Assignments for Friday, December 6, 2013

• Complete your second argumentation essay (due at beginning of class)
• Send or bring me an electronic copy of your essay
• Turn in your rewrite
• Learn the following vocabulary words: brazen, cerebral, complicit, furtive, indispensable, legerdemain, liaison, relegate, visceral
• Read "Knockouts High and Low"
• In one or two sentences, answer each of the following questions about the reading, and bring your written responses to class
• Who are the three famous persons, mentioned explicitly or implicitly by Steyn, who died November 22, 1963?
• What does Lewis mean by "men without chests"?
• What, according to Steyn, is the common theme that connects the "Knockout" game and the U.S. Senate's change in filibuster rules?
• How does Steyn tie together significant ideas from Lewis and Huxley?
• Does Steyn ever state his main idea? If so, what is it? If not, how would you phrase it?

Assignments for Friday, November 22, 2013

• Learn the following vocabulary words: bedraggled, brazen, cadre, caveat, comeuppance, conspiratorial, debacle, fiasco, funereal, indictment, misbegotten, modicum, obligatory, plausible, poignant, praetorian guard, scythe, searing
• Read "Obamacare Schadenfreudrama"
• Choose a topic for your second argumentation essay and begin finding and using sources
• Come to class with research materials and be ready to discuss your progress

Topics for second argumentation essay

Choose one of the following topics or subjects.

• The Affordable Care Act should be repealed.
• The Affordable Care Act needs a little work and can still be of benefit to the country.
• Electronic surveillance is a necessary component of national defense with a proven track record of success and should be continued or expanded by the federal government.
• The federal government's power of electronic surveillance should be severely curtailed, especially against Americans.
• Describe and argue for a coherent strategy for the United States toward Iran's development of nuclear weapons

In-class reading

"Let JFK RIP? It's Complicated"

Assignments for Friday, November 15

• Complete worksheet on rhetorical fallacies, and come to class ready to discuss it.
• Turn in first argumentation essay at beginning of class.
• Email me an electronic copy of your essay at my Motlow email address.

Email note

I have now begun using my Motlow email account. In the future, if you want to contact me by email, please do so at my Motlow address: mstanley[ at ]mscc.edu.

Assignments for Friday, Nov. 8

• Read PA 137-51
• Know and be able to use these words: admonition, atomistic, coerce, connote, crematorium, latency
• Be familiar with the historical significance of Auschwitz
• Read "In Jedwabne"
• If not completed in class, make a Works Cited page in MLA format with four sources to be used in your argumentation essay
• Bring a completed rough draft of your argumentation essay to class

Evaluating web sources

What do you think about these?

College

http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/w-kent-barnds/is-college-worth-it-the-a_b_4122884.html
http://www.theonion.com/articles/college-unveils-new-media-center-every-month,34400/
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/348689/congrats-grad-was-it-worth-it-interview
http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/255720/young-alumni-say-college-was-worth-it-jason-fertig

Violent media
http://www.lionlamb.org/media_violence.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/opinion/sunday/does-media-violence-lead-to-the-real-thing.html?_r=0
http://www.theonion.com/articles/tv-blamed-for-rise-in-formulaic-violence,1887/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201309/violence-the-media-and-your-brain
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-j-ferguson/media-violence_b_4018469.html

A few more
http://the7truth7ministries72.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/is-barack-hussein-obama-the-false-prophet-of-rev-13/
http://www.beastobama.com/
http://www.cogwriter.com/barack-obama-prophecy-antichrist.htm
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.asp

Quiz

1. In the chapter, "Finding and Evaluating Sources" in Practical Argument, what web service and its founder are referred to repeatedly?

2. According to the same chapter, which of the following is not a good criterion for evaluating the quality of a source: accuracy, credibility, objectivity, length, currency, comprehensiveness, authority?

