English Notes: March 29, 2018

Audience: Who are these people? What do they believe?
What are the circumstances (i.e. OCCASION) for your speech?
Argument: What are you claiming? What evidence helps to
support those claims? What strategies/tactics will work on
this audience?

The more you're able to develop who your audience is, they better you'll be
able to construct your argument to be most effective on those who you are
speaking to.

For the remainder of class we worked on our research papers.

What I personally did for the remainder of the period was I worked on
developing my knowledge on my audience. The people I'm working
on reaching out to and arguing against are those who believe that radical
teachings of religion are a necessary part in preserving the religion in its
purest form. What I learned was that many people believe that the younger
generations are practicing a diluted version of the religion.

After I had developed my audience, I had figured that the best way to
construct my argument is by introducing it with pathos, back it up with ethos,
then use logos to pull it all together and wrap up my argument.

Why I chose to open up with pathos is because religion isn't based upon logic.
The first layer of any religion is the emotional attachment those have to it.
Once you peel back that layer, they will then backup their argument with
evidence about their religion and their teaching style. The heart of it all would
be logos and I'll use that to support my argument finally because that's where
those arguing against me lack most. They lack the logic needed.

Now, how this will all apply to the "real world" once I (or you) leave this
room is that it'll teach us to argue efficiently. It's important to learn how to
argue your point the best you can because you need more than just your passion
to fuel your argument. You need evidence and logic along with the emotion.
It'll reduce the time you'd need to get your argument across and it'll make you more credible.

3/28/18

In class today, we went right back to working on our research paper that is due April 11th, the Wednesday we come back from Spring break. Mr. Rivers stressed the importance of the audience in our speeches because the more specific our audience is, the more effective it would be in using rhetorical choices and writing techniques geared to those specific people. If our audience was too broad, then our speech would lack the capability in drawing our audience to our claim and having them agree with it.
Mr. Rivers provided questions below to ask about our own audience so that we'll know if our audience is sufficient enough. Our speech should be supported by evidence while using strategies and tactics that are best for the specific audience.

Audience: Who are these people? What do they believe? What are the circumstances (i.e. OCCASION) for your speech?

Argument: What are you claiming? What evidence helps to support those claims? What strategies/tactics will work on this audience?

Having a specific audience is important because we can focus our strategies and tactics for those set of people. Everyone is swayed differently, so having a specific audience makes it easier because your not trying to have everyone agree with your claim. This is an important skill to learn and use in everyday writing because we can't argue anything if we are trying to persuade everyone to agree. It's best to argue something by using tactics for certain people so that way it strengthens your overall argument. 

3-28-18

Today in class we had to work on our Speech again. We worked on the speech the entire class. This can show that sometimes you just need to focus on one subject to do your best instead of focusing on a lot of other things.

3/28/18

In the beginning of class today,Mr. Rivers went over how you nee to make the audience and the argument clear in the Final Speech. Questions to ask yourself about the audience are; Who are these people, what do they believe, and what are the circumstances of your speech? Also, questions to ask yourself about your argument are; what are you claiming, what evidence helps to support those claims, and what strategies/tactics will work on this argument?

Not only do you have to write the speech, but you also have to include an analysis for your audience to explain why you chose that audience and how you showed that in your argument. An explanation for three different rhetorical devices that you used in your speech will need to be included in this analysis to connect it back to how it the argument is effective for the audience.

Picking a specific audience can help you write an argument better because it helps you find different angles on covering a specific topic. Narrowing down to a specific group is important because you need to find ways for your argument to be effective and understood clearly. Different audiences require different styles of writing. For example; a college student would not be reading the same argument as an elementary student because they are more advanced. The audience needs to understand what you are trying to say and to be able to pick out the argument.

3/28/18

Today in class we started out by talking about our speech and some of our tactics.  "Audience: who are these people? What do they believe? What are the circumstances for your speech?" and "Argument: What are you claiming? What evidence helps you to support your claims? What strategies/tactics will work on this audience?"  We talked about how both of these things are very important to have, you can't have one without the other.  Mr. Rivers suggested that if class time is not effective then you should work at home or make other arrangements to have control over your paper.  We then were allowed to work on our speech for the rest of class. I started off my speech about Sea World in saying I was an animal activist who witnessed the death of a trainer by a killer whale.  I am making it specific so I can argue to my audience why keeping these creatures in captivity is torture.  We will be working on this in class tomorrow and it will be due as of now on April 11th.

