WEEK TEN: GROUP BRAINSTORM SESSION BLOG WEEK INSTRUCTIONS

1.       Choose one topic for your paper.  

2.       Find the corresponding blog post (below are my 4 posts for the 4 different topic choices).

3.       For your post:

DUE BY WEDNESDAY, AS USUAL

a.       Comment right on my prompt for the topic, so classmates can see who else is sharing their topic.

                                                               i.      Post your claim and reason.  “Yes (blah blah) because (blah definition blah).”

                                                             ii.      Post your warrant.  (Make the logical connection.

b.      Copy and paste the same comment as your own post for the week, so classmates can respond on your post once they have found you in the comments on my blog prompt.

                                                               i.      You must comment on my prompt and your own page in order to fully participate and help your classmates fully participate, and get credit.

**You can do this over the weekend to prepare for Monday’s group debates, or you can treat Monday’s group debates as fodder for your post if you blog next week instead of over the weekend.

       DUE BY FRIDAY AS USUAL

4.        Responses must contain:

a.        Grounds (3) and backing for those grounds (2) 

b.      Rebuttals (3) and backing for those rebuttals (2)

You may notice that this week the comments on others’ posts will be more substantial than your original post, which is a little backwards from the usual way, but feedback to each other is the most important part of this “brainstorm session”.  Although they don’t necessarily need to be in paragraph form (it will probably be more clear if they aren’t), part a and part b both need to have 5 full sentences in order to receive credit for participating. 

As discussed in class today, this brainstorm session is intended to generate a lot of material for you to build your argument on.  It is acceptable and recommended for you to incorporate ideas from this exchange into your Toulmin Schema, and then your paper.  You will not need to cite these “borrowed ideas”; we will consider this group brainstorm session “common knowledge” because it is published on our blog and because it is reading material that we share for coursework just like The Reader and the FGW.

If anyone missed class Wednesday or today, you need to review the “Materials Related to Paper #3” on Moodle very carefully, especially the webpage link for the Toulmin Schema, which is of central importance for 1)building your argument, 2)testing the validity of your thesis, and 3)searching out possible rebuttals to different aspects of your definition, and thus, argument on the whole.

WEEK TEN, TOPIC ONE

·         Does earning a Baccalaureate degree make a person intelligent?

o   In your paper, you will need to discuss the various things one is required to learn to get this degree, as well as a definition of intelligence.

**WEEK 11: SCENARIOS TO TEST YOUR DEFINITIONS AGAINST:

1)  A person has  Baccalaureate degree, but they weren't content with their field of study, so they only half heartedly worked toward their degree.  Also, they cheated on the final exam that they took right before getting the degree.  Can they still be considered intelligent?


2)  Bill Gates was a college drop out.  Do we consider him intelligent?  Why or why not?  How might this affect your criteria for your definition of intelligence?


3)  A man with a BA goes into politics and proposes going to war with another country.  He knows the war will drag out, and he knows many people will be killed during the duration of it.  Was this an intelligent decision?  Are people we admit are intelligent allowed to make unintelligent decisions from time to time?  Why or why not?  How might this affect your criteria for your definition of intelligence?

WEEK TEN TOPIC TWO

·         Is job satisfaction the most important measure of career success?

o   In your paper, you will need to discuss definitions of job satisfaction and career success.

**WEEK 11: SCENARIOS TO TEST YOUR DEFINITIONS AGAINST:

1)  A tobacco company employee hates the addictive effects of cigarettes, but he makes a very high salary.  According to your definition of job satisfaction, can he be satisfied?  Why or why not? Does this make you reconsider the ranking of your criteria for job satisfaction at all?


2)  A journalist has to write an article about something she disagrees with.  Her editor wants her to be in favor of the issue.  Instead of satisfying herself and doing what she believes in, she does what her editor wants.  Does this make her successful in her career?  Why or why not?  Does this make you reconsider your definition of career success at all?


3)  John has always loved drawing and wants to be an artist, so has majored in Visual Arts.  However, he was offered a job at his dad's law firm and took it.  How could he be satisfied with a job he didn't want (think about juggling the importance of the criteria for this definition) and will he ever be successful if he sticks with it?  (Does this make you rethink your definition of success at all?

