Course Notes for January 9

Chapter 19 Review Notes

This chapter establishes a key foundation for the course. As we discussed in class, the elements of a successful thesis, the methods of supporting your thesis, the importance of anticipating counter-arguments, and the logical fallacies we should avoid constitute the most important elements of this chapter.

A qualification of the text's notion of qualification: I would like to add a few thoughts about what the book says. I agree with the text that we should qualify the language of our arguments, but I think the techniques offered by the text are a bit simplistic and can create more problems than they cure. While phrases like "probably" and "apparently" can prove quite useful, you should steer clear of less useful language like "it seems" and "very likely." Aside from the grammar problems these phrases often introduce into sentences, these two phrases in particular often become an excuse for not taking a position at all. Qualify your language, but make sure you do so in a way that does not leave you without an arguable thesis or a clearly stated position. We will practice this more as you work on the papers for this class.

Fallacies supplement: As I mentioned in class, we will frequently return to the fallacies listed in the chapter during the quarter. I strongly recommend (but I am not requiring) that you create study cards for these terms. List the concept on the front and the definition (translated into your own words) and an example on the back. Because the text does not offer examples (and provides brief definitions), you might want to consider visiting one of the web sites listed below. Each provides more elaborate definitions of the fallacy and an example or two. The best of these sites (the one I have listed first) also offers an explanation for each example.

When you visit these sites, you should feel tremendous gratitude toward the writers of the most beloved SMG. You will see that of the literally hundreds of possible logical fallacies that appear on these sites and in various textbooks, our wise SMG guides have chosen only fifteen or so. Remember, also, that the web sites might use slightly different titles for the fallacies. For this reason, you may have to be a little creative in your use of these sites.

The Fallacy Files: I consider this the best site because it has the most interactive design and the best explanation of examples.You will find most of the terms listed in the index on the left side of the page. The site also has an interesting collection of fallacies appearing in today's press.

Other sites you may find helpful for information about fallacies include the following:

Stephen's Guide the Logical Fallacies

The Nizkor Project

And for those pagans amongst us: The Atheism Web: Logic and Fallacies

Terms and concepts you should master from Chapter 19:

• an adequate thesis
• a clear thesis
• a qualified thesis
• the five methods of support: examples, statistics, authority, anecdote, texts
• the elements of effective counter argument: acknowledging, accommodating, refuting
• the logical fallacies

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Paper #1 Invention and Research Activities

As the instructions make clear, Paper #1 applies the structure of argument outlined in Chapter 6 of SMG to an essay about your college major. To begin the writing process for this paper, you will need to take three steps: 1) Decide on which major you will write about, 2) brainstorm some preliminary ideas about why the major you have chosen makes sense personally and socially, and 3) draft a basic questionnaire so that you can complete some field research for your topic.

Deciding on which major to write about:

This assignment offers both students who have chosen a major and students who have not chosen an excellent opportunity to think about the personal reasons behind and the social contexts for their choice. If you have already chosen a major, then you are done with this stage of the writing process. Write down your chosen major and move on to the next activity. If you are undecided or still trying to decide between a few options, I recommend choosing the major you feel might be most interesting to write and learn more about. That may be the major you know the least about or it may be the major you know the most about. Your choice will depend on how you wish to challenge yourself. Keep this in mind, however, when we move on in this class to the three remaining papers, I will ask you to focus your research and writing on an American or Californian social issue or problem related to your major.

Preliminary Brainstorming:

Now that you have a major in mind, create a word document and title it as follows: major_journal

Save this on your computer and on a disk that you can bring to class. Once you have created this file, take ten or fifteen minutes and write about why you have chosen this major. Don't worry about sentence structure, grammar, spelling, etc. Just try to write as much as you can about this major. Why does it interest you? What do you know about it? What has influenced you to pursue it, etc. This journal entry should simply be an effort to record what you already think and know about your topic.

