The Winsome Scholar

Here’s the plan we worked out in class today. Tuesday will give us a chance to take more time in discussing the articles on Monday, or provide me with more time to explain concepts and such. All of this is subject to change with prior notice.

Here’s a copy of the “Formatting Your Paper” handout I mentioned in class. If you notice anything that is misleading or incorrect, let me know.

We’ve been reading/discussing Orwell’s “Politics in the English Language”¹ for the past week, and it’s about time we cut it down to the essentials. Your assignment this weekend is to reverse-engineer an outline of Orwell’s work. The outline should be in standard format, just like the outlines for your first arguments. The goal of this assignment is to clearly lay out the progression of his points and lay bare the skeleton of his points.

We will be returning to our regular schedule of Tuesday/Thursday article analyses next week as well.

1. PDF download link via UTDallas [↩]

I was a bit startled that most of you are unaware of the health care debate raging around us, but that’s what this class is for, isn’t it?

I mentioned OpposingViews.com in class today, and while I haven’t had a chance to explore it thoroughly, they have a section on the health care debate. Might be worth thumbing through, as the people writing the arguments must meet one of the following criteria:

• They are a recognized leader in their field
• They have a significant following or constituency
• Their views have been widely published or broadcast
• Or they have a unique personal experience in a specific area

I mentioned TED.com as well. We are watching a video on the morality of liberals and conservatives in my senior English class, so pop over there if you’re interested. We’ll discuss articles tomorrow.

If you are before “L” in the alphabet, we’ll be discussing your article analyses in class on Tuesday. “M” to the end will be on Thursday. If you have any questions, or need help finding an article, check out my previous post then send an email. On Monday we’ll continue our discussion of the article we read on Friday.

A former student sent this link to me yesterday. Thoughts? We’ll talk about it tomorrow.

Bonus: Click through the NYCLU complaint link for argument in a pure form; no need for emotional appeals in a legal complaint.