Home Teaching Resources Composition Archive CO150 2006-2007 Syllabus Week 11: Monday, Oct. 30th - Friday, Nov. 3rd

Week 11: Monday, Oct. 30th - Friday, Nov. 3rd

Now that students have a basic sense of their arguments, we ask them this week to begin thinking about how they will organize their essays. Drafting an outline or argumentative brief will help students envision how they want their argument to look. Once they've determined a tentative shape for their argument, we ask them to think about how to build upon that shape or "skeleton argument" by integrating appeals.

Please remember to provide lesson and course connections each class day and to introduce and conclude your lessons along with providing transitions between activities.

Discuss Organization for Arguments (you determine time)

The goal for the following activities is to help students begin thinking about how to organize their academic arguments.

Choose from the following activities:

1. Use pgs. 526 - 528 in the PHG to discuss the varied possibilities for organizing arguments.
2. Discuss how academic arguments are typically organized (as opposed to more public arguments). What do readers expect when they encounter an academic argument in terms of organization? Where do they expect to see the claim? How do they expect the body of the paper to be organized? What do they expect from the conclusion? Be sure to explain that not all academic writing is expected to be tedious and boring (as students often assume). For example, while it is common to repeat all essay points in an academic conclusion, this is also a very predictable and uninteresting way to end an argument. You might discuss which organizational conventions are important to abide by (i.e. a clear thesis claim) and which ones can be broken (i.e. the boring "In summation I shall now tell you everything I've already stated in my essay" conclusion).
3. Map out the organization patterns used by Koch and Bruck (or other sample arguments from Chapter 10). Discuss which methods seem most effective for an academic audience and why.

Give students the following advice for organizing their papers:

• Cluster or create a visual scheme where you sketch out the relationships between your claim, your reason and your evidence.
• Write out a very rough draft and then read through it, drawing lines between related ideas. Use scissors to cut up your draft and try rearranging paragraphs in various orders on the floor. Also, try looking at the argument from the point of view of your readers and ask, which order seems most logical and fitting to their needs and interests?

One way to show students that organization is flexible and that we can organize according to an audience is to have students create an argumentative brief. Your goal here is to help students see that they can block out their arguments (and play with organization and development) before they draft. The brief makes an argument visible while also offering high levels of flexibility for easy revision before whole paragraphs are committed. Argument briefs are most effective if written in full sentence form, compelling the writer to assert his or her argument points (thesis, reasons, and evidence).

**See the appendix for a Sample Argumentative Brief that you may share with students.

Discuss Alternative Argument Approaches (15 minutes)

This discussion should give students more of a sense of the different approaches or strategies available to them beyond traditional argumentative methods. Use the points in the PHG on pgs. 483 - 485 to discuss Rogerian Argument. Emphasize to students that their argument doesn't have to be completely traditional or Rogerian. Instead, they might use Rogerian techniques to build connections with their readers or for the most sensitive points in an argument.

To help students truly understand the power of Rogerian Argument, you might bring in some sample arguments that illustrate these techniques. Although Martin Luther King did not take a strictly Rogerian approach, he tended to use a lot of Rogerian techniques in his writing and speeches. Perhaps you could examine some sections of his "Letter from Birmingham Jail". For example, King's conclusion states:

If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

** More of King's argument can be viewed on pgs. 482 - 483 in the PHG.

Explore Argumentative Appeals (you determine time)

The goal for the following activities is to help students understand the importance of using appeals in their argument. Choose from the following activities:

1. Read about appeals in the PHG on pgs. 478 - 482.
2. Discuss how Martin Luther King (and/or other writers) use appeals to make their points more convincing. See pgs. 482 - 483 in the PHG.
3. Bring in samples of appeals to show students how they are commonly used. Where to look for appeals:
• Product labels (from shampoo bottles, skin creams, hair products, fancy beverages like Odwalla, food items, etc…)
• Letters asking for donations (environmental groups, politicians, local clubs…)
• Advertisements and full-page coupons
• Bribe mail from phone, internet and credit card companies
• Websites

Group Activity for Written Appeals: Have students break into small groups (3-4) and give each group one or two sample written appeals to look at. Put the following questions on an overhead for each group to address:

• What is the writer's purpose?
• Who is the target audience?
• What types of appeals do they use?
• Are these appeals effective? Why or why not?
• Do these appeals accurately represent a product or a situation? Are they fair to use? Why or why not? (Be sure to explain that appeals should use information fairly. If a writer exaggerates an appeal to misrepresent the truth (i.e. scare tactic) it becomes a fallacy).


4. Complete a role play activity to practice using appeals. Use this activity to get students thinking about how to appeal to an audience to meet a specific purpose.

Role Play Activity: First, prepare five different tasks that require students to develop appeals. Print the tasks out and cut them into separate strips to distribute in class.

Sample Tasks:

• Persuade your parents to give you $3,000 to start your own T-Shirt business
• Persuade your landlord to let you have a pet goat
• Persuade your best friend to go on a date with your 34 year old cousin

Then, break students into small groups (4-5) and have each group choose one strip at random. Once students have their strips, explain the following:

"Your group task is written on this slip of paper. Your group will have 10 minutes to develop an argument to persuade the rest of the class to act on. Someone from your group will then read your task to the class (the class will role play the designated audience) and you will have 5 - 7 minutes to present your argument as a group. Afterwards, the class will decide if your use of appeals was strong enough to persuade us to act on your argument. Be sure to anticipate opposing arguments along the way (as some of your peers may raise questions and objections to your claims). While developing appeals, also consider what your audience will value most. What are their needs and interests and how can you respond to these?"

Give students 10 minutes to prepare arguments before presenting. Tell students that they are free to add some inventive material to their situation (e.g. your cousin just got out of jail and he's feeling very low about himself - he needs a girlfriend to make him feel better). After each group presents, ask the class which parts of the argument were most effective, and which of the appeals worked best. Tell students to keep these observations in mind when writing appeals for their own arguments.

Revisit Using Evidence to Support Claims (you determine time)

In addition to building common ground with an audience through the use of audience appeals, effective use of evidence to support a writer's claim(s) is a critical aspect of argument. Use the resources provided in the Writing Studio to develop an activity that will encourage students to develop their arguments in a variety of ways. You might also use this time to revisit source citation and credibility, or to encourage students to do additional research as they work on drafting their arguments.

Homework

Assign the following to students this week:

• Read some sample arguments (Note to GTAs: You should make these available to students. Samples can be found in the summer section Writing Studio page). Write a brief response for each argument on the class forum. What are the greatest strengths of each argument? How could each argument be further improved?
• Write a first draft of your argument.