social issues, and finally, a couple controversial documentaries: Religulous and White Light/Black Rain. Consider the views and arguments put forth in these texts, decide whether you agree or disagree, then form an argument based on solid, legitimate research. Warning: avoid biased sources like Fox News, MSNBC, blogs, the NRA, etc.!
Requirements: like the other major papers, your Researched Argument paper should be 4-5 pages in length, double-spaced, 1 inch margins and standard font (say, Times New Roman 12), with a title and page numbers. However, on this one, I am requiring at least FIVE SOURCES! If you choose to use Wikipedia, bear in mind that anyone can tinker with those pages so make sure the information provided there is accurate! In fact, that goes for ANY source. Just because it says so on the internet doesn’t make it true! Always try to verify any “fact” or statistic you find. Also, Wikipedia counts for only one of your sources. Finally, you must provide MLA-formatted internal citations and a Work Cited page (which does not count towards your 4-5 page length). The final draft of your Researched Argument paper will be due on Wednesday, November 17th. As before, final and rough drafts should be printed or emailed as an attachment (doc, docx, or rtf). We will have conferences instead of classes (like we did for the last paper) on Nov. 10th – Nov. 15th.
For this assignment, I will be paying close attention to: 1) the clarity and specificity of your thesis, 2) the logic of your argument (be sure to avoid fallacies), 3) the organization of your paper (topic sentences are key here), 4) how fairly you examine the counter-argument, and 5) the proper use and citation of sources.
I will not be grading based on whether or not you agree with me; in the past, students have gotten As on this assignment for writing good papers that I completely disagreed with. So definitely choose a topic you feel passionately about! The only “off limits” topics are abortion and the death penalty, only because I’ve already read about a zillion papers over those topics.
As always, I encourage you to come to me with questions and/or visit the Writing Center for help at any stage of the writing process.
Paper/Project #4 Group Presentations
Step 1: Get in groups of 4-5 people. It’s a good idea to organize according to some common interest (like people who have the same major).
Step 2: Identify a local problem (something to do with Ball State or Muncie in general).
Step 3: Come up with at least one person you could interview to get some information/perspective on the problem.
Step 4: Come up with a solution to the problem.
Step 5: Prepare some visuals (like a PowerPoint and, if possible, images and video) to accompany your presentation.
Step 6: When you actually give your presentation, everyone in the group should contribute. You want your presentation to take about 10 minutes. In the presentation, you must do the following:
1) Identify the problem.
2) Tell us why it’s a problem, i.e. back up your case.
3) Propose a solution.
4) Play Devil’s Advocate, i.e. explain any possible difficulties/problems/objections to your solution.
5) Counter those counter-arguments. In other words, explain why your solution is still a good one.
Remember early in the semester when we talked about the different types of audiences? Assume your audience is undecided on this issue. That means you should use different appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) to try and convince us to agree with you.
In the past, students have addressed such topics as problems with the Health Center, problems with meal plans and how they can be fixed, trouble with the current parking situation (and how to fix it), admissions standards for Ball State University (whether they should be raised or lowered and why), etc. This assignment is MUCH easier if you choose a topic that you actually care about.
Also, even though we’re not actually giving the presentations until the end of the semester, it’s a good idea to get started early because it may take a few days to set up interviews or conduct surveys and research. For example, if you’re going to give a presentation on the Health Center, you might want to interview a nurse or two. If you’re presenting on the meal plan, you might want to interview someone in charge of Ball State dining, plus a student from another university that you think has a better plan.
Opening Activities
Opening Activities
To make sure we’ll all up to speed, I thought we’d start off with a little refresher course on things you hopefully covered in high school: namely, thesis statements, topic sentences, organization, etc., then briefly talk about argumentative fallacies. This is stuff we’ll work on throughout the semester so please feel free to ask questions!
For the essay below, give it a once-over and try to identify the draft’s thesis, any problems with the draft’s focus and organization, ways it could be improved, etc.
Basic Training
The Army National Guard is a strict outfit designed to protect the United States. It is a high moral organization with a lot of discipline and honor. Whenever someone enlists in the Army, Army Reserve or Army National Guard, they go through eight weeks of vigorous training. This is called Basic Training or “Boot Camp”. While at Basic, the training starts at 4 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. It is rough, both physically and mentally.
Recently, I went through that experience. Fort Dix is the biggest place I’ve ever been. Most of the recruits, including me, had not been away from home much, except for summer camp. Fort Dix is no summer camp. I felt lost in the crowd.
During my Basic at Fort Dix, I had the honor of being trained by one of the most dedicated men in the United States Army today. He was my drill Sergeant, Sergeant First Class Joe Martin S.F.C. Martin’s role in the Army is to use any means to prepare trainees to become soldiers. This is a difficult task. The training consists of physical conditioning, drill and ceremony, weapons qualification, first aid, combat maneuvers and reaction to chemical agents.
I felt that Sgt. Martin did an excellent job in training my platoon. His dedication and outstanding code of honor makes him an extremely honest and trustworthy person. Most of the day, the expression on his face reminds you of the “Old man of the mountain.” This serious face is a sign of concentration. At night when training was over, he would joke and laugh in a cynical fashion. But he never really cared about us.
One thing Sgt. Martin ingrained in us is that a soldier does not question his commanding officer. Some of the things we had to do in training seemed either foolish or brutal at the time. But if someone asked why we had to do them, Sgt. Martin just said he was the commanding officer and so long as he knew why we were doing it, it didn’t matter if we knew or not.
Sgt. Martin has been successful in his military career. He joined with a grade school education. In 16 years he went on to get his high school diploma, a college education, along with many medals and awards achieved through his outstanding duty. He was the right man to train us. Every man should have the experience of basic training.
Organization
How you organize the paragraphs of your paper has a huge effect on how your paper reads, i.e. how effective its presentation will be to the reader. While the first paragraph should give the thesis, subsequent paragraphs should help build the argument by providing examples and transitions in a smooth way, without jarring the reader. Also, each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that basically details what the rest of that paragraph will talk about. Personally, one of the last things I do before turning in a paper is look at the order of my points, and see if they should be shifted around a bit. This is one of the easiest but most effective things you can do to fix up a paper.
Activity:
As practice, read the following short essay in which the paragraphs have been scrambled, and reorder them in a fashion that makes the most sense. Feel free to work in groups if you like. There are multiple solutions to this problem; just put the paragraphs in an order that seems logical.
Understanding Abusive Parents
1) The researchers have developed a system which allows them to record the effectiveness of parenting skills. They are particularly interested in disciplinary strategies because abuse most commonly occurs when the parent wants the child to comply. "It's a question of trying to determine which type of parent produces which type of child or which type of child elicits which type of parental behavior," explains Oldershaw.
2) A 'covert/hostile' mother shows no positive feelings towards her child. She makes blatant attacks on the child's self-worth and denies him affection or attention. For his part, the child tries to engage his mother's attention and win her approval.
3) As a result of their work, Walters and Oldershaw have identified distinct categories of abusive parents and their children. 'Harsh/intrusive' mothers are excessively harsh and constantly badger their child to behave. Despite the fact that these mothers humiliate and disapprove of their child, there are times when they hug, kiss or speak to them warmly. This type of mothering produces an aggressive, disobedient child.
4) An 'emotionally detached' mother has very little involvement with her child. She appears depressed and uninterested in the child's activities. The child of this type of mother displays no characteristics which set him apart from other children.
5) Researchers at the University of Toronto have taken important steps toward producing a profile of an abusive parent. Prof. Gary Walters and doctoral student Lynn Oldershaw of the Department of Psychology have developed a system to characterize parents who physically abuse their children. This could ultimately allow social service professionals to identify parents in child abuse.
6) In conclusion, the psychologists hope to provide information to therapists which will help tailor therapy to the individual needs of abusive parents. "Recidivism rates for abusive care-givers are high," says Walters. "To a large extent, abusive parents require a variety of treatment." Their research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, who share the researchers’ hopes that this project can help social service professionals treat abusive parents as quickly and efficiently as possible, for the good of everyone involved.
7) Over the last five years, Walters and Oldershaw, in collaboration with Darlene Hall of the West End Creche, have examined over 100 mothers and their three to six-year-old children who have been physically abused. In the laboratory, the mother and child spend 30 minutes in structured activities such as playing, eating and cleaning-up. The family interaction is video-taped and later analyzed.
8) In order to put together a parenting profile, the two researchers examine the mother/child interaction and their perception and feelings. For instance, Walters and Oldershaw take into account the mother's sense of herself as a parent and her impression of her child. The researchers also try to determine the child's perception of himself or herself and of the parent. Abusive parents are often believed to have inadequate parenting skills and are referred to programs to improve these skills. These programs are particularly appropriate for parents who, themselves, were raised by abusive parents and as a result are ignorant of any other behavior toward her child.
Glossing
For anyone having trouble organizing their points, one of the best and easiest tricks you can use to tighten up your writing is a technique called glossing. Basically, glossing is just reading through a paragraph and noting in the margins a few words or phrases that relate to everything in that paragraph. Here’s an example:
If you were to gloss the paragraph above, how could you sum up all the information that’s there? You might simply write “Causes of the Civil War” off to the side, since every sentence related back to that in some way. Now, imagine if we revised the paragraph above with a couple extra points (in red), like this:
Notice how the extra sentences on Jefferson seem out of place? While the information is interesting and might still be helpful to the essay, those sentences would be better off elsewhere—maybe in a paragraph about the hypocrisies of some abolitionists’ attitudes on slavery. When you gloss your own papers (or others’ papers during peer review), make a note if a sentence seems out of place. This is a very quick, very easy way to improve your writing!
Exercise: Read through the following sample paragraph and note what seems awkward or out of place. How would you fix it? Note: You might find more than one problematic area.
