Merry Christmas paper

Over the Christmas break, please study for a comprehensive midterm over everything we've studied this semester! 

...

...

gasp! what?

JUST KIDDING. Actually, instead, I'd like you to take the movie we watched in class today and write a paper about it. Here's the assignment. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!!! 

Here's the outline you should use to write your paper. Do not turn in an outline, but use this outline to write your paper:

I. Introduction. Describe the main argument and the point of the movie. What premises is Ben Stein working from?

II. Analyze the method used to develop the main argument of the movie (example: gathering information by interviewing authorities, historical background, analogies, etc.). If you can remember, try to use some concrete examples of the methods.

III. Analyze the opposing argument. What was Ben Stein trying to oppose? What arguments did they use? What were their premises?

IV. Logical Fallacies and Tools of Persuasion. Were there any logical fallacies you detected in the movie? Remember to evaluate both sides of the argument. What tools of persuasion were used by both sides?

V. Conclusion. Was the movie effective? Do you think it accomplished it's goal? Can you think of anything that would have made it stronger? Anything that weakened it?

This is a substantial paper! But... look at it this way, I've already done half the work for you! :)

IMPORTANT: The rough draft of this paper is due JAN 15th, second day of class next semester.

So, Merry Christmas!!! Enjoy your time with the family! See you in January!

Last Day of Class!!

No, we're not throwing our brains out the windows and expelling logic, but we are going to celebrate our new-found ability to analyze logic. 

Here is my plan: To accompany our theme of logic and reasoning, we will be having a film viewing of Expelled this Thursday during class-time. Your assignment will be to write a report on the film over the break (more details in the next post), so come prepared with festive munchies and note-taking tools! Be prompt so that we have plenty of time to watch the movie and have a short discussion afterward.

See ya then!

Joanna

How Not to Practice Logic

Hi students! For your reading assignment, you can link to the document as usual! Hurray! No more funny download files! 

It should be a fun read for you. Take note of all the logical fallacies he talks about in his story. We'll be engaging in a discussion about logical fallacies on Tuesday.

In addition, please don't forget to do your grammar assignments: 

p.86 B odds, 

p.87 D all, 

p.89 A,B,C all

You guys are gonna be sentence-crafting pros in no time!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Technical Difficulties

It looks like the link isn't working for you guys, which I was afraid might be the case.

We'll have to do it the old fashioned way! I'll bring copies to class tomorrow. 

Your jobs just got a whole lot easier!

Joanna

Dust off your thinking cap!

For Thursday, analyze and evaluate the article, "I Want A Wife" by Judy Brady. Be prepared to discuss the following questions in class:

What is her tone? 

What is her goal in writing; what is she trying to persuade her audience about? 

Who is her audience, do you think? 

Is she effective in accomplishing her purpose? 

What premises underly her argument? 

Does she employ mostly rational tactics, or nonrational tactics? 

Why do you think she chose to construct her argument this way?

By the way, the article link opens up a downloadable file instead of a published web page (part of the technical difficulty I spoke of), but if you save it and open it with Microsoft File Viewer or some such program, it should work. Please tell me if you're having troubles with the file!

West Virgina Drop-outs Make for Bad Drivers

Well, you guys were great at putting those thinking caps on today! Discussing this West Virginia law, we came up with quite a few potential problems with the law. Yet, apparently, at least 10 states felt that the benefits outweigh the problems.

However, it's always easier to criticize, then to lead the way. So, here's my challenge to you:

After reading the handout I gave you, come up with a law of your own instead of the West Virginia law. Keep in mind the following:

1. What is the ultimate goal of the law? Are there several goals? (For example, is it to keep people from dropping out of highschool? or is it to increase education standards among highschool students? does the first necessarily accomplish the second?)
   
2. Based upon our premise that good parenting will go much farther at accomplishing the above goal, is there a way to fashion a law that will encourage this relationship, rather than discourage it?
   

This is your chance to put that creativity we've been cultivating to good use! So, read the handout, then come to class prepaired with your ideas!

Creativity marries Logic

For Thursday, you'll be turning in your last assignment in our "creative writing" section of the class. Write 2 paragraphs describing some aspect of your Thanksgiving holiday. Be descriptive. Use colorful words and verbs! And don't forget to proofread. :)

Tonight, I'm going to try to scan in your reading assignment, so check back this evening. If I still can't get it up there, I'll just make copies and we'll go over it in class. We'll be taking a look at argumentative/persuasive writing, and learning how to both analyze other writer's persuasive pieces, and how to construct our own. The thing we must always remember is: evaluate premises. More about this in class. 

For now, don't throw out your creativity! As we have seen, just because guidelines, rules, or logic are present, doesn't mean you can't be creative. In fact, perhaps creativity takes some of it's most useful forms in the boundaries of logic. 

So, I hope your Thanksgivings were wonderful! See you Thursday!