invention

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Lesson Two:

Invention

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What is argument?

Our definition of argument

“The aim or purpose of argument is to use logic (both inductive and deductive) to create reasoned communication of ideas, insights, and experiences to some audience so as to produce a new understanding of some issue for that audience.”



Today’s Objective

By the end of this lesson, you should know:

How to use different thinking processes to systematically develop and analyze key

ideas prior to the drafting process.

Pg. 124 in your text

InventionFour Great Inventions









InventionFamous Inventors through history…



Invention

Inventio- process of discovering ideas or perceiving new relationships among ideas.



Invention

Ancient Greeks: thinking strategies, used to discover ideas for public speeches, debates, legislative, judicial and literary purposes.



InventionIn writing, invention helps the writer

discover ideas that may be used in drafting.



Generate Ideas

Analytical Thinking

See parts that create a whole

Relationships they create

InventionThe Invention Guide

Collection of strategies to invent or discover ideas for a specific writing topic, claim or

idea.

Definition

Exemplification

Comparison

Causality

Effects


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Guiding Concepts

1. Always isolate and analyze key ideas

2. Pursue any vague but interesting ideas relevant to some part of the writing prompt or audience as they turn up in your thinking and notes

3. Realize that an idea discovered in definitional thinking might be further developed and analyzed in cause and effect, or exemplification or comparison

Guiding Concepts

The basic idea of invention is simply to create as much material as you can.

Create, create, and create even more.

At the end you are going to have a lot of material to work with when you write your

first draft. Of course, you won’t use everything.

Guiding Concepts

It’s alright to be messy! The goals is not neatness or perfection. Rather, the goal is to

generate as much material as possible.

Do whatever works best for you.

Guiding Concepts

All of our examples are going to be for the general topic:

“Vegetarianism”

Guiding Concepts

How I started: Start with what you know and make claims even if you are not sure they are correct.

These are my notes, yours do not necessarily have to look exactly like this. Your notes need to follow the guide, but also explore your style of writing

Guiding Concepts

From my own observation, vegetarians have always gotten a lot of criticism from society. In a society where consuming animal products is a largely organized process and business, vegetarians have a difficult time eating a carnivorous society. Write an essay arguing the benefits of becoming a vegetarian. The benefits towards not only the body, but also towards the environment

Guiding ConceptsVegetarianismAmerican’s eat too much meatToo much meat is unhealthy for the bodyOne can still gain or obtain maximum nutritional value

by cutting out meat in their diet.Meat is mainly a good source of protein, how much

protein does one actually need in his or her own diet?

Eating the right combination of vegetables can provide one with the proper amount of protein.

Eating too much meat adds more and more fat to one’s diet.

There is no fiber in meatFiber is an important

Definitional Thinking

Whole definition formula(Key idea to be analyzed) + (form of the verb

to be) + (category idea) + (restricting ideas)


1. Begin with a key idea to think about.

2. Follow that word by is or are or any other tense or form of the verb to be.


3. Think of a category that somehow restricts your word; you may use the phrase kind of

to help create a restricting category; the category word or phrase follows is or are.

4. Use one of these words (who, that, when, if, by, because, or caused by) to add ideas [in a clause or phrase(s)] that further restrict and

define the category word or phrase.


Choose a key idea or topic to place in the first slot. Some form of the verb to be will cause your mind to follow that verb with an idea

that begins to define and analyze the key but vague idea.


Whole definition formula(Key idea to be analyzed) + (form of the verb

to be) + (category idea) + (restricting ideas)


Example: Vegetarianism is:

Healthyhelps with weight losshelpful for the environmenthealthier than alternate dietslabeled a certain way by societymisunderstood

Key Idea +



To be verb +

{Category}


4. Use one of these words (who, that, when, if, by, because, or caused by) to add ideas [in a clause or phrase(s)] that further restrict and

define the category word or phrase.


Vegetarianism is healthy for the body because

meat is excluded from the diet and there is less fat in the diet.

*Because meals often contain more nutrients.When the diet does not contain any animal products*Because eating meat is unhealthyBecause meals do not contain as much fatbecause there is not too much protein in one’s diet

Key Idea + To be verb + {Category} + Restricting Ideas

Comparative Thinking

Look for ideas or concepts within your notes that can be thought about by comparisons of

similarities and/or differences.




