Critical Thinker now has the Spring 2012 English 1C syllabus.
October 27, 2011
June 02, 2011
February 03, 2011
January 04, 2011
October 19, 2010
McMahon English 1C Syllabus Spring 2011
e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu; Office: PE4
Phone extension 5673
Website for students:http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/
Required Texts: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl; The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Masson; Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely; In the Pond by Ha Jin
Grading
4 Six-Page Research Papers 225 each
4 Quizzes 25 each
Grand Total: 1,000 points
Reading and Writing Schedule
February 15 Writing introductions, go over course outline, grading, etc
February 17 Frankl 1-50
February 22 Frankl 51-100
February 24 Frankl 101-150
March 1 Frankl 151-end
March 3 Quiz 1 turned in to PE4
March 8 Essay 1 for first half in PE4
March 10 Essay 1 for second half in PE4
March 15 The Face on Your Plate, Chapter 1
March 17 The Face on Your Plate Chapter 2
March 22 The Face on Your Plate Chapter 3
March 24 The Face on Your Plate Chapters 4 and 5
March 29 Quiz 2 turned in to PE4
March 31 Consultations in PE4
April 5 Essay 2 for second half of class PE4
April 7 Essay 2 for first half of class PE4
April 19 Ariely Chapters 1-3
April 21 Ariely Chapters 4-6
April 26 Ariely Chapters 7-9
April 28 Ariely Chapters 10-11
May 3 Ariely to the end
May 5 Quiz 3 turned to in PE4
May 10 Essay 3 for first half in PE4
May 12 Essay 3 for second half in PE4
May 17 Ha Jin 1-60
May 19 Ha Jin 61-90
May 24 Ha Jin 91-130
May 26 Ha Jin 131-end
May 31 Quiz 4 turned in to PE4
June 2 Consultations for Essay 4 in PE4
June 7 Second half of class turns in Essay 4 to PE4
June 9 First half of class turns in Essay 4 to PE4
Essay Assignments
Essay 1: Man’s Search for Meaning
In a 5-page research paper, explain the search for meaning in the face of the crisis that Frankl describes in his book. What are the consequences of both failing and succeeding in this search?
Your essay should have a salient introductory paragraph, which can be as long as a page; a thesis paragraph with at least four or five mapping components; no fewer than eight body paragraphs, each paragraph about a half page; and a brief conclusion.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate on your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion in which you restate your thesis with rhetorical power
Final Page: Works Cited with no fewer than 4 sources
Successful papers will use personal examples to illustrate the major points. Be sure to have a Works Cited page with at least 4 sources.
Essay 2: The Face on Your Plate
In a 5-page research paper, develop a thesis that defends or refutes Masson's vegan ideology by showing the logical fallacies of your opponent. You may use a concession clause if you partly agree with your opponents.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate on your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion in which you restate your thesis.
Last Page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 4 sources.
Essay 3: Predictably Irrational
In a 5-page essay use extended definition and classification to analyze Predictably Irrational. Develop a thesis that defines the term "predictably irrational" by breaking it down into 4 or 5 categories (your mapping components) that you will illustrate with examples that ARE NOT IN THE BOOK.
Paragraph One: Introduction
Paragraph Two: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs Three-Nine: Illustrate and elaborate your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
Last page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 3 sources
Essay 4: In the Pond
In a 1,000-word essay, write a psychological profile of Bin, explaining how his desires for higher self-regard, power, and happiness are sabotaged by his own irrational faculties. Successful essays will use your personal observations that compare to Bin's self-destructiveness.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-6: Elaborate and illustrate your mapping components
Paragraph 7: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
College Policies and Objectives:
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Student Learning Objectives
Students will compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to
support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and
integration of primary and secondary sources. This essay will be well
organized, follow proper MLA format, and be technically correct in
paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and
usage.
Course Objectives
The student will be able to: 1. Read expository prose critically to distinguish between perception and inference, surface and implied meanings, fact and opinion. 2. Analyze the way arguments are presented in readings and the media. 3. Demonstrate the ability to organize and develop written arguments and compositions. 4. Refine writing skills developed in English 1A: focusing a topic, formulating a thesis, providing support, and developing unity and coherence. 5. Evaluate the accuracy and cogency of arguments by identifying logical fallacies and drawing inferences from readings and media presentations. 6. Formulate and develop arguments and critical theories about issues, argumentative prose, and literary interpretations.
Major Topics
|
Structures of argument: Thinking, reading, discussing. Evaluate data, credibility, and relevance. |
|
Understanding and evaluating claims: Reasons, purposes, support, ambiguity, vagueness, complexity. Assessing credibility: Causal arguments, moral reasoning. |
|
Evaluating arguments and explanations: Relevance, clarity, testability, and consistency. Identifying assumptions, developing counter arguments and justifications. |
|
Writing argumentative, evaluative, and analytic essays: Prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Topic selection: Narrowing, evaluating validity and relevance. Developing parts of the argumentative essay: Strategies for organizing an argument or evaluation, including evidence, inductive and deductive reasoning. Avoiding logical fallacies. |
|
Literary analysis: Evaluating point of view, inferences, and assumptions. Understanding diction, identification, aesthetic distance, and focus. Exploring rhetorical devices: Satire, irony, paradox, over-statement and understatement, evaluating authority. |
|
Comparative analysis: Analyzing symbols, analogy, ambiguity, and imagery. |
|
Deductive reasoning in expressive or expository literature: Recognizing assumptions in literary criticism and theory. |
|
Political and advertising rhetoric: Slanders, euphemisms, innuendo, loaded questions, downplaying, avoidance, stereotyping, hyperbole, persuasive definitions. Information tailoring and the news media: Loaded language in reporting and advertising. |
|
(Major writing assignments will consist of approximately 6 essays totaling 6000 words.) |
Success in McMahon’s Class Is Predicated on Three Major Components:
One. Turn in 4 five-page research papers with correct MLA format ON TIME. Research Papers (all 4 of your essays) have a minimum of 4 sources, which can include Signs of Life in the USA, my lecture notes, interviews, and online sources.
