Tuesday, April 7 2009

Today’s Agenda:

Over the course of the last week, you were to complete your final draft of your Hertsgaard argument, and also e-mail me 15 sources cited in MLA format for your third paper. For today, you needed to put up a two page blog post in which you did the following:

You have to 1) begin with a paragraph that introduces me to your subject and thesis,  and then you must, in at least 5 separate well-developed paragraphs, introduce me 5 of the best of your 15 sources ( one source per paragraph). In each paragraph, you need to define the thesis for the source – the thesis should actually be quoted. Then, at the end, you need to write one paragraph on how you imagine that you will use these sources as you organize your argument. You must e-mail this to me and also bring a copy to class on TUESDAY.

Let’s get out our copies of this assignment. Flip it over, and describe to me how your understanding of your subject and the thesis you want to argue has changed as a result of your work on this project.

Okay, now let’s get into small groups. In your groups you need to do the following: Read paragraph one to the group, and then you need to explain the five sources you want to use and to the group, and identify the thesis.

Your group will then attempt to formulate an ALTERNATIVE argument to yours, and you will have to defend your argument against this alternative argument.

Once we have done this, we will talk about our topics as a class, and bounce our ideas off one another.

You will be taking this draft and using it as a basis for your first draft, which we are going to begin working on today.

1) Look at your first paragraph. We are going to re-write it so that we separate the information a little bit. Your NEW first paragraph will simply introduce the reader to your subject. You can and should feel free to include or otherwise specific information about your subject from your sources into this paragraph.

2) In your second paragraph, you will begin by introducing the reader to your thesis statement, and then will generally summarizing the three or four major reasons you have FOR your thesis. These reasons can be drawn from the sources you have looked at. It is good to include quotes here.

3) You will next begin to work through your paper with a series of paragraphs that accomplish the following:

a. Begin by introducing the topic you will be covering in the paragraph

b. Introduce, present, and explain a quote that relates to this topic

c. Conclude by making a meaningful connection for the reader regarding how the quote supports your thesis.

4) We will begin working on this in class.

For Thursday: Your 1^st draft of paper three is due to me via E-mail, no later than the end of business.

You will get your draft back with comments on FRIDAY.

For Tuesday, you will need to come to class with THREE revised copies of your paper.

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