3. According to your readings for today, are employers using social media in hiring selections?

4. Write the new "class motto."

5. Write the old "class motto."

Assignments for Friday, November 1

• Read PA 275-311, 343-49
• Do Exercise 8.2 for one of the three articles
• Continue gathering sources and infomation for your upcoming paper
• Keep good bibliographic info for each source
• Bring your research and notes to class

Assignments for Friday, October 25

• Learn and be able to use these vocabulary words: brandish, collateral, consensual, discordant, euphemism, eviscerate, exacerbate, existential, monotony, mundane, proximity, symptomatic
• Read "The Drug War's Collateral Damage"
• Read "The Trouble With Wikpedia"
• Read PA pp. 241-72

In-class exercise

In one or two sentences each, answer the following questions about Glenn Reynolds's essay, "The Parent Trap."

1. What is the main idea of "The Parent Trap"?

2. Why are children no longer an economic boost to families?

3. Who is Vladamir Putin?

4. What are some of the "social costs" of parenting in the U.S.?

5. What is evidence that parenting has declined in prestige in recent decades?

6. What recommendations does Reynolds suggest to remedy the parent trap?

Reminder

To receive a grade on an essay, you're required to give or send me an electronic copy of that essay. You can do so by sending it to the email address I gave you in class.

Assignments for Friday, October 18, 2013

• Turn in plagiarism essay, if required
• Email electronic copy of first rhetorical analysis
• Review "The Parent Trap" and be prepared for a quiz and class discussion about the essay

Instructions for plagiarism essay

If you scored less than 80 on the plagiarism quiz, you're required to write a 300- to 500-word essay demonstrating that you understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Your essay must include the following information:

• Definition of plagiarism and why it's considered a serious academic offense,
• Standards in this course for determining sloppy and flagrant plagiarism,
• The penalties in this course for either sloppy or flagrant plagiarism,
• Difference between a direct and indirect quote and what is required to keep each from being plagiarism,
• Specific information on exactly when quotation marks or indentations are required in referencing a source.

In addition to providing good information on plagiarism, please pay careful attention to spelling, punctuation, and grammar, as they will be factored into your essay grade. It should go without saying that if you reference any source (including this blog post) in writing your paper, you must attribute that source properly (in MLA format, as best you're able to decipher it from LBH, Chapter 46). Please keep in mind that the purpose of this essay is to show you understand the rules of plagiarism and how to avoid it; don't worry about whether or not the essay is especially entertaining.

Assignments for Friday, October 4, 2013

• Complete rhetorical analysis essay
• Read "The Parent Trap"

Assignments for September 27, 2013

• Read & study PA 89-109
• Don’t worry about “The Parent Trap”
• If you didn't complete it in class, finish 3-paragraph critical response to “One Man, Many Wives, Big Problems”
• Do plagiarism exercises, LBH 654-55
• Complete outline of rhetorical analysis and be prepared to go over it in class
• Familiarize yourself with MLA style, LBH pp. 667-713

Choices for rhetorical analysis

Choose one of the following essays for your four- to six-page rhetorical analysis.

• "Yes, a College Education is Worth the Costs" (PA 29-31)
• "We Send Too Many Students to College" (PA 32-35)
• "College is a Waste of Time" (PA 38-39)
• "What is a College Education Really Worth?" (PA 40-42)
• "Violent Media is Good for Kids" (PA 58-61)
• "When Life Imitates Video" (PA 62-64)
• "One Many, Many Wives, Big Problems" (web)
• "Social Harmony" (web)
• "Excitement Deprives Children of Happiness" (web)

Assignments for Friday, Sept. 20, 2013

• Read PA 51-73 
• Study and learn these vocabulary words: acquiescence, authoritarian, copious, deprivation, egalitarian, evangelical, hierarchy, infanticide, polyamory, polyandry, polygamy, regime, scarcity 
• Read “One Man, Many Wives, Big Problems”
• Be prepared to discuss all assigned readings in class
• Read the plagiarism chapter in LBH
• Bring these two completed exercises to class: Safe practices and the final three exercises here (Here's an extra credit question: Was our use of the first five of these exercises in class today plagiarism?). Also, here is a good treatment of avoiding plagiarism, especially in showing how to use one citation for an entire paragraph.

Assignment for Friday, September 13

• Vocabulary: chasten, emulate, exemplar, meek, menial, predisposition, prowess, rend, revere
•  PA 24-50
• "Social Harmony"   (This essay is part of a much larger web page, so I don’t advise trying to print the whole thing.)