3/27/18

Today Mr.Rivers was absent so Mr.V was in class as the substitute. Also Ms. Carroll took over the class. We began to work on our Research paper that's due on April 11, 11:59. The research paper and the argumentative rubric can all be found on Google classroom. In my opinion, today's Lesson can connect to the world at large because the second part of the essay is the argumentative portion and knowing how to properly argue is an important skill to master in the world today. In today's society everything is argued over, so knowing how to argue is a valuable skill.

March 27, 2018

Today In English we worked on our Documentary Research Paper: The Final Stage. All of class was devoted to our Research Paper. The paper is set to be due on April 11 at 11:59 pm. All of the information about the speech is on google classroom. To submit the final stage of the Research paper you must use turnitin.org. If you do not use www.turnitin.com then your grade will be a 0. There are two parts to the final essay which are Audience Analysis worth 50 points and Argumentative speech worth 100 points. For information on grading go to classroom where the rubric is posted.

Classroom

Below is the information that was listed on Classroom in regards to the Final Draft.

(Audience Analysis (50) + Argumentative Speech (100))

Using specific research from your articles, documentary, and outline, craft an argumentative speech designed to persuade a specific audience.

PART I: Audience Analysis (50 points)

Use 300-500 words to describe your audience to us as the context to your speech below. Your description should justify why you have selected this audience by describing who they are and how they would/do feel about your particular topic. You should also supply a fictional or real-world occasion for your speech (why now?). In your analysis, you must explain at least three rhetorical choices that you make in your speech that would be effective for this particular audience. YOU have full control over the circumstances of the assignment-- I don’t care if Donald Trump/the head of the NCAA/Michael Moore would never ACTUALLY sit down and listen to you, but you have full control of the when, where, and why of your speech.

Rubric: Describes audience in detail  and provides context for the speech (10) Rhetorical Choice 1 (10) Rhetorical Choice 2 (10) Rhetorical Choice 3 (10) Grammar, Mechanics, and Organization (10)

PART II: Argumentative Speech (100 points)

Your argumentative speech should be a logical organization of 1000-1200 words. Use these words to craft an introduction, substantial body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Your paper should adhere to all standards of MLA formatting, but should have all of the voice and style of a speech! Trade your neutral tone for something that will be persuasive. We expect to see effective literary devices that help you to develop ethos, logos, and pathos to prove your point in each body paragraph. Your speech must also effectively integrate research into each body paragraph. Consider how you can revise your outline to develop claims that best fit your audience.

Grading: This paper will be scored with the holistic writing rubric (attached). Consider some of these questions to help guide you into mastery!

Content Are you describing or arguing? How can you CLARIFY and SPECIFY your thesis statement? How can your analysis show support for your claims? How have you refuted the counterclaim (or those who might oppose you)? Have you satisfied the 1000-1200 word count? Organization Do your claims connect to your thesis statement? Have you SPECIFIED transitions beyond words like “secondly,” or “in conclusion?” What order makes the most logical sense for your claims? How does your introduction provide NECESSARY CONTEXT for your audience? How does your conclusion call for action and motivate your audience? Evidence How can you ensure that you are using a variety of reliable sources? What sort of CONTEXT is helping you to smoothly integrate evidence? How are you trimming evidence and paraphrasing to include the most important details? Does every quote (and paraphrase) have an in-text citation? Does that citation match the works cited page? Voice & Style Does your tone fit with the intended audience? How do your rhetorical devices/choices help you prove your point(s)? How are you balancing clarity with specificity? How do you avoid sounding repetitive? Presentation Is EVERYTHING (including your works cited) double spaced? 12-point? Times New Roman? Black font with no background? Do you have your last name and page number at the top right of the page? Is your MLA header correct? How does your TITLE help you to begin your argument? (do this last!)

