Unit Three

Unit Three

In this unit you will study only chapters sixteen and seventeen in the textbook. However, this unit, the longest in the course, is also the unit that will produce two formal essays, the Source Critique and the Researched Argument. Both of these essays will be on the same topic, and both will incorporate research. You can (in fact you must) use the same research for both essays.

The Source Critique will be due first. It is a source-supported evaluation of (not merely a personal reaction to) one of the sources you have discovered in your research. It is a paper of three or four typed, double-spaced pages. You will critique one of your sources, and you will use at least four other sources to support your critique. My own sample critique will illustrate how these outside sources can be effectively used. I have also provided sample Source Critiques by several previous English 102 students. Their essays can be used as models for your own Source Critique.

The Researched Argument is just that, an argument. It can be an argument like any one of those we've studied in Unit Two of the course--in other words, it is up to you to determine the type of claim you’re making, depending on what you want to argue about the topic in your essay. The paper will be five or six typed, double-spaced pages in length (longer, if necessary to make your argument), and it will use as many sources as necessary to help make your argument. It is the last thing due in this unit.

Begin now!

Read all of chapter sixteen. Here are a few study questions to keep in mind as you read:

· How is a "researched argument" different from a "data dump"?

· What is the purpose of the research question?

· What is the difference between scholarly publications and trade publications, newsmagazines and popular niche magazines?

· What is the difference between a licensed database and a Web search engine?

· What are the criteria for evaluating a website?

· Why is it important to determine a source's "angle of vision"?

Homework #6 (30 points--please note that this assignment is in two parts, a bibliography for the first part and a short essay for the second part) Due date Once you have read chapter sixteen you should begin immediately to work on this project. Look for a subject to do your research on and head for the library. Chapter sixteen has given you some suggestions for selecting and focusing a topic, but here's a link to some additional information: Advice for the Research Project. Make sure you read it; some of it will be on the next quiz.

Another useful guide to the research process, especially if you plan to use MCC's Elsner Library to do your research, is "Research Assistance" at the Elsner Library's website, which provides you with a step-by-step guide to the research process, along with useful information on how to determine which of our library's resources might be useful to you.

Do your preliminary research and look for a focus for your Researched Argument. You want to try to come up with an issue question that you can answer in the paper. Then go to your word processor and type up your "working bibliography" in MLA style. The textbook's discussion of MLA style and the formats for listing sources on a "works cited list" (bibliography, in other words) is on pages 377-87. I recommend that you look at it closely. Another useful source of information on MLA style is the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University: Purdue's Online Writing Lab Finally, you can check out "Citation Help," available to you through the "Reference Assistance" link in the MCC Library home page: MCC Elsner Library

Your bibliography must contain at least ten sources and none of those sources can be websites. You're allowed to use websites in your research, but you can't use them in this assignment. Send the bibliography to me as an attachment to an email message. Be sure to include the proper heading, following the MLA formatting guidelines (pages 378-9 of the textbook) that you would follow for a formal essay. This bibliography is the first part of Homework #6 and is worth 20 points.

Now go to the class bulletin board and post a brief essay under the subject heading "Homework #6." That essay of perhaps 300 words will answer the following three questions: 1)Why did you choose your topic, and what did you know about it before you began your research? 2) How have you gathered your information on the topic so far? (In other words, what libraries have you used, what databases, etc.? Have you conducted field research such as personal interviews? Tell me what you've been up to.) 3) What is the issue question you plan to answer in the Researched Argument paper? This essay is the second part of Homework #6 and is worth 10 points.

Extra-credit opportunity: You can earn as many as 10 extra-credit points by visiting the class bulletin board and responding to one of your classmates' "Homework #6" essays. However--and this is a big "however"--you must tell the person something constructive. That is, you can't just pick somebody's essay and tell him or her how fascinating you find the topic. You've got to tell the person something useful: personal experience with the topic, a book about it, something the person should consider in his or her argument, etc. Unless you provide the writer with some piece of substantial information, you'll get few or no points for your response. Due date

Important note! Please be aware that the due dates for all extra-credit opportunities are firm due dates. You will not receive credit, even partial credit, for any extra-credit activity that you post after the specified due date.

