Critical Thinker

Quiz #4 Man's Search for Meaning: Due April 3rd

In 333 words, explain how the Death in Tehran story Frankl uses is an allegory that can explain the major themes of the book. You can bring notes to class on April 3rd to write in class or bring exam fully typed to class. It's your choice.

Lesson 6: When Right Isn't Right in "The Incalculable Gesture"

“The Incalculable Life Gesture” (50)

We learn from Richard's moral flaw--the self-destructive resentment he harbors against his sister who he rightly sees as a cipher--that the more we rationalize the more we are irrational; the more we are technically right about an issue, the more we can be morally and spiritually wrong and as such we live an irrational life and evidence The Irrational Mind.

Another Theme of the Irrational Mind: When We're Right But We're Even MORE Wrong

Categories of Being Right But Being More Wrong

One. We see the trees but not the forest: some law or doctrine that causes destruction even as we obey it.

Two. We make a bad situation worse: We report a bully who's beating our child and the bully retaliates.

Three. We hurt people's feelings by telling the truth.

Four. We choose victory over humanity. Study group keeps dead weight and loses the contest. 

Five. We rationalize our selfish behavior by saying, "we're right." The guy on the bus who won't give up his seat to old lady because "I was first" is selfish.

Six. We lie to give hope and spare feelings.

Seven. We have bad intentions. A teacher says, "It's your obligation to come to class prepared" even as he humiliates a student.

Eight. Not knowing whole story. You get a waitress fired from her job because of her horrible service.

Nine. Gloating. "I told you so."

Ten. You bring up a truth but you don't have a purpose or an end game. A guy tells his girlfriend for example that she doesn't love him, that she uses him for all the presents he gives her and her response is, "Yes, so what do you plan to do about it?"

Sample Thesis

Many of the characters in James Lasdun's short story collection go down the path of destruction because they find something that they are partly right about and use that "being right" as an excuse to be in denial about the bigger picture in which are are more importantly wrong. This form of denial is evidenced in many ways, including ___________, __________, __________, and ______________.

Anger and selfishness and spite fueling self-righteousness in "The Incalculable Life Gesture."

Lust fueling the rationalization of adultery (because I deserve a more exciting life, an escape from my imprisoned existence) in "The Natural Order."

Greed fueling risk-taking and ambition and the quest for a better life in "An Anxious Man."

A lack of confidence fueling the "sure thing" in "The Half Sister."

 

 

1. What’s the psychological profile of Ellen on page 50? A leech, a cipher, an indulgent, narcissistic ne’er-do-well. But is Richard any better, wanting his share of a small house when his sister and child need shelter? I find myself siding with Richard. Am I as petty as he is?
   
2. How is Ellen unfair to her brother Richard regarding the inheritance of the house and how does Richard respond to this injustice? He’s in a dilemma: Be a victim or a bully. See page 51.
3. How does Ellen pour salt into the wounds she has inflicted upon Richard? See 51.
4. What bothers Richard about the possibility of death on page 54?
5. Why did Richard decide to become a teacher? See page 57.
6. Is the malady a metaphor for unrealistic expectations regarding justice and charity? Explain.
7. How does Richard’s self-image as a life-priest alienate him from modern life? See 57 and 58.
8. What does the story’s acrimonious ending seem to be telling us about empathy?
9. What is Richard's delusion or moral flaw? That he has the right to fume and stew over his sister's injustice when in fact his resentment is killing him more than the injustice itself. His resentment is a cancer that is growing like the tumor on his face.

 

Lesson 5, Faustian Bargain in "An Anxious Man"

 

“An Anxious Man”

 

