Unit 3, Day 27: Tuesday, November 27

- Have student zero draft to generate reasons

- Workshop zero drafts

- Discuss types of appeals

- Connect using appeals to evidence

- Discuss MLA documentation (works cited and in-text citations)

Connection to course goals: In today’s class we want to show students how the types of appeals they use need to be coherent with the context, audience and purpose they’ve defined for their paper.

INTRODUCTION:

1. Have students zero draft on their reasons and responses to opposing arguments (10 minutes): The goal of this activity is get students to “reason through” their argument on paper. Ask them to keep in mind opposing arguments that contrast to their position as they explain the reasons they support their overall claim. If they’re having trouble getting started, you might suggest that students begin by stating their overall claim and then begin writing their reasons as “because” statements that follow from that main claim.

Transition:

2. Discuss using different types appeals from PHG (10 minutes): Create a discussion that gets students to explain distinctions among the different types of appeals and how each type may be useful to a writer making an argument. Emphasize that a combination of appeals is best, but using appeals is closely connected to their context, purpose, and audience. Also emphasize proper use of appeals. For instance, make sure they understand how to use ethical and emotional appeals appropriately.

3. Have students apply the discussion of types of appeals back to their zero draft (20 minutes): Design an activity that will have students return to their own zero draft and consider what types of appeals will be needed and what types will work with the audience they’ve defined. One option is to have students write an example of one of each type of the appeals that they think they’ll be able to use based on their context, audience, and purpose. Then have them write an explanation for why these appeals would be effective, given the context the students have defined for their argument. Finally, have them go back to their zero drafts to add to their draft where they might use the appeals they just wrote.

4. Connect appeals to evidence (10-15 minutes): We want to show students that the use of appeals is also context-based. Plan a discussion that demonstrates how certain types of evidence connect best to the specific types of appeals students might use in their argument. For instance, emphasize that they’ll need to use “hard evidence” such as expert testimony, statistics, case studies, etc. to make logical appeals but that same type of evidence may not necessarily establish them as credible writers, depending on their audience. Get students to apply this discussion back to their own zero draft and the types of appeals they’ve just identified to assess how well those appeals might work with their audience.

Transition:

5. Discuss documentation (10 minutes): Plan a discussion to explain reasons for documenting sources before showing them how to do it.

Reasons for documenting your sources:

- Give credit where credit is due

- Build your own credibility by showing knowledge of issue, accuracy, etc.

- So someone can find your sources if they need/want to

- Citing indicates the values of a discipline. For example, MLA is used by English departments and uses only the author’s name. APA is used by Psychology and includes the date of the source. Why the difference? (The timeliness of a source is important in psychology, while not that important in English. The Author is important for both)

6. Practice MLA documentation (15 minutes): Design an activity that requires students to find and practice both in-text citing and creating a works cited page. Make sure to focus mainly on the type of sources you expect they’ll have the most (periodicals, journals, internet, books). Also, be sure to emphasize attention to detail. The whole premise behind documentation is so everyone in a field follows the same guidelines.

Assignment for Day 28:

- Read “Revising Fallacies in Logic” in PHG (477-79), “Rogerian Argument” (442-45), “Shaping” (471-74) and Koch’s “Death and Justice” (449-54).

- Complete your Evaluative Annotated Bibliography