Friday April 3, 2009

Today’s Agenda

Let’s take a few moments this morning to talk about the things we own, and why we like owning them. What makes these things “your things.” Let’s journal on this for five or so minutes.

Group Discussion

Class Discussion

Okay, now I want you to think about the basic things we all share, that no one owns – things like our air, sunlight, and the wind. These are things no one owns, though we can all use them. Well, some ideas are like that: there are some basic ideas that we hold as a culture, and no one really gets to say that this “idea” is his or hers.

But there are some ideas that DO belong to people, and that you cannot use without citation, or else you are stealing – just as if someone were to steal something you own and love having.

This is a strange concept, if you have never had an original idea of your own. If you have not, that’s too bad – but it is going to change! And that changes here in College, where you will all be creating new ideas that are YOUR ideas. We make these ideas by COBBLING together ideas that RELATE to thing we want to EXPRESS. That is how thinking works.

Last time you told me that using steroids was okay, and now I am going to tell you exactly why it is wrong. The athlete presents his or her body as tool capable of performing feats of athleticism. The performance is PRESUMED in our society to be  the athlete’s own, insofar as it is facilitated by the his or her training and his or her teammates.

The INDIVIDUAL has put in the work to be able to do the things we CELEBRATE under his or her own power, and THAT is why we appreciate what they do!

When someone uses STEROIDS they are essentially passing of the chemical benefits of those steroids as IF THEY WERE THERE OWN!!  THIS–IS–ROTTEN!

Consequently, when the athlete performs, what we are seeing is NOT only the product of his or her efforts as they have been facilitated by TRAINING and TEAMMATES.

It is the combination of those things AND UNKNOWN substances. AS A RESULT, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE ARE LOOKING AT, AND ANY APPRECIATION WE HAVE FOR THE ATHLETE IS TAINTED BY THE FACT THAT WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT  IS, EXACTLY, THAT WE ARE SEEING.  This CHEAPENS THE WORK OF EVERY OTHER ATHLETE BECAUSE WE LOSE THE ABILITY TO JUDGE PEOPLE AGAINST ONE  ANOTHER, which is the WHOLE POINT OF ATHLETIC COMPETITIONS!

It’s why sports have FREAKIN’ RULES! It’s why you can’t say a touchdown happens just “anywhere” on the field.

Some people say that it would be fair if we simply let everyone use steroids — but this overlooks the fact that WE DO NOT KNOW HOW Steroids WILL EFFECT TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE – THERE IS NO “COMMON MEASURE” FOR THESE DRUGS, which MUTATE YOUR BODY IN STRANGE WAYS. CONSEQUENTLY, IT IS NOT THE CASE THAT EVERYONE COULD USE IT THE SAME WAY, LIKE THEY COULD USE TRAINERS WHO ARE TAUGHT TO PROVIDE SPECIFIC SKILLS, OR TEAMMATES WHO ARE ORGANIZED TO PLAY IN PREDICTABLE WAYS.

YOUR VIEWS ON STEROIDS WORRY ME GREATLY – BECAUSE STEROID USE IS VERY SIMILAR TO PLAGIARISM. When we plagiarize, we “sneak” information into our work and pass it off as if it is our own – when it is not.

Today we are going to continue our work on our arguments. Last time we started to think about how the paper would be laid out, and started work on the early paragraphs. We followed this plan:

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.

Today we are going to continue this work.

We will begin by looking over the work we have begun, and writing a new paragraph or two on how it might be improved. Next, we are going to begin work on the body of our paper. As we move through this we need to be aware of the general conventions of arguing.

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.

Let’s continue on with this work.

Advertisement