More Argument by Analogy

Nate Silver uses the prevent defense to explain Mitt Romney’s slide in the South Carolina polls. Reasonable?

Treasure Hunt with Clay Shirky

Here’s a game. Watch this twelve-minute TED talk with Clay Shirky, and find the following:

* an analogy

* an emotional appeal

* a metaphor (hint: it’s in someone else’s argument that Shirky is paraphrasing)

* antithesis

* Fun fact: I quoted Shirky a whole lot in my dissertation. Like this, for example.

PBS, Fox News, and Trustworthy Sources

Public Policy Polling has released a poll they conducted of what television sources people trust. Interestingly, PBS is the source that the most people trust, while Fox News was listed as the #1 “most trusted” source and the #1 “least trusted” source. I highly recommend reading the summary at the very least, and actually the full report is very readable and gives you a lot more detail, breaking it down among political parties. Key quote:

-Democrats trust everything- except Fox News. NBC does the best with them at +50 (67/17), followed by PBS and CNN at +49 (66/17 and 65/16 respectively), ABC at +38 (57/19), CBS at +35 (58/23), MSNBC at +33 (56/23), and even Comedy Central at +4 (36/32). Fox News comes in at -36 (25/61).

-Republicans meanwhile don’t trust anything except Fox News. PBS comes the closest to breaking even among non-Fox outlets, although not very close, at -30 (26/56).  It’s followed by CNN at -49 (18/67), MSNBC at -51 (18/69), NBC at -52 (17/69), CBS at -54 (17/71), ABC at -56 (14/70), and Comedy Central at -59 (12/71). But Fox News comes in at a stellar 73/17.

Independents are with the Democrats. They trust everything except Fox News. Main takeaway from this poll: tv news has become just as polarizing as the political parties in this country.

It would be worth our time to talk a bit in class about the implications of this kind of divide for providing support for an argument.

 

Name Change

I’ve impulsively changed the name of this blog from the bland “AP Language & Composition” to the bold and provocative “Now Read This.” I’m crazy! What will I do next?!

This is really meant to signal my intention to post things that are relevant–even in a general way–to our discussions in class, especially regarding argument and persuasion. These will not be required reading unless I tell you otherwise, but I will expect that most of you have at least glanced at it. I’m not going to put it here unless I think it will help you understand the concepts we’re discussing.

Stephen Bloom, “Observations From 20 Years of Iowa Life”

Today we’re discussing Stephen Bloom’s essay, “Observations From 20 Years of Iowa Life,” which was published in the online edition of the Atlantic Monthly.

Here are a couple of responses prompted by the essay (and there were many):

• Des Moines Register writer Ken Fuson, “Mr. Bloom, He’s Iowa’s New Humorist“
• University of Iowa President Sally Mason, letter to the Atlantic Monthly
• A letter to the Cedar Rapids Gazette
• The Gazette‘s collection of other responses to Bloom

And then there’s this (warning: a few four-letter words inside):

Reading Assignment for Thursday

There are two reading assignments for Thursday.

First, read Mary Wollstonecraft’s essay “On National Education.” I recommend you review the one-pager from last term if you still have it.

Second, read the introduction to definition in the Bedford Reader, which runs from page 479-487. Pay special attention to the blue checklist on page 485, and to any new vocabulary along the way.

Assignments

Hi Folks,

I’ll be thinking of you on my way to Jacksonville tomorrow morning. While I’m gone, please read Margaret Talbot’s essay “Best in Class” (p. 113 in Language of Composition). I think you’ll find it interesting. Read it, and come to class Friday prepared to have a discussion on it.

Also, if you haven’t already done so, make sure you read the intro to chapter six in the Bedford Reader (pgs 185-191). That’s the chapter called “Example: Pointing to Instances.”

Finally, for Monday, read the introduction to chapter seven in the Bedford. That’s on Compare & Contrast, and runs from page 223 to 229.

See you Monday,

~ Dr. Ayers

Ken Robinson

If you missed either Tuesday or Wednesday, we were starting our discussion of argument and persuasion. We watched these two videos of Sir Ken Robinson, who speaks on education and creativity.

 

Writing an Annotated Bibliography

The purpose of writing an annotated bibliography is — oh, I’ll just let OWL at Purdue explain it:

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic.  Bibliographies are sometimes called “references” or “works cited” depending on the style format you are using.  A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation.

Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources.

If you click the link up there, you’ll find a more elaborate explanation of what sorts of things you might write in the summary/evaluation. Remember, we are interested in how you used the sources.

If You Were Gone…

In class today we read and discussed “Finding Prosperity by Feeding Monkeys,” by Harold Taw (Bedford Reader, p. 110) — Here’s the NPR audio, if you’re interested.

I also assigned the intros to Narration (pp. 81-89) and Description (pp. 137-143) for Monday, and Sarah Vowell’s essay “Shooting Dad” (p. 154) for Tuesday. This is all part of our preparation for the first revised essay we will begin soon. How soon? Very soon.