Essay Three

1. Essay Three Some points to keep in mind

2. Know your sources • What do they say? What do they mean? • Know their argument. • Know their purpose within your essay. • Know what they mean. • Why are they important? • Sources, especially in a research paper like Essay Three, are an integral part of the essay, not just an afterthought. Carefully choose sources that enhance your argument, either by supporting your stance or by providing a solid explanation of the counterargument.

3. How can you find popular sources? • Blinn Library Website • Google or other search engines • On-line newspapers, magazines, or websites for news channels • Caution! Always be sure that the source is reliable. A source doesn’t have to be scholarly in order to be reliable. There are very good popular sources. Sites ending in .gov or .edu or .org are usually pretty good sources. When looking through .com sites, you’ll need to be a bit more discriminating.

4. Where do you find scholarly sources? • Blinn Library Website • General Databases • Academic Search Complete • Check the box marked Academic (Peer Reviewed) Journals. • Where should you NOT look for scholarly sources? • Google or other search engines • On-line newspapers or magazines • This doesn’t mean that those site are bad or even unreliable. It just means that they aren’t scholarly. • Scholarly sources have gone through a long process called “peer review.” This means that, in order to be published, each article has been examined by multiple experts in the field. An article about math has been scrutinized by mathematicians. An article about physics has been looked at by physicists. An education article has been picked apart, edited, sent back for revisions, and rewritten by professors of Education. This doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, but it does mean that enough people have carefully examined the article that we can accept that the article is probably pretty reliable.

5. If ________, it might be a popular source. • If it’s published in a periodical with the words “daily,” “monthly,” or “weekly” in its title • If you found it at the supermarket • If it’s the kind of publication you’ve seen while waiting at the doctor’s office • If there are color pictures on the cover • If there are pictures of people on the cover • If there are advertisements throughout the publication • If there are articles about “how to” do anything • Including, but not limited to, how to fix your hair, how to get a job, how to get your boyfriend to propose, how to roast a Thanksgiving turkey, how to catch a fish, how to fix a car, etc.

6. If ________, it might be a scholarly source. If it has the words “journal,” “journal of,” “quarterly,” or “research” in the title If there are no pictures on the cover or throughout the entire publication If each article has a lengthy list of sources used If there are multiple footnotes throughout the article If the article gives biographical information about the author(s) that specifically focuses on what and where he/she teaches If there are some words that require a glance at a dictionary (We all have these moments!)

7. Know what type of source you’re dealing with. • Is it scholarly or popular? • Time • Journal of Aesthetic Education • American History Quarterly • www.fastfacts.com • Newsweek • People, Redbook, Vogue • Educational Theory • Atlantic Monthly • www.nih.gov • Journal of the Modern Language Association • www.harvard.edu • Harvard Law Journal

8. Know your audience • To whom are you writing? • An academic audience • What does that mean? • What expectations do they have? • What biases might they have? • What do you know about them? • What might you guess about them? • How does the audience affect your style of writing? • Get rid of: • I believe, I think, most uses of the word “I,” unless it’s used as part of a narrative that you’re using as an attention getter • You, your, you’re, we, us, our, and anything that engages the audience in personal conversation • In today’s society, in our world today, nowadays, etc. • Conversational language • Clichés! Right off the bat, time will tell, in the nick of time, diamond in the rough, double down, and anything hackneyed and overused • How does your audience affect the type of argument you make?

9. Structure of Argument “Something about the rules of argument. Arguing is absentmindedness; that is, you abstract from a whole list of other things, like x-rays. You don't look at the skin, you don't look at the nerve endings, you don't look at the patient's face, you don't look at the reactions, you just look at the bone structure. So, argument appeals to objective facts; it doesn't appeal to subjective feelings. It doesn't ignore them, it doesn't say they're worthless, it just abstracts from them. An argument wins not because the rhetoric sways the emotions of the audience, but because the facts line up. That's like science” (Kreeft).

10. Structure of Argument: Syllogism • According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary on-line, a syllogism is “a deductive scheme of a formal argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion (as in‘every virtue is laudable; kindness is a virtue; therefore kindness is laudable’)” • To further explain, philosopher Peter Kreeft says, “A syllogism is something like mixing two chemicals in a laboratory and seeing what comes out. Mix two true propositions, click them together in your mind, and see what conclusion comes out. There are objective standards for being right and wrong.”

11. Criteria of Argument • “Finally, the criteria of any argument; what makes an argument work, and what makes it not work. This is just basic common-sensical logic. • Since an argument is composed of propositions—classic argument, a syllogism, has two premises: an assumption and a conclusion—and since a proposition is composed of two terms, a subject and a predicate term, there are three parts to the argument: • the terms, the propositions, and the logic of the argument. So there's three things that can wrong with any argument. The terms can be ambiguous, the premises can be false, or the logic can be invalid. If none of those things goes wrong with the argument, then honesty and intelligence demand that you agree that the conclusion is true. So, there's five things you can say to anybody's argument” (Kreeft).

12. Possibilities in Argumentation • According to philosopher Peter Kreeft, there are five possibilities in argumentation: • I agree with your conclusion. You have proved your case. You have no ambiguous terms, no false premises, and no invalid logic, therefore your conclusion is true. Or, • I disagree with your conclusion because your logic is invalid, or • I disagree with your conclusion because one of your premises isn't true, or • Finally, I disagree with your conclusion because one of your terms is ambiguous. • You cannot honestly say a fifth thing, but you can say a fifth thing, namely: Your premises are true, your terms are clear and unambiguous, and your logic is perfectly valid; nevertheless, I do not agree with your conclusion. You've proved it to be true, but I will not admit it. I am a willful, stubborn-headed, pig-headed fool. No one has said that, ever. I hope.

13. What type of argument should I make? • Simple Categorical • Definitional • Cause/Consequence • Resemblance • Evaluation • Proposal

14. Know what you’re arguing. • What are the reasons supporting your stance? • Example topic: Death Penalty • First, narrow the topic. • Ethics and the death penalty? • Giving inmates a choice of last meal? • Suspension of the death penalty due to overturned cases • In the past few years, DNA evidence has been used by groups like the Innocence Project to exonerate death row inmates. For the death penalty to be just, it must be fairly and accurately administered to ensure that no inmates are wrongly executed. Due to the compelling evidence of wrongful convictions, the state of Texas should suspend the death penalty until its use has been investigated fully.

15. Arguing a thesis • For the death penalty to be just, it must be fairly and accurately administered to ensure that no inmates are wrongly executed. • How can we make sure the death penalty is administered fairly? • Why not just argue for the death penalty to be repealed? • Why introduce the idea that the death penalty could be fair or just? • Due to the compelling evidence of wrongful convictions, the state of Texas should suspend the death penalty until its use has been investigated fully. • Why should the death penalty be suspended? • How does this argument work with the first part of this thesis statement?

16. Problematic Proposals • Be sure that your proposal fits the assignment: • Has more than one step • Gives a justification • Why choose to do this particular thing? • Why are you suited to do what you’re proposing? • Isn’t about raising awareness • Is realistic and represents something you could do right now

17. How do I figure out what to propose? Think about it. Google it. Ask people what they know about it. Be creative. Think about it some more.