Two. Do the reading assignments so that you can write a one-paragraph response that is cohesive, coherent and well developed in the five surprise closed-book reading tests.
Three. Show up on time to 90% of the classes. Missing 3 out of 30 classes is 90%.
Policies:
You can’t make-up reading exams. Points are irretrievably lost. This policy encourages class attendance.
Late Papers: I don’t accept late papers more than one week after the original due date and I reduce a full grade; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,200 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. For a rewrite, the HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS.
(20 points deducted for not having headers (your last name and page number in the upper right corner of every page and 40 points deducted for not having a correct Works Cited page)
Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the eighth week of the semester you have not turned in your first two essays or are failing the class, I will drop you.
Etiquette Policy: If you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying for other courses during my class, you will be asked to leave the class.
October 14, 2010
McMahon 1C Winter 2011 Syllabus
January 5 to February 8, 2011
e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu; Office: PE4
Phone extension 5673
Website for students:http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/
Required Texts: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner; The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson; Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely; In the Pond by Ha Jin
Two 6-Page Research Papers (1,500 words): 300 each; 270-300 is A; 240-269 is B; 210-239 is C; 180-209 is D
Two 4-Page In-Class Essays (1,000): 200 each; 180-200 is A; 160-179 is B; 140-159 is C; 120-139 is D
Grand Total: 1,000 points
Reading and Writing Schedule
January 5: Writing introductions, go over course outline, grading, etc
January 6: Weiner Chapters 1 and 2
January 10 Weiner Chapters 3-5
January 11 Weiner Chapters 6 and 7
January 12 In-class 1,000 word essay. It’s okay to type at home if you have time
January 13 Masson Chapter 1
January 17 Holiday
January 18 Masson Chapters 2 and 3
January 19 Masson Chapters 4 and 5
January 20 1,500-word research paper is due in my office, PE4: I’ll be there at 5 P.M. First come, first serve.
January 24 Ariely Chapters 1-3
January 25 Ariely Chapters 4-6
January 26 Ariely Chapters 7-9
January 27 Ariely Chapters 10-12
January 31 Second 1,500-word research paper is due in my office, PE4. I’ll be there at 5:00 P.M. First come, first serve.
February 1 Ha Jin 1-60
February 2 Ha Jin 61-120
February 3 Ha Jin 121-178 (the end)
February 7 In-Class 1,000-word essay due. You can type it at home if you have time.
February 8 Consultations in my office, PE4.
Essay Assignments
Essay 1: The Geography of Bliss
In a 1,000-word essay develop a thesis that explains the wisdom the book teaches us about happiness.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-7: Elaborate on your mapping components
Paragraph 8: Conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis
Essay 2: The Face on Your Plate
In a 1,500-word research paper, develop a thesis that defends or refutes Masson’s vegan ideology.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis
Last Page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 5 sources
Essay 3: Predictably Irrational
In a 5-page essay use extended definition and classification to analyze Predictably Irrational. Develop a thesis that defines the term "predictably irrational" by breaking it down into 4 or 5 categories (your mapping components) that you will illustrate with examples that ARE NOT IN THE BOOK.
Paragraph One: Introduction
Paragraph Two: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs Three-Nine: Illustrate and elaborate your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
Last page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 3 sources
Essay 4: In the Pond
In a 1,000-word essay, write a psychological profile of Bin, explaining how his desires for higher self-regard, power, and happiness are sabotaged by his own irrational faculties. Successful essays will use your personal observations that compare to Bin's self-destructiveness.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-6: Elaborate and illustrate your mapping components
Paragraph 7: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
College Policies and Objectives:
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Student Learning Objectives
Students will compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to
support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and
integration of primary and secondary sources. This essay will be well
organized, follow proper MLA format, and be technically correct in
paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and
usage.
Course Objectives
The student will be able to: 1. Read expository prose critically to distinguish between perception and inference, surface and implied meanings, fact and opinion. 2. Analyze the way arguments are presented in readings and the media. 3. Demonstrate the ability to organize and develop written arguments and compositions. 4. Refine writing skills developed in English 1A: focusing a topic, formulating a thesis, providing support, and developing unity and coherence. 5. Evaluate the accuracy and cogency of arguments by identifying logical fallacies and drawing inferences from readings and media presentations. 6. Formulate and develop arguments and critical theories about issues, argumentative prose, and literary interpretations.
Major Topics
|
Structures of argument: Thinking, reading, discussing. Evaluate data, credibility, and relevance. |
|
Understanding and evaluating claims: Reasons, purposes, support, ambiguity, vagueness, complexity. Assessing credibility: Causal arguments, moral reasoning. |
|
Evaluating arguments and explanations: Relevance, clarity, testability, and consistency. Identifying assumptions, developing counter arguments and justifications. |
|
Writing argumentative, evaluative, and analytic essays: Prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Topic selection: Narrowing, evaluating validity and relevance. Developing parts of the argumentative essay: Strategies for organizing an argument or evaluation, including evidence, inductive and deductive reasoning. Avoiding logical fallacies. |
|
Literary analysis: Evaluating point of view, inferences, and assumptions. Understanding diction, identification, aesthetic distance, and focus. Exploring rhetorical devices: Satire, irony, paradox, over-statement and understatement, evaluating authority. |
|
Comparative analysis: Analyzing symbols, analogy, ambiguity, and imagery. |
|
Deductive reasoning in expressive or expository literature: Recognizing assumptions in literary criticism and theory. |
|
Political and advertising rhetoric: Slanders, euphemisms, innuendo, loaded questions, downplaying, avoidance, stereotyping, hyperbole, persuasive definitions. Information tailoring and the news media: Loaded language in reporting and advertising. |
|
(Major writing assignments will consist of approximately 6 essays totaling 6000 words.) |
Success in McMahon’s Class Is Predicated on Three Major Components:
One. Turn in 4 five-page research papers with correct MLA format ON TIME. Research Papers (all 4 of your essays) have a minimum of 4 sources, which can include Signs of Life in the USA, my lecture notes, interviews, and online sources.
