Language of Composition

          ACTIVITY Understanding Civil Discourse

          Lou Gehrig, Farewell Speech

     The Rhetorical Triangle

          ACTIVITY Analyzing a Rhetorical Situation

     SOAPS

          Albert Einstein, Dear Phyllis, January 24, 1936

          ACTIVITY George W. Bush, September 11th Speech

     Ethos

     Automatic Ethos

          King George VI, The King’s Speech

     Building Ethos

          Judith Ortiz, From The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria

          ACTIVITY Establishing Ethos

     Logos

     Conceding and Refuting

          Alice Waters, From Slow Food Nation

          ACTIVITY George Will, "King Coal: Reigning in China"

     Pathos

          Richard Nixon, from The Checkers Speech

          ACLU, The Man on the Left (advertisement)

     Humor and Pathos

          Ruth Marcus, from Crackberry Congress

          ACTIVITY Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day

     Combining Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

          Toni Morrison, Dear Senator Obama

          ACTIVITY Appealing to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

          Tom Toles, Rosa Parks (cartoon)

          Activity World Wildlife Fund, Protecting the Future of Nature (advertisement)

          Jane Austen, from Pride and Prejudice

          PETA, Feeding Kids Meat Is Child Abuse (advertisement)

          Anne Applebaum, If the Japanese can’t build a safe reactor, who can?

          ACTIVITY Tamar Demby, Alarmist or Alarming Rhetoric? (student essay)

          ACTIVITY Federal Highway Administration, Stop for Pedestrians (advertisement)

          CULMINATING ACTIVITY

               1. The Times, Man Takes First Steps on the Moon

               2. William Safire, In Event of Moon Disaster 

               3. Ayn Rand, The July 16, 1969 Launch: A Symbol of Man’s Greatness

               4. Herblock, Transported (cartoon)

GLOSSARY OF RHETORICAL TERMS

2. Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Analysis

ANALYZING STYLE

     A Model Analysis

          Queen Elizabeth I, Speech at Tilbury

          ACTIVITY Looking at Rhetoric and Style

          ACTIVITY Winston Churchill, First Speech to the House of Commons

TALKING WITH THE TEXT

     Asking Questions

          Ralph Ellison, from On Bird, Bird-Watching and Jazz

          ACTIVITY Ralph Ellison, from On Bird, Bird-Watching and Jazz

     Annotating

          Joan Didion, from Los Angeles Notebook

     Using a Graphic Organizer

     From Close Reading to Analysis

          ACTIVITY Virginia Woolf, The Death of the Moth

WRITING A CLOSE ANALYSIS ESSAY

          Groucho Marx, Dear Warner Bros.

     Developing a Thesis Statement

     A Sample Close Analysis Essay

          ACTIVITY Christopher Morley, On Laziness

CLOSE READING A VISUAL TEXT

          Dodge, It’s a big fat juicy cheesebuger in a land of tofu (advertisement)

          ACTIVITY Girl Scouts, What Did You Do Today? (advertisement)

     CULMINATING ACTIVITY

     John F. Kennedy, Inauguration Address, January, 1961

     Eleanor Clift, Inside Kennedy’s Inauguration, 50 Years On

     United States Army Signal Corps, Inauguration of John F. Kennedy (photo)

GLOSSARY OF STYLE ELEMENTS

3. Analyzing Arguments: From Reading to Writing

WHAT IS ARGUMENT?

     Amy Domini, "Why Investing in Fast Food May Be a Good Thing."

          ACTIVITY Finding Common Ground

          Essay in Progress – Selecting a Topic

STAKING A CLAIM

          ACTIVITY Identifying Arguable Statements

     Types of Claims

     Claims of Fact

     Claims of Value

          Roger Ebert, Star Wars

          ACTIVITY Analyzing a Review

     Claim of Policy

          Anna Quindlen, from The C Word in the Hallways

          ACTIVITY The New York Times, Felons and the Right to Vote

          Essay in Progress – Staking a Claim

     From Claim to Thesis

          Closed Thesis Statements

          Open Thesis Statements

          Counterargument Thesis Statements

          ACTIVITY Developing Thesis Statements

          Essay in Progress: Developing a Thesis

PRESENTING EVIDENCE

     Relevant, Accurate, and Sufficient Evidence

     Logical Fallacies

          Fallacies of Relevance

          Fallacies of Accuracy

          Fallacies of Insufficiency

     First-Hand Evidence

          Personal Experience

          Jennifer Oladipo, Why Can’t Environmentalism Be Colorblind?

