RWS 100 and the lower division writing program

1. RWS 100 and the lower division writing program • Argument is at the center of the program and 100. • We mostly focus on non fiction, argumentative texts. • We ask students to interpret, analyze, and produce written arguments, because this is central to academic literacy, critical thinking, and civic life- Lasch: “argument is the essence of education,” and “central to democratic culture”; - Norgaard: Universities are “houses of argument.” - Graff: “Argument literacy” is key to higher education. - argument and interpretation = big part of academic work/literacy

2. We want students to be able to identify claims, evaluate evidence and reasons, locate assumptions, identify argumentative moves, pose critical questions, produce sophisticated arguments, etc. • We do this not just because we think it’s good for their souls, critical thinking, ability to reason, deliberate, be engaged citizens, etc. But also because it’s key to their professional futures – every gateway requires it.

3. Why We Fight!(4 your right to write, argue & analyze well) • The ability to interpret arguments, locate claims and evidence, analyze moves and strategies, and evaluate arguments are crucial skills. • They are central to business, law, professional life, and to academic study (including graduate school). • Students tested for these skills in the WPA, the LSAT, GMAT, and GRE – all the gateways to professional life. • Consider the LSAT…

4. Sample LSAT Question • FIND THE MAIN CLAIMPediatrician: “Some parents have decided not to have their children receive the MMR vaccine because they fear that it may cause autism. They cite a study that found a possible link between the vaccine and the disease. However, two other much larger studies have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. These parents have, therefore, willfully put their own children and many others at risk of catching measles, mumps, and rubella, while failing to do anything to prevent their children from becoming autistic.” Which most accurately expresses the main claim of the pediatrician’s argument?(A) Parents should not pay attention to medical studies because they can’t understand them; instead, they should get advice from their pediatricians.(B) The study that found a link between autism and the MMR vaccine was unsound because the doctor who conducted it was being paid by a group of trial lawyers who wanted him to find a connection so they could carry out a lawsuit.(C) Public health needs require that parents have their kids vaccinated regardless of their fears about the procedure.(D) Parents’ refusal to have their kids take the vaccine is both medically unjustified and dangerous, because the vaccine has known disease-preventing benefits and refusing it will have no effect on whether their kids become autistic.(E) Despite the results of the two large studies, there is still some possibility that the MMR vaccine might cause autism.

5. Analytical Writing Tasks • Present Your Views on an Issue (45 minutes, choice of 2 topics) • Analyze an Argument (30 minutes) • Each essay is scored on a 0-6 scale using holistic scoring • Two scores for each essay • GRE Website presents directions, actual topics, scoring guide, and sample essays for both the Issue and Argument tasks (www.gre.org/gentest.html)

6. PACES = at center of the course • (project, argument, claims, evidence, • strategies)

7. Nudging students toward a rhetorical stance… • We want to move students from a focus on what texts say (content) to what they do and how they do it (rhetoric). Rhetorical self consciousness = achieving a kind of double vision – of looking “at” as well as through language. • Rhetorical self consciousness – understanding what texts do - is an important skill for students. Revealing the rhetorical moves that writers make, the strategies they draw on, is part of achieving academic literacy, and of acculturation into disciplinary communities. When you recognize the moves you not only understand the disciplinary conversation better, you are better equipped to join it. • In the first week of class we’d like you to introduce key conceptsthrough the analysis of some short texts. There is a folder on Blackboard to help you with this. • Focusing on strategies and what texts do = good ways of introducing rhetoric.

8. Basic Rhetorical Strategies • How do texts position readers? • What point of view do they adopt? • From what perspective do they invite us to view the world?Consider these chewing gum ads:

12. Rhetoric Is “Everywhere” & an “Everyday” Thing • When a politician tries to get you to vote for them, they are using rhetoric. • When a lawyer tries to move a jury, they are using rhetoric. • When a government produces propaganda, they are using rhetoric. • When an advertisement tries to get you to buy something, it is using rhetoric. • When the president gives a speech, he is using rhetoric. But rhetoric can be much subtler (and quite positive) as well: • When someone writes an office memo, they are using rhetoric. • When a newspaper offers their depiction of what happened last night, they are using rhetoric. • When a scientist presents theories or results, they are using rhetoric. • When you write your mom or dad an email, you are using rhetoric. • Thought itself is rhetorical - when you think, you engage in “inner argument,” or “inner persuasion” in order to reach a decision or act.