1. What evidences Joseph’s lack of control in the opening scene? What are at the root of his compulsive behavior? Is he perhaps addicted to the rush of high stakes, like a gambling addiction? Does he thrive on the drama to compensate for something that’s lacking in his life?He is the fool who stakes his happiness on the whims of Lady Fortuna as described by Boethius. Possible explanations for Joseph's stock market addiction include: he's running away from ennui; he's running away from his own emptiness; he has defined himself as someone who needs to be a certain financial level; otherwise he will be suffering from an affliction. But he has made himself too vulnerable and he is not what he needs to be a successful person: He is not self-possessed.
2. How does page 4 set up Joseph’s sense of entitlement and discontent that never existed before? What does it mean to confuse necessity with desire? (see top of page 5) Studies show that wealth and a concern with money encourage privilege and degrade our powers of empathy.
3. How might some describe Morton Dowell, described on page 5, as a Trickster or a Devil, a figure who stirs the malignancies within Joseph’s soul? Good salesmen never sell; they give us “opportunities.”He is a sort of pimp or drug dealer who entices by escorting us through the various levels of human emotion.
4. What dichotomy of existence do we see in the story: Adrenaline World and Civilian World. The former eats the latter. In choosing the former, we embrace misery, panic, and anxiety because we prefer drama and its power to distract us from death and vapidity. See page 7 and 8. Does it not seem Joseph knows he’s made a deal with the devil yet can do nothing to stop himself? What does this say about free will? Once we get the wheels in motion, we can accelerate toward our demise with no opportunity to veer away from the danger.
5. Explain how regret is the defining emotion of stock market investment. See page 8. You never invest enough; you never sell quickly enough; you sell too soon; your life is one of second-guessing yourself and regret and anger. You become bitter but you keep coming back for more and more of the stuff that poisons you.The irony is that this despair becomes an addiction.
6. What does it mean to be “grounded”? What evidence is there that Joseph is not grounded? See page 18 among others. To be grounded means that we have the Third Eye, self-control, humility to learn from our mistakes, and developing strategies as solutions to problems rather than wallowing in the drama of our problems. All of the qualities come from a moral sense, so that when we say we are grounded we mean we have a moral center that directs our thoughts and actions.

 

 

“The Old Man”

1. What several similarities does the story have with “The Half Sister”? You have a man in a state of stagnation who is preyed upon by a devilish character who needs a sort of sacrifice to continue her operations smoothly.
2. What evidence is there that Conrad will be the next Mirek?
3. The story’s last page is similar to the conclusion in “The Half Sister.” Explain in terms of the theme of free will. 

Sample Thesis Statements

The tragedy of the Faustian Bargain is that once we are seduced by a false paradise, we submit our will to that sacrifice resulting in the Irrational Mind evidenced by _____________, ____________, _______________, and _______________. 

Ennui and a lack of life purpose make us vulnerable to the Faustian Bargain in four ways, not the least of which is ____________, _______________, _____________, and ________________. 

The characters in Lasdun's short story collection are woefully lacking in free will and are therefore slaves to the irrational mind evidenced by ________________, _______________, ______________, and __________________. 

Class Activity

In a brief paragraph, describe a Trickster or Chimera you once knew (or currently know) and what made this Trickster/Chimera so powerful and seductive?

 

Lesson One: Anatomy of Ambition, Chapters 1-3

 (starting Fall Semester 2014)

 

One. Discuss the Pathology of Extremes

 

 

 

We veer into extremes, living in Apollonian or Dionysian time. We tend to oscillate to both extremes as one extreme feeds the other. We see this Kirn’s case.

 

 

 

Two. Class anxiety is part of Kirn’s ambition.

 

 

 

He sees his life as a performance, one being judged by others and he is desperate for others’ approval.

 

 

 

Three. His father seeks a bucolic existence as a counterpart to his corporate job, so the family lives in a 19^th Century subsistence lifestyle.

 

 

 

This peasant life gives Walter shame and makes him suspicious of his father’s motives, for his father is a man who struggles with addiction and identity.

 

 

 

Four. Ambition is a life of quiet and insidious desperation.

 

 

 

Our hunger for a better life is part of our intelligence and our desperation. See page 4.

 

 

 

Five. “Percentile is destiny in America.”

 

 

 

See page 5. We compartmentalize skills and place a higher value on one, narrow definition of intelligence over other forms and we call this evidence of a person being “better” and “more qualified.”

 

 

 

See page 6 in which he discusses the college students, including himself, being book smart, but not street or life smart. Many of them go crazy, becoming fanatics and generally becoming broken down as human beings.

 

 

 

Six. Discuss ambition as a Faustian Bargain.

 

 

 

A Faustian Bargain, or Deal with the Devil, is when we trade our soul for something that we value more than our soul. Or put it this way. We think we’re getting something greater than we’re giving up, but in reality the opposite is happening. We’re losing more than we’re receiving.

