Midterm Review

Success is not final, failure is

not fatal: it is the courage to
continue that counts.
Winston
Churchill
Midterm Review

English 170
Composition II
Composition II Overview
Composition II Overview
Continued
 Becoming a
Critical Thinker
 Critical – Not Negatively
• C ritica la s w e w illu se it m e a n s
“ skeptical,” “ exacting ,” “ creative .”
• W h e n yo u o p e ra te critica lly , yo u
q u e stio n , te st, a n d b u ild o n w h a t
o th e rs sa y a n d w h a t yo u yo u rse lf
th in k .
•
 Traits of a Critical Thinker
• Fo cu se d o n th e fa cts
– G ive m e th e fa cts a n d sh o w m e th a t
th e y a re re le va n t to th e issu e
• A n a lytic
– W h a t stra te g ie s h a s th e
w rite r/ sp e a ke r u se d to d e ve lo p th e
a rg u m e n t?
• O p e n -m in d e d
– Pre p a re d to liste n to d iffe re n t p o in ts
o f vie w , to le a rn fro m o th e rs
 Critical Thinking In Action
• C ritica lT h in kin g In vo lve s:
–A n a lyzin g
–In te rp re tin g
–S yn th e sizin g
–E va lu a tin g
 In Praise of a Snail’s Pace
Ellen Goodman
Questions for Reading and


Reasoning
2. What is Goodman’s main idea, or
thesis?
3. What examples illustrate the problem
the author sees in our times? What
evidence does Goodman present to
suggest that people want to change
the times?
•
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 The Four Responses to
Literature
1. T h e R e sp o n se to C o n te n t
2. T h e A n a lytica lR e sp o n se
3. T h e E va lu a tio n R e sp o n se
4. T h e R e se a rch R e sp o n se
•
•

03/04/10 11
1. The Response to Content
• What does it say?
• How could it be summarized?
– The ability to summarize and
paraphrase material involves both
reading and writing skills
– It is an excellent skill for your
academic career

03/04/10 12
 2. The Analytical Response
• How is it written?
– Word Choice
– Sentence Structure
– Use of figurative language – metaphor
and simile
• How does it compare with another work?

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 3. The Evaluation Response
• Is it logical?
• Is it Adequately Developed?
• Does it Achieve its purpose?
– What is the writer’s purpose?
– What is the context in which the piece
is written?

03/04/10 14
 4. The Research Response
• How Does it Help Me to Understand Other
Works, Ideas or Events?
– Use the piece of literature to learn
more about a larger event
• Read diaries of holocaust
survivors to understand the
Jewish experience in WWII
• Read a slave’s account of daily
life to understand issues
surrounding the Civil War

03/04/10 15
 The Gettysburg Address
 What was the significance
of the Battle of
Gettysburg?
The Battle of Gettysburg marked a
turning point in the American Civil
War (1861–65), a bloody conflict
between states in the North (the
United States, or the Union) and
the South (the Confederate States
of America, or the Confederacy).
The battle was fought in the
summer of 1863 when Union and
Confederate forces met
accidentally at Gettysburg, a town
in southern Pennsylvania. From
July 1 to 3, Union General George
Meade (1815–1872) led about
90,000 troops to defeat 75,000
advancing Confederate troops
under General Robert E. Lee
(1807–1870). The Union victory
effectively stopped Lee's invasion
of the North.
On November 19, 1863, U.S.

President Abraham Lincoln (1809–

1865) made his historical address
at Gettysburg, during the
03/04/10 dedication of part of the 16
battlefield as a national cemetery.
 Group Response
• Content
– How could it be summarized?
• Analytical
– How is it written? How does it
compare with another work?
• Evaluation
– Does it achieve its purpose? Is it
logical?
• Research
– How does it help me understand other
events or larger ideas?
03/04/10 17
Dave Barry
• Dave Barry is a humor
columnist. For 25 years
he was a syndicated
columnist whose work
appeared in more than
500 newspapers in the
United States and
abroad.
• In 1988 he won the Pulitzer
Prize for Commentary.
Many people are still
trying to figure out how
this happened.
• Dave has also written a
total of 30 books,
although virtually none of


