Assumptions, Charting, and RWS 100 – 9/8/17 - Testa Assumptions, Charting, and First Paper

Homework: Kristof What PACES did you get?

Assignment 1 Prompt The prompt is important. Follow the prompt to be successful. I have laid out what you need to do for all parts of the essay. We will discuss how to write the essay over the next two weeks. We will peer review on the 25th, and you will conference with me before the paper is due.

Clive Thompson Clive Thompson is the author of the text you will be writing your first assignment on. He is a regular contributor to NYT Magazine. He is a “technology writer” and interested in how technology shapes us.

Clive Thompson YouTube video.

Assumptions Assumptions are beliefs, values, and ways of seeing the world that an author takes for granted. Assumptions are sometimes explicitly stated, but are often unstated because authors expect their audience to share these beliefs or values. Assumptions are HARD! They require critically examining a text.

Ways of Getting at Assumptions Understand what holds an argument together. Identify the writer’s primary audience. Evaluate and critique arguments. Become more aware of your own assumptions.

Assumptions Look for assumptions the author makes about the audience’s beliefs and values. Read the introduction of the text. What do you have to believe/value/care about to get past the first line, paragraph or page? Who is going to check out right here? How does the author attempt to bring in people who value X here? Who is not going to be able to read this?

Assumptions Look for unstated values, beliefs and premises that are necessary for the author’s claims to “hang together.”

Assumptions SPCA example.

Assumptions Try to find significant “absences,” “silences,” or gaps in an argument.

Assumptions Drake is a rapper. Therefore, all of the songs he sings are rap songs. Drake sang a song about starting from the bottom. So, he must have started from the bottom himself when he was young.

Assumptions Look for assumptions embedded in the definitions, categories, and key terms of an argument.

Assumptions Kanye West, the self-absorbed rapper with “I am god” syndrome, won another award on Sunday. Kanye West, the deified rap genius, won another award on Sunday.

Assumptions Look for assumptions embedded in the rhetorical “frames” authors construct.

Assumptions Salon Magazine “Court rules against pot for sick people” New York Times: “Supreme Court Allows Prosecution of Medical Marijuana Users” San Diego Union Tribune: “Court OKs Marijuana Crackdown” L.A. Times: “Justices Give Feds Last Word on Medical Marijuana” Washington Times: “Medical Marijuana Laws Don't Shield Users From Prosecution”

Charting Charting involves annotating a text in order to show the “work” each paragraph, group of paragraphs, or section is doing. Charting helps identify what each part of the text is doing as well as what it is saying—helping us move away from summary to analysis.

Macro-Charting Break text down into sections--identify “chunks” or parts of the text that seem to work together to DO something for the overall argument. Use “doing” verbs to separate sections (providing context, making a claim, describing an issue, rebutting counter argument).

Micro-Charting Break down sections of text by paragraph to analyze what each paragraph is doing for the overall argument. Detail the smaller “moves” and strategies made within paragraphs: note when, where, and how and author makes a claim, cites evidence, and/or supports his/argument using a rhetorical strategy.

Charting Kristof Macro-charting of Kristof Par. 1-7: Par. 8-10:

Charting Kristof Macro-charting of Kristof Par. 1-7: Placing gun violence in a framework of public health Par. 8-10: Rebuttals Par. 11-19: Solutions Par. 20: Conclusion

Homework Read first part of Public Thinking by Clive Thompson. It is pages 1-9 of Physical Course Reader. No writing is due.