ThoughtMeat

Hi everyone,

I read through your cover letters today and I had a couple of thoughts:
- Sorry I didn't let you know who would be in your group before today. The anonymity of the way you had to address your letters was a little sad. That's my fault though, and I'll let you know in advance for next time.
- Asking peers to check your quotes for all the stuff we've been talking about in class is great. Asking them to check it for technical stuff is a waste of their time because you can figure that out yourself by checking the MLA citation site on the UW Writing Center page, which I have also listed under "links" on our site. Nobody in the class in an expert in this stuff; even I have to look up how to site certain sources sometimes, but that's why there's a manual for it--use it.
- I think it would be groovy if you did the letter-on-the-back-of-the-paper thing like last time because I find it nice and personal, but you should do what you think will be most useful to your peers when you're reviewing their papers. A general letter is best for dealing with more global and structural issues, but marginal comments are best for awkward sentences, uses of quotes, need for transitions, etc. Perhaps a combination of both would serve your peers best. Keep in mind that the more time and consideration you spend for your peers, the more helpful you'll be to them. Also, I pay attention to these things. :)

Let me know if you have questions or visit me in office hours tomorrow if you'd like.

I've gotten a few questions about people having difficulty finding outside sources for their drafts, so I want to address that question generally here...
It's really important for you to find an outside source for this draft of this paper. I know it's a challenge, but if you can get through some of the difficulties of research now, you'll have an easier time on your next paper, and hopefully in other classes in which you'll be required to do research. I also think it's important to get your outside source into this draft because the later you add a source to a draft, the more tacked-on and out-of-place it tends to be in a paper.

If you're having trouble, here's my advice:

• Think about where you can use a little extra support in your paper. Having a specific idea of what you want your outside source to address might make it easier to narrow down your search. You'll have no luck just searching "purpose of education," I promise.
• Check with the librarians at College Library. The Reference Desk (in front of you when you walk into the building) is staffed Monday to Friday, 8am to midnight, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to midnight. They're there specifically to help you. Bring in the assignment sheet and the draft of your paper, and be prepared to talk about what kind of source you're looking for.
  
• Email Pamela O'Donnell (our designated librarian who met with us that day at College Library) at podonnell@library.wisc.edu or the College Librarians in general at helenc@library.wisc.edu .
• Use LiveHelp from home; the information on downloading the software is
  available from this page.
  

For Fri, March 18 (by noon), I would like you to respond to at least one of your peers' blogs by adding a comment directly on their site. What am I looking for in your response? My main qualification is that the response should be substantial. By that, I mean you can't say just say, "Hey, that's a great argument! I'm also a big fan of Britney Spears." That's totally lame. Instead, I'd like you to do at least one of several things:

-Give an additional point to support the person's argument.
-Give a counterargument that the person didn't address in the original post.
-Provide a parallel argument about something else. For instance, if someone is arguing that Britney Spears rocks because she knows how to be sensational in the media, you can claim in parallel that handling the media might be the most important qualification of pop stardom and describe why this might be.
-Provide an analysis of why the argument the person makes is well done, or how it could be done better. For instance, "you established your ethos well when you revealed that you were once a backup dancer for Britney," or "perhaps mentioning your experience as a backup dancer should be foregrounded in your argument because it's a stronger point than your gneral appreciation of bellybutton piercing."

Here are some examples of good responses from last semester: on day care, on prison reform, on relationships and waiting by the phone (also check out the response to the relationship argument here)--you get the idea.

Each response should be at least a paragraph long, and by that I mean at least 5 sentences or so, but it could certainly be more. Notice that the ones I chose above were all pretty substantial in length and breadth.

Remember that you only get extra points from pairs of responses...So if someone responds to your blog, then you should reply to them on your blog in order to get that extra point. Check back on your blog on Friday, after everyone will have posted. I'll give you until next Monday (Mar 21) to respond to responses on your blogs.

Let me know if you have questions.
-Annette

Welcome to our class site! Now I won't feel so lonely anymore. :)

Here are some tips for writing on the web:
-Break up your paragraphs by skipping a line. Paragraph indents don't tend to translate well across browsers.
-Proofread and spellcheck every post. Spellcheck is the button that says "ABC" on the toolbar when you type a post.
-Feel free to use different colors and fonts and to insert hyperlinks. Notice that all of these things are on the toolbar just above where you write your post.
-Check back on your posts often. If someone responds, you'll want to keep the debate going to encourage more people to chime in.

Enjoy! And let me know if you have questions.
-Annette

We'll be discussing the Russell and Rich articles on Monday, and integrating them with our growing knowledge of argument analysis. Please be sure to write an answer to one of the Russell questions in 1/2-1pg (typed) and hand it in to me on Monday. Let me know if you have questions.

Nice job on the oral debate! I really enjoyed watching you take over the class and discuss the issues regarding the SAT prep course in high schools. For Friday, as we discussed in class, I'd like you to turn in a 2-3pg typed analysis of our debate in class. To reiterate our points in class, here are some things to write about in your analysis:
-How did each group support its point? Did they use stats well? How did their mannerisms (including confidence, voice, body language) contribute to or detract from the presentations of their argument?
-Which group or person did you find most persuasive, and why?
-What kinds of things in general did you find most persuasive? ethos? confidence? good stats? pathos?
-What kinds of assumptions did the groups make in their arguments? What things did all groups seem to take for granted?
-What motives did each group have, and how did they express them either implicitly or explicitly?

In this analysis, it's ok to bring in your personal opinion and impression of the debate; in fact it would be hard not to discuss which group was most persuasive without discussing your personal opinion! You can write about how you felt making your presentation, too. Just make sure to keep the emphasis on analysis--I don't want to read 2-3 pages of impressions of the debate without any meaty consideration of it. Come to my office hours on Thurs if you want to talk about the assignment more extensively.

As I mentioned at the end of class, the University offers 2 Lewis prizes every year. Winning one of these prizes would mean you'd have something impressive to put on your resume or application to a program or grad school, and it would also mean you'd be $125 richer.

Because I felt the revisions on your papers could have been more extensive in most cases, I'd like to give you the opportunity to revisit your essay one more time, work on some of the issues in it, and boost your grade a bit. If you revise your essay for the Lewis prize (due Mar 15), I'll give you up to 5% more on your final essay grade, which in most cases would mean boosting it half of a letter grade. I'd love it if one of you won, but the extra credit is tied only to your revision and submission of the essay, not to whether you win. If you're interested in revising your essay for the prize and extra credit, I'd like to hear from you via email or at my office hours because I'd like to meet with you while you're doing this revision.

You can turn in your essay to me on Monday, Mar 14 (two copies--I want all of your drafts, but they'll want just a clean, final copy) and I'll turn it in for the prize for you, or you can turn it in yourself to the Undergraduate Majors Office, 7195 Helen C. White on Mar 15 and give me your draft packet on Weds, Mar 16.