College Writing

Self, Society & Sustainability

David Brooks, “The Problem with Confidence”

Jean Twenge, ‘An Army of One: Me’Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable than Ever Before. New York: Free Press, 2006.

Last Time

Christopher Lasch, 1932-1994Historian, social critic,

Professor at the University of Rochester

Next Week

Today

“The Problem of Confidence,” The New York Times, May 12

TASKS:

Identify the inferred thesis statement.

Understand not only WHAT Brooks says, but HOW he says it.

David Brooks, Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times

HOW to Say Something that Matters

Bringing certain assumptions to light? Raising questions of fact? Raising questions of opinion? Appeals to intellect (logos)? Appeals to emotion (pathos)? Appeals to authority (ethos)?

HOW does Brooks develop his point

Defining by Example Defining by Negation Defining by Comparison and Contrast Defining by Analysis Defining by Cause and Effect Marshaling Factual Evidence Marshaling Evidence from Authority