Two. Do the reading assignments so that you can write a one-paragraph response that is cohesive, coherent and well developed in the five surprise closed-book reading tests.
Three. Show up on time to 90% of the classes. Missing 3 out of 30 classes is 90%.
Policies:
You can’t make-up reading exams. Points are irretrievably lost. This policy encourages class attendance.
Late Papers: I don’t accept late papers more than one week after the original due date and I reduce a full grade; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,200 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. For a rewrite, the HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS.
(20 points deducted for not having headers (your last name and page number in the upper right corner of every page and 40 points deducted for not having a correct Works Cited page)
Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the eighth week of the semester you have not turned in your first two essays or are failing the class, I will drop you.
Etiquette Policy: If you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying for other courses during my class, you will be asked to leave the class.
August 07, 2010
Revised 1C Fall 2010 Syllabus for Jeffrey McMahon
1C Fall 2010 McMahon Syllabus
e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu; Office: PE4
Phone extension 5673
Website for students:http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/
Required Texts: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner; The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson; Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely; In the Pond by Ha Jin; Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Student Learning Objective
Students will compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to
support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and
integration of primary and secondary sources. This essay will be well
organized, follow proper MLA format, and be technically correct in
paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and
usage.
Course Objectives
The student will be able to:
1. Read expository prose critically to distinguish between perception and inference, surface and implied meanings, fact and opinion.
2. Analyze the way arguments are presented in readings and the media.
3. Demonstrate the ability to organize and develop written arguments and compositions.
4. Refine writing skills developed in English 1A: focusing a topic, formulating a thesis, providing support, and developing unity and coherence.
5. Evaluate the accuracy and cogency of arguments by identifying logical fallacies and drawing inferences from readings and media presentations.
6. Formulate and develop arguments and critical theories about issues, argumentative prose, and literary interpretations.
Major Topics
Structures of argument: Thinking, reading, discussing. Evaluate data, credibility, and relevance. |
Understanding and evaluating claims: Reasons, purposes, support, ambiguity, vagueness, complexity. Assessing credibility: Causal arguments, moral reasoning. |
Evaluating arguments and explanations: Relevance, clarity, testability, and consistency. Identifying assumptions, developing counter arguments and justifications. |
Writing argumentative, evaluative, and analytic essays: Prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Topic selection: Narrowing, evaluating validity and relevance. Developing parts of the argumentative essay: Strategies for organizing an argument or evaluation, including evidence, inductive and deductive reasoning. Avoiding logical fallacies. |
Literary analysis: Evaluating point of view, inferences, and assumptions. Understanding diction, identification, aesthetic distance, and focus. Exploring rhetorical devices: Satire, irony, paradox, over-statement and understatement, evaluating authority. |
Comparative analysis: Analyzing symbols, analogy, ambiguity, and imagery. |
Deductive reasoning in expressive or expository literature: Recognizing assumptions in literary criticism and theory. |
Political and advertising rhetoric: Slanders, euphemisms, innuendo, loaded questions, downplaying, avoidance, stereotyping, hyperbole, persuasive definitions. Information tailoring and the news media: Loaded language in reporting and advertising. |
(Major writing assignments will consist of approximately 6 essays totaling 6000 words.) |
Success in McMahon’s Class Is Predicated on Three Major Components:
One. Turn in 4 five-page research papers with correct MLA format ON TIME. Research Papers (all 4 of your essays) have a minimum of 4 sources, which can include Signs of Life in the USA, my lecture notes, interviews, and online sources.
Two. Do the reading assignments so that you can write a one-paragraph response that is cohesive, coherent and well developed in the five surprise closed-book reading tests.
Three. Show up on time to 90% of the classes. Missing 3 out of 30 classes is 90%.
Grading (based on mandatory 24 pages):
Four research papers, 225 points each
Four Quizzes, 25 points each
Grand Total: 1,000 points.
Policies:
You can’t make-up reading exams. Points are irretrievably lost. This policy encourages class attendance.
Late Papers: I don’t accept late papers more than one week after the original due date and I reduce a full grade; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,200 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. For a rewrite, the HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS.
(20 points deducted for not having headers (your last name and page number in the upper right corner of every page and 40 points deducted for not having a correct Works Cited page)
Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the eighth week of the semester you have not turned in your first two essays or are failing the class, I will drop you.
Etiquette Policy: If you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying for other courses during my class, you will be asked to leave the class.
Reading and Writing Schedule
August 31 Introduction
September 2 Weiner Chapter 1
September 7 Weiner Chapters 2 and 3
September 9 Weiner Chapters 4 and 5
September 14 Weiner Chapters 6,7, and 8
September 16 Quiz 1, Weiner Chapters 9-end
September 21 and 23 Essay 1 due in my office
September 28 Masson Chapter 1
September 30 Masson Chapter 2
October 5 Masson Chapter 3
October 7 Masson Chapter 4
October 12 Quiz 2 on Masson
October 14 Consultation in McMahon’s Office
October 19 and 21 Essay 2 due in my office
October 26 Ariely Chapters 1-3
October 28 Ariely Chapters 4-6
November 2 Ariely Chapters 7-9
November 4 Ariely Chapters 10-12
November 9 Ariely Chapter 13 plus “bonus” chapters
November 11 Quiz 3 on Ariely
November 16 and 18 Essay 3 due in my office
November 23 Ha Jin 1-57
November 25 Holiday
November 30 Ha Jin 58-98
December 2 Ha Jin 99-141
December 7 Ha Jin 142-end
December 9 Quiz 4 on Ha Jin novel
December 14 and 16 Essay 4 due in my office
1C Fall 2010 Writing Assignments
Essay 1 based on Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss
Your essay will be essentially two parts. In your first part, summarize Weiner’s analysis of the major fallacies we have about happiness and how these fallacies lead to the opposite of happiness, unhappiness. This summary section will take you about 1.5 pages. Then in another page, profile someone you know who embodies these fallacies and explain how this person’s misery conforms to the types of unhappiness Weiner describes.