7 Common Mistakes in Essay Writing
(and how to fix them…)
Being the fantastic, caring professor that I am, I’ve compiled a list of the 7 most common mistakes I’ve noticed on papers from past courses I’ve taught. Feel free to use these when you’re writing your own college papers, or (if you want to make me really happy) implement them to improve your writing for the rest of your natural life.
1. Vague or unclear thesis. One of the hardest things in composing a successful paper can be figuring out how to summarize your entire argument in just one sentence. Oftentimes, what you think you want to argue at first isn’t actually the direction the paper ends up going. One tactic that can be helpful here is to write your thesis after you’ve written the rest of the paper, and you have a better feel for the paper as a whole. Then, simply weave the thesis into the beginning paragraph. By the way, don’t be afraid to make your theses edgy, but remember to be specific. For example, never just say that “Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader” when you can say “Martin Luther King Jr. exemplified the spirit of the civil rights movement by uniting both blacks and whites in successful nonviolent protest”.
2. Excessively passive voice, or a tone that lacks confidence. Remember that in your papers, you’re trying to convince your reader of something, even though your reader may strongly disagree with you. Don’t exaggerate or be insincere, but don’t be timid either. Adopt a strong, active, confidence voice. For example: “Some people say that Moore uses some excessive tactics in his documentary that, in my opinion as in the opinion of others, might lessen his credibility.” Notice how vague and uncertain that sounds? Try this: “Clearly, Moore uses tactics that undercut the seriousness of these issues, and flaunts his desire to entertain at the cost of his credibility as a serious filmmaker.”
3. Presents an argument that is too one-sided. If you don’t do your homework, it shows. If you don’t consider the other side of an issue when you write your paper, your writing won’t be nearly as strong. Don’t be afraid to show the whole picture, even if part of it seems to go against your thesis. For example, if you’re writing a paper that criticizes Michael Moore, you’ll actually convince your reader that you’re more reasonable and intelligent if you can show the other side too: “Despite his penchant for exaggeration, Moore still touches on the sickness of apathy in our country, as propagated by the news media. The questions he poses about why we still harbor so much racism and ill will in this country are tough, and hard to answer.” If you feel like you’ve been too complimentary in a paper that’s seeking to be a criticism, you could follow up that paragraph with something like: “Nevertheless, Moore’s illustrations of media sensationalism and racism in this country are overshadowed by his willingness to exaggerate—even lie—to prove his point.”
4. Asks too many questions, instead of making statements. By wary of the question mark in your paper. While many issues cannot be answered simply, it sounds passive and uncertain when you ask lots of questions throughout your paragraphs, as a prelude to addressing an issue. In other words, if you’re going to write a paragraph about whether or not Janet Jackson was wrong for showing her nipple at the Super Bowl halftime show, try to avoid saying: “So should Jackson have considered who might be watching her performance before she did what she did? Yes. Are kids’ minds going to melt because they caught a brief glimpse of a natural part of the human body? No.” Note: The proceeding tactic could be effective if used very sparingly. As a rule of thumb, don’t use question marks more than once—maybe twice—in a longer paper.
5. Paragraphs are too jumbled, and the paper isn’t very well organized. Lack of organization makes your paper sound sloppy, and it will usually result in a low (even failing) grade. To avoid this, try writing outlines or cluster diagrams before you start the paper, so you have a template for what each paragraph should contain. If that’s not your style, at least gloss each paragraph when you’re done, to make sure all your information is in the right place.
6. Sentences are choppy with poor grammar and informal word choice. For this one, remember that (believe it or not) you’re smart, educated individuals with something to say. But if your paper sounds too casual, or your sentences sound sloppy and jump from topic to topic without a smooth transition, your reader will—quite frankly—think you’re stupid. They might also think that if you misuse punctuation, or misspell words. Don’t be afraid to read your paper out loud to make sure it “sounds right”, and really work to iron out the rough spots.
7. Citations are incorrect, quotes are improperly used, and a paper’s sources are uncredible in the first place. The internet makes it easy to do research, but it’s also tricky because anyone can say something on the interent; that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. Don’t believe everything you read; as a rule, try to confirm every piece of information at least once via a credible news site before you place it in your paper. Also, never just toss in a quote without explaining its relevance. Even if someone else’s words perfectly sum up your feelings on an issue, you still have to indicate why you agree/disagree with that person. Also, be careful with citations. I’ve mentioned this about a dozen times, but when doing citations, the period goes after the parentheses. Within the parenthesis, you list the author’s name (unless you give it in the body of the sentence), and either the page number of a printed source, or the paragraph number of an online source. As with your Works Cited page, spend some time doing it right; teachers less generous than me might be unwilling to look past these mistakes, because they’ll think you were too lazy to correct them.
In conclusion….
“Learn the rules, and then forget them.” -Matsuo Basho (1644-1694).
The Rhetorical Triangle: Essentially, the Rhetorical Triangle is just shorthand for the rhetor (the speaker, the writer, the artist, etc.), the audience (the reader, the listener, the viewer), and the text (the essay, the poem, the story, the song, the movie, etc) being separate yet related things (also referred to sometimes as writer, audience, and genre in some textbooks).
That these three things are related is obvious; that they’re separate is something important that you may never have thought of before. In other words…
Once you write something and turn it in, once you say something, etc., it’s no longer under your control. Risk = that people won’t interpret it the way you intended.
To avoid this, you simply take your audience into consideration when you’re deciding on your word choice.
Three Basic Types of Audiences
1) Those who agree with you (shared ethos)
a. You don’t have to worry as much about coming across as offensive, or laying out your case, since you’re already “preaching to the choir”.
b. Don’t have to use as much logos (logical appeal) since they already agree with you; can use more pathos (appeals to emotions).
2) Those who disagree with you (opposing ethos)
a. VERY easy to come across as offensive if you’re not careful with your word choice.
b. If you come across as hostile, you have no chance of reaching any kind of compromise.
c. Should rely less on pathos, more on logos. Try to find a common ethical ground.
3) Those who are undecided
a. Can utilize appeals based on ethos, pathos, and logos.
b. You don’t have to be quite as careful as when you’re addressing an audience that disagrees, but you still have to be careful if you want to persuade them.
The primary challenge in good writing is establishing your credibility. Once you’ve done that, you can break the rules in moderation, so long as you realize you’re breaking the rules, and you’re doing it for a reason. In every paper, realize that you can be creative, funny, even outrageous—but you have to demonstrate first that you know the formal rules, you know what you’re talking about, and the reader had better take you seriously.
Being able to address audiences who may disagree with you is a vital and important skill to develop.
Situation 1: Imagine you hold a Pro-Choice position and you’re writing to a mostly Pro-Life audience. Your goal is not to offend them, but to convince them to meet you halfway on a particular issue (say, a piece of legislation on birth control). What are some phrases/words you would not use in your argument? In other words, what would be the wrong way to characterize the Pro-Life position in this case?
Situation 2: Same question, but reverse it. Now imagine you have a Pro-Life stance and you’re trying to convince a Pro-Choice person or group. What would be the wrong way to characterize that group?
In addition to showing respect for people of different viewpoints, it’s crucial that you avoid logical fallacies, or logical mistakes, in your arguments. In general, fallacies are arguments that often sound convincing, or at least very emotional, but actually don’t hold water. While different types of fallacies have different names (hasty generalization, either/or reasoning, bandwagon appeals, ad hominem, non sequitur, arguments from incredulity or ignorance, etc), it’s not really important to me that you remember the names. Instead, I just want you to get a feel for what is and isn’t a sound argument. For starters, read over the following statements and see if you can identify the problem in the person’s reasoning.
1) When our daughter got sick, we couldn’t afford to take her to the doctor. So we prayed for her to get well, and she did. Obviously, she was saved by prayer!
Rebuttal: What if she just had a cold? Just because B follows A, it doesn’t mean that A caused B.
2) My lazy neighbor is proof of how bad the welfare system is! He uses his food stamps to buy junk food and doesn’t take care of his kids. The whole program should be scrapped!
Rebuttal: People frequently try to draw conclusions based on just one or two bad examples—which doesn’t work. Also, the speaker in this case may not be aware that, on average, people on welfare have 1.7 jobs and 40% of them have two jobs!
3) Either you’re pro-choice on abortion or you don’t value the Constitution.
Rebuttal: Reducing complex situations to just two options is another tactic of a weak-minded rhetor. Can you imagine someone who is pro-life and values the Constitution? Of course!
4) Either you’re pro-life or you don’t think babies have the right to live.
Rebuttal: Again, can you imagine someone who is pro-choice and loves their children? Of course!
5) Either you support our military leaders or you have no respect for the sacrifice of our soldiers!
Rebuttal: Especially when one side doesn’t want you to point out their flaws, they try to trick you into staying quiet by implying that you’re unpatriotic, that you don’t value children or freedom, etc. Again, just ask yourself if you can imagine an exception to the rule.
6) All those scientists must be lying about Global Warming because if they weren’t, they’d trade in their cars for a horse and cart!
Rebuttal: ad hominem attacks are very common. They occur when one weak-minded, usually desperate rhetor doesn’t know how to counter another’s argument, so they just make fun of him/her/them instead. In this case, even if a particular scientist were a hypocrite, that doesn’t refute all their research and evidence.
7) I don’t think smoking crack is really all that bad. After all, lots of people do it!
Rebuttal: A lot of people doing something—or a famous person’s endorsement—doesn’t necessarily mean something is a good idea.
8) Officer, why are you arresting me? My roommate drives drunker than this all the time and gets away with it!
Rebuttal: This is similar to the argument that I shouldn’t punish a certain student for plagiarism or being disruptive in class, because someone else did it worse. As the old saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right.
9) You can’t prove that God doesn’t exist, so God must exist.
Rebuttal: At one point, it was impossible to prove that matter was made up of atoms or that black holes existed. Just because you can’t prove something doesn’t make it false.
10) You can’t prove that God exists, so God must not exist.
Rebuttal: Same thing.
