Chapter 21 response

For this week we read chapter 21. In this chapter, I found tips on writing an opening sentence. The section about writing an opening sentence helped me a lot because it gave variety of ways I can write an opening sentence. For example: starting a sentence with a thesis statement, sticking to what is relevant and not to forget to write a topic. I learned that you should not spend your time on opening but should write simple and clear. I can also begin with a story. This chapter is connected to chapter 20 because they talk about similar things like writing opening sentences, and ending with thesis. After reading these two chapters, I am able to write my essay much better and staying on topic.    

Nirakaran B. Malla

Chapter 20

When reading this chapter I learn several ideas to make my thesis stronger .The part that stand out the most was How to discover a working thesis. In my essay, I always had problem with thesis. It was always the hardest part of my essay. I kept on coming with several thesis but not one of them was good. After reading this paragraph I start to used working thesis and don't have to waste my time thinking about how to perfect it and focus more on body paragraph and my view point.

This chapter does a great job giving ideas to make a thesis stronger. It gives examples, ideas to help my thesis get stronger.

Nirakaran B. Malla

Stand Essay

In the stand essay, my topic is about climate change is caused by man made or natural?.

Substantiation: In this part, I argue that climate change is not man made and it is just the cycle of earth.

Evaluation: Global warming is not man made because the Statics shows most of the CO2 is coming from natural activities like Volcano and oceans biological activity.
  
Policy: In my essay, I approach my readers as finding the facts about global warming through research rather than building our side by just knowing the facts, media, news and other resources provide.

Ethos: I use Ethos in my essay by giving fact the media provide for us to build our side.

Logos: I use logical view on my essay about where most of the CO2 are coming from.

Nirakaran B. Malla

Reading Response chapter 21

In chapter twenty one, the things that stuck out the most to me was the helpful suggestions made on if a writer ever gets stuck trying to start an essay. Specially because personally English is my least favorite subject and only because I struggle with it the most. Starting an essay and coming up with an opening sentence is difficult for me for some reason I hope the suggestions made in this chapter help me with my next essay.

The part that I feel needs a little more detail and explanation is when the writer says to include in your conclusion a topic sentence towards the end. I think it is very easy to make the topic sentence at the end of your conclusion sound like you are going to start another essay, or if you left a thought unfinished.


-Yazmin Olvera

Taking a Stand Essay

 Evaluation: Keeping abortion legal in the United States

Substantiation: By keeping abortion legal, it minimizes the problem of illegal and unsafe abortion procedures, and helps minimize the number of children being abused and harmed everyday while living with unhappy families. 

Policy: Citing multiple statistics of how many pregnancies in the US are unplanned and how many turn to abortion every year. By providing those numbers it emphasizes the number of women that would turn to unsafe and illegal abortion procedures if the law changed. 

For logos I used statistics to prove the mass amount of abortions each year making the audience see that many people turn to this solution a high percentage of the time.

For ethos I used the citations of multiple credible websites, bringing in numbers from as current as 2015.

For pathos I suggested the audience to imagine being in a similar spot during the introduction, and see the situation from a different point of view, bringing out the emotion in the audience.


- Yazmin O

Reading Response Chapter 20

In chapter 20 the thing that stuck out to me the most was the tips and advice given when working on your thesis statement. I myself have always struggled with writing essays and specially with coming up with a  good thesis statement. I find that I still struggle trying to come up with thesis statements for essays but with following the tips in chapter 20 I hope I get better.

While writing this essay I asked myself the three questions on page 408 "Could I define or state my topic more clearly?" "Could I define or state my slant more clearly?" "Could I limit my thesis to develop it more successfully?" I ended up writing multiple thesis statements and wasn't able to narrow it down to the "best" one, so I skipped over the thesis and worked on the rest of the essay. Towards the conclusion I reworded it to best fit the thesis and went off with that.
Chapter 20 had many great tips in order to construct a good thesis statement, It did an excellent job.

Yazmin O.

Chapter 20 RR

Thesis statements are hard - Too General
Writing a thesis statement is hard - More Specific
Finding a way to properly state your thesis so that it takes a stand on a debatable issue and allows others to oppose is hard to articulate properly - Specific Stand

Source

I just showed how to take an idea and refine it so that it becomes a good thesis statement.  The thought from the original idea is retained but the final one clearly states a position that a person can agree or disagree with.  Once the thesis statement is fully articulated, it helps the writer lay out the supporting evidence and build a logical argument for why they feel the way they stated in their thesis statement.  Chapter 20 is helpful in guiding a writer through this process.

I thought this chapter was important because an essay must begin with a proper thesis statement.  It showed how to build a strong thesis.  When writing about a topic, it is easy to be tempted into trying to cover all aspects of the issue.  Since we are typically given 3-5 page limits, what results is a paper that shallowly covers many points, but doesn't really make the point the author intended.  This is a sign that the thesis was too broad or unclear.

