CM 220College Composition II

UNIT 5 Seminar

Professor _______________General Education, Composition

Kaplan University

1

UNIT 5 Learning Activities• Reading: Introduction to unit; The Kaplan Guide to

Successful Writing, chapters 7, 13, 14 (pp. 167-168)• Invention Lab 1: Map ideas for draft• Invention Lab 2: Formal and informal

communications of big idea (letter to editor and post on Facebook, for example)

• Seminar: Organization and development of ideas for draft, audience, comparison of letters to the editor

2

Getting Started with your Big IdeaIn unit 6, you will submit a 3-5 page draft of your Big Idea.Why is beginning early, in unit 5, helpful to you as a writer?What can you do to GET STARTED? If you have trouble with Writer’s Block, how can you solve this problem?For ideas on how to get started writing and avoid Writer’s Block, consider

reviewing this Writing Center Workshop:http://khe2.acrobat.com/p13592508/?

launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

3

Audience and PurposeHow are audience and purpose KEY to successful writing?Who is the audience you would like to communicate to?What do you know about them and what do you need to know about them?What do you want to communicate to that audience?How can you best communicate your information to that audience?

4

More about Audience and Purpose

For an excellent workshop on audience and purpose, review this Writing Center video:

http://khe2.acrobat.com/p19397839/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

5

What is an informative essay?

An Informative EssayAn Informative Essay• An informative essay, also called

expository or explanatory essay, seeks to educate the audience on a given topic.

• In general, it does not feature its writer's experiences or feelings, as autobiography does. Instead, successful explanatory writing presents information with the purpose of educating the reader about a subject.

Informative Essays (continued)Informative Essays (continued)• This type of writing, required almost every day in

nearly every profession, may be based on firsthand observation, but it always moves beyond describing specific objects and events to explain general principles and patterns of behavior.

• Since it deals almost exclusively with established information, explanatory writing tends not to present an argument but to present information as if everyone assumes it were true. It is a way for readers to find out about a particular subject.

• Much of what we find in newspapers, encyclopedias, instruction manuals reference books, and research reports is explanatory writing.

Informative Essays do not express the writer's opinion.

Informative Essays do not express the writer's opinion.

• However, views, pro and con, can be included. The views must be provided in an unbiased fashion, pointing out the comparisons and contrasts of the viewpoints. To avoid being persuasive, do not indicate which side you support.

• For example, if you informative essay topic is gay marriage, you can say that Group A is opposed to it and Group B supports it. You, however, can not say which side you think is right. Instead, remain neutral, saying something like: "This controversial issue is not likely to be resolved any time soon. Perhaps the final resolution will lie with the Supreme Court, or maybe the American voters will resolve the issue at the polls."

10

Informative Essays

• Educate the reader• Support the writer’s thesis with information

from other sources• Do not try to persuade or convince the reader• Educate the reader

Informative vs. persuasive thesis

• Informative: "No Child Left Behind aims to improve student performance and to provide disadvantaged children with better educational opportunities."

• Persuasive thesis: "No Child Left Behind should be repealed because the act has diminished opportunities for improved student performance.”

A persuasive thesis should. . .

• Take a position about which reasonable people could disagree

• Deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment

• Express one main idea• Assert your conclusions about a subject • Contain words like "because," "since," "so,"

"although," "unless," and "however."

Persuasive thesis statements—what should they do?

Take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree

Deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment

Express one main idea Assert your conclusion(s) about a subject—take

a position!Use words like “because,” “since,” “therefore,”

etc. to show relationships between ideas.

Example

• Weak: Adoption is a very serious issue, so people who decide to give up a child or adopt a child need to think about it carefully.

• Better: The United States needs to create national laws for adoptions because this will ensure that biological and adoptive parents are clear about their rights and those of the adopted child.

Three possible points

Since states currently have different laws, parents may be confused about what their rights are and whether the law holds for the state where the adoptive or biological parents live.

National laws concerning the rights of adopted children to find biological parents would also be helpful.

International adoptions would have to abide by specific, national American laws as well.

Opposition points and issues to consider. . .

Shouldn’t states have the right to set up their own adoption laws, as they currently do?

Who would decide what the national laws should be?

Would the laws favor biological or adoptive parents? For example, states like Florida have very short periods for biological parents to change their minds about the adoption (48 hours), while other states have a period of several months.

Source

Arkansas adopts ban on adoption, foster care by unmarried couples. (2008, November 12). Education Week, 5. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

This article demonstrates how different states have developed specific laws concerning who can (and cannot) adopt. National guidelines outlining who could adopt would help to reduce confusion. What if an unmarried couple from California wanted to adopt a child from Arkansas? Would the Arkansas law apply, or the California law? National laws would make cross-state adoptions less complicated, and it would also ensure that more conservative states did not adopt such stringent guidelines that orphans could not get adopted.

Some questions to consider. . .

• What are differences between informative and persuasive writing?

• What kinds of persuasion do we see and use in our daily lives?

