RWS 100 9817 Testa Assumptions Charting and First

RWS 100 – 9/8/17 - Testa Assumptions, Charting, and First Paper

Homework: Kristof What PACES did you get?

Assignment 1 Prompt • The prompt is important. Follow the prompt to be successful. • I have laid out what you need to do for all parts of the essay. • We will discuss how to write the essay over the next two weeks. • We will peer review on the 25 th, and you will conference with me before the paper is due.

Clive Thompson • Clive Thompson is the author of the text you will be writing your first assignment on. • He is a regular contributor to NYT Magazine. • He is a “technology writer” and interested in how technology shapes us.

Clive Thompson • You. Tube video.

Assumptions • Assumptions are beliefs, values, and ways of seeing the world that an author takes for granted. • Assumptions are sometimes explicitly stated, but are often unstated because authors expect their audience to share these beliefs or values. • Assumptions are HARD! They require critically examining a text.

Ways of Getting at Assumptions • Understand what holds an argument together. • Identify the writer’s primary audience. • Evaluate and critique arguments. • Become more aware of your own assumptions.

Assumptions • Look for assumptions the author makes about the audience’s beliefs and values. • Read the introduction of the text. What do you have to believe/value/care about to get past the first line, paragraph or page? • Who is going to check out right here? • How does the author attempt to bring in people who value X here? • Who is not going to be able to read this?

Assumptions • Look for unstated values, beliefs and premises that are necessary for the author’s claims to “hang together. ”

Assumptions • SPCA example.

Assumptions • Try to find significant “absences, ” “silences, ” or gaps in an argument.

Assumptions • Drake is a rapper. Therefore, all of the songs he sings are rap songs. • Drake sang a song about starting from the bottom. So, he must have started from the bottom himself when he was young.

Assumptions • Look for assumptions embedded in the definitions, categories, and key terms of an argument.

Assumptions • Kanye West, the self-absorbed rapper with “I am god” syndrome, won another award on Sunday. • Kanye West, the deified rap genius, won another award on Sunday.

Assumptions • Look for assumptions embedded in the rhetorical “frames” authors construct.

Assumptions • Salon Magazine “Court rules against pot for sick people” • New York Times: “Supreme Court Allows Prosecution of Medical Marijuana Users” • San Diego Union Tribune: “Court OKs Marijuana Crackdown” • L. A. Times: “Justices Give Feds Last Word on Medical Marijuana” • Washington Times: “Medical Marijuana Laws Don't Shield Users From Prosecution”

Charting • Charting involves annotating a text in order to show the “work” each paragraph, group of paragraphs, or section is doing. • Charting helps identify what each part of the text is doing as well as what it is saying —helping us move away from summary to analysis.

Macro-Charting • Break text down into sections--identify “chunks” or parts of the text that seem to work together to DO something for the overall argument. • Use “doing” verbs to separate sections (providing context, making a claim, describing an issue, rebutting counter argument).

Micro-Charting • Break down sections of text by paragraph to analyze what each paragraph is doing for the overall argument. • Detail the smaller “moves” and strategies made within paragraphs: note when, where, and how and author makes a claim, cites evidence, and/or supports his/argument using a rhetorical strategy.

Charting Kristof • Macro-charting of Kristof • Par. 1 -7: • Par. 8 -10: • Par. 11 -19: • Par. 20:

Charting Kristof • Macro-charting of Kristof • Par. 1 -7: Placing gun violence in a framework of public health • Par. 8 -10: Rebuttals • Par. 11 -19: Solutions • Par. 20: Conclusion

Homework • Read first part of Public Thinking by Clive Thompson. • It is pages 1 -9 of Physical Course Reader. • No writing is due.