Read chapter seventeen up through page 376 (you should already have looked at pages 377-87, and the rest of the chapter is irrelevant to our course). Here are some study questions to keep in mind as you read:

· What does it mean to use a source "fairly and responsibly"?

· What are "attributive tags," and how and why are they used?

· What is the difference between summary, paraphrase, and quotation, and how and when should each of them be used?

· What is plagiarism, and how can you avoid it?

· What are parenthetical (in-text) citations, and how do you format them in MLA style?

Homework #7 (10 points) Due date Turn to page 370 and answer only question two under "For Class Discussion." Then answer the question under "For Class Discussion" on page 375. In all, you're evaluating four passages written by student writers. Your answers should be brief; just answer the questions. Send your answers to me in an email message with the subject heading "Homework #7."

Quiz #5 (20 points) Due date This quiz covers chapters sixteen and seventeen of the textbook, along with “Advice for the Research Project,” above. To access the quiz, click on the "Quizzes" link on the course homepage.

Source Critique (200 points) Due date Please read this assignment all the way through before you begin working on it. Let me know if you have questions before you get started.

In this assignment you will write a critique of one of the sources you have discovered in your research. The paper will be approximately three typed, double-spaced pages and will cite at least four outside sources besides the source you are critiquing. It will of course include a works cited page that lists these sources in MLA style.

A critique of this type incorporates three features of "research" writing: summary, analysis, and evaluation. Your goal in this paper is to explain what the source says (summary), analyze it (break it down), and then evaluate it in light of what you already knew about your topic and what you have learned in your research.

The textbook has already given you many of the tools for evaluating your sources. Chapter four discussed the Toulmin system as a tool for identifying assumptions. Chapter five talked about evaluating evidence, and it also talked about how arguers can manipulate evidence to their advantage. Chapters six and seven discussed ways in which arguers attempt to reach their audience through ethical and emotional appeals. Chapter eight, which you were not assigned to read, also offers some useful advice for rhetorical analysis.

In addition, I’m providing you with a set of “analysis questions,” below. They are drawn from the discussions in the textbook but add a few more things you can think about in evaluating your sources. You can ask these questions about the source you have chosen to critique to help provide a focus for your evaluation. But it is your job as the critic, or reviewer, of the source to decide what is significant about the source so that you can highlight it in your critique. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. You evaluate other people’s arguments every day of your life. This is just a formal written evaluation.

The Analysis Questions

§ Who is the source's intended audience, and how might that affect the information that's presented in the source--as well as the information about the topic that the source chooses to leave out? We know that an "expert" on any subject will "talk down" to an audience of non-experts. That's obvious. But he or she might also choose to present the information in an entirely different way depending on the audience.

For example, let's say you run a company that makes movies. You know that, typically, certain types of films appeal primarily to female audiences, while certain other films appeal primarily to male audiences. You have a new movie out, but you obviously want both female and male audiences to see it (there's a whole lot more money to be made that way). So in your ad campaign for the movie, you run two types of ads: those that will show the movie as a picture for women and those that will show the movie as a picture for men. You do this, of course, by picking different aspects and scenes from the movie to emphasize in the different ads. As a result, your movie appeals to a much wider audience, and it ends up winning Best Picture even though it started out as a "sleeper" that wasn't supposed to go anywhere. (This is a true story that I heard in a speech by the president of Miramax Studios, who was explaining how his company had marketed the very successful movie Shakespeare in Love.)

§ What is the source's objective? This is simple enough to understand: What is the source trying to tell you? More importantly, though, are there any objectives that might not be clearly stated? I used to use an article on gene therapy for my English 102 classes. The article, taken from a general-interest news magazine, was clearly aimed at parents, and it was clearly trying to convince them that they should support gene therapy and approve expenditures that would further genetic research. How do I know? Because the article was laced with examples of children with horrible diseases whose lives were saved or immensely improved by gene therapy. What better way to appeal to parents than to use stories about improving the lives of children? The author of the article said that she only wanted people to be "educated" about gene therapy (her stated objective). But she clearly wanted to persuade them to support it (her unstated objective).

§ What assumptions does the source make? We already know what an assumption is: It's something that you take for granted. I assume, for example, that if you're taking this class, you're going to read this material. I don't know that. I have no proof. But I believe it to be true. Another assumption people around here make is that if they get out on the Superstition Freeway on a typical weekday morning between six and eight a.m., that freeway is going to be loaded with traffic. They don't know that before they start out; but they can pretty much bet on it. In other words, it's a pretty safe assumption.