11) I can’t imagine that you could have aced that test without cheating. Therefore, you must have cheated.
Rebuttal: This is called an argument from incredulity. Again, just because someone can’t imagine something doesn’t make it false.
Try to figure out what’s wrong with these last four statements on your own.
12) Britney Spears has sold millions of records. I guess that means she’s the greatest singer who ever lived!
13) I don’t understand how human beings could have possibly landed on the moon, therefore the moon landing must have been filmed in a Hollywood studio.
14) Since you can’t explain every single piece of the Big Bang, Creationism must be true.
15) The Nazis were creative. Therefore, creative people are more likely to be Nazis.
Now, get in groups of 3-4 people and come up with a few bad arguments of your own.
To make sure we’ll all up to speed, I thought we’d start off with a little refresher course on things you hopefully covered in high school: namely, thesis statements, topic sentences, organization, etc., then briefly talk about argumentative fallacies. This is stuff we’ll work on throughout the semester so please feel free to ask questions!
For the essay below, give it a once-over and try to identify the draft’s thesis, any problems with the draft’s focus and organization, ways it could be improved, etc.
Basic Training
The Army National Guard is a strict outfit designed to protect the United States. It is a high moral organization with a lot of discipline and honor. Whenever someone enlists in the Army, Army Reserve or Army National Guard, they go through eight weeks of vigorous training. This is called Basic Training or “Boot Camp”. While at Basic, the training starts at 4 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. It is rough, both physically and mentally.
Recently, I went through that experience. Fort Dix is the biggest place I’ve ever been. Most of the recruits, including me, had not been away from home much, except for summer camp. Fort Dix is no summer camp. I felt lost in the crowd.
During my Basic at Fort Dix, I had the honor of being trained by one of the most dedicated men in the United States Army today. He was my drill Sergeant, Sergeant First Class Joe Martin S.F.C. Martin’s role in the Army is to use any means to prepare trainees to become soldiers. This is a difficult task. The training consists of physical conditioning, drill and ceremony, weapons qualification, first aid, combat maneuvers and reaction to chemical agents.
I felt that Sgt. Martin did an excellent job in training my platoon. His dedication and outstanding code of honor makes him an extremely honest and trustworthy person. Most of the day, the expression on his face reminds you of the “Old man of the mountain.” This serious face is a sign of concentration. At night when training was over, he would joke and laugh in a cynical fashion. But he never really cared about us.
One thing Sgt. Martin ingrained in us is that a soldier does not question his commanding officer. Some of the things we had to do in training seemed either foolish or brutal at the time. But if someone asked why we had to do them, Sgt. Martin just said he was the commanding officer and so long as he knew why we were doing it, it didn’t matter if we knew or not.
Sgt. Martin has been successful in his military career. He joined with a grade school education. In 16 years he went on to get his high school diploma, a college education, along with many medals and awards achieved through his outstanding duty. He was the right man to train us. Every man should have the experience of basic training.
Organization
How you organize the paragraphs of your paper has a huge effect on how your paper reads, i.e. how effective its presentation will be to the reader. While the first paragraph should give the thesis, subsequent paragraphs should help build the argument by providing examples and transitions in a smooth way, without jarring the reader. Also, each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that basically details what the rest of that paragraph will talk about. Personally, one of the last things I do before turning in a paper is look at the order of my points, and see if they should be shifted around a bit. This is one of the easiest but most effective things you can do to fix up a paper.
Activity:
As practice, read the following short essay in which the paragraphs have been scrambled, and reorder them in a fashion that makes the most sense. Feel free to work in groups if you like. There are multiple solutions to this problem; just put the paragraphs in an order that seems logical.
Understanding Abusive Parents
1) The researchers have developed a system which allows them to record the effectiveness of parenting skills. They are particularly interested in disciplinary strategies because abuse most commonly occurs when the parent wants the child to comply. "It's a question of trying to determine which type of parent produces which type of child or which type of child elicits which type of parental behavior," explains Oldershaw.
2) A 'covert/hostile' mother shows no positive feelings towards her child. She makes blatant attacks on the child's self-worth and denies him affection or attention. For his part, the child tries to engage his mother's attention and win her approval.
3) As a result of their work, Walters and Oldershaw have identified distinct categories of abusive parents and their children. 'Harsh/intrusive' mothers are excessively harsh and constantly badger their child to behave. Despite the fact that these mothers humiliate and disapprove of their child, there are times when they hug, kiss or speak to them warmly. This type of mothering produces an aggressive, disobedient child.
4) An 'emotionally detached' mother has very little involvement with her child. She appears depressed and uninterested in the child's activities. The child of this type of mother displays no characteristics which set him apart from other children.
5) Researchers at the University of Toronto have taken important steps toward producing a profile of an abusive parent. Prof. Gary Walters and doctoral student Lynn Oldershaw of the Department of Psychology have developed a system to characterize parents who physically abuse their children. This could ultimately allow social service professionals to identify parents in child abuse.
6) In conclusion, the psychologists hope to provide information to therapists which will help tailor therapy to the individual needs of abusive parents. "Recidivism rates for abusive care-givers are high," says Walters. "To a large extent, abusive parents require a variety of treatment." Their research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, who share the researchers’ hopes that this project can help social service professionals treat abusive parents as quickly and efficiently as possible, for the good of everyone involved.
7) Over the last five years, Walters and Oldershaw, in collaboration with Darlene Hall of the West End Creche, have examined over 100 mothers and their three to six-year-old children who have been physically abused. In the laboratory, the mother and child spend 30 minutes in structured activities such as playing, eating and cleaning-up. The family interaction is video-taped and later analyzed.
8) In order to put together a parenting profile, the two researchers examine the mother/child interaction and their perception and feelings. For instance, Walters and Oldershaw take into account the mother's sense of herself as a parent and her impression of her child. The researchers also try to determine the child's perception of himself or herself and of the parent. Abusive parents are often believed to have inadequate parenting skills and are referred to programs to improve these skills. These programs are particularly appropriate for parents who, themselves, were raised by abusive parents and as a result are ignorant of any other behavior toward her child.
Glossing
For anyone having trouble organizing their points, one of the best and easiest tricks you can use to tighten up your writing is a technique called glossing. Basically, glossing is just reading through a paragraph and noting in the margins a few words or phrases that relate to everything in that paragraph. Here’s an example:
While the American Civil War is commonly thought to be a conflict over the legality of slavery, there were other factors that contributed to the conflict. For example, the North and the South had substantially different economies and ways of life. Also, both sides had vastly different interpretations of government philosophy as put forth by Thomas Jefferson, with the North emphasizing Jefferson’s opinions on abolition while the South emphasized his opinions on states’ rights apart from the government as a whole. Especially in the matter of secession, Southerners believed they had the right to secede, while Northerners believed they did not. These vast differences of opinion came to a head when Abraham Lincoln—a Northerner and an abolitionist—was elected president.
If you were to gloss the paragraph above, how could you sum up all the information that’s there? You might simply write “Causes of the Civil War” off to the side, since every sentence related back to that in some way. Now, imagine if we revised the paragraph above with a couple extra points (in red), like this:
While the American Civil War is commonly thought to be a conflict over the legality of slavery, there were other factors that contributed to the conflict. For example, the North and the South had substantially different economies and ways of life. Also, both sides had vastly different interpretations of government philosophy as put forth by Thomas Jefferson, with the North emphasizing Jefferson’s opinions on abolition while the South emphasized his opinions on states’ rights apart from the government as a whole. Jefferson was himself a slave-owner, although he wrote often and eloquently about the immorality of slavery. Many scholars point out the hypocrisy of this. There are also indications that he had a long-standing affair with a slave named Sally Hemings, with whom he fathered several children. Especially in the matter of secession, Southerners believed they had the right to secede, while Northerners believed they did not. These vast differences of opinion came to a head when Abraham Lincoln—a Northerner and an abolitionist—was elected president.
Notice how the extra sentences on Jefferson seem out of place? While the information is interesting and might still be helpful to the essay, those sentences would be better off elsewhere—maybe in a paragraph about the hypocrisies of some abolitionists’ attitudes on slavery. When you gloss your own papers (or others’ papers during peer review), make a note if a sentence seems out of place. This is a very quick, very easy way to improve your writing!
Exercise: Read through the following sample paragraph and note what seems awkward or out of place. How would you fix it? Note: You might find more than one problematic area.
Gun violence in high schools and colleges around the country is often blamed on a long list of factors. Just some of these factors include: the ready availability of firearms, glamorous portrayals of violence in the media, the alleged apathy of the teenage generation, and the so-called decay of “traditional” family values. I remember when I learned of a school shooting at the University of Iowa, where I received my undergraduate degree. At first, I was worried that my favorite professors might have been injured or killed. Afterwards, I blamed the school for not responding to the killer’s depression in time. Of all the factors mentioned above, the media is most often blamed for gun violence. The media includes news, movies, radio, and television. I do not believe it is accurate to blame violence on the decay of “traditional” family values because our country’s history also includes such immoral actions as slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, segregation, child molestation within the clergy, and other travesties that are generally considered by this generation to be unthinkable. My great-aunt was also a life-long victim of spousal abuse, but until relatively recently, she suffered in silence because her plight was commonly viewed as a private matter between a husband and wife.
7 Common Mistakes in Essay Writing
(and how to fix them…)
Being the fantastic, caring professor that I am, I’ve compiled a list of the 7 most common mistakes I’ve noticed on papers from past courses I’ve taught. Feel free to use these when you’re writing your own college papers, or (if you want to make me really happy) implement them to improve your writing for the rest of your natural life.
