Today's class was focuse on moving us forward so you are ready to write your persuasive essay. Your persuasive essay will focus on the American Dream as it has been discussed by at least one of the 4 authors in your text: King, Thomas, Herbert, & Obama. I previewed the Obama essay, drawing your attention to the different kinds of moves he made (ethos, pathos + logos) and the order in which he made them. I did this in a general way - and you will be reading the essay more carefully and noting the order of his moves in more detail for homework.
Before we got into today's work, we had some general talk about how the form each of the authors used for their argument connected to the genre they were writing for, and the identities of their audience. We noted that King's essay was the most like an academic argument, that Herbert + Thomas were journalists and journalists often write for an audience who is mostly onboard with their views (readers/listerners often choose radio/newspaper/online site that match their views), and that Obama's piece was a talk to the American people as a whole. These are 4 essays in the textbook were produced for very different audiences = and the form each essay took reflects the expectations of those different audiences. One way to thinkabout how best to persuade a particular audience is to analyze the rhetoric (the moves the author needs to make to be convincing) that will get them to "hear" your points. This is called rhetorical analysis - and we will talk about it more in the next unit.
Reading and assessing the assignment.
We officially started class by taking a look at the assignment sheet. We paid particular attention to the description of the assignment + the list of criteria (requirements) for the essay. We then grouped these requirements under the criteria for the writing rubric. Our list of features for assessing this essay was as follows.
1. Genre (30%)
focus is set up in terms of the TS, and presented after a discussion of context
effective use if paraphrase and quotation
each supporting point connects to the overall focus and the TS
language choices from TS/IS text
uses academic moves in terms of referring to TS (other authors) for authority
uses ethos, pathos + logos
2. Focus (25%)
clear statemtn of position
claims which related to that position also clearly stated => each paragraph develops the focus in a different way
the organization (logic of the discussion) develops the fous
the author states the connections between the claims (points to develop the focus) and the development (references to research, personal experience etc which illustrate the points)
3. Organization (20%)
establish context/background FIRST (TS first)
then state focus
then develop a series of points, each of which connects to the focus
naysayer/counter argument, if appropriate (after point countered is presented)
conclusion
4. Development (25%)
connect to at least 3 readings
show/illustrate points
You then looked at the sample argument (posted to the right) and used the criteria above both to evaluate the essay, and to formulate some feedback for what the writer would need to work on to write a stronger essay. You did a great job on this - and your reasoning for why you took points off and what you would suggest the author to work on was excellent. In general, I took off more points off for focus and for organization that did most of the groups - and we had some discussion about why,
After we talked about how to give feedback to this essay, we talked about using Writing rubric categories as a guide for revising draft essays. In general, it is a good idea not to evaluate/or work too hard on "improving" your writing while you are in the drafting stage. After all, it is hard enough to get ideas on the page! So for the draft - just get your ideas out there Once they are on the page, I suggested that you revise for focus, [development, organization] & finally for the language moves/features that will make your essay into "academic writing" = in THAT ORDER, [the brackets suggest that you can switch around development and organization - or go back and forth].
I strongly recommend reading through the entire essay in terms of each category (focus, organization, development, genre) one by one. This will allow you to work on the specific issues in each category without getting overwhelmed. I suggest focus first = because you can't work on much of anything else until you know what you are writing about. It is true that you might go back and do some more work of focus after you have spent some time on development - and that is OK. This is not a rigid list, but rather a kind of general plan.
After you have a clear statement of your focus in the set up, in the conclusion - and as the "frame" for the discussion of your points, you can work on organization and development. For development you will want to do some more brainstorming and drafting, and for organization try out different sequences for your supporting points, look at the internal organization of paragraphs, check for transitions, and so on. Finally, after you have the flesh (development) and bones (organization) of your essay in place => you can make sure they have on the right clothing (genre => language moves etc). We will work more on this as you begin to revise your essays.
Quotation + paraphrasing
We read quickly through the handout (posted to the right) on Quotation & Paraphrase. The important thing to remember is to use quotes sparingly and for a particular focus. The handout identifies the appropriate uses of quotation. For everything else = you should paraphrase. I didn't spend much time on formatting (we didn't have much time!) but fortunately, The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) has the answers to just about any question you could ask. If you can't find what you want to know there - the Kean University Writing Center has some excellent writing coaches who can talk you through.
Thomas & Herbert
We didn't get to talk throug/review Thomas - so we will catch up with this on Thursday as you get ready to write your draft.
For next class:
Read: Barak Obama's essay in TS/IS. We talked through the main points and identified some of the major ethos, pathos, & logos moves he makes. As you read, notice: where he makes each ethos, pathos + logos move.
Write: Brainstorm ideas for your persuasive essay. Post your brainstorming to the persuasive essay page on your portfolio.
Suggestions for brainstorming process:
1. Start with freewriting or something to open you up/turn off your editor. Freewrite about the different readings, points from the readings that interested you, anything you think about the american dream, connections between your ideas and the readings, your experiences/observations related to the american dream, and so on. Anything you can think of. You don't need to be coherent or have good punctuation = just get it on the page. If it comes out as a list, that work, but try adding as many details as you can. Don't correct anything and done delete anything.
2. Read through your freewriting and mark anything that looks interesting. Make a list of ideas.
3. Go back to the readings to check what you remembered, see if there is anything else that interests you. Add to your list.
4. Try out some thesis statements for a couple of the ideas on the list. Write them a couple times in different language. See what happens.
5. Identify your favorite ideas and think about which one would be easiest for you to write.
6. List the points you would use to develop one or more of the ideas you have on the lsits from 4 & 5.
You will probably want something close to a page or more of writing in order to get enough material to work with.
In class, we will go over the analysis of Obama, check in on Herbert + Thomas, and review the overall organization for an academic argument.
You will spend the rest of class mapping out /planning your essay, and getting started on your draft.
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