Weeds and Roses

1. Weeds and Roses “Buy Nothing Day”

2. Weed #1: Develop Your Ideas • The reader will not go beyond the page • The Golden Third Page • (not hogwash, though!) • Organize around sub-claims to help with this • Ideas/CD should always tie back to your _______?

3. Weed #1: Develop Your Ideas • What good idea is mentioned in this excerpt? “The best day to implement a Buy Nothing Day would be on Black Friday. This brings out the overconsumption of all shoppers who rush into stores and grab anything insight that is on sale. We live in a society where people believe cheaper is better. The employee who was trampled and dies at Walmart a few years ago would still be alive if we weren’t overly dependent on buying things.” • Where could the writer extend his/her analysis? • Write two sentences of your own that further explain this argument.

4. Weed #1: Develop Your Ideas “The best day to implement a Buy Nothing Day would be on Black Friday. This brings out the overconsumption of all shoppers who rush into stores and grab anything insight that is on sale. We live in a society where people believe cheaper is better. The employee who was trampled and dies at Walmart a few years ago would still be alive if we weren’t overly dependent on buying things.” “The best day to implement a Buy Nothing Day would be on Black Friday. This day brings out the overconsumption of all shoppers who rush into stores and grab anything insight that is on sale. We live in a society where people believe cheaper is better. The employee who was trampled and dies at Walmart a few years ago would still be alive if we weren’t overly dependent on buying things.” When people value obtaining material goods over acting human and kill others in the process, we as a nation must be on red alert. Apparently, we have really become Lord of the Flies-ish, though we are not after power, we are after a new X-box. One day eliminating frivolity and superfluous goods seems like the least we can do to thwart the right to spend over the right to life.

5. Weed #2: Move Smoothly • What is the purpose of transitions? • What kind of transitions are there? • Implicit • Explicit • When should we use a transition?

6. Transitions Explicit Implicit Pulling language down from the previous sentence The honeybadger didn’t feel well, so it vomited on Mom’s rattan rug. The rug had been purchased as an anniversary gift… Referencing an earlier idea, assuming newly gained knowledge Despite this, Americans… Dependent clauses work well for this • Another • Moreover • Also • In addition • The second • Finally

7. Effective Transitions: • “The ‘overconsumerism’ may not be such a bad trait, in this aspect…While not purchasing is bad for the economy in the present, it may be good in the long run.” • “Not only is overconsumption harming the economy, but it can also harm families.”

8. Weed #3: Pass the “DUH Test” • If your six-year-old niece could have said it, it doesn’t pass • Show off your knowledge, not your general 3rd grade book report information! • Passing the Duh Test is especially important for your hook: • “ ‘Buy Nothing Day’ is exactly what it sounds like.” • “For hundreds of years the economy of every county on the plant has been in fluctuation.”

9. Weed 4: Titles of Books!!! • This will not be mentioned again • Practice with these titles: • Pride and Prejudice (book) • The Call of the Wild (book) • Into the Wild (movie) • Waka Waka this Time for Africa (song) • Les Mirables (play) • Sargent Pepper and the Lonely Hearts Club (album) • Anna Karenina (book) • How to Impress Your Date in Nine Easy Steps (article)

10. Weed #5: Don’t be a Drama Queen • Remember, you have to build your own ethos as a writer • It is easy to see through many logical fallacies: • Slippery slope • Strawman • Ad hoc • Use the bit of CD you do have and exploit, rather than extrapolate on it

11. Weed #5: Don’t be a Drama Queen • “The moment BND comes around, they’re out of a job and starving that day. When businesses shut down corporations close and when corporations close, everything else starts to close. Soon, that pebble you dropped on the ground, those ripples will reach something important, like the government, and shut it down. People everywhere will be jobless for that day, soldiers families won’t be getting the check that the soldiers had earned. Our fighters will be out there with he possibility of running out of supplies. Who wants that?”

