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  • Homepage
    • AP Seminar
    • AP Lit >
      • 1.1 Short Fiction
      • 1.2 Poetry
      • 1.3: Frankenstein
      • Thanksgiving: Candide
      • 1.4 Short Fiction II
      • 1.5 Poetry II
      • 1.6 Brave New World >
        • Brave New World Audio
        • 10: 1984 >
          • 1984 audiobook
      • WinterBreak: Things Fall Apart
      • 2.1 Short Fiction III
      • 2.2 Poetry III
      • SpringBreak: The Road
      • 2.3 "Hamlet"
      • 2.4: AP Test Prep
      • 2.5 What Is Literature?
      • Literary Movements
    • 09 ELA >
      • A Sound of Thunder
      • In the Time of the Butterflies
      • The Lord of the Flies
      • Odyssey
      • 6 Way Paragraph Landing Pg
      • Argument Synthesis >
        • Intro to Argument
      • Icons of Depth & Complexity
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YOUR CART

Essay Prompt: Are high school relationships a waste of time or a valuable opportunity for growth?
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Argument and Research: Arguments to Consider Together

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Should Parents Treat their Son's and Daughters the Same or Differently?
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"Is Google Making Us Stupid" by Carr
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"Why Being a Thinker Means Pocketing Your Smartphone"- Leopold AND "Have Smartphones Killed Boredom (and is that good)?" - Gross
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"Darkness at Noon" by Krentz AND "Handicapped Symbol Gets a Facelift" by Heasley

Choose the Conversation You Care About

Your friend is thinking about getting a tattoo, but he doesn't know anything about the cost, the risks, or the possible consequences.  What might he/she want to consider before making this decision?  Where would you recommend he/she look for reliable information?

Somebody in your family is really passionate about comics.  A friend of theirs says that the San Diego Comic-Con does nothing but cause traffic in downtown and should be relocated as soon as possible to another city.  Your family member wants to persuade them that there are some great reasons to keep the Con around, but isn't sure where to start.  What points should your family member make to convince the Comic-Con hater?  How can this information get shared in the most persuasive way?

These are the sort of real-world conversations taking place all over the world every day around the dinner table, on the Sprinter, at work, and in Congress.  You have a voice, but before you share your thoughts, it's a good idea to first learn about the key concepts.  My grandma used to say, "You have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you talk."  How does my grandma's saying apply to us beginning our research?
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Research Portal
outline_argument_handout.docx
File Size: 20 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Class Discussion: What is Argument? What is Research?

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Kenneth Burke writes:
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.

1. How does the image above relate to Burke's writing?
2. What does Burke's writing tell us about the idea of argument?  What about the idea of research?
3. How do you know when you or somebody else has a strong argument?  A weak one?

Goals for Argument and Research

Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to:
  • Identify elements of argument text;
  • Analyze and evaluate author’s position and types of supporting evidence and rhetorical devices;
  • Synthesize to gain deeper understanding of author’s position;
  • Independently read and annotate a variety of argument texts;
  • Problem solve unfamiliar vocabulary using context and morphology;
  • Independently read and take notes on informational text;
  • Independently write an academic summary;
  • Locate and analyze Internet sources;
  • Determine a position through critical research;
  • Support their position with appropriate researched evidence;
  • Articulate their positions, understandings, and confusions in discussion groups
  • Write a standards-level argument essay using a writing process that includes multiple drafts, peer review, revision and editing.

Rubrics and Grading

Student Generated Rubric for the Digital Coverpage to the Final Draft

Contains "visually effective" images: 2
Contains more than 1 image: 2
Contains a hotlink to the actual final draft via Google Docs :2
The link is embedded in the title: 2
Total: 8 possible
2=excellent
1=okay
0=not done or ineffective
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