In the second half of your essay, summarize, in 1.5 pages, Weiner’s conditions for happiness, especially as happiness is born from the intersection of the individual and culture. Then in another page, write about a person you know who conforms to this type of happiness.
Then in your conclusion, about a page, analyze how convincing Weiner’s claims about happiness are. What are the strengths and weaknesses of his investigation? How would you define happiness in the context of Weiner’s book? Is this definition logically sound and convincing? Why or why not? Be sure to explain your position.
You will need a Works Cited page that cites Weiner, my blog, any interviews you might do with your subjects, and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient, memorable title.
Open-Ended Option for Essay #1:
In the context of the book, analyze the causes of happiness and unhappiness and use examples from people you know. Same research requirements as above.
Essay 2 based on Jeffrey Masson’s The Face on Your Plate
For your essay to be successful, you will have to use a refutation argumentative style. In doing so, I suggest you begin my summarizing, in about one page, Masson’s major arguments, including the morally abhorrent condition of “speciesism,” as the basis of ethical treatment toward animals. Be sure to include what you think are the strengths, weaknesses, and fallacies, if any, in his claims and arguments.
Then begin your thesis paragraph that will either defend or refute Masson using a REFUTATION ARGUMENT MODEL. You will find 5 arguments that your opponents rely on to contradict your position and you show how your opponents’ arguments, point by point, can be refuted. What if during your thinking about the topic and your research you find yourself agreeing with your opponents? THEN CHANGE YOUR POSITION.
In your thesis paragraph write your opponents’ major claims against your position and write how you will refute those claims.
Your body paragraphs will correspond to your point by point refutations of your opponents. Your conclusion will be a restatement of your thesis.
For this essay, you will NEED MORE RESEARCH THAN YOUR OTHER ESSAYS: A MINIMUM OF 5 SOURCES, BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient title.
Open-ended Option for Essay #2:
Defend or refute the author's main arguments using a refutation essay model. Same research requirements above.
Essay 3 based on the Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
In a 5-page research paper, summarize the major points of the book in a page and then use YOUR OWN examples—from personal life, TV and magazine ads, other people, etc. to illustrate no fewer than 5 principles.
Essay 4 based on Ha Jin’s In the Pond
In 3 pages analyze the irrational faculties that sabotage Bin’s attempt to find happiness. Be sure to have a thesis statement such as “Bin’s quest for happiness is saddled with failure because of his tendency for _________________, ______________, _________________, and ___________________. In your last 2 pages, compare Bin to someone you know or a character from film, television, or literature. Of course you will need a Works Cited page and 3 sources minimum.
June 06, 2010
McMahon 1C Summer 2010 Syllabus: June 28-August 5
e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu; Office: PE4
Office on essay consultations day: PE4; extension 5673
Website for students:http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/
Required Texts and Materials: Spiral-bound notebook for your journal entries; The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner; The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaeff Masson; The Stories of John Cheever; In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan; Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Student Learning Objective
Students will compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to
support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and
integration of primary and secondary sources. This essay will be well
organized, follow proper MLA format, and be technically correct in
paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and
usage.
Course Objectives
The student will be able to:
1. Read expository prose critically to distinguish between perception and inference, surface and implied meanings, fact and opinion.
2. Analyze the way arguments are presented in readings and the media.
3. Demonstrate the ability to organize and develop written arguments and compositions.
4. Refine writing skills developed in English 1A: focusing a topic, formulating a thesis, providing support, and developing unity and coherence.
5. Evaluate the accuracy and cogency of arguments by identifying logical fallacies and drawing inferences from readings and media presentations.
6. Formulate and develop arguments and critical theories about issues, argumentative prose, and literary interpretations.
Major Topics
Structures of argument: Thinking, reading, discussing. Evaluate data, credibility, and relevance. |
Understanding and evaluating claims: Reasons, purposes, support, ambiguity, vagueness, complexity. Assessing credibility: Causal arguments, moral reasoning. |
Evaluating arguments and explanations: Relevance, clarity, testability, and consistency. Identifying assumptions, developing counter arguments and justifications. |
Writing argumentative, evaluative, and analytic essays: Prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Topic selection: Narrowing, evaluating validity and relevance. Developing parts of the argumentative essay: Strategies for organizing an argument or evaluation, including evidence, inductive and deductive reasoning. Avoiding logical fallacies. |
Literary analysis: Evaluating point of view, inferences, and assumptions. Understanding diction, identification, aesthetic distance, and focus. Exploring rhetorical devices: Satire, irony, paradox, over-statement and understatement, evaluating authority. |
Comparative analysis: Analyzing symbols, analogy, ambiguity, and imagery. |
Deductive reasoning in expressive or expository literature: Recognizing assumptions in literary criticism and theory. |
Political and advertising rhetoric: Slanders, euphemisms, innuendo, loaded questions, downplaying, avoidance, stereotyping, hyperbole, persuasive definitions. Information tailoring and the news media: Loaded language in reporting and advertising. |
(Major writing assignments will consist of approximately 6 essays totaling 6000 words.) |
Grading (based on mandatory 6,000 words):
Four Research 5-Page Research Papers (1,250 words): 225 for 900 points
In-class Journal Entries in a spiral-bound notebook. Each entry should be one-half to one full page (if you miss class do as homework). Journal is 100 points.
Grand Total: 1,000 points.
Policies:
Late Papers: I don’t accept late papers more than one week after the original due date and I reduce a full grade; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,250 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. For a rewrite, the HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS.
(20 points deducted for not having headers (your last name and page number in the upper right corner of every page and 40 points deducted for not having a correct Works Cited page)
Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the eighth week of the semester you have not turned in your first two essays or are failing the class, I will drop you.
Etiquette Policy: If you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying for other courses during my class, you will be asked to leave the class.