1. Vague or unclear thesis. One of the hardest things in composing a successful paper can be figuring out how to summarize your entire argument in just one sentence. Oftentimes, what you think you want to argue at first isn’t actually the direction the paper ends up going. One tactic that can be helpful here is to write your thesis after you’ve written the rest of the paper, and you have a better feel for the paper as a whole. Then, simply weave the thesis into the beginning paragraph. By the way, don’t be afraid to make your theses edgy, but remember to be specific. For example, never just say that “Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader” when you can say “Martin Luther King Jr. exemplified the spirit of the civil rights movement by uniting both blacks and whites in successful nonviolent protest”.
2. Excessively passive voice, or a tone that lacks confidence. Remember that in your papers, you’re trying to convince your reader of something, even though your reader may strongly disagree with you. Don’t exaggerate or be insincere, but don’t be timid either. Adopt a strong, active, confidence voice. For example: “Some people say that Moore uses some excessive tactics in his documentary that, in my opinion as in the opinion of others, might lessen his credibility.” Notice how vague and uncertain that sounds? Try this: “Clearly, Moore uses tactics that undercut the seriousness of these issues, and flaunts his desire to entertain at the cost of his credibility as a serious filmmaker.”
3. Presents an argument that is too one-sided. If you don’t do your homework, it shows. If you don’t consider the other side of an issue when you write your paper, your writing won’t be nearly as strong. Don’t be afraid to show the whole picture, even if part of it seems to go against your thesis. For example, if you’re writing a paper that criticizes Michael Moore, you’ll actually convince your reader that you’re more reasonable and intelligent if you can show the other side too: “Despite his penchant for exaggeration, Moore still touches on the sickness of apathy in our country, as propagated by the news media. The questions he poses about why we still harbor so much racism and ill will in this country are tough, and hard to answer.” If you feel like you’ve been too complimentary in a paper that’s seeking to be a criticism, you could follow up that paragraph with something like: “Nevertheless, Moore’s illustrations of media sensationalism and racism in this country are overshadowed by his willingness to exaggerate—even lie—to prove his point.”
4. Asks too many questions, instead of making statements. By wary of the question mark in your paper. While many issues cannot be answered simply, it sounds passive and uncertain when you ask lots of questions throughout your paragraphs, as a prelude to addressing an issue. In other words, if you’re going to write a paragraph about whether or not Janet Jackson was wrong for showing her nipple at the Super Bowl halftime show, try to avoid saying: “So should Jackson have considered who might be watching her performance before she did what she did? Yes. Are kids’ minds going to melt because they caught a brief glimpse of a natural part of the human body? No.” Note: The proceeding tactic could be effective if used very sparingly. As a rule of thumb, don’t use question marks more than once—maybe twice—in a longer paper.
5. Paragraphs are too jumbled, and the paper isn’t very well organized. Lack of organization makes your paper sound sloppy, and it will usually result in a low (even failing) grade. To avoid this, try writing outlines or cluster diagrams before you start the paper, so you have a template for what each paragraph should contain. If that’s not your style, at least gloss each paragraph when you’re done, to make sure all your information is in the right place.
6. Sentences are choppy with poor grammar and informal word choice. For this one, remember that (believe it or not) you’re smart, educated individuals with something to say. But if your paper sounds too casual, or your sentences sound sloppy and jump from topic to topic without a smooth transition, your reader will—quite frankly—think you’re stupid. They might also think that if you misuse punctuation, or misspell words. Don’t be afraid to read your paper out loud to make sure it “sounds right”, and really work to iron out the rough spots.
7. Citations are incorrect, quotes are improperly used, and a paper’s sources are uncredible in the first place. The internet makes it easy to do research, but it’s also tricky because anyone can say something on the interent; that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. Don’t believe everything you read; as a rule, try to confirm every piece of information at least once via a credible news site before you place it in your paper. Also, never just toss in a quote without explaining its relevance. Even if someone else’s words perfectly sum up your feelings on an issue, you still have to indicate why you agree/disagree with that person. Also, be careful with citations. I’ve mentioned this about a dozen times, but when doing citations, the period goes after the parentheses. Within the parenthesis, you list the author’s name (unless you give it in the body of the sentence), and either the page number of a printed source, or the paragraph number of an online source. As with your Works Cited page, spend some time doing it right; teachers less generous than me might be unwilling to look past these mistakes, because they’ll think you were too lazy to correct them.
In conclusion….
“Learn the rules, and then forget them.” -Matsuo Basho (1644-1694).
The Rhetorical Triangle: Essentially, the Rhetorical Triangle is just shorthand for the rhetor (the speaker, the writer, the artist, etc.), the audience (the reader, the listener, the viewer), and the text (the essay, the poem, the story, the song, the movie, etc) being separate yet related things (also referred to sometimes as writer, audience, and genre in some textbooks).
That these three things are related is obvious; that they’re separate is something important that you may never have thought of before. In other words…
Once you write something and turn it in, once you say something, etc., it’s no longer under your control. Risk = that people won’t interpret it the way you intended.
To avoid this, you simply take your audience into consideration when you’re deciding on your word choice.
Three Basic Types of Audiences
1) Those who agree with you (shared ethos)
a. You don’t have to worry as much about coming across as offensive, or laying out your case, since you’re already “preaching to the choir”.
b. Don’t have to use as much logos (logical appeal) since they already agree with you; can use more pathos (appeals to emotions).
2) Those who disagree with you (opposing ethos)
a. VERY easy to come across as offensive if you’re not careful with your word choice.
b. If you come across as hostile, you have no chance of reaching any kind of compromise.
c. Should rely less on pathos, more on logos. Try to find a common ethical ground.
3) Those who are undecided
a. Can utilize appeals based on ethos, pathos, and logos.
b. You don’t have to be quite as careful as when you’re addressing an audience that disagrees, but you still have to be careful if you want to persuade them.
The primary challenge in good writing is establishing your credibility. Once you’ve done that, you can break the rules in moderation, so long as you realize you’re breaking the rules, and you’re doing it for a reason. In every paper, realize that you can be creative, funny, even outrageous—but you have to demonstrate first that you know the formal rules, you know what you’re talking about, and the reader had better take you seriously.
Being able to address audiences who may disagree with you is a vital and important skill to develop.
Situation 1: Imagine you hold a Pro-Choice position and you’re writing to a mostly Pro-Life audience. Your goal is not to offend them, but to convince them to meet you halfway on a particular issue (say, a piece of legislation on birth control). What are some phrases/words you would not use in your argument? In other words, what would be the wrong way to characterize the Pro-Life position in this case?
Situation 2: Same question, but reverse it. Now imagine you have a Pro-Life stance and you’re trying to convince a Pro-Choice person or group. What would be the wrong way to characterize that group?
In addition to showing respect for people of different viewpoints, it’s crucial that you avoid logical fallacies, or logical mistakes, in your arguments. In general, fallacies are arguments that often sound convincing, or at least very emotional, but actually don’t hold water. While different types of fallacies have different names (hasty generalization, either/or reasoning, bandwagon appeals, ad hominem, non sequitur, arguments from incredulity or ignorance, etc), it’s not really important to me that you remember the names. Instead, I just want you to get a feel for what is and isn’t a sound argument. For starters, read over the following statements and see if you can identify the problem in the person’s reasoning.
1) When our daughter got sick, we couldn’t afford to take her to the doctor. So we prayed for her to get well, and she did. Obviously, she was saved by prayer!
Rebuttal: What if she just had a cold? Just because B follows A, it doesn’t mean that A caused B.
2) My lazy neighbor is proof of how bad the welfare system is! He uses his food stamps to buy junk food and doesn’t take care of his kids. The whole program should be scrapped!
Rebuttal: People frequently try to draw conclusions based on just one or two bad examples—which doesn’t work. Also, the speaker in this case may not be aware that, on average, people on welfare have 1.7 jobs and 40% of them have two jobs!
3) Either you’re pro-choice on abortion or you don’t value the Constitution.
Rebuttal: Reducing complex situations to just two options is another tactic of a weak-minded rhetor. Can you imagine someone who is pro-life and values the Constitution? Of course!
4) Either you’re pro-life or you don’t think babies have the right to live.
Rebuttal: Again, can you imagine someone who is pro-choice and loves their children? Of course!
5) Either you support our military leaders or you have no respect for the sacrifice of our soldiers!
Rebuttal: Especially when one side doesn’t want you to point out their flaws, they try to trick you into staying quiet by implying that you’re unpatriotic, that you don’t value children or freedom, etc. Again, just ask yourself if you can imagine an exception to the rule.
6) All those scientists must be lying about Global Warming because if they weren’t, they’d trade in their cars for a horse and cart!
Rebuttal: ad hominem attacks are very common. They occur when one weak-minded, usually desperate rhetor doesn’t know how to counter another’s argument, so they just make fun of him/her/them instead. In this case, even if a particular scientist were a hypocrite, that doesn’t refute all their research and evidence.
7) I don’t think smoking crack is really all that bad. After all, lots of people do it!
Rebuttal: A lot of people doing something—or a famous person’s endorsement—doesn’t necessarily mean something is a good idea.
8) Officer, why are you arresting me? My roommate drives drunker than this all the time and gets away with it!
Rebuttal: This is similar to the argument that I shouldn’t punish a certain student for plagiarism or being disruptive in class, because someone else did it worse. As the old saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right.
9) You can’t prove that God doesn’t exist, so God must exist.
Rebuttal: At one point, it was impossible to prove that matter was made up of atoms or that black holes existed. Just because you can’t prove something doesn’t make it false.
10) You can’t prove that God exists, so God must not exist.
Rebuttal: Same thing.
11) I can’t imagine that you could have aced that test without cheating. Therefore, you must have cheated.
Rebuttal: This is called an argument from incredulity. Again, just because someone can’t imagine something doesn’t make it false.
Try to figure out what’s wrong with these last four statements on your own.
12) Britney Spears has sold millions of records. I guess that means she’s the greatest singer who ever lived!
13) I don’t understand how human beings could have possibly landed on the moon, therefore the moon landing must have been filmed in a Hollywood studio.