WEEK TEN, TOPIC THREE

·         If an employer is looking for a candidate with “good problem solving skills,” is she looking for common sense or analytical skills?

o   In your paper, you will need to discuss definitions of common sense and analytical skills, but you will focus most of your time detailing the definition of the one you are arguing for.

**FOR WEEK 11: SCENARIOS TO TEST YOUR DEFINITIONS AGAINST:

1)  A cop has a crime to solve:  A man's wife has been killed, and he went to his neighbor's house to report the crime to the police.  Will the cop use common sense or analytical skills to solve this crime?  Which common sense or analytical skills specifically will he use?  How does this correspond with your definition?


2)  A boss forgets to turn in his paperwork and asks his employee to complete it for him and turn it in within the next hour.  The employee is unfamiliar with what information goes into the answering of the questions, so does he use common sense or analytical skills to get this form filled out?

WEEK TEN, TOPIC FOUR

·         Is a mastery of writing skills required for a student to be considered an exemplary student? (Think dean’s list, merit based scholarships, applying to grad school, being chosen for an internship).

o   In your paper, you will need to discuss what a mastery of writing skills means, before you can decide if the skill fits into your definition of an exemplary student.

**FOR WEEK 11 BLOG: SCENARIOS TO TEST YOUR DEFINITION AGAINST:


1)  A youth is a finalist for a merit based scholarship.  The finalists all have to write a four page essay on a prompt Given to them by the scholarship selection committee.  She is one of five finalists.  All five of them are straight A students with ACT scores of 25+.  This youth does not really have good writing skills.  Will she win the scholarship?


2)  A professor is sifting through requests from students for letters of recommendation that will help them get into graduate school.  Because he doesn't hasn't had any of them in his courses recently, and doesn't remember these individuals with a lot of detail, he decides to compare their letters against the guidelines that the university posts on the website to tell students what they should expect to put in their request letters.  Since they are all seniors in college, their letters are all pretty "correct" in terms of grammar and spelling.  Here, he is looking to see if they pay attention to the genre conventions of the request letter.  Does this mean that genre conventions are more important than expressing ideas and intentions clearly in writing?

WEEK 9: Adrienne Rich

Discussion questions for “Taking Women Students Seriously” by Adrienne Rich

(The Reader, pg. 273)

1)      In the beginning of her essay, Rich states that her experience at an all girls’ school was that her teachers gave her great “content” (hard skills, actual booklearnin’) but that they didn’t teach the girls how to “survive as women in a world organized by and for men” (soft skills, in my opinion).  Later in her essay, she hints at some ways that teachers can give women more soft skills in education.  What are they?  How crucial do you think they are?  Are they still relevant to today’s students? (Her speech was given in ’78, remember).

2)      Rich outlines the questions for teachers, and makes it clear that she feels issues of race and class are pretty much the same as issues of gender, with regard to discrimination in the university setting.  Do you agree?  What are some key similarities or differences that you feel are important?  Does the university still have work to do in remedying this area?

WEEK 8: Gains and Losses

#8 Discussion questions for “Gains and Losses” by Richard Rodriguez  (The Reader)

 Please answer each "a" "b" and "c" with several complete sentences, and clearly identify each one.  You may want to actually label them a, b, c, but you don't need to copy and paste the questions over, otherwise it will be more time consuming for your peers to find and comment on the ideas that are yours.

1

1)       Rodriguez uses terms and phrases like “private language/ public language,” “mine to use,” and “pushed away/I belonged” with regard to language use and the difference between using Spanish and English. 

a.       Have you experienced similar experiences with a language or dialect spoken at home that is different from the one you are expected speak at school?  If not you, do you know anyone who has, or can you think of an example from a tv show or a music figure? Explain.

b.      How could you compare the experience of speaking one language at home and another at school over to the idea of having to learn the “language” you must become literate in to for your career field? 

c.       Will “belonging” with regard to language use be important for you in your career field? How so (think about ethos, respect, credibility?

2)      Rodriguez feels that by becoming literate in English, he “lost” something with his family at home.  He refers to “intimacy” several times. 

a.       Don’t families change anyway when kids grow up?  Is success ever attainable without a sacrifice?

b.      Can you have intimacy with language in academic disciplines and career fields that would be fulfilling? 

c.        Do you think Rodriguez feels like what was “lost” or sacrificed was worth it?