Reading and Writing Schedule
June 28 Introduction
June 29 Weiner Chapter 1
June 30 Weiner Chapters 2, 3
July 1 Weiner Chapters 6-8
July 5 Holiday
July 6 Weiner 9-end
July 7 Essay 1 Due
July 8 Essay 1 Due
July 12 Masson Chapter 1
July 13 Masson Chapter 2
July 14 Masson Chapter 3
July 15 Masson Chapter 4
July 19 Essay 2 Due
July 20 Essay 2 Due
July 21 Pollan Chapter 1
July 22 Pollan Chapter 2
July 26 Pollan Chapter 3
July 27 Essay 3 Due
July 28 Essay 3 Due
July 29 Cheever “The Swimmer” 603
August 2 Cheever “Torch Song” 89; “The Country Husband” 324
August 3 Cheever “Just Tell Me Who It Was” 370
August 4 Essay 4 and Journal Are Due (Journal should have 14 entries)
August 4 Essay 4 and Journal Are Due (Journal should have 14 entries)
Essay 1 based on Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss
Your essay will be essentially two parts. In your first part, summarize Weiner’s analysis of the major fallacies we have about happiness and how these fallacies lead to the opposite of happiness, unhappiness. This summary section will take you about 1.5 pages. Then in another page, profile someone you know who embodies these fallacies and explain how this person’s misery conforms to the types of unhappiness Weiner describes.
In the second half of your essay, summarize, in 1.5 pages, Weiner’s conditions for happiness, especially as happiness is born from the intersection of the individual and culture. Then in another page, write about a person you know who conforms to this type of happiness.
Then in your conclusion, about a page, analyze how convincing Weiner’s claims about happiness are. What are the strengths and weaknesses of his investigation? How would you define happiness in the context of Weiner’s book? Is this definition logically sound and convincing? Why or why not? Be sure to explain your position.
You will need a Works Cited page that cites Weiner, my blog, any interviews you might do with your subjects, and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient, memorable title.
Essay 2 based on Jeffrey Moussaeff Masson’s The Face on Your Plate
For your essay to be successful, you will have to use a refutation argumentative style. In doing so, I suggest you begin my summarizing, in about one page, Masson’s major arguments, especially the morally abhorrent condition of “speciesism” and denial as the basis of ethical treatment toward animals. Be sure to include what you think are the strengths, weaknesses, and fallacies, if any, in his claims and arguments.
Then begin your thesis paragraph that will either defend or refute Masson using a REFUTATION ARGUMENT MODEL. You will find 5 arguments that your opponents rely on to contradict your position and you show how your opponents’ arguments, point by point, can be refuted. What if during your thinking about the topic and your research you find yourself agreeing with your opponents? THEN CHANGE YOUR POSITION.
In your thesis paragraph write your opponents’ major claims against your position and write how you will refute those claims. Your body paragraphs will correspond to your point by point refutations of your opponents. Your conclusion will be a restatement of your thesis.
For this essay, you will NEED MORE RESEARCH THAN YOUR OTHER ESSAYS: A MINIMUM OF 5 SOURCES, BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient title.
Essay 3 based on Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food
In your first 1.5 pages, define “Nutritionism” and evaluate its dangers and fallacies. Then in another 1.5 pages, define and evaluate the dangers and fallacies of the Western Diet. In another page, define the idea of “food literacy.” Then in two pages, critique your eating habits in the context of Michael Pollan’s “manifesto” and what it means to be “food literate.” In your final page, describe a meal you make for yourself that you can defend based on the criteria prescribed in Pollan’s “Eater’s Manifesto.”
You will need a Works Cited page that cites Pollan, my blog, any recipes you may have to consult for your “defended meal,” and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient, memorable title.
Essay 4 based on the Stories of John Cheever
Write a comparative analysis of two paired stories focused on one of these themes: The grandiosity of self resulting in solipsism, warped time, and consummation in “The Swimmer” and “Torch Song”; marital symbiosis and its contradictions in “The Country Husband” and “Just Tell Me Who It Was”;
Your 4-page literary analysis should show an ability to make thematic comparisons, find irony, paradox, symbolism, analogy, and imagery in their function to render the stories’ important themes. In your final page, your fifth page, you will write a salient, concrete profile of someone you know who embodies the characteristics you just described in your literary comparison.
You will need a Works Cited page that cites Cheever, my blog, any interviews you might do with your subjects, and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient, memorable title.
June 02, 2010
Revised 1C Fall 2010 Syllabus for Jeffrey McMahon
1C Fall 2010 McMahon Syllabus
e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu; Office: PE4
Phone extension 5673
Website for students:http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/
Required
Texts: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner; The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson; Predictably
Irrational by Dan Ariely; In
the Pond by Ha Jin; Rules for
Writers by Diana Hacker
Students with
Disabilities:
If you have a
documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please
contact me as soon as possible.
Student Learning
Objective
Students will compose
an argumentative essay that shows an ability to
support a claim using
analysis, elements of argumentation, and
integration of primary
and secondary sources. This essay will be well
organized, follow
proper MLA format, and be technically correct in
paragraph composition,
sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and
usage.
Course Objectives
The student will be
able to:
1. Read expository prose critically to distinguish between
perception and inference, surface and implied meanings, fact and
opinion.
2. Analyze the way arguments are presented in readings and the
media.
3. Demonstrate the ability to organize and develop written
arguments and compositions.
4. Refine writing skills developed in
English 1A: focusing a topic, formulating a thesis, providing support, and
developing unity and coherence.
5. Evaluate the accuracy and cogency of
arguments by identifying logical fallacies and drawing inferences from readings
and media presentations.
6. Formulate and develop arguments and critical
theories about issues, argumentative prose, and literary interpretations.
Major Topics
|
Structures
of argument: Thinking, reading, discussing. Evaluate data, credibility, and
relevance. |
|
Understanding
and evaluating claims: Reasons, purposes, support, ambiguity, vagueness,
complexity. Assessing credibility: Causal arguments, moral reasoning. |
|
Evaluating
arguments and explanations: Relevance, clarity, testability, and consistency.
Identifying assumptions, developing counter arguments and justifications. |
|
Writing
argumentative, evaluative, and analytic essays: Prewriting, writing, and
rewriting. Topic selection: Narrowing, evaluating validity and relevance.