14) Since you can’t explain every single piece of the Big Bang, Creationism must be true.
15) The Nazis were creative. Therefore, creative people are more likely to be Nazis.
Now, get in groups of 3-4 people and come up with a few bad arguments of your own.
Syllabus and Daily Schedule for English 103
Syllabus: English 103, Rhetoric and Writing
Professor Michael Meyerhofer
Fall 2010
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.
—David McCullough
Welcome to English 103! The easiest way to reach me is via email (mrmeyerhofer@bsu.edu), but it is not the only way. You can also drop by my office (RB246) during my office hours (Monday and Wednesday, 4-4:50 PM). When I am in my office, you can call me at 285-8573. If those time slots do not work, you are more than welcome to set up an appointment with me.
Required Texts/Materials
· The Call to Write by John Trimbur, fifth edition.
Recommended Texts/Materials
1. The Brief Penguin Handbook (2nd edition) edited by Faigly (any handbook might work; if you find one that’s cheaper, let me know!)
2. A college dictionary (American Heritage, Oxford, or Merriam Webster available online at www.merriamwebster.com)
3. A thesaurus (Roget’s, or Merriam Webster at www.merriamwebster.com)
4. Ambition to improve as a writer, willingness to challenge your own ideas, and a sense of humor for the crappy basement classroom and horrible technology we’ll be using (wait, take that back; these are required!)
Course Description & Goals
Welcome to English 103! This is one of those rare college courses that incorporate elements of virtually all other disciplines! In other words, you are encouraged to bring your knowledge of history, music, sociology, psychology, business (particularly business ethics), political science, art, and creative writing—not to mention your own unique backgrounds and experiences—into my classroom, so as to better enrich course discussions.
This course—built around the theme of defining and challenging one’s personal and cultural identity—will introduce you to the fundamentals of rhetoric; to the elements, strategies, and conventions common to persuasion; to the use of those elements, strategies, and conventions in the construction of their own persuasive visual and verbal texts.
At the completion of English 103, students will be able to achieve the following goals:
· Understand that persuasion—both visual and verbal—is integral to reading and composing.
· Understand how persuasive visual and verbal texts are composed for different audiences and different purposes.
· Develop effective strategies of invention, drafting, and revision for different rhetorical situations and individual composing styles.
· Compose texts in various media using solid logic, claims, evidence, creativity, and audience awareness.
· Integrate primary and secondary research as appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
· Develop strategies for becoming more critical and careful readers of both their own and others’ texts.
· Demonstrate a professional attitude towards their writing by focusing on the need for appropriate format, syntax, punctuation, and spelling.
· Take responsibility for their own progress.
· Develop the ability to work well with others on composing tasks.
Course Content and Format
The content and format of English 103 are designed to enable students to achieve the course goals; specifically, students in English 103 will:
· Discuss, analyze, and respond to a variety of visual and verbal texts to identify rhetorical elements, strategies, and conventions.
· Discuss, analyze, and respond to the persuasive logics by which various visual and verbal texts achieve, or fail to achieve, their purposes.
· Collaborate in developing ideas, analyzing visual and verbal texts, and providing peer feedback.
· Compose persuasive texts through multiple drafts, revising based on peer feedback, self-reflection, instructor’s written comments, and teacher-student conferences.
· Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are required to make as authors to shape a text for a specific audience and purpose.
· Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are required to make in order to construct meaning out of another’s text.
· Complete a variety of writing assignments for multiple purposes, audiences, and contexts, using various media, and including primary and secondary research.
UCC Goals
Through core curriculum courses, students will be able to
· Engage in lifelong education by learning to acquire knowledge and to use it for intelligent ends.
· Communicate at a level acceptable for college graduates.
· Clarify their personal values and be sensitive to those held by others.
· Recognize and seek solutions for the common problems of living by drawing on a knowledge of historical and contemporary events and elements of the cultural heritage surrounding those events.
· Assess their unique interests, talents, and goals and choose specialized learning experiences that will foster their fulfillment.
GRADING
Your final grade will be determined by your performance in the areas described below. I will assign plus/minus grades; the grading scale for this class is 93-100 = A; 90-92 = A-; 88-89 = B+; 83-87 = B; 80-82 = B-; 78-79 = C+; 73-77 = C; 70-72 = C-; 68-69 = D+; 63-67 = D; 60-62 = D-; 59 and below = F. There are 1,000 points possible in this class. The following letter grades equate with the following percentages:
A+ 98 B+ 88 C+ 78 D+ 68 F 50
A 95 B 85 C 75 D 65
A- 92 B- 82 C- 72 D- 62
You have to score better than a C- to pass this class and qualify for English 104.
ASSIGNMENTS
Journal Activities & Quizzes (20%)
Reading (and keeping up with assigned readings) is crucial to your success and development as a writer/critical thinker in college and beyond. These readings will introduce concepts essential to the class and provide examples of those concepts in practice. For every reading, you are required to submit a one page, double-spaced, typed journal entry on the day that reading is to be discussed in class. I will accept journals either over email or printed. These readings can encompass your responses to the reading and/or your praise or criticism of the piece’s writing style. You should be prepared in class discussions to present and discuss at least part of your journal and/or a passage from the assigned readings with your peers. These journals will also give you something to talk about during discussion, so you won’t miss out on participation points. As for quizzes, I generally give these only when class discussions falter and I get the distinct impression that I’m talking to myself. In total, journals and quizzes are worth 200 points, or 20% of your final grade.
Major Projects (60%)
Over the course of the semester, you will compose four major essays/projects. These projects will help you practice skills related to the rhetorical appeals as well as make you consider your audience, medium, and purpose. Combined, the projects are worth 60% of your final grade, or 600 points on a 1,000-point scale.
Group Presentation (your fourth major project)
Towards the end of the semester, each of you will be placed in a group with four or five other students with the goal of identifying a problem in your community, school, state, or country (completely your choice), then proposing a potential solution to said problem. This assignment does not require you to give me a written proposal, per say, but you’ll need research, notes and practice in order to present your proposal to the class. I will be grading this presentation on how well everyone in the group participates, and how convincing your arguments and research facts are (regardless of whether or not I agree with your proposal). Here’s the most basic format: 1) identify the problem, 2) tell us why it’s a problem, 3) propose a solution, based on a bit of research.
Participation (10%)
This is not a lecture-based course. Instead, this is a course based on writing and discussion. True, writing is often a solitary act, but we are also members of a community, so you must be prepared to participate actively and honestly in classroom discussions. You are not required to agree with all the opinions of your peers, or even your humble instructor, but obviously, hard work and a respectful attitude are required. Participation is worth 10%, or 100 points of your final grade.
Final (10%)
A short (2-3 page) reflection on your work throughout the course of the semester, your experiences with the major projects, etc. This is worth 10%, or 100 points of your final grade.
Manuscript Guidelines
All manuscripts must be printed on white paper in Times New Roman, 12-point font (or something similar), standard one inch margins. Also, your manuscripts must be double-spaced and left-justified. Your essays should be page-numbered and stapled. Failure to staple your papers will annoy your instructor to no end (which is never a good idea). Title pages are not necessary. Instead, in an upper corner of the first page include this information, single-spaced:
Your name
English (section number)
Meyerhofer
Date
If your essay does not follow these guidelines, I will deduct a letter grade from the assignment. You are also expected to follow the rules for Standard American English. Note: I do not accept the four major essays via email, but I will accept your journal essays over email. Just attach them as a doc or docx, or paste them in the body of the message.
FYI
Classroom Etiquette
Everyone is expected to treat others with respect and dignity, even in the most heated discussions, whether or not you agree with someone else’s opinion. As people, writers, learners, and teachers, we bring to class our varied experiences as well as our varied levels of expertise and knowledge; in order to build a strong community in the classroom, it is important that we respect these variations. The more we do this, the more we will learn from everyone. Your criticism regarding another’s writing and/or contribution during discussion must be constructive.
Also before class begins, turn off beepers, cell phones, iPods and Walkmans, and other noise-making devices. Also, while in class, do not complete other homework, chat casually with neighbors, use email, sleep, and/or engage in any other distractive behavior. I reserve the right to ask students to leave class at any time; if you are asked to leave, you will be counted absent.
Participation and Attendance
Since you signed up for this class, I expect you to be in class everyday, alive, awake, ready to write, read, talk, listen. But I understand that life happens outside of class as well. So, you have three free absences at your disposal for those days when life floods the system (i.e. illness, funerals, etc.). For each absence thereafter I will subtract 25 points (on a 1,000-point scale) from your final grade. I also expect you to be on time. If you are late (more than 5 minutes) you are counted as such. Being tardy three times counts as an absence.
English Department policy states that should you miss more than 20% of the class, the equivalent of seven meetings in this class, you automatically fail. I will adhere to this policy. Also see “Classroom Etiquette” above. So, if you miss more than six classes, you will fail this class.
Should something very serious keep you from attending class, contact me as soon as possible and I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs.
Late Work
In general, I do not accept late work without prior approval. I do understand that last-minute accidents and disasters happen, though. If you have a problem with turning in an assignment on time, let me know as soon as possible. Situation permitting, I may be able to allow you to turn your work in late for a point deduction.
Note: while I will often accept journal entries sent via email, I do not accept electronic submissions for major paper assignments. Also, technology problems in general are not a valid excuse for late work. If your printer runs out of ink, bursts into flames, etc., use on at one of the many computer labs on campus. I also recommend you save your work in a variety of places should you lose your disc, should your hard drive crash, etc. If nothing else, email your work to yourself, or save it on Yahoo Briefcase. I am happy to show you how to do this, if you don’t already know.