          Fallacy Alert – Hasty Generalization

          Anecdotes

          Fabiola Santiago, In college, these American citizens are not created equal

          Current Events

          Fareed Zakaria, from When Will We Learn?

     Second-Hand Evidence

          Historical Information

          Samuel Walker, from Hate Speech

          Fallacy Alert - Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

          Expert Opinion

          Peggy Orenstein, from Just a Little Princess

          Fallacy Alert: Appeal to False Authority

          Quantitative Evidence

          Fallacy Alert: Bandwagon Appeal

          ACTIVITY Identifying Logical Fallacies

          ACTIVITY Dana Thomas, Terrors’ Purse Strings

          Essay in Progress – Using Evidence

SHAPING ARGUMENT

     The Classical Oration

          Sandra Day O’Connor and Roy Romer, Not by Math Alone

     Induction and Deduction

          Induction

          Malcolm Gladwell, from Outliers

               Deduction

               Essay in Progress –Shaping an Argument

               Combining Induction and Deduction

               Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

               ACTIVITY Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Declaration of the Rights of Women

     Using the Toulmin Model

          Analyzing Assumptions

          ACTIVITY Identifying Assumptions

          From Reading to Writing

          ACTIVITY Using Argument Templates

ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS AS ARGUMENTS

     Polyp, The Rat Race (cartoon)

     Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage (photo)

     ACTIVITY US Postal Service, The Heroes of 2001 (stamp)

     Essay in Progress – Using Visual Evidence

     CULMINATING ACTIVITY

     Tom Toles, Heavy Medal

     Michael Binyon, Comment: absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobelpeace prize

GLOSSARY OF ARGUMENT TERMS AND FALLACIES

4. Synthesizing Sources: Entering the Conversation

     ACTIVITY Reflecting on Sources

USING SOURCES TO INFORM AN ARGUMENT

     Laura Hillenbrand, from Seabiscuit

     ACTIVITY Gerald L. Early, from A Level Playing Field

USING SOURCES TO APPEAL TO AN AUDIENCE

     Steven Pinker, from Words Don’t Mean What They Mean

     Steven Pinker, from The Stuff of Thought

     Steven Pinker, from The evolutionary social psychology of off-record indirect speech acts

     ACTIVITY Examining a Columnist

Conversation: Mandatory Community Service

    1. Neil Howe And William Strauss, From Millennials Rising

     2. The Dalton School, Community Service Mission Statement

     3. The Detroit News, Volunteer Work Opens Teen’s Eyes To Nursing

     4. Dennis Chaptman, Study: ‘Resume Padding’ Prevalent In College-Bound Students WhoVolunteer

     5. Arthur Stukas, Mark Snyder, and E. Gil Clary; The Effects Of "Mandatory Volunteerism"On Intentions To Volunteer

     6. Mark Hugo Lopez, From Youth Attitudes Toward Civic Education And Community Service Requirements

WRITING A SYNTHESIS ESSAY

     Identifying the Issues: Recognizing Complexity

     Formulating Your Position

     ACTIVITY Supporting a Thesis

     Framing Quotations

     Integrating Quotations

     ACTIVITY Using Sources Effectively

     Citing Sources

     A Sample Synthesis Essay

     CULMINATING ACTIVITY Conversation: The Dumbest Generation?

          1. Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation

          2. Sharon Begley, The Dumbest Generation? Don’t Be Dumb

          3. Mizuko Ito, et. al., Living and Leaning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project

          4. Nicholas Carr, Is Google Making Us Stupid?

          5. R. Smith Simpson, Are We Getting Our Share of the Best?

          6. Steven Johnson, Your Brain on Video Games

          7. Clive Thompson, The New Literacy

          8. Roz Chast, Shelved (cartoon)

5. Education

Do our schools serve the goals of a true education?