3-27-18

Today in class Mr. Rivers was not here, Because Mr. Rivers was not here Mrs. Carroll had us work on the Research Paper Speech instead of continuing with what we were working on Monday. This could be related to the real world because we basically have to give a speech to a audience. So it must be clear and have a point. The speech will be a lot easier than a Essay in my opinion.

Argumentative Research Speech

      The class started off with Ms. Carroll telling us to work on our speech that's due after spring break. The research paper was split into many different sub assignments. Our first assignment was writing a descriptive essay with the facts we found from databases. The databases given to us was Gale and Ebscohost. We used those databases to find information on the document we choose to watch. With those chosen documents, they all had claims and topics that we could create an argument on. For example, I choose Icarus, it was supposed to be a documentary on how easy it is to get into the Olympics. However, during this attempt he met a man named Dr. Rodchenkov. He soon uncovered that Russia was doping all their athletes and sending them to the Olympics. This was a state-sponsored organization that was led by the leader of the nation Vladimir Putin. After creating a descriptive essay, a second essay was assigned. It was a research outline, and we were required to come up with 4 claims and have 2 pieces of evidence and analysis for each claim. We were given an ample amount of time to complete it because snow days were permitted. Now, after all the research and sub assignments, we need to make an argumentative speech. Pretend we're talking to a certain audience and write a speech that uses both literary devices and argumentative techniques. We've learned the difference between explicit and implicit arguments and we're able to tell which is more effective in an argument. Also to add detail before we pose an argument in an essay. So with that the class has just been working on their research speech trying to get it done before the due date.
          The techniques we learned in class can be used in future argumentative essays. Also the research that we've been doing can help with other research papers because we can use the databases in order to find good peer-reviewed sources.

3/26/16

Today in class we continued to discus the poem that we talk about in Friday's class. The poem talks about how if a dream is left alone it will become something bad and distorted from what it originally was. We also talked about who would agree and disagree with the poem in 1951. My group came up with the people that would disagree with the poem would be the wealthy and the people that have worked hard to make their dream a reality. These people that work for their dream might even come from impoverish neighborhoods and have nothing to their name. They would do everything to make it come true and would work much harder then ever before. The rich wouldn't agree because they don't understand having to work for your dream or even having your dream not coming true. The people that would agree with it would be the people who's dreams didn't come true and the people who didn't have any advantages and opportunities.

This can be brought into the real world as it might help you see different people's views. It might make you think how a comment might affect a person or how to better talk to a group of people. This would help with speeches as it could help you better affiliate and find common ground so that they will better listen and agree with you. It could also help you break down other people's comments and speeches so you can see who it is truly meant for which would be very beneficial in learning about politics which everyone above a certain age should do. This is also used by companies in marketing for when they are choosing a demographic that they want to buy their toy or item.

March 22, 2018 - Amanda DiFino

American Literature - March 22, 2018

NOTES:

Capitalization - equal opportunities?, Economic: Survival of the fittest, Opportunities created for others to succeed.

Descriptive (to explain) or Argumentative (to prove)? Explicit or Implicit (there's something wrong)?

“And right from the beginning, Americans have told themselves that they are really good at capitalization, really good at social mobility, any kid can grow up to be President. That's whats supposed to set America apart from everywhere else.” (Gladwell)

There's something wrong…  (Used who, what, where, when, why, and how. )

• The idea of capitalization and climbing to the top is a flawed idea that the Americans blindly follow.

“That's why the capitalization of talent is such an issue because these are really long odds.” (Gladwell)

DESCRIPTION OF TODAYS CLASS:

Today in class Mr. Rivers went over the podcast from class on Tuesday. He first asked our groups the definition of capitalization, which was, equal opportunities?, Economic: Survival of the fittest, Opportunities created for others to succeed. After we understood the meaning of capitalization we went over a part of the podcast where Gladwell said, “And right from the beginning, Americans have told themselves that they are really good at capitalization, really good at social mobility, any kid can grow up to be President. That's whats supposed to set America apart from everywhere else.”. Mr. Rivers had us split up the text and find where it was descriptive or argumentative. We found in that text that, "Americans have told themselves that they are really good at capitalization, really good at social mobility", was descriptive and "That's whats supposed to set America apart from everywhere else.” was argumentative. We then broke it down to make the text more simplified and got, The idea of capitalization and climbing to the top is a flawed idea that the Americans blindly follow. The remainder of the period Mr. Rivers showed us a picture to discuss within our groups.