Plagiarism
If you do not know what plagiarism is, you can: a) talk to me; b) refer to the “Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities: Student Academic Ethics Policy” in the student handbook, or; c) risk a failing grade. Plagiarizing constitutes an F in this class. It is a grave offense and one not to be taken lightly. Essentially plagiarism in this class most commonly includes the following: using someone else’s words without providing proper MLA citation, copying your paper off the internet (trust me; I’ve probably seen every paper you could copy), or having someone else to write your paper (which I’ll also catch, because the tone won’t match). If you’re having trouble with an assignment, don’t plagiarize; talk to me.
This Syllabus
is a survival kit for your journey in this 103 course. In it, you can find everything from materials needed to assignments to be completed to my expectations of you. But know that parts of the syllabus and course, including the schedule, are subject to change to meet the needs of students in this class. And, remember, the best way to succeed in this class is to work hard, giving yourself ample time to read and write, and to be open to the possibilities and opportunities writing presents.
Special Needs
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible. My office hours and location are listed above.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
The Library
The libraries on campus are wonderful learning resources available to you. But they are not the only ones you have access to; with the help of the librarians, you can also borrow materials from other university libraries, like IU and Purdue, etc.
Computer Labs
These labs are located across the campus. You can find all kinds of cool software on these computers and they provide access to software like Microsoft Word, printers, the internet, and your email account. Some are even open 24 hours. The bookstore also offers a great deal on software packages, like MS Office for $5 or thereabouts.
The Writing Center
The Writing Center offers free writing feedback to all students at Ball State. Peer tutors can help students with many writing projects from essays to PowerPoint presentations to resumes, and at all stages from brainstorming to final drafts. Students can make an appointment for face-to-face tutoring at the main center (Robert Bell 291) or for an online session at http://writing.iweb.bsu.edu.
Non-Academic Resources
The university provides health care, psychological counseling, legal aid, career counseling, and affirmative action and sexual harassment counseling through various offices on campus. Please take advantage of these services if you are in need. On that note, you are also encouraged to come see me if you are having troubles. I may be very busy, but I am always willing to try and assist you as best I can.
About Your Instructor
This is my fourth year as an Assistant Professor at Ball State University. Before this, I taught and tutored at Southern Illinois University for four years. I am also a creative writer with two published books and four chapbooks (feel free to check out my website at www.troublewithhammers.com). I’m really into creative writing, movies, boxing, graphic novels, etc. As my previous students can tell you, I believe very strongly in helping my fellow writers so if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!
This is a tentative schedule of events for this course throughout the semester. Since I like to tailor each class to the strengths and needs of the students therein, I reserve the right to make some changes as necessary.
English 103 DAILY COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week 1:
Monday, August 23: Go over syllabus. Introductions. Work in class on your first assignment: a formal, professional-sounding email to a professor, voicing a grievance or concern.
Wednesday, August 25: Opening activities (will be emailed to you) covering thesis statements, topic sentences, and organization, as well as logic and how to avoid argumentative fallacies. There are more examples of logical fallacies in The Call to Write (pgs. 644-648) that you should look at on your own.
Friday, August 27: Be prepared to discuss the essays over millennial students (emailed to you). First journal assignment (two full pages, double spaced) due in class!! In particular, ask yourself these questions: how fairly have the authors characterized your generation? Are there elements you strongly agree or disagree with? Are there any problems highlighted by the authors that you feel need to be addressed in a certain way? Do you have any personal experiences that relate to what’s mentioned in the essays? Note: to give you a little nudge in terms of class participation, I may ask everyone to share their journal with the class.
Week 2:
Monday, August 30: Be prepared to discuss chapters one and two in The Call to Write. In particular, I’d like you to take a look at the sample essays at the end of chapter 1 then, in chapter two, the piece My Culture at the Crossroads and how the essay after it analyzes the piece. Also, read the two short Haven Kimmel pieces found here and here. Journal #2 (two pages), over ANY of the assigned material, due in class! Discuss first major assignment: a Memoir.
Wednesday, September 1: In-class activities based on NPR’s “This I Believe”.
Friday, September 3: Be prepared to discuss Chapter 5 from The Call to Write. In particular, look at the sample memoirs from Annie Dillard and Dave Marsh, plus “What Would You Have Me Do?” by Pia Ehrhardt (the Ehrhardt essay will be emailed to you). Journal #3 (two pages), due at the start of class, should reflect on these readings. In class, we’ll take a look at the options on pages 160 and 161 under Writing Assignment, choose your favorite, and start on a rough draft for your own Memoirs. Note: you might also want to take a look at the guide to editing (starting on pg. 609) if you’re having trouble with active v. passive voice, subject/verb agreement, comma splices, diction, etc.
Week 3:
Monday, September 6: Labor Day. No class!
Wednesday, September 8: In-class work on Memoirs. I will go around the class and check what you have so far. Note: as a general rule, students who ask me for feedback (a sort of in-class conference) get a much higher grade on their papers! I strongly suggest that on your own, you take a look at Chapter 16 from The Call to Write (pgs. 478-494), along with the suggestions on introductions and conclusions (pgs. 509-511) and the stuff on transitions (pgs. 514-515).
Friday, September 10: Look at Sunday Afternoons (pgs 169-171 in The Call to Write). How could this be modified and expanded upon to fit our assignment? We’ll discuss that in class. Also, we’ll have a peer review on your own Memoirs. You must bring a rough draft with you to class to get credit!
Week 4:
Monday, September 13: Memoirs due in class. No journal due for this day! We will discuss the next major assignment: an Analysis Paper, i.e. a close analysis of the rhetoric in a commercial, music video, documentary, or printed ad of your choice. You might also want to take a look at the images on pages 294, 299, 300, 543, and 544 from The Call to Write. Watch sample videos in class. This second paper (as well as the third paper) will be much easier if you set aside a little time to read Chapter 3 from The Call to Write!
Wednesday, September 15: Start watching “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” in class. [http://www.thirteen.org/marcopolo]
Friday, September 17: Finish watching “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” in class.
Week 5:
Monday, September 20: Discuss the documentary in class. You should also submit a one-page journal (aka Journal #4) addressing what the documentary seems to be arguing about the need to become acquainted with cultures beyond our own, any specific argument it seems to be making, etc. Time permitting, work on Analysis Papers.
Wednesday, September 22: Crash course on MLA punctuation/citation followed by a quiz. Be prepared to discuss the drafts on pages 308 through 313 from The Call to Write. Time permitting, we’ll discuss some other sample papers. Sign up for conferences.
Friday, September 24: In-class work on Analysis Papers. Sign up for conferences.
Week 6:
Monday, September 27: Conferences.
Wednesday, September 29: Conferences.
Friday, October 1: Conferences.
Week 7:
Monday, October 4: Deadline extension.
Wednesday, October 6: Out sick. Analysis Papers due via email or slipped under the door of my office. Please take a look at the prompt for the next paper, a "Researched Argument," available on this blog. On your own, read Chapters 12, 13 and 14 (pgs. 377-448) from The Call To Write. There’s a lot of critical information in there that can help you conduct research and avoid plagiarism! You can space the reading out over a few days, if you like, but make sure you glance through all of it (especially the later stuff on research).
Friday, October 8: In class, we’ll work on a famous quote activity. Be prepared to discuss “Blood of Dresden,” a nonfiction piece by Kurt Vonnegut (available on this blog). Journal #5, due at the start of class, is a one-page response to that reading. We will discuss the reading in class and share some journals. We’ll also watch an animation adapted to part of an Alan Watts lecture, done by the South Park folks (http://www.neticons.net/music_life/music_life.swf).
Week 8:
Monday, October 11: Be prepared to discuss the sample poems. Journal #6 is a two-page response to any/all of the poems, what you think they’re saying, what images or personal experiences they jog in your mind, etc. Time permitting, watch “Bullet in the Brain” short film and "Vision of Students Today" in class and see if we can't identify the social arguments being made.
Wednesday, October 13: Discuss “Harrison Bergeron,” a science fiction story by Kurt Vonnegut. We’ll watch a short film adaptation of the story in class. Journal #7 is a one-page response to that story, due at the start of class. Prep work for “Sicko.”
Friday, October 15: Start watching “Sicko” in class.
Week 9:
Monday, October 18: Finish the documentary.
Wednesday, October 20: Discuss the documentary.
Friday, October 22: Fall Break. No class.
Week 10:
Monday, October 25: Prep work for the final documentary. I’ll also provide some in-class time to do some prep work for your Group Presentations, aka your fourth major project. Even though they’re not until later, you’ll want to set up interviews, which may take a few weeks.
Wednesday, October 27:One page journal entry over “Sicko” due in class (journal #8), discussing the documentary’s argument, any bias, whether you agree/disagree, etc. Begin watching final documentary.
Friday, October 29: Finish watching final documentary.
Week 11:
Monday, November 1: One page journal due on final documentary. This is your 9th and final journal. Discuss. Start work on Researched Argument papers.
Wednesday, November 3: In-class work on Researched Argument papers. Discuss sample papers.
Friday, November 5: In-class work on Researched Argument papers.
Week 12:
Monday, November 8: In-class work on Researched Argument papers. Sign up for conferences.
Wednesday, November 10: Conferences.
Friday, November 12: Conferences.
Week 13:
Monday, November 15: Conferences.
Wednesday, November 17: Researched Argument papers due in class. Discuss Group Presentations and the Final.
Friday, November 19: In-class work. For tips, take a look at Chapter 19 from The Call to Write (especially pgs. 547-548).
Week 14:
Monday, November 22: In-class work. You can also find some very useful tips and info in Chapter 21 (pgs. 568-584) on PowerPoint for your Group Presentations.
Fruesday, November 23: Classes meet on a Friday schedule.
Wednesday, November 24: Thanksgiving Break. No class!
Friday, November 26: Thanksgiving Break. No class!
Week 15:
Monday, November 29: In-class work.
Wednesday, December 1: In-class work.
Friday, December 3: In-class work.
Week 16:
Monday, December 6: Group Presentations.
Wednesday, December 8: Group Presentations.
Friday, December 10th: End-of-semester wrap up.