 Questions 1 and
2 under
Reflection and
Writing
Responding Critically to
Sources
 Ask
• Who is the author?
• Who is the audience?
• What is the writer’s purpose in
writing?
• What is the writer’s sources of
information?
Analyzing Style
 The Elements of Style
• Word Choice
• Sentence Structure
• Metaphors and Similes
• Organization and Examples
• Repetition
• Hyperbole, Understatement, and Irony
• Question Marks, Italics, and Capital Letters
• Parallel structure
• Alliteration
• Denotative or Connotative words
•
 Word Choice
• Are the writer’s words:
– Abstract?
• “love” “freedom” “success” “hate”
“courage”
– Concrete?
• “box” “wood” “steel” “building” “car”
– Intellectual?
• “strategery” “placidity” “salutary” “ant
disestablishment”
– Formal?
• “continent” “gentleman” “manor”
“articulate”
– Informal?
• “land” “guy” “crib” “say”
 Parallel Structure
• Similarity of structure in a pair or series
of related words, phrases, or clauses.
• Etymology: From the Greek, "beside one
another“
– Truth is not a diet but a condiment."
(Christopher Morley)
– "When you are right you cannot be too
radical; when you are wrong, you
cannot be too conservative."
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
 Denotative and Connotative
Word Choice
• Denotation is the explicit or direct
meaning or set of meanings of a
word or expression.
• Connotation is what a word suggests;
what we associate the word with.
– House versus “Home”
– Dog versus “Hound”
– Dad versus “old man”
– Wife versus “my old lady”
 George Orwell
• Born Eric Blair in Bengal, India in
1903.
• Educated in England at Eton.
• Using pseudonym, George
Orwell, began writing magazine
articles.
• A committed socialist, he fought
in the Spanish Civil War in
1936.
• His final book was influenced by
his failing health and his
disillusionment with the kind of
socialism in his home country
of England.
• 1984 was written in 1948 and
 1984 Class Discussion
Chapters 1 and 2
• What kind of a man is Winston?
• What kind of a society does he live in?
• Explain “War is Peace”
• Explain “Freedom is Slavery”
• Explain “Ignorance is Strength”
• Explain “Whoever controls the past,
controls the future.”
• Explain the meaning of Winston’s dream in
chapter 2
• Do you think the United States
government uses propaganda
techniques to influence the people of the
United States?
COMMON WRITING
MISTAKES
Writing the “hook”
 What is a hook?
• A hook draws the reader in to an
essay or article
• It establishes where the essay is
going to go
• It sets the mood of the essay
(serious, humorous, skeptical)
• It previews the essay
• It is one of the building blocks of a
good essay.
 Common Writing
Mistakes
Lesson
T h e C la sh o f th e Te n se s
#2
 Unnecessary tense shift
• "Tense" refers to the form of a verb
that indicates time. Unless you're
referring to different time periods,
shifts in verb tense create a
garbled sense of when something is
happening.
 Past, Present, Future -
Simple
• In English, there are three basic
tenses: past, present and future
Literary Analysis
 What is Literary
Analysis?
• It’s literary
• It’s an analysis
• It’s--
• An Argument!
• It may also involve research on and
analysis of secondary sources
Important Literary Concepts
• The Basics •Other key concepts
– Plot –Historical context
–Social, political,
– Setting economic contexts
– Narration/point –Ideology
of view –Multiple voices
– Characterizatio –Various critical
orientations
n
–Literary theory
– Symbol
– Metaphor
– Genre
– Irony/ambiguity
 What is a Secondary
Source?
• A book or article that discusses the
text you are discussing
• A book or article that discusses a
theory related to the argument you
are making
• A book or article that discusses the
social and historical context of the
text you are discussing
ANALYSIS OF NARRATIVE
STRUCTURE
 Plot Components
Climax: the turning point, the
most intense moment—either
mentally or in action

Rising Action: the series of Falling Action: all of the

conflicts and crisis in the story action which follows the
that lead to the climax climax

Exposition: the start of the Resolution: the conclusion,

story, the situation before the the tying together of all of
action starts the threads
 Analysis of Character
• When does my character live? Past, present
or future?
• Where does my character live? In the
country, the city, the suburbs…?
• What is the socioeconomic background of my
character?
• Does my character work? If so, at what?
• What is a typical day for my character like?
• If I met the character, would I like them? Why
or why not?
•
•
 Analysis of Style and Tone
• point-of-view,
• formal or informal writing,
• organization/structure of text,
• level of complexity in the writing, and
• overall tone.
•
“The Story of an Hour”
Kate Chopin• Catherine (Kate) O'Flaherty
was born in St. Louis on
February 8, 1850, the
second child of Thomas
O'Flaherty of County
Galway, Ireland, and Eliza
Faris of St. Louis.
• From 1855 to 1868 Kate
attended the St. Louis
Academy of the Sacred
Heart, with one year at the
Academy of the Visitation.
In 1855, her father died in a
railroad accident, and in
1863 her beloved French-
speaking great grandmother
died. She spent the Civil
War in St. Louis, a city
where residents supported
both the Union and the
Confederacy.
 “To Build A Fire”
• Jack London
• Themes
•
 Ursula K. Le Guin