AN EXTENSION THAT EXTENDS WHAT WE LEARNED IN CLASS TO THE WORLD AT LARGE:

This is to prepare us in the future to write a stronger thesis in essay or papers for college or if we become a writer. Its simple knowledge to help improve rough drafts.

3/22/18

Although we had a shortened day, today during class we went over quite a bit on the topic of Capitalization and how it relates to the American Dream. Mr. Rivers started us off by asking the groups to define Capitalization and what does it have to do with the American Dream. The definition for Capitalization that the class came up with today was; Opportunities created for other to succeed. Capitalization relates to the American Dream because essentially the American Dream is that anyone, from any economic and social class, has the opportunity to do/achieve what ever they want to. We then went onto a quote from yesterdays Revisionist History podcast with Malcolm Gladwell. Our job was to decide whether the passage was descriptive or argumentative and then find what parts of the excerpt were explicit and implicit argumentation. The first quote from the podcast was, "And right from the beginning, Americans have told themselves that they're really good at capitalization, really good at social mobility, any kid can grow up to be president. That's what's supposed to set America apart from everywhere else." Each group was then tasked with creating a more explicit argument for this passage and making it more descriptive by using who, what, when, where, why, and how. We then repeated these steps (excluding creating a better argument) for two more additional passages before class time ran out. This lesson relates to the real world because while the majority of the lesson does not revolve around writing per say, the idea of the American Dream and some of the issues that plague it are very important to know and understand in the real world today. If one wants to become a politician in order to change some of the issues plaguing American society as a whole today, you cannot address all of the individual problems such as gun violence, poverty, etc. without first considering what contributes to causing such situations/issues, such as the lack of capitalization, social mobility, and economic opportunities. These issues trace back to the American Dream which, for the majority of Americans is almost unattainable. Without fixing the core issues, how could a politician or an elected official hope to fix/change the individual issues? The part of the lesson that does pertain to argumentative writing clearly connects to the real world because without knowing how to come up with a descriptive, detail, yet clear argument in a paragraph/paper, how could you write a good research paper or thesis in college or even in a job.

Notes March 22, 2018

Capitalization - the provision of capital for a company,

or the conversion of income or assets into capital.

Economic survival of the fittest;

those with more money have more opportunities.
Opportunities created for others to succeed

Good Fortune - You could fall from it and that is known as tragedy.

Bad Fortune - You could rise from it and we know that as the American Dream.

Is this descriptive or argumentative? What’s explicit? Implicit?

• “And right from the beginning, Americans have told themselves that they’re really good at capitalization, really good at social mobility, any kid can grow up to be president. That’s what’s supposed to set America apart from everywhere else.” (Gladwell).
• “And right from the beginning, Americans have told themselves that they’re really good at capitalization, really good at social mobility, any kid can grow up to be president.” This is descriptive.
• That’s what’s supposed to set America apart from everywhere else.” This is implying that there’s something wrong.

Rewrite “There’s something wrong”:

Americans are raised upon the ideal that we can go from the

bottom to the top of the economical food chain and achieve our

dreams as this is referred to as the “American Dream” however

it is just that, idealistic and a dream. It is impossible to implement

it as it is bound to fail due to the inequality of opportunities and power.

“That’s why the capitalization of talent is such an issue, because

these are really long odds.” (Gladwell).

• This is an explicit argument. He’s directly stating what he has an issue with when it comes to capitalization.

There's an image upon the screen that shows a man holding a color
chart and for the first three lightest colors, next to it says "mentally ill".
The last three colors below the previous colors say "terrorist" next to it.
This is an implicit argument that says those who are of darker skin tone are
deemed terrorists while those who are of lighter skin tone are seen as mentally
ill instead of being held accountable for their actions while somebody who
may be innocent is treated as a criminal simply because of their skin color.
This highlights a plethora of issues regarding the justice system and how
we view crimes.

