Evaluate the validity and soundness of arguments.
Purpose:
This challenging writing project provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the content and skills you have learned in this course by entering into an important culturally relevant conversation (aka, discourse) in the United States and producing a sophomore-level, college research project. The topics you have to choose from for this semester are cancel culture, critical race theory, and government regulation of social media. See more on this at the bottom of the page.
SKILLS:
a. Critical Reading
Read and critically evaluate perspectives and information from a variety of sources.
Evaluate the validity and soundness of arguments.
Distinguish factual statements from judgmental statements and knowledge from opinion.
b. Critical Reasoning & Writing
Compose a delayed thesis, dialogic essay that emphasizes methods of argumentation, persuasion (use of appeals and strategies), evaluation, interpretation, definition, comparison, synthesis, and summary.
Demonstrate command of sophisticated vocabulary, diction, syntax, style, and awareness of audience and rhetorical situation.
Use both the denotative and connotative aspects of language effectively, as demonstrated in the employment of appeals.
Appraise and select outside sources, and incorporate research material into the research project.
Revise material to create ideas and draw sound inferences from a variety of data.
Document sources properly and make smooth transitions between source material and personal observations.
Demonstrate the ability to use inductive reasoning (a delayed thesis) appropriately.
Avoid the abuse and manipulation of rhetorical appeals and strategies, including fallacies.
KNOWLEDGE/CONTENT
a. Critical Reading Content
The relationship of language to logic and the difference between fact and judgment.
Perspectives and underlying assumptions and claims which may drive the writer’s arguments and conclusions.
Soundness, validity, and persuasiveness of written arguments.
b. Critical Writing Content
Dialogic argument.
The Rhetorical Situation and persuasive appeals and strategies.
Induction (the delayed-thesis).
Recognizing and avoiding fallacies of pathos, ethos, and logos.
Individual writing style and voice.
The satisfaction of writing as both a practical and humanistic activity. (Yep, I mean that!)
TASK:
Once you have completed your research for one of the subjects below and determined your major claim (your position), you will write a dialogic, delayed-thesis argument for a resistant audience (those holding a viewpoint contrary to your own).
This strategic argument is particularly effective for a resistant audience, a way of showing (rather than “telling”) and persuading them to arrive at your conclusion. Yes, you may use “I,” as you are taking your audience through your epistemological adventure, but be strategic with it (as Tompkins is). Rarely is this type of argument meant to utterly convince an audience; in fact, it is enough to just get a resistant audience to reconsider their own position/perspective in light of reading your comprehensive research and inductive (delayed-thesis) argument. To help, you may want to review where this type of argument falls on the argument continuum on page 11 of your textbook. One might also say that many people do not have fully informed opinions on subjects–this paper counters that. As you have learned, arguments at this sophisticated level are not about “winning,” and this is not a debate. Your task concerns persuading a resistant reader (one who does not agree with you) to reconsider their position.
While you may already have a position on the issue you select below, do not formulate your conclusion/major claim until thoroughly researching a diversity of perspectives on the issue. Your opinion may change if your research is authentic. Cherry-picking sources to support a preconceived position is the opposite of what Tompkins does. Practice the critical inquiry skills you have learned in this course and keep an open mind. You may want to review previous modules, but you should give your mind and heart over to the research and the process of discovery–about the issue and about yourself. Tompkins shares a lot with her readers, and this, in turn, strengthens her argument. You should do the same.
Once you have decided the discourse (aka, conversation) you want to enter, conduct extensive research on the question/problem and distinguish between different perspectives and their context, as Tompkins did, and then narrow them down to best represent a diversity of perspectives in your paper. You are not restricted to U.S. sources. You must analyze and synthesize a minimum of 8 perspectives, which include the three that are required. Tertiary sources and other research will undoubtedly be needed and used, but they do not count in the 8 minimum required perspectives (because they do not represent perspectives).
Like Tompkins, use the following “3-Part” structure:
PART I: Set Up Your Project
It is suggested that you use the following bullet points and the “Organizational Plan for a Delayed-Thesis Argument” (Ramage 135):
narrate your history and personal relationship (experiential, observational, and/or intellectual) to the subject; if you have no history or relationship to the issue, you may use someone you know–be creative. Note how Tompkins begins with appeals to emotion and credibility.
establish a broader, national context and the timing for the question/problem–this is your kairos. Engage the audience in the problem.
share your exigency (which is, basically, your assignment for this class, but I am hoping you make the assignment more meaningful and establish your own, authentic exigency);
Part II: Provide the Story of Your Research
explore the issue from multiple perspectives, showing the validity of different views. You will want to introduce, summarize, analyze, compare, and evaluate a minimum of 8 authors AND their arguments representing a diversity of perspectives (key: it is not enough to look at the primary text, as you must look at the writer and the original source of publication and kairos to evaluate bias, as Tompkins did). As you are presenting sources, you should also be comparing them and sharing your responses as well as reflecting on what you are learning;
invite the audience to join with you in considering other perspectives;
show how you are wrestling with the problem;
synthesize research and respond to it;
for a good portion of the argument, keep the problem open, building some suspense (in other words, the reader should not know your position until the end of the paper).
PART III: Your Conclusion
present your major claim, your resolution or solution to the question/problem (which may side with one or more of your sources or be entirely your own), and provide reasons and evidence to support it, building on points that were presented earlier. This should be one-two, well-developed pages, not just a final paragraph;
if applicable, share any new question/s or problem/s encountered as a result of your research and critical thinking (as Tompkins does in her last paragraph).
leave the audience thinking about the problem and your position.
The final essay should be a minimum of ten pages in length and in MLA format and style.
Your reader should not know your position until the end of the paper. Tompkins includes her change of mind about poststructuralism during her research to lead her reluctant reader through her journey. Also, do not insult your resistant audience. Tone matters. Take perspectives seriously, even when they are the opposite of your own. Most of you will review Tompkins, your charting, and 7.5 (Ramage 131-135) before starting this.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Choose from this List of Culturally Relevant, Research-Focus Questions
You must choose one of the following three options (A, B, or C) for your paper–papers not on one of these topics will receive a zero.
C. Should the government regulate social media?
Required Sources:
1. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/FC8… (you may also watch recordings of her testimony and Q&A with Congress)
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mark-zucke… by Mark Zuckerberg
3. https://hbr.org/2021/01/social-media-companies-sho… by Michael A. Cusumano, Anabelle Gawer, and David B. Yoffie. or the social dilemma on Netflix (2020), a documentary film available on Netflix
Organization Plan for Delayed-Thesis, Dialogic Argument:
Introduction:
• Establish the problem under discussion and what makes the issue timely (kairos).
• Establish your reason for writing the essay (exigence).
• Engage the audience in the problem.
Dialogic Discussion
Explore the problem from multiple perspectives, showing the validity of different views.
• Invite the audience to join with you in considering different perspectives.
• Show how you are wrestling with the problem.
• For a good portion of the argument, keep the problem open, building some suspense
Delayed Thesis and Support
• Present your thesis-claim toward the end of the argument.
• Support your thesis with reason/s and a brief discussion that may build on– even synthesize—points presented earlier.
Conclusion
• Leave the audience thinking about the problem and your position.
Requirements:
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