THE ONES WHO WALK

AWAY FROM OMELAS
Langston Hughes
“I Too”
“My Name Is Lisa”
Introduction to the
Art of Argument
“A Hanging”
 The Aristotelian Model
• Ethos
– The writer or speaker
• Must have credibility
• Logos
– The argument and its support
• Facts and evidence
• Pathos
• The effect of the audience
• How do they feel about the issue –
what do you need to address to
change their oppinion
–
 Toulmin Model - Expanded
• Claim
– We should not go skiing today
• Evidence (Grounds)
– It is too cold today
• Assumption (Warrants)
– When it is too cold it is no fun skiing
Examining the Evidence
– Facts
• Verifiable statements
–The building is 200 feet tall.
–Bob Jones was born in
Baltimore, Maryland.
– Statistics
• Facts expressed in numbers
–75% of seniors use
Facebook
–2 out of 3 dentists chew
9 .2
sugarless gum
Examining the Evidence
– Examples
• Specific cases
–Joe Smith had a very
bad experience with
Wilke Hardware
–Lois Hunt always has
billing problems with
Dr. Rose
– Expert opinions
• The judgments of authorities
–Endorsed by the 9 .2

American Medical
Checklist of Fallacies
– Begging the question
• Treating an opinion that is open to
question as if it were already proved
or disproved.
– Non sequitar (“it does not follow”)
• Drawing a conclusion from irrelevant
evidence.
– Red herring
• Introducing an irrelevant issue to
distract readers.
– Circular Reasoning
9 .3 a
• Repeating the statement over and over
Checklist of Fallacies -
Evasions
– False authority
• Citing as expert opinion the views of a
person who is not an expert.
– Inappropriate appeals
• Appealing to pity or fear, snob
appeal, bandwagon, flattery,
argument ad populum (“to the
people”), argument ad hominem
(“to the man”)

9 .3 a
Checklist of Fallacies
-Oversimplification
– Post hoc fallacy
• Assuming that A caused B because
A preceded B.
– Either/or fallacy (false dilemma)
• Reducing a complicated question
to two alternatives.
– False analogy
• Exaggerating the similarities in an
analogy or ignoring key
differences.
9 .5 b
Checklist of Fallacies
-Oversimplification
– Hasty generalization (jumping to a
conclusion)
• Asserting an opinion based on too little
evidence.
– Sweeping generalization
• Asserting an opinion as applying to all
instances when it may apply to some,
or to none. Absolute statements
and stereotypes are variations.
– Reductive fallacy
• Generally, oversimplifying causes and
effects. 9 .5 b
Writing the Argumentative
Essay
 Review - The Basics of
Argument

• Argument is conversation with a goal

– Deciding on a movie – move
discussion along
• Takes a stand on an arguable issue
– Not about facts – the lecture starts at
2 PM
• Argument uses reasons and evidence
– Think critically – analyze the issue
• Argument recognizes the topics
complexity
“In Defense of Voluntary
Euthanasia”
 Clustering Pattern of
Development
1.The issue
2.Your claim
3.The evidence in support
4.The opposing viewpoint
5.Reply to the opposing viewpoint
6.Evidence dismissing the opposing
viewpoint
7.Conclude based on evidence and
rebuttal
8.

 The Alternating Pattern
1.The issue
2.Your claim
3.First evidence
1.Objection to this evidence
2.Reply to this objection
3.Continued objections and replies to
this evidence
4.Second evidence (third, fourth, etc.)
1.Objection to this evidence
2.Reply to this objection
3.Continued objections and replies to
 Pro and Con Exercise
• In groups, make a Pro and Con Chart for
one of the following issues:
– Abortion
– The Death Penalty
– Gay Marriage
– Prayer in Schools
– Legalizing Marijuana
– Removing mandatory school
attendance
– Drinking Age increased to 25
– Government funded college for all