 

 

 

Walter suffers from “gradual neurological withdrawal” as he consumes drugs and alcohol and runs away from his depression.

 

 

 

Seven. Discuss the chimera and its relationship with the Faustian Bargain.

 

 

 

Considering himself a man from the West, Walter sees the East Coast as the quintessence of “making it” and upper social class triumph, yet he always feels like an outsider even as he tries to prove himself worthy.

 

 

 

Eight. What is meritocracy as an idea and a reality?

 

 

 

As an idea, meritocracy means the cream rises to the top, but as a reality, Kirn is arguing that meritocracy is a code word for blind ambition: waking up every day and kissing the giant green butt of ambition.

 

 

 

Nine. What is sycophantism?

 

 

 

See page 12. The act of “befriending” the “right people” is the act of sycophantism. A person who does this is called a sycophant.

 

 

 

Ten. What is the  personal “dislocation” described on page 12.

 

 

 

Angst (nervousness and restlessness)

 

Shame (of wasting life on nonsense and fool’s errands)

 

Alienation, disconnection from self and others

 

Self-ignorance

 

Ennui, spiritual numbing

 

Existential vacuum

 

Spiritual anorexia and depletion

 

Need to medicate oneself with speed, hash, pot, alcohol, etc.

 

 

 

Eleven. Ambition impedes us from getting a real education. Explain.

 

 

 

On page 14, we read that a real education is about articulating the demons and emotional baggage of our childhood, for those are the experiences that truly define us on a deep, molecular, cellular level. But ambition is about running away from that baggage.

 

 

 

Ambition isn’t about self-knowledge; it’s about gaining approval from others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

What If Meaning Exists in Our Head as a Mass Delusion?

Walter Kirn's 'Blood Will Out'

Walter Kirn reveals the true, bizarre story of a world-class scammer - and his own gullibility

How Con Man 'Clark Rockefeller' Fooled Walter Kirn

McMahon Spring 2014 Second Half Syllabus Revised

 

Writing and Reading Schedule

 

March 25 Frankl 1-40

 

March 27 Frankl 41-100

 

April 1 Frankl 101-150

 

April 3 Quiz 4 due in classroom

 

April 8 Frankl 151-end

 

April 10 Quiz 5 due in class

 

April 15 Essay 3 Peer Review. Bring typed essay to class.  

 

April 17  Essay 3 due in class

 

April 22 Alexander 1-96

 

April 24 Alexander 97-177

 

April 29 Alexander 178-220

 

May 1 Alexander 221-end

 

May 6 Quiz 6 due in class

 

May 8 First 3 pages of essay typed for peer review questions

 

May 13 Essay 4 N-Z due in my office PE4

 

May 15 Essay 4 A-M due in my office PE4

 

Essay 3 for 180 points

 

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: Argumentation, Refutation

 

In a 1,000-word essay (4 pages), address the following in an argumentative essay:

 

Many argue that Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is worthy manifesto that champions meaning as the antidote to the universal affliction, the existential vacuum. On the other hand, some critics dismiss Frankl’s message, arguing that meaning, as Frankl presents it, is the product of strict moral and religious dogma disguising itself as universal meaning; that Frankl’s critieria for meaning, Herculean in scope, is nearly impossible to adhere to; that unrealistic expectations for “Absolute Meaning” will lead to disappointment; that the obsessive search for meaning can be a neurosis that impedes us from living fully; and that, contrary to VK’s Gospel of Meaning, there are virtues, pleasures, and satisfactions from living a life in the existential vacuum and moral relativism that escape a rigid dogmatist such VK.

 

 In an argumentative essay, evaluate the defenders and critics of VK and develop a thesis that takes one of the two positions.

 

Include no fewer than 3 research sources for your Works Cited page.

 

Essay 4 for 280 points

 

In a 1,200-word essay defend, critique, or outright refute Michelle Alexander's argument that mass incarceration represents the "New Jim Crow" by analyzing the legitimacy of her claims, the quality of her rhetoric and moral appeals, and by examining possible opposition to her logic and reasoning. Be sure you have a thesis statement with mapping components that will direct the organization of your essay.

 

Essay Requirements:

 

One. Students will express critical viewpoints and develop original thesis-driven arguments in response to social, political, and philosophical issues and/or to works of literature and literary theory.  This argumentative essay will be well organized, demonstrate an ability to support a claim using analysis and elements of argumentation, and integrate primary and secondary sources.