Why should you identify assumptions as part of your evaluation of your sources? It's simple. We all make assumptions, of course. Nobody can get through life without them. But if a source makes an assumption or assumptions that turn out not to be valid, the rest of the information in the source might be invalid as well.

§ What does the source emphasize about the subject, and what, in contrast, does it downplay or leave out completely? Let's return to the example of the essay on gene therapy. The author of that article didn't entirely leave out the moral and ethical concerns that many people have about genetic manipulation; but she did significantly downplay that aspect of the subject, implying that we shouldn't let those concerns stop us from continuing the research on gene therapy. Some people would have a problem with that. The author of the article, for obvious reasons, clearly didn't want readers to think about the potential drawbacks to gene therapy. She focused only on the potential benefits, especially to little children.

§ What evidence does the source provide in support of its conclusions? If you find a source that says, for instance, that Arizona's K-12 public education system is terrible, lagging far behind the more progressive public education systems in the country, what evidence is provided to support that conclusion? Then you have to ask: Is the conclusion justified by the evidence? Are there other possible conclusions that might be drawn from that evidence, or, perhaps more significantly, is there other evidence that’s being left out that might lead you to a different conclusion? (Think back to the “emphasis” question. Sources are going to tend to use only evidence that supports the point they’re trying to make.) I hope it’s obvious to you why evaluating the evidence a source uses should be an important part of evaluating the source itself.

§ How does the information in this source compare with the information provided by other sources on the same subject? Is it consistent with what they say—or what they imply about the subject—or are there contradictions? If there are contradictions, how do you account for them? Returning again to the article on “gene therapy,” I hope it’s obvious to you that we could easily go out and find other articles that would point out the potential negative consequences of such research. As a researcher, you should be thoroughly familiar with both sides of the issue—no matter what your opinion is.

§ What are the implications of the source for the “real world”? It may not be readily apparent to you, but any piece of information you come across has some kind of implications for the real world. If you come across a source, for instance, that says that interest rates are likely to rise in the next quarter, there will definitely be some consequences for the real world if that prediction comes true. What might those consequences be? Again, I hope it’s obvious to you why speculating on the possible consequences of what your sources claim is a significant part of evaluating those sources. If they’re right, you can expect one set of outcomes. If they’re wrong, you might expect an entirely different set of outcomes.

Organizing Your Source Critique

Here is the outline you should follow in organizing your Source Critique:

1) Introduce your topic and establish its significance. Introduce the source you're critiquing, as well the source's author(s), and identify its thesis. State your own evaluative thesis.

2) Objectively summarize the source so that your audience can clearly comprehend its argument.

3) Evaluate the source's argument.

4) Conclude the evaluation appropriately.

5) Attach a list of at least five works cited in the critique, including the source you critiqued.

The final draft of the paper itself must be typed up on your word processor, the same way you would type up a paper to be handed in in class, and sent to me as an attachment to an email message. In other words, follow precisely the same procedure you used with the First Argument paper. Use the subject "Source Critique." Do not forget to format the paper appropriately. Follow MLA formatting guidelines, just as you did in the First Argument paper:

1. Set your margins at one inch on all four sides of the page: top, bottom, left, and right. Indent new paragraphs half an inch, and do not put extra line spaces between your paragraphs. Just double space the whole paper, in other words.

2. Use twelve-point type, and use a standard typeface such as Arial, Courier, New Times Roman, or, my personal favorite, Georgia.

3. Use the Header function on your word processor to number your pages consecutively in the upper right corner of the page, and include your name in the header (e. g., "Gooding 3"). Your header should be half an inch from the top of each page.

4. Do not include a title page with your essay. Put the following information in the upper left corner of the first page of your essay: your name, my name, the course prefix and number ("English 102"), and the date of submission. Double space and then center your title. Double space again and begin your essay. The essay itself will of course be entirely double spaced.

Since this paper also includes a list of works cited, you’ll want to consult “MLA Format for the ‘Works Cited’ List,” on pages 378-9 of the textbook.