Vegetarian diets contain more nutrients than meat diets

A vegetarian diet can provide a person with just as much protein as a meat diet

A vegetarian provides more energy and a better quality life than a meat diet




Help make comparative thinking efficient by creating focus points, specific points of comparison through which two or more

ideas, experiences, or objects can be analyzed.


Vegetarian diets contain more nutrients than meat diets.

Focus Point: What are the differences in nutritional value between a vegetarian diet and a diet that includes meat?


Comparative thinking works in two basic ways:

1. Make the comparisons in terms of shared similarities or unshared contrasts. This

form generates ideas when something less familiar is compared with something more

familiar.


Comparative thinking works in two basic ways:

2. A second form is analyses for similarities and differences when both parts of the

comparisons are known but unexamined. Create comparisons to reveal details of

similarity and contrast for previously known but unanalyzed ideas, objects, experiences,

and so on.


Remember, vague but good ideas will turn up in your invention guide notes without

another comparison neatly attached. You have to recognize the possibility for

comparative thinking and create the other half—the thing to compare your ideas and notes with. (Sometimes, of course, both

parts of a comparison are present.)


Once you have two halves of comparisons, help your mind to work efficiently by

creating “focus points” for the comparison.

Ask yourself, what do I want to learn from comparing X with Y?


MeatAmino acidsIronHigh source of proteinVitamin B-12

No-meat in dietSame amount of amino acidsIronLower source of proteinVitamin B-12 (often difficult to find in non-meat products)

Can be found in free range eggs, yeast, and soy products





Comparative ThinkingOne of the main arguments that society or

nutritionists make against vegetarianism is that when someone cuts meat out of their diet, they tend to lack certain specific nutrients that only meat can provide, such as iron, crucial amino acids and vitamin b-12. According to vegsoc.org, certain vegetables and grains alone will not fulfill these nutritional needs, however, with the right combination of grains, green vegetables and free range eggs, a vegetarian can still have a well balanced diet with less protein and less of the health risks that come with consuming too much meat.


Benefits of becoming a vegetarian that does not include health?

MoneyEnvironmental effects

Make other comparisons between how much money it costs to buy meat instead of vegetables and fruits.

Effective Thinking

Review key ideas for ideas that could be further developed by analyzing the effects of those ideas.

Use these two questions to generate effects analysis:

(1)What has happened because X exists?

(2) What is likely to happen in the future because X exists?

Effective Thinking

The analysis of effects requires the mind to take an idea, action, belief, experience, or value and then

to consider what will result from any one of those.

Results from the past or any speculation of results in the future

Effective Thinking

What are the effects on someone’s health and well being when their diet is changed to a vegetarian diet?

You would then want to research health effects of changing diets. Seek out future effects, past research done on vegetarians.

Exemplification Thinking

Create examples that illustrate key words, ideas, or concepts. These may come

directly from the writing prompt or from notes in any other section of the invention guide where vague, abstract, or general

ideas occur.

Exemplification Thinking

Vague Idea: American’s eat too much meat

Because they are influenced by the society

Specific: by the media and corporations

Find an example: Evidence about Corporations spending millions of dollars on advertising the meat industry. How does this affect the American consumer?

Causal Thinking

Take a key idea or ideas from your notes and follow it with the word because or the

phrase caused by.

Causality helps you to discover why or how some idea, event, value, attitude, belief, or feeling occurs; causality provides reasons

for.

Causal Thinking

American’s eat too much meat. Vague Idea

What causes American’s to eat too much meat?

CorporationsMediaCultureDishes in restaurantsFast Food

Homework

Write 5 – 8 pages of invention notes in your writing notebook. You must use all types of

invention in your notes.

Remember, pursue any vague or general ideas and try to make them more concrete.

This does not need to be neat! In fact, it’s probably going to be messy.

Reading

Chapter 8; pages 246-256

invention

Technology

category idea

restricting ideas

ional thi nk ing vegetarianism

g uiding

analyzekey ideas

ional thi nk ing example

vague idea

category word