 

 Two. The paper should use at least three sources and not over-rely on one main source for most of the information.  Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.

 

Three.  This paper will be approximately 4-5 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required.  The Works Cited page does NOT count toward length requirement.

 

Four. Within your argument, address issues of bias, credibility, and relevance.

 

Five. Analyze and employ logical structural methods such as inductive and deductive reasoning, cause and effect, logos, ethos, and pathos, and demonstrate understanding of formal and informal fallacies in language and thought.

 

Six. You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.

 

Seven. You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.

 

Eight. You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

 

Peer Review Have Been Culled from Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric

 

 Peer Review Questions

 

 

 

•  
• Summarize the argument. If a reader has trouble summarizing the writer's argument, it's likely that the argument has a gap, or that its logic is unclear. Summarizing can help students to see where and how an argument has gone awry.
• Predict the argument. After reading only the paper's introduction and thesis, can a reader predict the argument to follow? If not, then perhaps the introduction has failed to frame the argument, or the thesis has failed to make its point. This exercise is fruitful because it helps students to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a paper's introduction and thesis sentence. They will also see the link between a good, clear introduction and the overall structure of an argument.
• Ask questions. The most important aims of the peer review are to get the student writer to understand how it is that her paper needs to be revised, and to determine strategies for that revision. Questions are a good way to encourage this process. Students can ask questions about parts of the paper that they don't understand; they can ask questions about the writer's process; they can ask questions about a writer's intention; they can ask about the writer's rhetorical strategies. All will get the conversation started and keep it lively.
• Reflect what the writer is trying to say. If a particular point is unclear, it can be useful to try to reflect that point back to the writer: "What you seem to be saying here is..." The writer will usually see that his point is unclear and can then consider how to communicate the point more effectively to the reader.
• Label problems. Student writers appreciate it when their peers take the time to find and to name the problems in their papers. Student reviewers can make a list of the problems they find on their peers' papers and can then work together with the writer to correct these problems. In this case, students are teaching good writing to their peers. If students need additional help they can consult a grammar handbook, confer with you, or see an RWIT tutor.
• Make suggestions. Student writers seek advice. They don't simply want to know what's wrong with their writing; they want to know how to fix it. Their peers should therefore be prepared to make suggestions for improvement. Note that we use the word "suggestions" in the plural: a peer reviewer should not insist on one solution to a problem. Rather, reviewers should offer several strategies for solving the problem, allowing the writer to determine which of these solutions might work best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English 1C SLOs

 

English 1C Critical Thinking and Composition Students will:

 

One. Compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and integration of primary and secondary sources.

 

Two. Identify and assess bias, credibility, and relevance in their own arguments and in the arguments of others, including primary and secondary outside sources.

 

Three. Organize an essay in proper MLA format and will also be technically correct in paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and usage.

 

 

 

English 1C Instructors Use an SLO (Student Learning Outcome) Check Form

 

SLO 1 (Thesis Support) Essay shows an ability to support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and integration of primary and secondary sources. Acceptable/Unacceptable

 

SLO 2 (Critical Thinking) Argument reflects an ability to identify and assess bias, credibility, and relevance in their own arguments and in the arguments of others, including primary and secondary outside sources. Acceptable/Unacceptable

 

SLO 3 (MLA, grammar) Essay is well organized in proper MLA format AND is technically correct in paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and usage. Acceptable/Unacceptable

 

Grading Template

 

Three 1,000-word essays, 180 points each

 

Final 1,200-word essay, 280 points

 

Six 300-word quizzes, 30 each, 180

 

6,000 words; 1,000 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Jim Crow Lesson 5, Chapter 5. The New Jim Crow

  

(I've adapted these ideas from Chapter 3 of How to Write Anything by John J. Ruszkiewicz.)  

Know what kind of argument you are writing: 

Argument to advance a thesis: 

You argue for a thesis as you champion an idea or a cause. 

For example, you might argue for eating steamed vegetables three times a day and provide the many benefits of employing such a practice.  

Another example would be a writer who argues that the Paleo diet is the most effective way to maintain lean muscle mass.  

Another example would be for a writer to argue for water rationing and triple water bills for homeowners who go over their water threshold.  