Developing parts of the argumentative essay: Strategies for organizing an
argument or evaluation, including evidence, inductive and deductive
reasoning. Avoiding logical fallacies. |
|
Literary
analysis: Evaluating point of view, inferences, and assumptions.
Understanding diction, identification, aesthetic distance, and focus.
Exploring rhetorical devices: Satire, irony, paradox, over-statement and
understatement, evaluating authority. |
|
Comparative
analysis: Analyzing symbols, analogy, ambiguity, and imagery. |
|
Deductive
reasoning in expressive or expository literature: Recognizing assumptions in
literary criticism and theory. |
|
Political
and advertising rhetoric: Slanders, euphemisms, innuendo, loaded questions,
downplaying, avoidance, stereotyping, hyperbole, persuasive definitions.
Information tailoring and the news media: Loaded language in reporting and
advertising. |
|
(Major
writing assignments will consist of approximately 6 essays totaling 6000
words.) |
Success in
McMahon’s Class Is Predicated on Three Major Components:
One. Turn in 4
five-page research papers with correct MLA format ON TIME. Research Papers (all
4 of your essays) have a minimum of 4 sources, which can include Signs of Life in
the USA, my lecture notes, interviews, and online sources.
Two. Do the reading
assignments so that you can write a one-paragraph response that is cohesive,
coherent and well developed in the five surprise closed-book reading tests.
Three. Show up on time
to 90% of the classes. Missing 3 out of 30 classes is 90%.
Grading (based on
mandatory 24 pages):
Three 5-page Research Papers plus Works Cited page: 200 points each
Fourth Research Paper, which is 6 pages plus Works Cited page: 300 points
Four Quizzes, 25 points each
Grand Total: 1,000
points.
Policies:
You can’t make-up
reading exams. Points are irretrievably lost. This policy encourages class
attendance.
Late Papers: I don’t
accept late papers more than one week after the original due date and I reduce
a full grade; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should
be approximately 1,200 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and
essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works
Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may
revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite.
Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If
you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear
as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. For a rewrite, the
HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS.
(20 points deducted
for not having headers (your last name and page number in the upper right
corner of every page and 40 points deducted for not having a correct Works
Cited page)
Attendance Policy: For
16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY
REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be
dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You
cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to
turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the eighth
week of the semester you have not turned in your first two essays or are
failing the class, I will drop you.
Etiquette Policy: If
you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying
for other courses during my class, you will be asked to leave the class.
Reading and Writing
Schedule
August 31 Introduction
September 2 Weiner
Chapter 1
September 7 Weiner
Chapters 2 and 3
September 9 Weiner
Chapters 4 and 5
September 14 Weiner
Chapters 6,7, and 8
September 16 Quiz
1, Weiner Chapters 9-end
September 21 and 23
Essay 1 due in my office
September 28 Masson
Chapter 1
September 30 Masson
Chapter 2
October 5 Masson
Chapter 3
October 7 Masson
Chapter 4
October 12 Quiz 2 on Masson
October 14 Consultation
in McMahon’s Office
October 19 and 21
Essay 2 due in my office
October 26 Ariely
Chapters 1-3
October 28 Ariely
Chapters 4-6
November 2 Ariely
Chapters 7-9
November 4 Ariely
Chapters 10-12
November 9 Ariely
Chapter 13 plus “bonus” chapters
November
11 Quiz 3 on Ariely
November 16 and 18
Essay 3 due in my office
November 23 Ha Jin
1-57
November 25 Holiday
November 30 Ha Jin
58-98
December 2 Ha Jin
99-141
December 7 Ha Jin
142-end
December 9 Quiz
4 on Ha Jin novel
December 14 and 16
Essay 4 due in my office
1C Fall 2010 Writing Assignments
Essay 1 based
on Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss
Your essay will be
essentially two parts. In your first part, summarize Weiner’s analysis of the
major fallacies we have about happiness and how these fallacies lead to the
opposite of happiness, unhappiness. This summary section will take you about
1.5 pages. Then in another page, profile someone you know who embodies these
fallacies and explain how this person’s misery conforms to the types of unhappiness
Weiner describes.
In the second half of
your essay, summarize, in 1.5 pages, Weiner’s conditions for happiness,
especially as happiness is born from the intersection of the individual and
culture. Then in another page, write about a person you know who conforms to
this type of happiness.
Then in your
conclusion, about a page, analyze how convincing Weiner’s claims about
happiness are. What are the strengths and weaknesses of his investigation? How
would you define happiness in the context of Weiner’s book? Is this definition
logically sound and convincing? Why or why not? Be sure to explain your
position.
You will need a Works
Cited page that cites Weiner, my blog, any interviews you might do with your
subjects, and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy,
salient, memorable title.
Open-Ended Option
for Essay #1:
In the context of the
book, analyze the causes of happiness and unhappiness and use examples from
people you know. Same research requirements as above.
Essay 2 based on
Jeffrey Masson’s The Face on Your Plate
For your essay to be
successful, you will have to use a refutation argumentative style. In doing so,
I suggest you begin my summarizing, in about one page, Masson’s major
arguments, including the morally abhorrent condition of “speciesism,” as the
basis of ethical treatment toward animals. Be sure to include what you think
are the strengths, weaknesses, and fallacies, if any, in his claims and
arguments.
Then begin your thesis
paragraph that will either defend or refute Masson using a REFUTATION ARGUMENT
MODEL. You will find 5 arguments that your opponents rely on to contradict your
position and you show how your opponents’ arguments, point by point, can be
refuted. What if during your thinking about the topic and your research you
find yourself agreeing with your opponents? THEN CHANGE YOUR POSITION.
In your thesis
paragraph write your opponents’ major claims against your position and write
how you will refute those claims.
Your body paragraphs
will correspond to your point by point refutations of your opponents. Your
conclusion will be a restatement of your thesis.
For this essay, you
will NEED MORE RESEARCH THAN YOUR OTHER ESSAYS: A MINIMUM OF 5 SOURCES, BOTH
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient title.