Sample Source Critiques submitted by previous students in this course can be found at Sample Critique (Miriam), Sample Critique (Ron) , Sample Critique (Sherri) , Sample Critique (Debbie) ,Sample Critique (Chris) , Sample Critique (Cathy) , Sample Critique (Lauren), Sample Critique (Jamie), and Sample Critique (Brad) Notice when you read these sample critiques that they follow the outline above perfectly. I have also provided commentary on each of the papers to help guide your reading of them. Finally, I have included a sample Source Critique that I wrote myself of a highly influential book from the 1970s. I chose this book because it is excerpted on pages 280-2 of our textbook, so that you can look both at the original source and at my evaluation of it. Sample Critique (annotated version) Sample critique (plain version)

Extra-credit opportunity: Once again, you have the opportunity to pick up as many as 20 extra-credit points on this assignment. You can earn 10 points simply by posting your rough draft to the class bulletin board. Bear in mind, though, that to get the full 10 points your draft, though it may be rough (that's why they call it a rough draft), must also be a complete draft. Partial drafts will get partial points--if any. Due date

You can also earn as many as 10 extra-credit points by critiquing a fellow student's draft, even if you did not post a rough draft of your own. However, to earn these points--or even a share of them--you must follow the guidelines I provide. Those guidelines are available below. Please bear in mind that you must follow my example to get the extra credit. Due date

Guidelines for critiquing the Source Critique

Researched Argument (200 points) Due date Once again, please read this assignment all the way through before you start working on it.

At this point, we should already have corresponded about your issue question for the Researched Argument. It remains now only to write the argument paper. Remember, this argument can be a classical argument, a definition argument, a causal argument, an evaluation argument, or a proposal argument. For each of these types of argument, an outline or outlines are provided in the textbook:

- Classical arguments, page 61

- Definitional arguments, page 226-7

- Causal arguments, pages 252-3

- Evaluation arguments, pages 298-9

- Proposal arguments, page 326

Additionally, as you have noticed if you've done the reading for this course, examples of each type of argument are provided in the chapter that covers that type of argument. Not all of those examples are student essays, but they nonetheless serve as appropriate models.

Your essay should be roughly two thousand (2,000) words in length. Use six typed, double-spaced pages as your benchmark, though I am not a stickler for word limits. I will say this, however: It's usually better to run too long than too short. You will of course cite sources in support of your argument, and you will employ MLA-style parenthetical documentation and attach a list of works cited to your essay. List only those sources that are specifically cited in the essay, though you should of course have consulted many other sources in your quest for information on your topic. As in your two previous formal essays for this course, the First Argument paper and the Researched Argument, follow MLA formatting guidelines:

2. Use twelve-point type, and use a standard typeface such as Arial, Courier, New Times Roman, or, my personal favorite, Georgia.

Since this paper also includes a list of works cited, you’ll want to consult “MLA Format for the ‘Works Cited’ List,” on pages 378-9 of the textbook.

Submitting Your Essay

The final draft of the paper itself must be typed up on your word processor, the same way you would type up a paper to be handed in in class, and sent to me as an attachment to an email message. In other words, follow precisely the same procedure you used with the First Argument paper and your Source Critique paper. Use the subject "Researched Argument." Do not forget to format the paper appropriately.

Important note! With this essay, I ask you to submit a "self-analysis" along with the essay. The self-analysis should identify the type of argument you are submitting (evaluation, ethical, proposal, etc.) and the organizational pattern you have followed ("Plan 1," "Option 1," etc.) from the textbook. Then identify what you take to be the strengths of your argument (amount and types of evidence provided, responses to counterarguments, or whatever), and its potential weaknesses (assumptions you are making that might be easy to challenge, lack of hard evidence, or whatever). This self-analysis might run 100 or more words and is worth 10 points out of the total 200 possible on the assignment.

Your self-analysis should be submitted as an email message to me, with the essay attached to that message in a Word document. I'll read your self-analysis first, then open and read your essay.

Extra-credit opportunity: One last time, you have the opportunity to pick up as many as 20 extra-credit points on this assignment. You can earn 10 points simply by posting your rough draft to the class bulletin board. Bear in mind, though, that to get the full 10 points your draft, though it may be rough (that's why they call it a rough draft), must also be a complete draft. Partial drafts will get partial points--if any. Due date

Guidelines for critiquing the Researched Argument paper

End of Unit Three. Move on to Unit Four.

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