Sunday, September 13, 2009

In-Class, Sept. 14: Analyzing News Article

Each month (September, October, November, December), we will write ONE big ESSAY.
The first essay prompt will be distributed when we have finished chapter 6.

Today, we are tackling chapter 5. We are going to imitate exactly step by step how to analyze an argument stated in a newspaper article. (Guided practice.) This will provide you with a model of how to proceed when you are writing your unit paper later.

Homework for Wednesday, Sept. 16th, will be to read chapter 5.

In-Class Activity:
(First as a whole-class approach; later in partner work.)

STEP 1: look in your textbook on page 78-82. Here are scans for those who forgot to bring their textbooks.

Read the description of the diagram on page 78, and be prepared to apply what you have learned about premises and revising the thesis before coming to a conclusion.

STEP 2: we will start to go through the sample essay ("Playing by the Antioch Rules") together, paragraph by paragraph, to explain what the author did (the blue comments in parentheses).

STEP 3: while doing so, we will perform analogous steps with this essay about Blagojevich.
Instructions: Go to the link of the Blagojevich article, and copy and paste the text into a Word document. Delete the pictures and icons, for we only need the text (in black). Save it on your desktop. You are going to type your own comments in blue under the text (according to our example in the textbook, pp. 79-82).

We'll do the first few blue comments together. Then, work with one or two neighbors, and type blue comments under each coherent paragraph/statement of the Blagojevich article. When you're done, email me one document per group, and don't forget to indicate all your group's members!

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