Open-ended Option
for Essay #2:
Defend or refute the
author's main arguments using a refutation essay model. Same
research requirements above.
Essay 3 based on
the Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
In a 5-page research
paper, summarize the major points of the book in a page and then use YOUR OWN
examples—from personal life, TV and magazine ads, other people, etc. to
illustrate no fewer than 5 principles.
Essay 4 based on Ha
Jin’s In the Pond
In 3 pages analyze the
irrational faculties that sabotage Bin’s attempt to find happiness. Be sure to
have a thesis statement such as “Bin’s quest for happiness is saddled with
failure because of his tendency for _________________, ______________,
_________________, and ___________________. In your last 2 pages, compare Bin
to someone you know or a character from film, television, or literature. Of course you will need a Works Cited page and 3 sources minimum.
February 05, 2010
McMahon 1C Spring 2010 Syllabus with Updated "Open-Ended" Essay Options
e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu; Office: PE4
Classes meet in H301; extension 5673
Website for students:http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/
Required Texts: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner; Animal Liberation by Peter Singer; The Stories of John Cheever; In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan; Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Student Learning Objective
Students will compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to
support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and
integration of primary and secondary sources. This essay will be well
organized, follow proper MLA format, and be technically correct in
paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and
usage.
Course Objectives
The student will be able to:
1. Read expository prose critically to distinguish between perception and inference, surface and implied meanings, fact and opinion.
2. Analyze the way arguments are presented in readings and the media.
3. Demonstrate the ability to organize and develop written arguments and compositions.
4. Refine writing skills developed in English 1A: focusing a topic, formulating a thesis, providing support, and developing unity and coherence.
5. Evaluate the accuracy and cogency of arguments by identifying logical fallacies and drawing inferences from readings and media presentations.
6. Formulate and develop arguments and critical theories about issues, argumentative prose, and literary interpretations.
Major Topics
Structures of argument: Thinking, reading, discussing. Evaluate data, credibility, and relevance. |
Understanding and evaluating claims: Reasons, purposes, support, ambiguity, vagueness, complexity. Assessing credibility: Causal arguments, moral reasoning. |
Evaluating arguments and explanations: Relevance, clarity, testability, and consistency. Identifying assumptions, developing counter arguments and justifications. |
Writing argumentative, evaluative, and analytic essays: Prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Topic selection: Narrowing, evaluating validity and relevance. Developing parts of the argumentative essay: Strategies for organizing an argument or evaluation, including evidence, inductive and deductive reasoning. Avoiding logical fallacies. |
Literary analysis: Evaluating point of view, inferences, and assumptions. Understanding diction, identification, aesthetic distance, and focus. Exploring rhetorical devices: Satire, irony, paradox, over-statement and understatement, evaluating authority. |
Comparative analysis: Analyzing symbols, analogy, ambiguity, and imagery. |
Deductive reasoning in expressive or expository literature: Recognizing assumptions in literary criticism and theory. |
Political and advertising rhetoric: Slanders, euphemisms, innuendo, loaded questions, downplaying, avoidance, stereotyping, hyperbole, persuasive definitions. Information tailoring and the news media: Loaded language in reporting and advertising. |
(Major writing assignments will consist of approximately 6 essays totaling 6000 words.) |
Success in McMahon’s Class Is Predicated on Three Major Components:
One. Turn in 4 five-page research papers with correct MLA format ON TIME. Research Papers (all 4 of your essays) have a minimum of 4 sources, which can include Signs of Life in the USA, my lecture notes, interviews, and online sources.
Two. Do the reading assignments so that you can write a one-paragraph response that is cohesive, coherent and well developed in the five surprise closed-book reading tests.
Three. Show up on time to 90% of the classes. Missing 3 out of 30 classes is 90%.
Grading (based on mandatory 24 pages):
Four Research 5-Page Research Papers (1,250 words): 210 for 840 points, 84% of your grade
Four In-Class Reading Exams that are a 250-word paragraph, 40 each, 160 points, 160% of your grade
Grand Total: 1,000 points.
Policies:
You can’t make-up reading exams. Points are irretrievably lost. This policy encourages class attendance.
Late Papers: I don’t accept late papers more than one week after the original due date and I reduce a full grade; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,200 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. For a rewrite, the HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS.
(20 points deducted for not having headers (your last name and page number in the upper right corner of every page and 40 points deducted for not having a correct Works Cited page)
Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the eighth week of the semester you have not turned in your first two essays or are failing the class, I will drop you.
Etiquette Policy: If you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying for other courses during my class, you will be asked to leave the class.
Reading and Writing Schedule
February 16 Introduction
February 18 Weiner Chapter 1
February 23 Weiner Chapters 2 and 3
February 25 Weiner Chapters 4 and 5
March 2 Weiner Chapters 6,7, and 8
March 4 Quiz 1, Weiner Chapters 9-end
March 9 and 11 Essay 1 due in my office
March 16 Singer Chapter 1 and the first half of Chapter 2
March 18 Singer last half of Chapter 2
March 23 Singer Chapter 3
March 25 Singer Chapter 4
March 30 Singer Chapters 5 and 6
April 1 Quiz 2 on Singer
April 6 and 8 Essay 2 due in my office
April 20 Cheever “The Swimmer” 603: The Danger of Grandiosity: Solipsism
April 22 Cheever “Torch Song” 89: Theme same as above
April 27 Cheever “The Country Husband” 325: Marital symbiosis and its contradictions
April 29 Cheever “Just Tell Me Who It Was” 370: Theme same as above
May 4 Cheever “Goodbye, My Brother” 3: Egotism, Puritanism, and Choosing Death over Life
May 6 Cheever Quiz 3, Cheever “The Enormous Radio” 33: Theme same as above
May 11 and 13 Essay 3 due in my office
May 18 Pollan first half of Chapter 1
May 20 Pollan second half of Chapter 1
May 25 Pollan Chapter 2
May 27 Pollan Chapter 3
June 1 Quiz 4 on Pollan
June 3 Consultations in my office
June 8 and 10 Essay 4 due in my office
1C Spring 2010 Writing Assignments
Essay 1 based on Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss
Your essay will be essentially two parts. In your first part, summarize Weiner’s analysis of the major fallacies we have about happiness and how these fallacies lead to the opposite of happiness, unhappiness. This summary section will take you about 1.5 pages. Then in another page, profile someone you know who embodies these fallacies and explain how this person’s misery conforms to the types of unhappiness Weiner describes.
