10.7 General form of an argument

Feedback on response essays;  You all should have received an email with a feedback sheet for the unit on writing response essays.  I use a slightly different scale for assigning grades that the university (it was on the board): Above 90 is an A, and 90 is an A-, above 80 is a B, and 80 is a B-, and so on.  If you have any questions about your score, let me know and we can talk about it.

Planning a "practice argument": We spent today's class nailing down the points in Hacker and Dreifus' essay on the cost of college.

We started by noticing the general form for his argument.
Set up the general focus (the high cost of college education and the fact that something needs to be done about it)
A "why readers should listen to us" move (ethos move)
Followed by a statement of the general kinds of arguments the authors would make about cost and change for college education.

We noted that in this "set up" move he classified the kinds of arguments he would make - but did not go into details about his specific points.

Then he made arguments for a series of specific kinds of changes.

(all of this should be in your notes).

As we discussed the claims the authors made about how colleges needed to change, we noted which "kind" of argument each point was, and raised points that we might  argue against his point.  You took good notes on this!

After we went rhough (most of) the author's points, you took some time to think what you might say back to this essay.  We agreed that you couldn't reply to ALL of their points, so you would need to focus your response on a set of related suggestions.  I think I spoke to most of you about how to focus your essay - and it sounded like you were on the right track!

For next class:
Read: TS/IS Chapter 8  "As a Result"
Write: A two-page argument where you argue  AGAINST a related set of points from Hacker and Dreifus.  Practice using the overall form we discussed in class (including an ethos move), and make use of the connecting moves from the reading.

Post your practice argument to the persuasive essay page of your portfolio.

During the first part of class we will look at some sample arguments and evaluate them, During the second half of class you will look at your persuasive essays (so bring your computers) - and we will talk about what you need to work on to strengthen them.

Good class today, and see you Thursday.