Another example would be to argue for prison reform to address concerns raised in The New Jim Crow. 

Refutation argument: 

You refute an already existing argument or practice, showing point by point why the argument is weak, precarious, or even fallacious (fallacy-laden). 

For example, you might refute Civil War reenactments on the grounds that they are white male fantasies based on the infantile hunger for nostalgia, the toxic Kool-Aid of White Supremacy, and the denial of moral accountability for the evils of slavery. 

In your refutation, you paint Civil War reenactments as a grotesque pageantry akin to a racist Disneyworld where are all the actors are white and black history has been erased because "it would be too disturbing" to the bogus, idealized world inhabited by the emotionally-arrested aspirants of "the good old Confederate days" and their other shameless displays of morally-bankrupt tomfoolery.   

Once you decide on your argument or claim, you must consider finding compelling reasons to support your claim.  

Support Your Claim 

Without support consisting of data, statistics, reasoning, logic, and refutations to counterarguments, your opinion exists in an abyss or a vacuum. You must develop a considered or educated opinion, which is the result of fearlessly studying the pros and cons of your subject in which you try to minimize your prejudices, biases, and other emotional baggage that might blind you from the truth.  

Understand Opposing Claims and Points of View 

You don't have an educated or considered opinion until you have been tested by your opponents' strongest arguments. If you can refute those arguments, then you can continue with your claim.  

You will also gain credibility with your readers for showing your understanding of your opponents' views.  

You will gain even more credibility when you can refute your opponents with assured insouciance rather than infantile hostility. Also choose polite insouciance over hostility as the former is a sign of intellectual superiority; the latter is a sign of juvenile fear and inexperience.  

Give Appropriate Sartorial (Clothing Style) Splendor (Writing Style) to Your Arguments 

Your argument is the "body" of the essay. Your writing style is the fashion or sartorial choice you make in order to "dress up" your argument and give it power, moxie, and elan (passion). 

Here is the same claim dressed up differently in the following two thesis statements: 

Plain 

Civil War reenactments are racist gibberish that need to go once and for all. 

More Dressed Up 

Our moral offense to civil war reenactments rests on our understanding that the participants are engaging in nostalgia for the days when the toxic religion of white supremacy ruled the day, that the participants gleefully and childishly erase black history to the detriment of truth, and that on a larger scale, they engage in the mythical revisionism of the Confederacy narratives, hiding its barbaric practices by esteeming racist thugs as if they were innocent and venerable Disney heroes. Their sham is so morally egregious and spiritually bankrupt that to examine its folly in all its shameless variations compels us to abolish the sordid practice without equivocation.   

Plain 

We need to stop blaming the poor for their poverty. 

More Dressed Up 

The idea that the rich are wealthy because of their superior moral character and that the poor live in poverty because of their inferior moral character is a glaring absurdity rooted in willful ignorance, the blind worship of money, and an irrational fear of poverty as if it were some kind of contagious disease.  

Qualify Your Thesis to Make It More Persuasive and Reasonable 

Qualifiers such as the following will make your thesis more bullet-proof from your opponents: 

some 

most

a few 

often 

under certain conditions 

when necessary 

occasionally 

Example: 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Examine Your Core Assumptions 

Assumptions are the principles and values upon which we base our beliefs and actions.  

Claim 

Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.  

Assumption 

Treating drug use as a medical problem that requires rehabilitation is morally superior to relying on incarceration. Some may disagree with this assumption, so the writer will have to defend her assumption at some point in her essay.  

Here's a link (with grammar errors) for writing counterarguments and refutations in your essay. 

Notice the link, which is from a community college, is riddled with grammar errors. We all make mistakes from time to time, especially on the Internet, but a pattern of errors is disturbing indeed. 

 

Study Questions, 221-261 

One. Why would there be huge resistance to reforming the New Jim Crow and Mass Incarceration? 

We read on page 230 that if we got back to the incarceration rates of the 1970s, before the War on Drugs, we’d have release 4 out of 5 prisoners. This would reduce prison jobs and would be met with all-out war from the 700,000 prison guards, administrators, service workers and other prison personnel.

In a report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Statistics in 2006, the U.S. spent $185 billion for police protection, detention, judicial, and legal activities in 2003. This is a tripling of expenses since 1982.