Thinking about your audience:

As you know, even though fees have risen dramatically, each student only pays a part of the cost of attending the University of California. Taxpayers pay the rest. Even a student who receives no financial aid has a large part of his or her educational costs paid for by taxpayers. In addition, state and federal taxpayers further subsidize college education through cal grants, students loads, work-study funding, and other UC and non-UC scholarships. Tuition does not cover nearly the full cost of a college education. State taxpayers provide directing funding the UC's and they also pay for Cal grants and other scholarships provided by the state and the university. Federal taxpayers support. With this in mind, write a second journal entry explaining to these taxpayers why they should financially support your pursuit of the major you have chosen. How will your residents of California and the United States benefit if you graduate from college with the major you have chosen and peruse a career in that field? Obviously, this is a tough question. So you should spend some time thinking about if for a while before you write (take a walk, jump in the shower, go do some yoga, then come back to this). When you write this journal entry, do not worry about grammar or punctuation, just write. Put down as many thoughts and ideas as you can. When you get stuck, write about what is making this question so difficult for you.

Once you have completed both of these journal entries, save your Word document, put a copy on your disk, and bring your disk to class.

Developing an Interview Questionnaire

As you work on this essay, you will need to do some research: find some books and articles about your major, visit the college catalog, and explore the web. But one of your best resources for finding out more about your major is to talk to academics or professionals in that area. With this in mind, you will finish a questionnaire that I have started for you by designing at least three questions that you would want to ask a college professor (or TA) and a professional in the field you have chosen. Before you compose your questions, think about what you are trying to accomplish in the assignment and what problems you have run into as you have thought about the assignment. What might someone in the field be able to tell you that you do not already know that would help you make the case (in both personal and social terms) for your major to a Californian or American taxpayer?

To compose your questionnaire, create another word file. Label this one major_interview. Then paste in the required questions I have included below. Once you have created this document, draft up at least three questions that you think might help you gain information to support the argument for your major.

• Name
• Job title
• Phone #
• Email address
• Question 1: Please identify some of the American or Californian social problems and issue that people in your field are most affected by or most involved in attempting to address:
• Question 2: Please identify the most important scholarly journals in your field:
• Question 3: Please identify some of the most useful web sites for people doing research in your field (or people exploring the social issues and problems you identified to your answer to question #1).
• Question 4: Student interviewer/researcher creates
• Question: 5 Student interviewer/researcher creates
• Question: 6 Student interviewer/researcher

In your enthusiasm for this topic (and passion for a good grade) you may be tempted to ask a dozen or so questions. That is not a good idea. You are already asking someone to donate their time to talk to you or to respond to your questions via email (the method I recommend). Keep things short and simple and you will receive more productive and thoughtful responses without alienating your interviewee. By the way, if you decide to do an in-person interview, make sure you tape record it so that you have some documentation for your research.

When you have completed the interview questionnaire with at least three more questions, save it to your computer and your disk and bring the disk to class with you on Friday.

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Chapter 21 Review Notes

Chapter 21 is a tough but essential read. If the basic ideas of argument provide one pillar for this course, the basic techniques of research provide the other.

As you read this chapter, carefully review the elements of the research process: knowing the layout of your library, consulting with research librarians, organizing your search, keeping track or your research, consulting useful research guides and resources, identifying key words and subject headings, selecting the most useful sources, and searching online catalogs and databases.

In Chapter 21, you should also study the various resources you will need to search for information: books, scholarly journals, popular magazines, newspapers, and government/statistical information.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, carefully review the guidelines on researching on the web and evaluating web resources. We will return to this issue again and again during the quarter.

Your goal here is not to memorize all of this information but to familiarize yourself with the process and this chapter so that you can use SMG as your guide while you are researching.

UCR's research help web page provides an essential research tool for all of your work in this course. Visit their page for invaluable information about how to research in Rivera and the Science library: http://library.ucr.edu/?view=help

You should also take the necessary steps so that you can use all of UCR's online resources from your dorm room by following the instructions at this UCR library web site: http://library.ucr.edu/?view=help/remoteaccess.html

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Page last updated: 11 March, 2004