Final Exam
For Section 48, your Final is on Tuesday, December 14th at noon.
For Section 61, your Final is on Friday, December 17th at noon.
Professor Michael Meyerhofer
Fall 2010
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard.
—David McCullough
Welcome to English 103! The easiest way to reach me is via email (mrmeyerhofer@bsu.edu), but it is not the only way. You can also drop by my office (RB246) during my office hours (Monday and Wednesday, 4-4:50 PM). When I am in my office, you can call me at 285-8573. If those time slots do not work, you are more than welcome to set up an appointment with me.
Required Texts/Materials
· The Call to Write by John Trimbur, fifth edition.
Recommended Texts/Materials
1. The Brief Penguin Handbook (2nd edition) edited by Faigly (any handbook might work; if you find one that’s cheaper, let me know!)
2. A college dictionary (American Heritage, Oxford, or Merriam Webster available online at www.merriamwebster.com)
3. A thesaurus (Roget’s, or Merriam Webster at www.merriamwebster.com)
4. Ambition to improve as a writer, willingness to challenge your own ideas, and a sense of humor for the crappy basement classroom and horrible technology we’ll be using (wait, take that back; these are required!)
Course Description & Goals
Welcome to English 103! This is one of those rare college courses that incorporate elements of virtually all other disciplines! In other words, you are encouraged to bring your knowledge of history, music, sociology, psychology, business (particularly business ethics), political science, art, and creative writing—not to mention your own unique backgrounds and experiences—into my classroom, so as to better enrich course discussions.
This course—built around the theme of defining and challenging one’s personal and cultural identity—will introduce you to the fundamentals of rhetoric; to the elements, strategies, and conventions common to persuasion; to the use of those elements, strategies, and conventions in the construction of their own persuasive visual and verbal texts.
At the completion of English 103, students will be able to achieve the following goals:
· Understand that persuasion—both visual and verbal—is integral to reading and composing.
· Understand how persuasive visual and verbal texts are composed for different audiences and different purposes.
· Develop effective strategies of invention, drafting, and revision for different rhetorical situations and individual composing styles.
· Compose texts in various media using solid logic, claims, evidence, creativity, and audience awareness.
· Integrate primary and secondary research as appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
· Develop strategies for becoming more critical and careful readers of both their own and others’ texts.
· Demonstrate a professional attitude towards their writing by focusing on the need for appropriate format, syntax, punctuation, and spelling.
· Take responsibility for their own progress.
· Develop the ability to work well with others on composing tasks.
Course Content and Format
The content and format of English 103 are designed to enable students to achieve the course goals; specifically, students in English 103 will:
· Discuss, analyze, and respond to a variety of visual and verbal texts to identify rhetorical elements, strategies, and conventions.
· Discuss, analyze, and respond to the persuasive logics by which various visual and verbal texts achieve, or fail to achieve, their purposes.
· Collaborate in developing ideas, analyzing visual and verbal texts, and providing peer feedback.
· Compose persuasive texts through multiple drafts, revising based on peer feedback, self-reflection, instructor’s written comments, and teacher-student conferences.
· Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are required to make as authors to shape a text for a specific audience and purpose.
· Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are required to make in order to construct meaning out of another’s text.
· Complete a variety of writing assignments for multiple purposes, audiences, and contexts, using various media, and including primary and secondary research.
UCC Goals
Through core curriculum courses, students will be able to
· Engage in lifelong education by learning to acquire knowledge and to use it for intelligent ends.
· Communicate at a level acceptable for college graduates.
· Clarify their personal values and be sensitive to those held by others.
· Recognize and seek solutions for the common problems of living by drawing on a knowledge of historical and contemporary events and elements of the cultural heritage surrounding those events.
· Assess their unique interests, talents, and goals and choose specialized learning experiences that will foster their fulfillment.
GRADING
Your final grade will be determined by your performance in the areas described below. I will assign plus/minus grades; the grading scale for this class is 93-100 = A; 90-92 = A-; 88-89 = B+; 83-87 = B; 80-82 = B-; 78-79 = C+; 73-77 = C; 70-72 = C-; 68-69 = D+; 63-67 = D; 60-62 = D-; 59 and below = F. There are 1,000 points possible in this class. The following letter grades equate with the following percentages:
A+ 98 B+ 88 C+ 78 D+ 68 F 50
A 95 B 85 C 75 D 65
A- 92 B- 82 C- 72 D- 62
You have to score better than a C- to pass this class and qualify for English 104.
ASSIGNMENTS
Journal Activities & Quizzes (20%)
Reading (and keeping up with assigned readings) is crucial to your success and development as a writer/critical thinker in college and beyond. These readings will introduce concepts essential to the class and provide examples of those concepts in practice. For every reading, you are required to submit a one page, double-spaced, typed journal entry on the day that reading is to be discussed in class. I will accept journals either over email or printed. These readings can encompass your responses to the reading and/or your praise or criticism of the piece’s writing style. You should be prepared in class discussions to present and discuss at least part of your journal and/or a passage from the assigned readings with your peers. These journals will also give you something to talk about during discussion, so you won’t miss out on participation points. As for quizzes, I generally give these only when class discussions falter and I get the distinct impression that I’m talking to myself. In total, journals and quizzes are worth 200 points, or 20% of your final grade.
Major Projects (60%)
Over the course of the semester, you will compose four major essays/projects. These projects will help you practice skills related to the rhetorical appeals as well as make you consider your audience, medium, and purpose. Combined, the projects are worth 60% of your final grade, or 600 points on a 1,000-point scale.
Group Presentation (your fourth major project)
Towards the end of the semester, each of you will be placed in a group with four or five other students with the goal of identifying a problem in your community, school, state, or country (completely your choice), then proposing a potential solution to said problem. This assignment does not require you to give me a written proposal, per say, but you’ll need research, notes and practice in order to present your proposal to the class. I will be grading this presentation on how well everyone in the group participates, and how convincing your arguments and research facts are (regardless of whether or not I agree with your proposal). Here’s the most basic format: 1) identify the problem, 2) tell us why it’s a problem, 3) propose a solution, based on a bit of research.
Participation (10%)
This is not a lecture-based course. Instead, this is a course based on writing and discussion. True, writing is often a solitary act, but we are also members of a community, so you must be prepared to participate actively and honestly in classroom discussions. You are not required to agree with all the opinions of your peers, or even your humble instructor, but obviously, hard work and a respectful attitude are required. Participation is worth 10%, or 100 points of your final grade.
Final (10%)
A short (2-3 page) reflection on your work throughout the course of the semester, your experiences with the major projects, etc. This is worth 10%, or 100 points of your final grade.
Manuscript Guidelines
All manuscripts must be printed on white paper in Times New Roman, 12-point font (or something similar), standard one inch margins. Also, your manuscripts must be double-spaced and left-justified. Your essays should be page-numbered and stapled. Failure to staple your papers will annoy your instructor to no end (which is never a good idea). Title pages are not necessary. Instead, in an upper corner of the first page include this information, single-spaced:
Your name
English (section number)
Meyerhofer
Date
If your essay does not follow these guidelines, I will deduct a letter grade from the assignment. You are also expected to follow the rules for Standard American English. Note: I do not accept the four major essays via email, but I will accept your journal essays over email. Just attach them as a doc or docx, or paste them in the body of the message.
FYI
Classroom Etiquette
Everyone is expected to treat others with respect and dignity, even in the most heated discussions, whether or not you agree with someone else’s opinion. As people, writers, learners, and teachers, we bring to class our varied experiences as well as our varied levels of expertise and knowledge; in order to build a strong community in the classroom, it is important that we respect these variations. The more we do this, the more we will learn from everyone. Your criticism regarding another’s writing and/or contribution during discussion must be constructive.
Also before class begins, turn off beepers, cell phones, iPods and Walkmans, and other noise-making devices. Also, while in class, do not complete other homework, chat casually with neighbors, use email, sleep, and/or engage in any other distractive behavior. I reserve the right to ask students to leave class at any time; if you are asked to leave, you will be counted absent.
Participation and Attendance
Since you signed up for this class, I expect you to be in class everyday, alive, awake, ready to write, read, talk, listen. But I understand that life happens outside of class as well. So, you have three free absences at your disposal for those days when life floods the system (i.e. illness, funerals, etc.). For each absence thereafter I will subtract 25 points (on a 1,000-point scale) from your final grade. I also expect you to be on time. If you are late (more than 5 minutes) you are counted as such. Being tardy three times counts as an absence.
English Department policy states that should you miss more than 20% of the class, the equivalent of seven meetings in this class, you automatically fail. I will adhere to this policy. Also see “Classroom Etiquette” above. So, if you miss more than six classes, you will fail this class.
Should something very serious keep you from attending class, contact me as soon as possible and I will make every reasonable effort to accommodate your needs.
Late Work
In general, I do not accept late work without prior approval. I do understand that last-minute accidents and disasters happen, though. If you have a problem with turning in an assignment on time, let me know as soon as possible. Situation permitting, I may be able to allow you to turn your work in late for a point deduction.
Note: while I will often accept journal entries sent via email, I do not accept electronic submissions for major paper assignments. Also, technology problems in general are not a valid excuse for late work. If your printer runs out of ink, bursts into flames, etc., use on at one of the many computer labs on campus. I also recommend you save your work in a variety of places should you lose your disc, should your hard drive crash, etc. If nothing else, email your work to yourself, or save it on Yahoo Briefcase. I am happy to show you how to do this, if you don’t already know.
Plagiarism
If you do not know what plagiarism is, you can: a) talk to me; b) refer to the “Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities: Student Academic Ethics Policy” in the student handbook, or; c) risk a failing grade. Plagiarizing constitutes an F in this class. It is a grave offense and one not to be taken lightly. Essentially plagiarism in this class most commonly includes the following: using someone else’s words without providing proper MLA citation, copying your paper off the internet (trust me; I’ve probably seen every paper you could copy), or having someone else to write your paper (which I’ll also catch, because the tone won’t match). If you’re having trouble with an assignment, don’t plagiarize; talk to me.