The justice system employed almost 2.4 million people in 2003. If 4 out of 5 prisoners were released, far more than a million prison employees would lose their jobs.

Private sector also has an investment in prison growth and the mass incarceration of helpless and vulnerable people of color. For example, former vice president Dick Cheney has invested millions in private prisons. His bank account depends on the incarceration of more and more black men (230). 

On page 231, the author gives a sample of “prison profiteers” who look for new ways to increase the prison business, with the targets always being the same: poor black men, the people this country has abandoned.

Consider this: On page 237 we read that 75% of all incarceration has no impact on crime, that if between 7 and 8 prisoners out of 10 were released, there’d be no change in crime; however, this 75% generates $200 billion annually. It’s a money-making device.

The moral bankruptcy of the New Jim Crow is that this multi-billion-dollar economy has been built on the backs of poor black men whom America doesn’t give a damn about. There’s an “it ain’t me” mentality that is morally loathsome and detestable. 

Two. What fuels the New Jim Crow in addition to greed? Is it racial hatred?

On page 242, the author argues racial hatred is not the culprit but something far worse: indifference. “My narrow, insular world is not effected so why should I give a damn?” A moral country would be like the group, All of Us or None (255). This group tirelessly advocates the “least among us,” which is the central message of the greatest religions and philosophies. Yet America has turned toward the other direction. 

Review of Alexander's Major Claims and Arguments

One. The NJC was based on race-neutral language to exert racist control and to make a rich prison empire on the backs of poor black men.

Two. Prisons don't reduce crime. They increase it.

Three. NJC was created by elite whites to appease poor whites.

Four. NJC is a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement merging with the Poor People's Movement (threatening to take more pie from the white elite who needed to break the alliance).

Five. Treatment, prevention, education, and decriminalization of drugs reduces drug use; mass incarceration increases it.

Six. War on Drugs threw away the Fourth Amendment for people of color.

Seven. Poor people don't get legal representation.

Eight. U.S. legal system accomodates white crimes (alcohol, powder cocaine, marijuana) but prosectutes to the full extent black crimes.

Overview of "The Caging of America" by Adam Gopnik

 

Adam Gopnik from “The Caging of America”

1. We give longer sentences for the same crime than all other countries in the world.
2. Over 400 teen-agers in Texas have life sentences.
3. 6 million Americans are under “correctional supervision.” There are 2.4 Americans in prison.
4. In 1980, there were 220 Americans in prison for every 100,000 people. In 2010 that number has jumped to 731. No developed country in the world comes close to this.
5. Here’s some evidence or data for our immoral prison system being part of The New Jim Crow: In two decades prison spending is up 600%. Here’s the warrant, the logic that connects the data to the claim that the modern prison system is part of The New Jim Crow: The money incentive, not smart and moral public policy, is the driving force.
6. Gopnik: The US prison system is the “moral scandal of American life.” It’s a scandal most Americans are indifferent to because they’re sedated by the blue pill in The Matrix. Reading Gopnik’s essay and Alexander’s book is the equivalent of taking the red pill.
7. Today’s prison policy is influenced by 19^th Century America when prison was seen as a slave plantation.
8. There is a landmark book that analyzes the corruption of our prison system. It’s Collapse of American Criminal Justice by William J. Stuntz. It reinforces many of the points made in The New Jim Crow.
9. We see an evil marriage of public policy and private interests: Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison company, enjoys financial growth that is dependent on America’s growing arrest rate (which is 90% people of color). The company’s stockholders want more arrests (not caring about the racial disparities and draconian nature of those arrests for all people) because they want to see their stock grow and grow. To make sure their stockholders are happy, CCA “spends millions lobbying legislators” to serve the purpose of the stockholders. Human rights can be damned as far as they’re concerned. They want their money.
10. The above example evidences that America is less of a democracy and more of an oligarchy. The word oligarchy is Greek which means the state is ruled by a only a few. In fact the Greek root oligos means “few.” We can conclude—and this would be in my conclusion of my paper when I restated my thesis—that to perpetuate The New Jim Crow is not only about the perpetuation of racism, slavery, and Jim Crow; it’s about a country being degraded into a corrupt oligarchy. I emphasize this because a conclusion should show the wider ramifications of your claim’s message.

 

Review of Principles of an Argumentative Essay

The Rhetorical Triangle Connects All the Persuasive Methods

Logos, reason and logic, focuses on the text or the substance of the argument.

