Criticism/Review Essay details

The essay prompt & rubric!

Handing things in:
0. Please add the rubric to the end of your essay
1. Make your document a PDF
2. Name your document: Criticism_Name.pdf
3. Hand it in to: dropitto.me/mcollie (password: EnglishRocks)
4. Check in with Mary that the document arrived
5. High-5 someone, anyone.
6. Do your best to distract and annoy those who are not done.
7. Ignore #6 because that's just mean.

Day 9: Criticism & Argumentation

Criticism: to communicate your assessment, your informed judgment, of whatever it is you're analyzing. Requires support for you opinion (outside sources, personal experience, etc) so you can establish your expertise.

Argumentation: to communicate a position you support. Requires support for your position (outside sources, personal experience, etc) and serious consideration for opposing views. You must establish your expertise.

Requirements for both:
1. Assertion/proposition
2. Appeals to reader (ethical, emotional, logical/rational)

Other fun things to know:
Inductive reasoning (moving from particular to general) vs deductive reasoning (moving from general to particular)

What to avoid: FALLACIES! (inappropriate emotional appeals and flaws in reasoning)

• Hasty generalization: this is how stereotypes are formed; including ALL instances in an assertion. All athletes are stupid. All MA students are artsy.
• Oversimplification: ignoring complexities in the evidence which weakens the conclusion. I didn't get into Cal because I don't row.
• Begging the question: assuming a conclusion in the statement of an argument. We can trust the governor not to neglect the homeless because she is compassionate. 
• Ignoring the question: shifting the argument away from the real issue; offering emotional appeal as a logical appeal. The musician was poorly fired from a job he so loved, so we should not blame him for stealing the violin.
• Ad hominem: ignoring the question and attacking the opponents instead of the arguments (really popular in politics). Romney doesn't pay as much in taxes as the average American citizen, so his proposals on financial reforms shouldn't be taken seriously.
• Either-or: requiring the reader to choose between two sides, especially when there are lots more options. Either you get kicked out of MA or you don't go to college.
• Non-sequitor: drawing a conclusion that is illogical and, many times, erroneous. Young children are too immature to engage in drinking, so they shouldn't be taught about it.
• Post-hoc: assuming that because one thing preceded another, it must have caused the other. After New York City banned smoking inside, the incidence of bar fights went down.

Post #3: Words! Words! WORDS!

Diction. Vocabulary. Word choice. Call it what you will, but the style and tone and voice of a writer are all created with the most basic unit of writing: words. Find something in the diction that stands out. Maybe it's a word combination, the use of simple words, a word bomb that makes you reach for the dictionary.

You are doing amazing work. Hope you're enjoying the reading.

A sentence I just had to share. From the NYT and Mark Bittman: The food processor replaces the whisk; the pastry cutter; the standing mixer (for which there are still some uses, but only if you’re a dedicated baker); the mandoline (which, to me, remains a fine alternative to the food processor for small quantities); the mortar and pestle, which, no matter how lovely, quaint and authentic, is perhaps the most labor-intensive, primitive and damnable set of tools in the kitchen; and, perhaps most importantly, the grater.

Handing things in!

After you have proofread and finalized everything that is awesome about your work ....

0. Please add the rubric to the end of your essay
1. Make your document a PDF
2. Name your document: SOP_Name.pdf
3. Hand it in to: dropitto.me/mcollie (password: EnglishRocks)
4. Check in with Mary that the document arrived
5. High-5 someone, anyone.
6. Do your best to distract and annoy those who are not done.
7. Ignore #6 because that's just mean.

Post #2: Sentence patterns!

First things first: You all are the FIRST EVER class (all 17 of you!) to post on time. Nice start to the year. Let's keep this up. :-) 

This week's focus is sentence structure. Ooohh. AAAhhh. Look for a sentence that moves beyond, way beyond, the subject-verb creation and dazzles you with either a fun piece of punctuation or an interesting structure. Then again, maybe your writer has a case of subject-verb-itis and repeats the same pattern so many times it makes you want to scream. Share and amaze.

Keep up the fabulous work!

Day 5: Sense of Place 3 & 4

Discussing:
Short Voyages & Prep School Negro

Writing:

• Five places you love spending time
• What's the story behind each location (think narrative drive)
• Where would you begin each story? En media res? At the beginning? At the end?
• Thesis ideas?

Post #1

What amazing sentence, phrase, moment would you like to share from your writer/blog? Wow us with your selection and tell us why you think your selection is wow inducing. And, wow inducing can be good, bad or ugly. 

Day 4: Sense of Place Essays 1 & 2

1. Discuss Store No More & Stuck Together

2. Writing:

• Terms to think about: objective description, subjective description, dominant impression, ethos, logos, pathos

• Five places you love spending time
• What's the story behind each location (think narrative drive)
• Where would you begin each story? En media res? At the beginning? At the end?
• Thesis ideas?

Day 3: Sense of Place

What we're up to today!

1. What makes for a successful essay?
2. How do we read an essay (and I'm not talking about top to bottom, left to right)? Come up with 5-7 things you look for when reading an essay. Note: reading an essay is different from reading a piece of literature/fiction.
3. Read
4. After you read, come up with 4 questions pertaining to the essay.
1. 1 question on meaning (thesis, opinion, overall meaning, etc).
2. 1 question on purpose (why?) or audience (to whom?).
3. 1 question on method/structure (style, form, etc).
4. 1 question on language (think tone, diction, literary devices used).
5. Assign homework essays
6. Go over Sense of Place Essay
7. Review ground rules

SAS triangle thing