Overview The  assignment is less prescriptive than Essay 1, on problem-solving, and you can still be imaginative in y

Overview

The  assignment is less prescriptive than Essay 1, on problem-solving, and you can still be imaginative in your approach. Open the files in Module 1 to read and annotate each of the essays below; please obtain Weston’s book and read or review the first eleven rules.

Reading Assignments 

 "You Also Have the Right to Tell a Bigot What You Think" by Leonard Pitts

"American Paranoid Policing" by Ta Nehisi Coates (Atlantic Monthly 2015). 

"Identifying White Privilege" by Jennifer Simpson (print).

 "Three Ways of Meeting Oppression" from  Why We Can’t Wait. Martin Luther King Jr 1958

 "The Negro in Harlem" from The Big Sea by Langston Hughes.

Chapters 1-11 in A Rulebook for Arguments and Chapter 12 on Analogy

"Appeals  to Logic"

Instructions on What To Do

Write an essay that explains the guiding purpose of the authors Coates, King, Hughes, Simpson, and Pitts. These essays, speeches and interviews, as reading assignments, are each of a genre (a kind), from journalism and literary art, from articles in a magazine or journal, an opinion column in a newspaper on the editorial page, or a chapter from a book. Although their styles are somewhat informal, the authors are still making arguments about a serious issue. Consider that an issue is a solution to a problem that not everyone agrees on, such as how some people still do not agree that wearing a mask and getting a vaccination are ways to prevent the spread of a virus. Others seem to think it is a political statement, and so a health issue has become a political issue for some people. What solutions do the authors provide on racial and social inequality?  How could these solutions be integrated into a single, general solution to accomplish a larger single common purpose?  So the task of Essay 2 is to state and define that general purpose in a readable and convincing argument.

Key Concept

As outlined in the Overview, readers should annotate and continue notetaking not only to identify main points, but also be able to do close reading that summarizes, paraphrases and illustrates your understanding of the authors’ guiding purpose, to clarify what it is in the authors’ texts. For critical  readers and writers, a guiding purpose solves the problem of organization, so make notes on the ways the authors organize their arguments. For example, the authors also reveal their guiding purposes by the length and order of content in the paragraphs, i.e., the content included and excluded, order and choice of ideas, the tone of sentences, the words and images in the sentences, and finally the richness (details and complexity) of the illustration. Everything that makes the piece of writing what it is guides the writer’s purpose.

Key Concept:  Arguing

Readers and writers should read, annotate and continue notetaking to identify main points, examples, and explanations, but also read closely to summarize, paraphrase, and illustrate the authors’ reasoning, especially the guiding purpose, to clarify it in an argumentative essay assignment. For arguers, readers, and writers, a guiding purpose solves the problem of organization. For example, the authors each reveal their guiding purposes by the length and order of content in the paragraphs and chapters, i.e., the content included and excluded, arrangement of ideas, the tone of sentences, the words and images in the sentences, and finally the richness (details and complexity) of the illustration and evidence: Everything that makes the piece of writing what it is guides the writer’s purpose.

Reading Guidelines:  Read and annotate all the articles posted above so that you can identify, analyze, and explain the one guiding purpose the authors are attempting to achieve in common. Inquiry is the key. You should find the "question sets" in Module 1 helpful on organizing information and making inferences from the authors’ information, solutions, and arguments.

Reading Instructions:  Read and annotate all the articles posted above so that you can identify, analyze, evaluate, and explain the one guiding purpose the authors have in common. You should find the "question sets" on these works useful on organizing and making inferences from the authors’ information, solutions, and arguments.

Pre-Writing: Use the Graded Discussions develop your thinking and write your essay in stages. This process will can help you to practice critical thinking skills while also writing out your ideas to accomplish your purpose.

Graded Discussion No. 1  Think about and introduce your own goals and purposes in English 5.

Graded Discussion No. 2 First read the "Elements of Reasoning" on the Modules page, Week Two.  Observe and listen to a video of the 6 January "Insurrection at the US Capitol" and try to decide how people do things for a purpose (or not). 

Graded Discussion No. 3 Dive into annotating and reading the authors (Coates, Simpson, Davis) so that you can finally write out the authors’ purposes.

Discussion on Guiding Purpose and Key Concept

1. Except for our text book (Weston), the texts contrast and compare with each other; again, investigate how each of these authors generally has a common guiding purpose and decide how to state it.  A good way to discover the guiding purpose is to look for ways and markers that authors use to organize their texts, i.e., the key concepts and theses they use, the author’s audience, the topics of paragraphs and how they change (or not), the evidence for the topics,  tone of the language, the length of the text, and the details of the content.  Introduce the authors before you explain the guiding purpose they all expose. What is it?  
2. Accordingly, as you read, annotate as much as you can to create markers in the text.  Once you have marked up each text, you should be able to put your thinking together into a complete sentence that tells the purpose for a solution that you can claim the authors share. This statement will be thesis of your report. What evidence do you have to back up your claim on their guiding purpose?  Evidence can be presented as example(s), paraphrases, and short quotes.  Introduce the evidence that the authors use, such as examples that support or reveal their purpose. It is not necessary to give a personal or first-hand example in your paragraph from your experience, but it may help. 
3. Readers may prefer to print out the shorter readings; having a paper version to make hand-written markups in the text preferable so that you can go back to the text to identify evidence of the authors’ purposes and make comments on key passages.

4. Feel free to ask questions about this assignment and its task on the Inbox, at a Zoom Meeting, or in a Conference when one becomes available.

Instructions on how to submit the final version of this assignment:

1. Once you have annotated the texts, use your introductory sentence patterns (Modules, Week 2) to introduce authors, titles, quotations and paraphrases to plan, produce, and review a draft in a file from your computer. You should plan on reading and reviewing your draft and the authors’ arguments until you can boil down what they are trying to accomplish (the purpose) with their readers. Then be able to show evidence on why you believe that there is a common purpose among the authors (your thesis), especially reasons and examples that support your thesis. 
2. Pre-Writing

• Open the files in Module 1 to read and annotate each of the essays and begin reading Davis’s book of argumentative speeches as well as Weston’s book on arguments.
• Read, annotate and organize your reading of the essays with an eye toward the authors’ purposes and your many notes.
• Write a trial thesis on what you think the authors’ common guiding purpose is and why you believe it is true.
• Using an outline or a map to plan the order of paragraphs that support your thesis can be helpful.
• Write the paragraphs, keep reviewing, reorganizing, and revise; edit your essay until you are satisfied that you have completed the assignment.
• To end your report, write one good paragraph on why the authors’ arguments are relevant nowadays to you and others.
• Use the Checklist Review (Module 1 Week 3) to review, revise, and rewrite your essay.
• Once you have reviewed, revised and rewritten your essay and are ready to turn it in, click "Assignments" under the  2021 Spring Notifications list.

1. To upload your file into the Assignments window, click the Choose File button.
2. The folder on your computer appears. To choose the essay file in your folder, click on the name of the file, and the file should appear in the Assignments window.
3. At the bottom of the window, click the Submit Assignment Button [Choose, or Browse button (depending on your browser).]

 Due on Sunday 31 October at 11:00 pm.