12. Logical Fallacies: Slippery slope • a course of action is objected to on the grounds that once taken it will lead to additional actions until some undesirable consequence results • "To judge from the news stories, the entire nation is coming to resemble San Francisco after a heavy rainfall. In the press, the phrase 'slippery slope' is more than seven times as common as it was twenty years ago. It's a convenient way of warning of the dire effects of some course of action without actually having to criticize the action itself, which is what makes it a favorite ploy of hypocrites: 'Not that there's anything wrong with A, mind you, but A will lead to B and then C, and before you know it we'll be up to our armpits in Z.'"(Geoff Nunberg, commentary on "Fresh Air," National Public Radio, July 1, 2003)

13. Logical Fallacies: • Strawman • an opponent's argument is overstated or misrepresented in order to be attacked or refuted • "When he was really rolling in February, Barack Obama would close every speech with a peroration about the importance of hope. The setup always seemed a bit defensive to me--an attack on the pundits and party elders who thought he was too idealistic, a 'hopemonger' who needed to have the 'hope boiled out of me.' Having knocked down that straw man, he would soar through an American history of hope, from the colonists to civil rights marchers."(Joe Klein, "The Patriotism Problem." Time, April 3, 2008)

14. Logical Fallacies: Ad Hoc • one event is said to be the cause of a later event simply because it occurred earlier • “Listen to this: Let’s not take Bill on our picnic. Every time we take him out with us, it rains.'"'I know somebody just like that,' she exclaimed. 'A girl back home--Eula Becker, her name is. It never fails. Every single time we take her on a picnic--.'"'Polly,' I said sharply, 'it’s a fallacy. Eula Becker doesn’t cause the rain. She has no connection with the rain. You are guilty of Post Hoc if you blame Eula Becker.'"'I’ll never do it again,' she promised contritely."(Max Shulman, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis)

15. Roses!! “In 1992 Canada proposed the annual ‘Buy Nothing Day,’ a ‘24-hour consumer detox’ as Adbusters put it in their press release. Now globally recognized and urged, the BND halts a vast number of countries and a seemingly endless number of consumers from practicing consumerism. Although practicing self-control and refraining from purchasing goods will help one be thrifty, it is impractical to have a day set apart for nothing to be purchased.”

16. What is working in these? “In the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, she chooses not to buy processed foods for a year and to grow her own. By not excessively consuming goods fro her family to live off of, she learned more about life and how to help the economy.” “At Boeing, for example, work does not ceases because no call from Japan ordered an 787’s.” “According to NPR, the unemployment rate of our country is 9%. In some states it’s more like 16%: “Many countries, including Greece, American and the Republic of Ireland are suffering from economic strife.”

17. What is working here? “People everywhere have made lives for themselves in which they can afford many of their desires. Congratulations. However, goods are not necessities. There is a difference—as most fathers will agree—between a ‘want’ and a ‘need.’ Stopping the ability to retrieve those goods, even for a day, would make people realize and decide on the more important purchases.”

18. What is working here? “At any given time, on any given day, any given person may be shopping: it could be teenagers at Hot Topic, parents at Fred Meyers, or even grandparents ordering things they see on The Shopping Network. As a society, as a race, humans are inclined to shop both with purpose and without. Some people buy things or think about buying items constantly; others don’t give it any thought until the last absolute moment. In Canada, the ‘Buy Nothing Day’ was introduced in 1992, as a way to promote consumer awareness. Fourteen years later, the issue was stressed again, with the BND press release, ‘urging people to participate.’ However, ‘BND,’ if enforced as a law, rule or humanly obligation, would serve unaffected to the average person; if promoted subtly and without backlash for not participating, though, ad day like BND could settle into culture.”

19. Scores! We’re Improving! A,V,M or The Crucible Buy Nothing Day 9- 0 8-1 7-3 6-7 5-11 4-7 3-8 2-0 1-0 • 9-0 • 8-0 • 7-1 • 6-5 • 5-9 • 4-9 • 3-12 • 2-0 • 1-0 Nice job! We’re getting it!!!