Ethos, the credibility or expertise from the writer, focuses on the writer.

Pathos, the emotional appeal, focuses on the emotional reaction of the audience. 

The Elements of Argument

Thesis Statement (single sentence that states your position or claim)

Evidence (usually about 75% of your body paragraphs)

Refutation of opposing arguments or objections to your claim (usually about 25% of your body paragraphs)

Concluding statement (dramatic restatement of your thesis, which often also shows the broader implications of your important message).

Thesis

Thesis is one sentence that states your position about an issue.

Thesis example: Increasing the minimum wage to eighteen dollars an hour, contrary to “expert” economists, will boost the economy.

The above assertion is an effective thesis because it is debatable; it has at least two sides.

Thesis: We should increase the minimum wage to boost the economy.

Antithesis: Increasing the minimum wage will slow down the economy.

Evidence

Evidence is the material you use to make your thesis persuasive: facts, observations, expert opinion, examples, statistics, reasons, logic, and refutation. 

Refutation Section (also called Counterargument and Rebuttal)

Your argument is only as strong as your understanding of your opponents and your ability to refute your opponents’ objections.

If while examining your opponents’ objections, you find their side is more compelling, you have to CHANGE YOUR SIDE AND YOUR THESIS because you must have integrity when you write. There is no shame in this. Changing your position through research and studying both sides is natural.

Conclusion

Your concluding statement reinforces your thesis and emphasizes the emotional appeal of your argument. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

Jim Crow in the Classroom: New Report Finds Segregation Lives on in U.S. Schools

Obc May Book Club: the New Jim Crow

Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor Suggests Michigan Voters Racist For Banning Affirmative Action...

Incarcerated Workers Launch Nonviolent Work Strike against "New Jim Crow" across Alabama Prisons

Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste

Michelle Alexander: New Jim Crow Author Says "Connect the Dots . . . Get Out of Your Lane!"

New Grading Template Starting for English 1C, Summer 2014

Three 1,000-word essays, 180 points each.

One 1,200-word final essay, 300 points

Four 500-word in-class quizzes (performed on Essay turn-in day), 40 points, each.

Grand Total Points: 1,000; Grand Total Words: 6,200

First two essays due the lecture before final essay draft is due for collaborative reading in which students group in pairs and ask questions. Failure to finish first two pages results in a deduction of half grade from final essay draft.

The questions are from Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric:

Collaborative Exercise Questions

•  
• Summarize the argument. If a reader has trouble summarizing the writer's argument, it's likely that the argument has a gap, or that its logic is unclear. Summarizing can help students to see where and how an argument has gone awry.
• Predict the argument. After reading only the paper's introduction and thesis, can a reader predict the argument to follow? If not, then perhaps the introduction has failed to frame the argument, or the thesis has failed to make its point. This exercise is fruitful because it helps students to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a paper's introduction and thesis sentence. They will also see the link between a good, clear introduction and the overall structure of an argument.
• Ask questions. The most important aims of the peer review are to get the student writer to understand how it is that her paper needs to be revised, and to determine strategies for that revision. Questions are a good way to encourage this process. Students can ask questions about parts of the paper that they don't understand; they can ask questions about the writer's process; they can ask questions about a writer's intention; they can ask about the writer's rhetorical strategies. All will get the conversation started and keep it lively.
• Reflect what the writer is trying to say. If a particular point is unclear, it can be useful to try to reflect that point back to the writer: "What you seem to be saying here is..." The writer will usually see that his point is unclear and can then consider how to communicate the point more effectively to the reader.
• Label problems. Student writers appreciate it when their peers take the time to find and to name the problems in their papers. Student reviewers can make a list of the problems they find on their peers' papers and can then work together with the writer to correct these problems. In this case, students are teaching good writing to their peers. If students need additional help they can consult a grammar handbook, confer with you, or see an RWIT tutor.
• Make suggestions. Student writers seek advice. They don't simply want to know what's wrong with their writing; they want to know how to fix it. Their peers should therefore be prepared to make suggestions for improvement. Note that we use the word "suggestions" in the plural: a peer reviewer should not insist on one solution to a problem. Rather, reviewers should offer several strategies for solving the problem, allowing the writer to determine which of these solutions might work best.