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.
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