Carlos Doesn't Remember (3/20)

So today in class we listened to a podcast titled "Carlos Doesn't Remember". This was about an extremely gifted kid who couldn't live up to his potential due to his economic standing in the social hierarchy. Carlos was a poor kid who would have amounted to nothing if it wasn't for his advocate Eric Eisner. Together they managed to pull Carlos up by his boot straps and got him into first a prestigious elementary school. The problem was, he felt like he didn't fit in due to his economic standing. Throughout the podcast it talks about the struggles Carlos faces, but the worst is his own family getting in the way of his education and keeping him in poverty to take care of his mother and his sister after being offered a scholarship to the most prestigious high school in the country. Along with Carlos' story, it also brings light onto eye opening facts about kids in these low income areas and their affiliations with gangs. The entire podcast is not meant to be inspiring but a sad wake up call to how America as a whole are failing students who deserve a better life.
This is related to outside life because it is an eye opener to us privileged kids in Sparta. Even if your life "sucks" you will almost never have to worry about foster care or being neglected in the school system or being stalked by rival gangs. These places like Sparta are the oasis for the rest of the screwed up and unfair world we live in. This podcast helps bring us a floor lower on our ivory tower and make us think "oh shit". But oh well, us Spartans will never have to worry about that, and we should be thanking every lucky star in the sky.

Writing Skills 3/15/18

Both Ms. Carol, and Mr. Rivers were not in today but we did have an assignment posted on google classroom. The assignment is called Evidence Integration, basically what the assignment calls for you to do is to take the evidence you used in your research synthesis and improve upon it by adding, context, citations, and more analysis, all of this we learned to improve on yesterday. You have to revisit Mayor Landrieu's speech and the work yesterday to get an idea of how to expertly integrate evidence into this outline and into your final draft. The purpose in practicing to better integrate evidence into what we're writing is because if you expertly integrate your evidence with a good quote, context, and analysis, it will help your readers to understand where your getting. This helps to clarify some of the points you make and connections, and will help your audience to understand your argument and where you're getting at and why you're bringing a quote from somebody else, that's not you. Even when I edited what I said for my synthesis I can the difference when I add more context than I did before, before it read like you didn't know what I was talking about, but edited, it was easier to follow and comprehend now that background information that elaborated more on where I was getting at. Keep in mind this all to prepare for the upcoming final draft, this like the cherry on top of what you have to know when going and what you're expected to have. Other than that that's it, I'm guessing both Mr. Rivers and Mrs. Carol will be in tomorrow an these edits are due tomorrow before class starts, try to get it done.

Wednesday 3/14/18

The topic of todays class was integrating quotes into our writing to make it more persuasive and argumentative. Mr. Rivers began the class by going over the I Will Be Able To's for today, which were:
- Evaluate how expert arguers provide context when they integrate evidence
- Structure counterclaim by combining descriptive and argumentative writing
He then asked us to define, in our groups, the definitions of the two underlined words, which were context and integrate. Essentially, integrate means to combine different things to create a whole, in English it means to combine quotes and your own words to make one sentence that is smooth and concise. Context means, in writing, providing background information to make things in your argument more clear. So, when you integrate evidence you are integrating evidence and/or quotes into your sentences to provide more support for your argument but also to make your sentence clearer and more understandable without any extra not needed information. Mr. Rivers then directed us to the Landrieu speech on the removal of the Confederate statues in New Orleans and told every group to come up with two quotes from that speech and then explain how he used his own words before the quote in one and how he used his words after the quote in the other one. This lesson can clearly be translated into real world applications because in order to write most school papers you need to include a certain amount of evidence (such as quotes) in order to pass the assignment and get a good grade. Other examples may be if you become a journalist or writer for a new/media company, you need to know how to include quotes into your paper or report so that what your reporting on actually is believable, additionally, being able to include quotes clearly and smoothly add to the value and clarity of the report or paper. Being able to integrate quotes into a paper or speech is also essential for elected officials, such as a mayorial or presidential position, in which the addition of quotes makes your speech or address more official and captures your audiences attention while also giving the impression that the speaker has credibility to their argument and, again, the addition of quotes in a speech/argument add value and clarity to the paper.