I am the kind of person that loves practical, actionable advice.  Broad advice like "pick a good topic" or "Make your thesis strong" do not give a writer detailed advice on how to achieve those goals.  The Bedford Guide for College Readers is great because it doesn't stop with broad advice.  It gives specific tips and step-by-step instructions on how to achieve the things you should do.  Visuals like flow charts, marked up examples and tables listing common problems and solutions are fantastic.  If a writer read this book and truly followed the instructions, they could not help but become a much more effective author.

Dustan S

Strategies for Stating and Planning a Thesis- Ch.20

In the process of writing an position essay (Taking A Stand), structure is key. To begin, Stating + Planning a Thesis- I wrote several instead of just one or two. As the book stated, I did this to shape my topic for my purpose + audience.

After writing around 10 or so potential thesis statements, I narrowed it down to the two I liked the best. These were: Living wage v. Market value wage and Standard Federal Wage v. Power to the States to regulate. Of these two selections, I selected the former.

Source

I began to write a couple possible ways to word my thesis. I then wrote it, after so I used it (just as the book suggested) to help organize my essay.

Chapter 20 does a great job in laying the framework on ‘thesis writing.

-Daniel Bell

In the Taking A Stand essay, my topic is an argument for a living wage Federal minimum v. the current “market value” wage.

Substantiation- This part of the essay is when I lay out the facts concerning the Federal Minimum Wage history and current law.

Evaluation- Here, is a use of a comparative statement between “crumbling local businesses” and that the raise “will inflate local economies and raise the quality of life for millions of Americans.”

Policy-  Cited is a study conducted by UC-Berkeley in which data collected over 20 years concludes that in cities where the minimum wage is raised over 80%, jobs were not lost, but in the private sector grew on average, and local businesses offset the biggest “new costs” by keeping workers on the payroll and happy to work.

Source

Ethos- Brought up is FDR’s signing of the Fair Labor and Standards Act of 1938, as well supporting facts surrounding the current states of affairs when it comes to American lower middle-class life.

Pathos- A comparison is made between how a living wage looks for a family of 3 v. a life for that family living on $7.25/hour to incite emotions when the audience reads this part.

Logos- To add weight to the argument, such statements as “personal finances were much less complex in 1938 than they are today.” Also, that 40% of Americans make less than the 1968 Federal Minimum Wage.

-Daniel Bell

Take a stand workshop

In my paper, I tried to formulate the argument in this order: Ethos, Pathos, then Logos.  I established the Bible as the authority right up front because my later reasoning, Pathos, depended on passages found within the Bible.  I built a logical argument that defended my point.  Finally, I tried to use Ethos in the end to appeal to the reader's emotions.  I could do a better job there.

My substantiation claims involved summarizing the case that made abortion legal for women in all circumstances in the US, Roe v Wade.  I clearly defined what a human being is according to the Bible and discussed when life began.

My evaluation claims are the bulk of my essay.  It mostly deals with the question of whether the Bible condemns abortion.  I deal with the moral question of whether abortion is murder and also whether impeding another person's free will is wrong.

My policy claims are that the government or other people should not force a woman to give birth against her will.  I was going to limit it to first trimester abortions that Roe v Wade dealt with and should probably refine it so that my limits are clear.

Dustan S

Does this look like a human to you?

Chapter 9

In chapter 9 this week reading I notice the section that talked about taking a stand because when I have to state my opinion and choose a side I always lack to support one side. I am always in the middle because both sides provide evidence to support their sides. I am learning to find more supporting ideas to support my essay so that readers are interested in what I am trying to deliver. Another section that stand out the most was select evidence to support your position. In this section you need to have three supporting passage. First beginning with what happened followed by what is right and what should be done. This is my first time where I learned that your support should answer these question. To me this seems similar to following the rubric of an essay where you start with topic sentence, body paragraph and conclusion. I will support my evidence in this order so it is easier to understand to the reader.

                                                                                                                          Nirakaran B. Malla 

Discovery Checklist

What issue or controversy concerns you?

Abortion debate in the USA

Source

What current debate engages you?

Does the Bible forbid abortion?

What position do you want to take?

If a woman wants to, she should be able to have an abortion.

How can you state your stand?

The Bible does not forbid abortion.

What evidence might you need to support it?

Bible verses that make my point.  Maybe include behavioral economics data.

How might you refine your working thesis?

My thesis would change to “God believes that a woman should have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. ”

How could you make statements more accurate, definitions clearer, or categories more exact?

I would define the difference between a human being and a human body.  I would draw a distinction between early and late term abortions.  I would also use direct Bible quotes rather than paraphrasing.

What assumptions are you making?

I assume that the reader has been exposed to the nomenclature of Biblical references.  I also assume that they believe that the Bible does forbid legal abortion because I’ve never heard anyone advance my opinion.  Conservatives have always advanced the notion that a person’s life begins at conception even though there is nowhere in the Bible that explicitly states that.