This Syllabus
is a survival kit for your journey in this 103 course. In it, you can find everything from materials needed to assignments to be completed to my expectations of you. But know that parts of the syllabus and course, including the schedule, are subject to change to meet the needs of students in this class. And, remember, the best way to succeed in this class is to work hard, giving yourself ample time to read and write, and to be open to the possibilities and opportunities writing presents.
Special Needs
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible. My office hours and location are listed above.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
The Library
The libraries on campus are wonderful learning resources available to you. But they are not the only ones you have access to; with the help of the librarians, you can also borrow materials from other university libraries, like IU and Purdue, etc.
Computer Labs
These labs are located across the campus. You can find all kinds of cool software on these computers and they provide access to software like Microsoft Word, printers, the internet, and your email account. Some are even open 24 hours. The bookstore also offers a great deal on software packages, like MS Office for $5 or thereabouts.
The Writing Center
The Writing Center offers free writing feedback to all students at Ball State. Peer tutors can help students with many writing projects from essays to PowerPoint presentations to resumes, and at all stages from brainstorming to final drafts. Students can make an appointment for face-to-face tutoring at the main center (Robert Bell 291) or for an online session at http://writing.iweb.bsu.edu.
Non-Academic Resources
The university provides health care, psychological counseling, legal aid, career counseling, and affirmative action and sexual harassment counseling through various offices on campus. Please take advantage of these services if you are in need. On that note, you are also encouraged to come see me if you are having troubles. I may be very busy, but I am always willing to try and assist you as best I can.
About Your Instructor
This is my fourth year as an Assistant Professor at Ball State University. Before this, I taught and tutored at Southern Illinois University for four years. I am also a creative writer with two published books and four chapbooks (feel free to check out my website at www.troublewithhammers.com). I’m really into creative writing, movies, boxing, graphic novels, etc. As my previous students can tell you, I believe very strongly in helping my fellow writers so if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!
This is a tentative schedule of events for this course throughout the semester. Since I like to tailor each class to the strengths and needs of the students therein, I reserve the right to make some changes as necessary.
English 103 DAILY COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week 1:
Monday, August 23: Go over syllabus. Introductions. Work in class on your first assignment: a formal, professional-sounding email to a professor, voicing a grievance or concern.
Wednesday, August 25: Opening activities (will be emailed to you) covering thesis statements, topic sentences, and organization, as well as logic and how to avoid argumentative fallacies. There are more examples of logical fallacies in The Call to Write (pgs. 644-648) that you should look at on your own.
Friday, August 27: Be prepared to discuss the essays over millennial students (emailed to you). First journal assignment (two full pages, double spaced) due in class!! In particular, ask yourself these questions: how fairly have the authors characterized your generation? Are there elements you strongly agree or disagree with? Are there any problems highlighted by the authors that you feel need to be addressed in a certain way? Do you have any personal experiences that relate to what’s mentioned in the essays? Note: to give you a little nudge in terms of class participation, I may ask everyone to share their journal with the class.
Week 2:
Monday, August 30: Be prepared to discuss chapters one and two in The Call to Write. In particular, I’d like you to take a look at the sample essays at the end of chapter 1 then, in chapter two, the piece My Culture at the Crossroads and how the essay after it analyzes the piece. Also, read the two short Haven Kimmel pieces found here and here. Journal #2 (two pages), over ANY of the assigned material, due in class! Discuss first major assignment: a Memoir.
Wednesday, September 1: In-class activities based on NPR’s “This I Believe”.
Friday, September 3: Be prepared to discuss Chapter 5 from The Call to Write. In particular, look at the sample memoirs from Annie Dillard and Dave Marsh, plus “What Would You Have Me Do?” by Pia Ehrhardt (the Ehrhardt essay will be emailed to you). Journal #3 (two pages), due at the start of class, should reflect on these readings. In class, we’ll take a look at the options on pages 160 and 161 under Writing Assignment, choose your favorite, and start on a rough draft for your own Memoirs. Note: you might also want to take a look at the guide to editing (starting on pg. 609) if you’re having trouble with active v. passive voice, subject/verb agreement, comma splices, diction, etc.
Week 3:
Monday, September 6: Labor Day. No class!
Wednesday, September 8: In-class work on Memoirs. I will go around the class and check what you have so far. Note: as a general rule, students who ask me for feedback (a sort of in-class conference) get a much higher grade on their papers! I strongly suggest that on your own, you take a look at Chapter 16 from The Call to Write (pgs. 478-494), along with the suggestions on introductions and conclusions (pgs. 509-511) and the stuff on transitions (pgs. 514-515).
Friday, September 10: Look at Sunday Afternoons (pgs 169-171 in The Call to Write). How could this be modified and expanded upon to fit our assignment? We’ll discuss that in class. Also, we’ll have a peer review on your own Memoirs. You must bring a rough draft with you to class to get credit!
Week 4:
Monday, September 13: Memoirs due in class. No journal due for this day! We will discuss the next major assignment: an Analysis Paper, i.e. a close analysis of the rhetoric in a commercial, music video, documentary, or printed ad of your choice. You might also want to take a look at the images on pages 294, 299, 300, 543, and 544 from The Call to Write. Watch sample videos in class. This second paper (as well as the third paper) will be much easier if you set aside a little time to read Chapter 3 from The Call to Write!
Wednesday, September 15: Start watching “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” in class. [http://www.thirteen.org/marcopolo]
Friday, September 17: Finish watching “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” in class.
Week 5:
Monday, September 20: Discuss the documentary in class. You should also submit a one-page journal (aka Journal #4) addressing what the documentary seems to be arguing about the need to become acquainted with cultures beyond our own, any specific argument it seems to be making, etc. Time permitting, work on Analysis Papers.
Wednesday, September 22: Crash course on MLA punctuation/citation followed by a quiz. Be prepared to discuss the drafts on pages 308 through 313 from The Call to Write. Time permitting, we’ll discuss some other sample papers. Sign up for conferences.
Friday, September 24: In-class work on Analysis Papers. Sign up for conferences.
Week 6:
Monday, September 27: Conferences.
Wednesday, September 29: Conferences.
Friday, October 1: Conferences.
Week 7:
Monday, October 4: Deadline extension.
Wednesday, October 6: Out sick. Analysis Papers due via email or slipped under the door of my office. Please take a look at the prompt for the next paper, a "Researched Argument," available on this blog. On your own, read Chapters 12, 13 and 14 (pgs. 377-448) from The Call To Write. There’s a lot of critical information in there that can help you conduct research and avoid plagiarism! You can space the reading out over a few days, if you like, but make sure you glance through all of it (especially the later stuff on research).
Friday, October 8: In class, we’ll work on a famous quote activity. Be prepared to discuss “Blood of Dresden,” a nonfiction piece by Kurt Vonnegut (available on this blog). Journal #5, due at the start of class, is a one-page response to that reading. We will discuss the reading in class and share some journals. We’ll also watch an animation adapted to part of an Alan Watts lecture, done by the South Park folks (http://www.neticons.net/music_life/music_life.swf).
Week 8:
Monday, October 11: Be prepared to discuss the sample poems. Journal #6 is a two-page response to any/all of the poems, what you think they’re saying, what images or personal experiences they jog in your mind, etc. Time permitting, watch “Bullet in the Brain” short film and "Vision of Students Today" in class and see if we can't identify the social arguments being made.
Wednesday, October 13: Discuss “Harrison Bergeron,” a science fiction story by Kurt Vonnegut. We’ll watch a short film adaptation of the story in class. Journal #7 is a one-page response to that story, due at the start of class. Prep work for “Sicko.”
Friday, October 15: Start watching “Sicko” in class.
Week 9:
Monday, October 18: Finish the documentary.
Wednesday, October 20: Discuss the documentary.
Friday, October 22: Fall Break. No class.
Week 10:
Monday, October 25: Prep work for the final documentary. I’ll also provide some in-class time to do some prep work for your Group Presentations, aka your fourth major project. Even though they’re not until later, you’ll want to set up interviews, which may take a few weeks.
Wednesday, October 27:One page journal entry over “Sicko” due in class (journal #8), discussing the documentary’s argument, any bias, whether you agree/disagree, etc. Begin watching final documentary.
Friday, October 29: Finish watching final documentary.
Week 11:
Monday, November 1: One page journal due on final documentary. This is your 9th and final journal. Discuss. Start work on Researched Argument papers.
Wednesday, November 3: In-class work on Researched Argument papers. Discuss sample papers.
Friday, November 5: In-class work on Researched Argument papers.
Week 12:
Monday, November 8: In-class work on Researched Argument papers. Sign up for conferences.
Wednesday, November 10: Conferences.
Friday, November 12: Conferences.
Week 13:
Monday, November 15: Conferences.
Wednesday, November 17: Researched Argument papers due in class. Discuss Group Presentations and the Final.
Friday, November 19: In-class work. For tips, take a look at Chapter 19 from The Call to Write (especially pgs. 547-548).
Week 14:
Monday, November 22: In-class work. You can also find some very useful tips and info in Chapter 21 (pgs. 568-584) on PowerPoint for your Group Presentations.
Fruesday, November 23: Classes meet on a Friday schedule.
Wednesday, November 24: Thanksgiving Break. No class!
Friday, November 26: Thanksgiving Break. No class!
Week 15:
Monday, November 29: In-class work.
Wednesday, December 1: In-class work.
Friday, December 3: In-class work.
Week 16:
Monday, December 6: Group Presentations.
Wednesday, December 8: Group Presentations.
Friday, December 10th: End-of-semester wrap up.
Final Exam
For Section 48, your Final is on Tuesday, December 14th at noon.
For Section 61, your Final is on Friday, December 17th at noon.
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