13. HEADLINES DESCRIBING MEDICAL MARIJUANA DECISION • Salon Magazine “Court rules against pot for sick people”  • New York Times: “High Court Allows Prosecution of Medical Marijuana Users” • USA Today: “MEDICAL MARIJUANA BAN UPHELD” • San Diego Union Tribune: “Court OKs Marijuana Crackdown” • L.A. Times: “Justices Give Feds Last Word on Medical Marijuana” • Christian Science Monitor: “US Court Rules Against Pot For Sick People” • Christian News Source: “Medical Marijuana Laws Don't Shield Users From Prosecution”

14. Telemarketing Strategies Script • Pre-introduction: (Ask to speak to the decision-maker) Introduction: (Introduce yourself and the reason for your call) Attention Getter: (Mention the key features of the offer and qualify them for eligibility) Probing Questions: (Always ask for information that will be useful for rebuttals) Offer: (Explain the product/service and terms of commitment) Close: (ALWAYS ASK FOR THE SALE) Rebuttal (deal with objections)Sales Continuation: (Agree, use rebuttals, sell benefits, CLOSE) Up/down/cross-sell: (If there is another product of less-price this is the time to sell it.) Confirmation Close: (Review the terms of the offer to reduce buyer remorse) Final Close: (End on a positive note. Thank the customer and leave a dial free number for customer support)

17. Everyday words, names, definitions, categories – how they are selected or constructed = rhetorical. Consider: • Cash advance (vs. high interest loan) • Second Mortgage vs. Home equity loan • “War on terror,” vs. “war against Islamic extremists,” vs. “fight against Al Queda” (scope, agents involved, action) • “War on drugs”’ “Axis of Evil”; • “Body bags” vs. “transfer tubes” • “Doctor assisted suicide” vs. “death with dignity” • “Defense of marriage” vs. “marriage equality” • “French Fries/Freedom fries” • “Death Tax/Estate Tax” • “Habit forming” vs. “addictive” • “Erectile dysfunction” vs. “impotence” • “Halitosis” vs. “bad breath” • “Male pattern baldness” vs. “losing your hair” • “Viagra!”

18. When ads used a lot of logos

19. Today’s ads often use different appeals

20. WE CAN READ MATERIAL CULTURE RHETORICALLY • “By reading…we mean something more than simply lifting information out of books and articles. To read a text or event is to do something to it, to make sense out of its signals and clues…Reading is thus not something we do to books alone. Or, to put it another way, books and other printed surfaces are not the only texts we read. Rather, a ‘text’ is anything that can be interpreted, that we can make meaning out of or assign value to. In this sense, all culture is a text and all culture can be read.” Joseph Harris and Jay Rosen.

21. Strategies in Sculpture: Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial

22. "One of the most common, but mind-numbing, of these deterrents is the [L.A.] Rapid Transit District’s new barrelshaped bus bench that offers a minimal surface for uncomfortable sitting, while making sleeping utterly impossible. Such ‘bumproof’ benches are being widely introduced on the periphery of Skid Row. Another invention...is the aggressive deployment of outdoor sprinklers. Several years ago the city opened a ‘Skid Row Park’ along lower Fifth Street, on a corner of Hell. To ensure that the park was not used for sleeping--that is, to guarantee that it was mainly utilized for drug dealing and prostitution--the city installed an elaborate overhead sprinkler system programmed to drench unsuspecting sleepers at random times during the night. The system was immediately copied by some local businessmen in order to drive the homeless away from adjacent public sidewalks.“Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, p. 233. The rise of the “bum-proof” bench in Los Angeles

23. Why design seats this way? How does this shape/constrain behavior, & whose behavior is targeted?