• How might you use persuasive writing in your professional life?

• What are some positive (or negative) experiences you have had with writing?

• What apprehensions do you feel about this class/final project?

Organizing and Developing your ideas

• Establish a thesis• Consider writing an outline (it can be changed later)• Take the ideas in the outline and brainstorm each

concept/argument• Begin researching and incorporating evidence to support your

argument/claims

19

More help with developing ideas

Review the following Writing Center Workshop for help with fleshing out your ideas:

http://khe2.acrobat.com/p35695303/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

20

Letters to the Editor

21

Letters to the Editor Activity, 1• Truth and fiction on the stimulus bill [Editorial]. (2010, February 20). The

New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/opinion/20sat1.html

• Take charge: The stimulus bill requires President Obama’s intervention. [Editorial]. (2009, February 1). Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/31/AR2009013101535.html

• The immigration law fallacy: Will Texas be next? [Editorial]. (2010, June 16). Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/x-51717-Dallas-Tea-Party-Examiner~y2010m6d16-The-Immigration-Law-Fallacy-Will-Texas-Be-Next

22

Letters to the Editor Activity, 2

• Are these letters effective?• What is the argument each makes?• Are the facts that the authors use credible? You can

go to FactCheck.org to read credible information on this topic.

• Select at least one argument in each letter that you can verify, or not, and discuss how this adds to or detracts from the writer’s argument.

23

What do you do if you get stuck while writing your draft?

Used with permission from the artist.

Even professional writers suffer from writer’s block sometimes.

• Some of the greatest writers in literature such as Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Joseph Conrad, and Ernest Hemingway were tormented by writer's block. However, if you have ever looked at War and Peace, you would not believe that Tolstoy had any problems writing!

• Don't let writer's block stop you. Writer Jack London gave the following advice: "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." (LOL)

Strategies to Use if You Get Stuck

Strategies to Use if You Get Stuck

• 1. Go ahead and write drivel at first, as long as you write. Out of your nonsense and ramblings, however, believe that something good will come, some idea will catch fire right there on the page, there will be sparks, and patterns will emerge.

• Be willing to throw stuff out. It's all right. Do you think Shakespeare didn't litter his kitchen floor with balled-up pieces of paper?

• One nice thing about the word-processor is that you're not wasting paper and trees; you're just exercising the delete key. But this is no time to worry about the environment. Fill that wastebasket with paper and trust that something will come of all this scribbling. It will.

Strategy #2: Physical Exercise

Strategy #2: Physical Exercise

• People who tell you that physical exercise is important for mental activity are telling the truth.

• If nothing's happening on the computer screen or paper, take a walk around the block. Hit the treadmill or tennis courts or drive to the gym. But take your notebook with you. Fresh blood will be flowing through your brain and jogging might just jog something loose in your head. It happens.

• Now you know why it's called "jog"ging. LOL

Strategy #3: Start in the MiddleStrategy #3: Start in the Middle

• Another trick is to start in the middle of your writing project.

• Avoid the problem of getting started by starting on a part of the project that interests you more and then come back to the introductory matter later. This sounds a bit like starting to earn your second million dollars before you've earned your first, but it's really not a bad idea in any case, because sometimes it's easier to say where you're going after you know where you've been. After all, your readers will never know you wrote the introduction last.

Strategy #4: Tape RecorderStrategy #5: Read & Take Notes

Strategy #4: Tape RecorderStrategy #5: Read & Take Notes

• 4) Another maneuver around the old writer's block is to talk about your topic into a tape recorder. Play the tape back and write down what you hear in clusters of ideas.

• 5) Many people read and take more notes at times like this. Since reading will make you think, you should write out all of the ideas and insights that come to you as you read. Soon you will have plenty of new material to add to your paper.

Strategy #6: Free WritingStrategy #7: Talk

Strategy #6: Free WritingStrategy #7: Talk

• 6) Try free writing, which is writing fast, in phrases or sentences, on your topic without imposing any structure or order. Then do some more reading and follow that with additional free writing. Getting words on the page in any form is what it takes for some writers to break out of a block.

• 7) It is also extremely useful to talk about your ideas for your paper with someone else to get fresh insights and solve some of your writing problems. Or ask someone else to read a draft of your paper and to write some comments on it. This will provide you with insights and ideas to get you moving again. This is the idea behind using peer groups! You have a ready made group of readers!

Finally, give yourself permission to write a less than perfect first draft.

Finally, give yourself permission to write a less than perfect first draft.

• You can paralyze yourself by trying to produce a finished draft on the first try.

• Lower your expectations for the first draft, and remind yourself that you can always go back later and fix it.

Must you know your opponent's positions? Why or why not?

Other Side of the Argument: Counter-arguments• You can not know if your position is correct if

you do not know both sides of the entire issue. This goes for everything in life.

• Plus, you can not possibly write a good argumentative essay if you do not know both sides of the issue. You can not convince your reader that your side is right if you do not cover the other side of the issue.