Monday, March 12th

Today we spent class working on our Research Outlines. It is an extension of our research synthesis and is the next step in preparing for writing our research papers. We were introduced to the research outlines in the beginning of March and have been working on finding claims and evidence since then. The outline requires us to analyze our evidence, which will be very helpful when we start writing our final drafts. These outlines are due tonight at 11:59.  In college, writing outlines and researching will be a big part of our education, so learning these skills now will help us in the future not just in college, but possibly in other parts of our careers as well.

Research Paper 3/1/18

Today in class we were working on our research papers' again for the second day. Many of us chose a documentary that we wanted and were directed to create an argumentative essay based on the facts from the documentary plus what we find as resources from databases. I was working on gaining evidence for my essay to connect to the 4 claims I had made for the essay. This way I could revise and rewrite my thesis and provide stronger evidence for my claims and make them stronger through revision. One of the resources/ articles should be from the chosen documentary, one resource should be a peer-reviewed article, and the rest can be articles from databases like Gale and Ebscohost. The research paper should obviously be in MLA Format and the articles you used should be in a works cited in proper format as well. My thesis throughout the week has slowly been improving, however there's still the concept of being lost in what to look for while in databases. A main problem that I find is that when I do look something up and try to pinpoint what I am searching for, I either get very broad search results or results that don't matter with the search topic at all. With my documentary being 'Icarus' my searches on the database are going to be more about steroid use and the side effects of it and how Russia was using these performance enhancers in order to get an advantage in the Olympics.

Reasearch Paper Outline Drafting 3/1/2018

In class, today was the second day of drafting for our research paper outline. We have to research articles like we did before with the synthesis, and have to take four claims for each article we find, list two pieces of evidence from each article we get, and analyze the two pieces of evidence we find. While we research claims and articles each time we have to improve upon our thesis based on our research, for every article we research we should improve our thesis based on the articles claim to make the thesis pertain to it. Keep in mind that one of your articles and claims should come from the documentary you choose, I mean that's why we picked them out and watched these documentaries in the first place, otherwise what was the point. Everything must be in MLA format just like the synthesis, and you have to make a work cited page also in MLA format. I managed to greatly improve my thesis just by adding onto it for each day, I'm not taking anything out of it, just spicing it up because there's nothing wrong with what I already have. I've used the article I found in one of the databases I used for my synthesis, and used some points and the claims that came from that article and from my documentary "Touching the Void." The purpose in coming up with claims and revising the thesis is to make to the thesis as best as it can be for the final draft along with new claims to come up with which will also be in the final draft. Other than it's pretty basic, it's not suppose to be as tedious as an essay, it's just an outline. The outlines due Tuesday and we're just working on it in class until then, if you haven't started, get it done.

2/28/18

Class today comprised of Mr. Rivers introducing us and us beginning on our new assignment regarding our junior year reasearch paper. This new assignment is an outline of our research paper that is due on Tuesday March 6 and will be worked on in class this week and part of next week aswell. The project consists of creating and improving your research papers thesis statement over a period of four days, Wednesday (beginning), Wednesday (end), Thursday (end), and Friday (end). In addition, you will need to include your format for each of your four body paragraphs (claim, evidence, analysis/reasoning) and a MLA formatted works cited page. The assignment also recomends that you use research and evidence from your research sythesis essay. Mr. Rivers made it clear that for your sources must include your documentary, a scholarly article, and three to five other sources that do not have to be necessarily peer reviewed but they must come from either the Gale or EBCOhost databases and every one of these sources must be in proper MLA format in a seperate works cited page. After Mr. Rivers had finished introducing the project, we had about 25 minutes remaining to begin our initial thesis drafting/editing and we will continue our work tomorrow. This lesson/project assignment can be clearly drawn/connected to the real world because for many good, scholarly papers, wether they be for a job, college, or a blog, you will need to formulate ideas in your head and this can be accomplished through an outline such as this one. Additionally, this outline project helps outside of the classroom by showing students how to formulate, create, and edit a thesis statement to make it strong and descriptive while also being clear and concise. However, the main advantage of that correlates this project to the real world is the fact that it teaches students how to put ideas down on paper, compile them into a outline (such as this one), and then be able to produce a essay/paper on whatever topic you may be writing about.