In the second half of your essay, summarize, in 1.5 pages, Weiner’s conditions for happiness, especially as happiness is born from the intersection of the individual and culture. Then in another page, write about a person you know who conforms to this type of happiness.
Then in your conclusion, about a page, analyze how convincing Weiner’s claims about happiness are. What are the strengths and weaknesses of his investigation? How would you define happiness in the context of Weiner’s book? Is this definition logically sound and convincing? Why or why not? Be sure to explain your position.
You will need a Works Cited page that cites Weiner, my blog, any interviews you might do with your subjects, and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient, memorable title.
Open-Ended Option for Essay #1:
In the context of the book, analyze the causes of happiness and unhappiness and use examples from people you know. Same research requirements as above.
Essay 2 based on Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation
For your essay to be successful, you will have to use a refutation argumentative style. In doing so, I suggest you begin my summarizing, in about one page, Singer’s major arguments, especially the morally abhorrent condition of “speciesism,” as the basis of ethical treatment toward animals. Be sure to include what you think are the strengths, weaknesses, and fallacies, if any, in his claims and arguments.
Then begin your thesis paragraph that will either defend or refute Singer using a REFUTATION ARGUMENT MODEL. You will find 5 arguments that your opponents rely on to contradict your position and you show how your opponents’ arguments, point by point, can be refuted. What if during your thinking about the topic and your research you find yourself agreeing with your opponents? THEN CHANGE YOUR POSITION.
In your thesis paragraph write your opponents’ major claims against your position and write how you will refute those claims.
Your body paragraphs will correspond to your point by point refutations of your opponents. Your conclusion will be a restatement of your thesis.
For this essay, you will NEED MORE RESEARCH THAN YOUR OTHER ESSAYS: A MINIMUM OF 5 SOURCES, BOTH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient title.
Open-ended Option for Essay #2:
Defend or refute the author's main arguments using a refutation essay model. Same research requirements above.
Essay 3 based on the Stories of John Cheever
Write a comparative analysis of two paired stories focused on one of these themes: The grandiosity of self resulting in solipsism, warped time, and consummation in “The Swimmer” and “Torch Song”; marital symbiosis and its contradictions in “The Country Husband” and “Just Tell Me Who It Was”; egotism, Puritanism (despair disguised as self-righteous superiority), and choosing death over life in “Goodbye, My Brother” and “The Enormous Radio.”
Your 4-page literary analysis should show an ability to make thematic comparisons, find irony, paradox, symbolism, analogy, and imagery in their function to render the stories’ important themes.
In your final page, your fifth page, you will write a salient, concrete profile of someone you know who embodies the characteristics you just described in your literary comparison.
You will need a Works Cited page that cites Cheever, my blog, any interviews you might do with your subjects, and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient, memorable title.
Open-Ended Option for Essay #3:
Using no fewer than two stories, compare the pathology or dysfunction of at least two characters from Cheever's stories. Same research methods apply.
Essay 4 based on Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food
In your first 1.5 pages, define “Nutritionism” and evaluate its dangers and fallacies. Then in another 1.5 pages, define and evaluate the dangers and fallacies of the Western Diet. In another page, define the idea of “food literacy.” Then in two pages, critique your eating habits in the context of Michael Pollan’s “manifesto” and what it means to be “food literate.” In your final page, describe a meal you make for yourself that you can defend based on the criteria prescribed in Pollan’s “Eater’s Manifesto.”
You will need a Works Cited page that cites Pollan, my blog, any recipes you may have to consult for your “defended meal,” and any other source material. Remember: Give your essay a catchy, salient, memorable title.
Open-Ended Option for Essay #4:
Analyze the dangers of "Nutritionism" in the context of Pollan's book. Same research methods apply.
Categories
- 1A Inactive Archives
- 1A Quizzes
- 1A Student Learning Objectives
- 1A Syllabus
- 1C Inactive Archives
- 1C Quizzes
- 1C Syllabus
- Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead Lessons
- Back in the World Lessons
- Books
- Cheever Lessons
- Chocolate War Lessons
- Cooked Lessons
- Country of the Blind Lessons
- Critical Thinker
- Death of Ivan Ilych Lessons
- Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Lessons
- Essay Revision Policy
- Fast Food Nation Resources
- Geography of Bliss Lessons
- Good Fall Lessons
- Grading
- Holes Lessons
- Important Announcements
- In Defense of Food Lessons
- In the Pond Lessons
- Introducing Your Essay
- Life Studies
- Man's Search for Meaning Guide
- Man's Search for Meaning Lessons
- MLA Formatting and Writing Guide
- Night in Question Lessons
- Night Lessons
- Overcoat Lessons
- Policies
- Predictably Irrational Lessons
- Qualities of an A Paper
- Reading Comprehension
- Sample "A" Paper
- Simple Plan Lessons
- Story and Its Writer Lessons
- Student Writing Errors
- US Government Pays for Your Med School
- Vegetarian Debate Lessons
- Where I'm Calling From
- Writing a Successful Paragraph
- Writing Tips
- Writing Your Personal Statement Tips
Pages
Recent Posts
- El Camino College 1A Student Learning Objecitves
- McMahon Fall 2012 English 1A Syllabus
- New Grading System for English 1A and 1C Starting in Fall 2012
- 1A Quiz #4 Spring 2012: The Overcoat
- Avoiding Sentence Fragments
- Exercises to Eliminate Comma Splices and Run-Ons
- Compelling News Story: Teenage Girl Runs for Her Life
- English 1A Fall 2012 Writing Assignments
- Starting in Fall of 2012 the First 2 Quizzes Will be Closed-Book In-Class
- 1A Quiz #3 Spring 2012 for Back in the World