• For example, an attorney never asks a question he or she doesn't already know the answer to.

What are counter-arguments?

Counter-Arguments• Counter-arguments are the other side of your

assertion. They are the "yeah, buts" of the people who disagree with you.

• It is your job to convince the opposition by acknowledging and then refuting their points, encouraging them to accept your point of view or consider your point of view as a possibility, and giving them "food for thought."

• It is possible that they will listen or read and still reject your position. But with established truths, opinions of authorities, primary source information, statistical findings, and personal experience, you will be able to form a logical well-developed argument.

Refuting an Argument• Refuting an opposing view means to attack it in order to

weaken, invalidate, or make it less credible to a reader. • Since all arguments are dialogues or debates even when the

opponent is only imaginary, refutation of the other point of view is always implicit in your arguments.

• As you write, you should be looking at your own argument as an unsympathetic reader may look at it, asking yourself the same kinds of critical questions and trying to find its weaknesses in order to correct them.

• If your argument is long and complex, choose only the most important points to refute. Also, you must have evidence to support what you are countering.

You must refute counter-arguments before your reader can make them.

• For example, if your assertion was: "President Bush was right to have the U.S. invade Iraq," then you would be working to prove that statement to your readers.

• However, someone who was reading your paper might say, "BUT we did not find weapons of mass destruction." That is an example of a counter-argument. The counter-argument disagrees with the original claim. It finds the holes or weaknesses in the argument.

• In your paper, you must refute counter-arguments before your reader can make them. You will never convince people that invading Iraq was right unless you provide an answer to "we didn't find WMDs."

Even when refuting a counter-argument, you must provide PROOF!

• Remember: Even with a counter-argument, you MUST provide your readers with PROOF that YOU are right!

• You are trying to think what a reader who disagrees with you would say and say it

first. You have all done that before with your parents. LOL

How do you develop

counter arguments?

Developing Counter Arguments

• Read your paper critically. What would people with opposing views say? Think about ways in which they might poke holes in your supporting arguments. Anticipate their questions, concerns, objections, and counterarguments.

• By anticipating the objections and counterarguments, you can overcome them. How would you go about doing this?

Developing Counter-Arguments (continued)

• After you have drafted your paper, reread it and make a list of your reasons and evidence. Reread what you have written from your opponent's perspective, looking for ways to knock down your reasons and evidence. You can also use your outline for this.

• Next to each of your points, list your opponent's possible objections. Answer the objections using facts, examples, and expert testimony.

How Do You Find Your Point?

You’ve been given topics, so all you need is a point.

• You've been given topics, so that's not a problem. All you need to do is choose one. But a topic is not enough. What point will you make about your topic? This is an informative essay, so you must inform or teach the reader about some aspect of your topic. How do you figure that out? This is where prewriting comes in.

Methods You Can Use to Find Your Point: Freewriting

• Take a piece of paper or pull up a blank computer screen and start jotting down everything you know about the topic. When you run out of things you know, ask questions that you'd like to have answered.

Sample Free Writing about Illegal Immigration

• That means coming to the country illegally. What makes it illegal? How do you come legally? What type of people are coming and why? How are they coming? Where are they coming from? Why? Are they families or just individuals? How do they get here. I heard the government was going to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. I also heard that illegals had built a tunnel. Some people say that it's a war zone down there. Do we have the same problems with Canada? What about our large coast line. I heard people are sneaking in by ship. Some have even landed on Sanibel. That's just down the road from me!

• Reading that, you can see that it lacks unity and organization. That means that it jumps from idea to idea.

Freewriting (continued)• When you use free writing, you write down whatever comes

to you. Don't evaluate your ideas; just write FAST! After you are done, comb through the writing, much like an archeologist carefully scrapes the earth looking for things of value. Something you wrote may be the direction (point) in which you want to go.

• Choose one sentence and research it. Examples:– "The U.S. is proposing to build a wall between

Mexico and the U.S." – – You could write an essay informing the reader

about that.– OR: "How do you come illegally?" Answering that

question could be your essay.

Methods You Can Use to Find Your Point: Questioning

• If free writing isn't helping or it's just not for you, try questioning. Brainstorm answers to WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY.

• WHO: People from other countries who come to the U.S. They're coming here illegally. Possibly terrorists, too.

• WHAT: They're coming here illegally. What does that mean? How do you come here legally?

• WHERE: They're coming from Mexico, Central America, S. America, China, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Arab nations. Maybe other places.

• HOW: How are they getting here? Car? Boat? Plane? Walking?

Choose one question to answer• WHEN: It's happening now. How long has it

been going on? Have there always been laws restricting immigration? Is it different now than before or are we just more worried about it now?

• WHY: Why are they coming here? Money? Freedom? Fleeing from oppression? Running drugs? Terrorists?

• Select one of the questions (who, what, when, where, why). – Example: Why: "Why are they coming

here?“– Answering that question could be your

essay.

49

Any questions?