Week 10

What is to give light must endure burning. – Victor Frankl

Today's classwork is to be an essay on the recent events in Japan.  You will have time to read through the week's news reports on the quake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis before putting together an essay on last Friday's catastrophic events.  The essay is to be done in class.  The description is here reproduced for you, from handouts available in class.

ENC1101 Week 10:  On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami wave devastated areas in northeastern Japan.  Recent estimates put the death toll at 4,225, with another 8194 people missing, and financial losses between 35 and 200 billion.  But the unfolding crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is most critical, for a meltdown of the plant’s reactors may be unavoidable unless electricity is restored to the plant’s cooling system.  A meltdown would unleash lethal amounts of radiation into the surrounding environment.

Directions:  In an essay of 500 words, describe reports and images of the disaster and some of the most important issues raised by the events.  Not surprisingly, the event has renewed debate here in the U.S. and abroad about the safety of nuclear power.  Use at least three separate news sources in creating the essay.  Provide in text article titles, dates, and place of publication to document source information.  Include at least three quotations in direct support of your claims.  Title your essay and double space the lines.

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Final Project Reminder:  Next week the final draft of your short research project (1000 words with a documented source list, i.e. a "Work Cited" list) is due.  This essay should address some subject about which you can make an arguable claim or assert an opinion supported by your research.  You should have a least three secondary sources (published articles or book material) and, if you like, primary sources such as your personal experience, documentary photographs available on the web or elsewhere, eye-witness accounts, etcetera.  You should provide clear summary of context and important details, and direct quotation of experts or authorities whose reports of fact and opinion matter to your argument.  Title and double space the essay.









week 9

  

                                                       

        The groves were God's first temples.  ~William Cullen Bryant, "A Forest Hymn"

Good morning, class.  Hope you are well!

Today we continue putting together the short research assignment.  Last week's work, a roundup of new stories, approximates the kind of sorting and summary you do when you are gathering background sources for a research study.  You must be able to read through and then summarize concisely an author's main point, key support and detail, strength of evidence, interest factors, and determine whether a particular source has anything of real merit to contribute to your research.

Choose your research source materials carefully.  Sources should provide key information, context, illustrations, various perspectives, and counter- arguments or evidence.  The following source criteria will help you pull together comprehensive source material on your subject.

·                     1)   context and background material on the research subject

·           2)  explanations of key concepts

·           3)  examples or illustrations of claims

·           4)  authority for the claims you are making

·           5)  clear evidence to support your claims

·           6) counter-examples or evidence that your argument must take into account

Choose sources that address your research focus.  If a source does not have anything particularly useful to add to your piece, look for another. Consider the following questions as you sort through potential source material:

·                     How does this material address your research question?

·                     In what ways does it provide support for your claims or ideas?

·                     Does this source provide quotable support?

·                    Does the source provide counterarguments that your audience may require you to acknowledge and       answer?

Check the currency of your sources.  When was it published?  Is the information contained or the perspective held still valid?  Is the author or source a respected one or one whose legitimacy is clear?  How many cross-references or links to other authorities or source documents does the source contain?  Can you cross-check the accuracy of the claims made in the source?

Analyze the author’s stance as a means of understanding his or her potential biases or blind spots as regards the subject.  What informs the author’s tone and perspective:  respect for scientific study? a desire to advocate or oppose a particular position?  seriousness of purpose and desire to clarify facts and ideas, or angry, polarizing refutations of other perspectives, including perhaps personal attacks not relevant to the questions?

Assess the author’s argument and evidence, in so far as possible, by cross-checking references and sources relied upon or ignored in the source. 

·               What is the author’s main point?

·               How much and what kind of evidence supports his claims?

·                How persuasive is the evidence?

·                Does he offer or address counter-arguments or evidence?

·                Do you find any questionable logic or biases that may be skewing the argument?

You will need to know the point you want to make in the essay and to be able to frame it up front in opening paragraphs.  The body of the essay should develop context, evidence, examples, and expert  opinion and claims.  The conclusion should underscore the importance of the subject and the perspective on it you have attempted to create.  The essay title should be specific and engaging, and the works cited page accurate in reflecting the sources used directly in text, arranged alphabetically for ease of access.

Week 8

Who, being loved, is poor?
                     –Oscar Wilde



Good morning.  I hope you are well and getting on in school.  I'll be looking for work from you all today, and to discuss the short research assignment due week 10.

To review, you must explore an idea in this 1000-word length essay and put across a claim, your thesis, supported or made persuasive, made credible, by virtue of the accompanying facts, expert opinion, testimonials, logical inquiry, and emotional appeals to the reader's values.

   Our ideas are rooted in traditional areas of study reflecting the history of human thought, values, attitudes, and tastes, and conduct.  These study areas include philosophy, religion, nature, aesthetics, science, ethics, education, etcetera.  Our most closely held beliefs and attitudes reflect very often our unexamined ideas about the nature of love, faith, trust, loss, betrayal, goodness and evil, freedom, sanctity, the very meaning of life.  Whether we focus on Washington and the shenanigans that make the nightly news, bioengineering, Facebook, legal injustices, or the most recent individual or "hero" making  a positive difference in the world, our beliefs, associated ideas, and feelings define us as human beings.  In choosing a research topic you will tap into some subject about which you feel strongly and have clear enough knowledge to put across a cogent argument or position, as supported also by fact and opinion gathered from your reading of available literature.


We will start the morning with a free writing and then on to a roundup of news items, with some documentation included, to help you clarify and focus on the short research work.


Roundup Assignment (#6):  In 400-500 words, introduce by title and article three or four articles published in today's New York Times.  Summarize each and provide commentary and an overarching thematic link between the articles you have chosen.  This is an informal piece in which you can simply discuss some of the most interesting headlines, as you see it, and why they interest you.  Include an alphabetical listing of the works discussed, in the MLA format displayed at the OWL writing site (the link is here, at this blog's link list).