What clarification of or support for these assumptions might your audience need?

I’ll include references to the internet links for the Bible references.  To refute the typical Conservative argument, I’ll use the Bible, which they respect to clarify some ideas and to discuss God’s fundamental values.

How might you qualify your thesis?
I’d limit it by pregnancy length and situation

What exceptions should you note?

Late term abortions, Mothers that would die if they gave birth, and stillborns

What other views might you want to recognize?

Traditional Christian objections

Dustan S

Discovery Checklist

Issue

The issue that concerns me is global warming. Big industries believe it is the cycle of the earth.

Positon

The positon I want to take is to stop deforestation and bring the nature to its course. In Colorado, last year I felt there was more snow than this year. Last year we had at least four snow week but this year only two. Leonardo DiCaprio went to top of the Canada to find snow to film his movie the Revenant. This show, global warming is real and because of deforestation it is effecting our way of life.

Thesis

Globalization is real and happening because of the value money has in our life; that people are cutting trees to sell in order to get money eventually leads to deforestation and global warming. In order to make my thesis better I will use different words same meaning to shorten the thesis and clear to understand.

Support

In order to make my readers believe in globalization, I will use our state as an example to help me support my argument. To support my thesis I will use example like the amazon forest, climate change (higher temperature than before), and natural disaster.

View

The other side of this argument could be that it is a cycle of the earth. Which could be true but what about the animal habitat that are changing drastically every year including us.

                                                                                                                                  Nirakaran B. Malla

ESSAY 1

The Issue

I am going to address the topic of minimum wage set to a living wage versus market driven wages. The current debate is between the legislators of the 114th Congress and people like myself who live paycheck to paycheck.

My Position

I’m in favor of a gradual increase for all minimum wage employees, of which reflects the median income for the specific zip code the worker resides in. Use of the cost of living model versus a flat rate for everyone poses a number of questions, but also brings answers to quite a few. Currently, the U.S. Military has a system in place (for housing allotments the recruiters receive all around the country) that addresses my argument. As well, I plan to highlight some misgivings served to the American workers and even some blatant lies told to us by elected officials.

Refining Ideas

My use of primary sourced data as well as peer-reviewed articles will make clearer my point. History, even economically, does indeed repeat itself.

Preconceived Notions

As most of my readers will agree, the corporate constant growth model does not “trickle down” to average rank and file employees like our government promised us it would. I have been on this planet long enough to know that paying workers poverty incomes doesn’t demonstrate sound economic policy, but highlights a propensity for greed.

Support

To qualify my potential revisions to current wages, I will use examples of other nations’ economic policies’, cite scientific studies, I’ll maybe even use some anecdotal evidence or quotes to further illustrate my point.

Refutation

To bring weight to the argument, I will also address the most popular counterarguments as well as the rampant case of Congressional Cognitive Dissonance that currently has the Hill in its’ grips.  

-Daniel Bell

Reading Response Chapter 9

        Throughout reading chapter 9 this week the one thing that stuck out to me the most was, having to state your opinion, or take a stand in your writing. I always thought that when writing or delivering a speech the writer/speaker had to keep his/her personal beliefs aside and just deliver information. I stood corrected. With that being said, it made me excited for future essays and presentations because, now I know it's okay to take a side when delivering information to others. By taking a side in the topic you're writing about, the writer is able to get more personal with it, and have the passion towards the topic show through. The example essays given were great examples to show how writers take sides without making it seem as if they are forcing their audience to take the same side.
          The most important tips in chapter 9 in my opinion would be to always have great evidence to support your claim. Because when you have strong evidence to support your claim, your claim becomes more credible. I think chapter 9 did an excellent job, and nothing needed any further elaboration.

Yazmin O

One of the most useful skills a person can learn is how to construct a persuasive argument.  It is important because in order to get things done in a group setting, there has to be an agreement.  The easiest way to come to an agreement is to come to a consensus.  People have to agree to a decision everyone can live with, even if not everyone agrees 100%.  The first step is to examine the issue and take a stand.

Chapter 9 gives readers a quick overview of how to build a logical argument and also lists 13 logical fallacies.  It’s interesting because the book correctly points them out and warns that they lead to faulty reasoning, but what isn’t mentioned is that they are used every day in order to BUILD convincing arguments.  The vast majority of people are not trained to recognize a fallacy when they hear one, so one can build a very convincing argument using both solid logic with a fallacy or two weaved in, in order to ultimately convince others to see things their way.  Just prepare for a rebuttal if challenged.
There is also a nice, practical layout of how to plan, execute, and review an argumentative essay.  The chapter gives step by step instructions that a student can follow and produce a well-written essay.  One of the most important lessons is to think about your audience and what their reaction will be.  It does no good to write a great argumentative essay when you know the reader is going to shut you down immediately, if you present the argument in the wrong order.  There is a lot of valuable advice in this chapter.

Dustan S