Download English 1C: Critical Thinking and Advanced Composition

English 1C: Critical
Thinking and Advanced
Composition
AKA: “The Zombie Class”
Melissa Gunby
Class Focus
• We will be exploring advanced composition and topics for
critical thinking through examining the rise of the zombie
narrative in American popular culture and investigating several
narratives for ourselves.
• We will also be focusing on developing solid arguments using
rhetorical methods and avoiding logical fallacies.
Required Texts
You are free to get these texts in
whatever format you like. Copies will
be made available on reserve in the
library.
Everything’s An
Argument. This text
will primarily be used
in class. You may want
to share a copy with a
classmate.
The Walking Dead:
Book 1. This volume
makes up issues 1-12
of the graphic novel
series. You may acquire
these however you
wish.
Film/TV screening
Course Requirements
•
•
•
•
3: 3-5 page essays
1: 6-8 page essay (final assignment)
Final “exam”
Homework
• Reading Response Papers
• Rhetorical Analyses
• Regular reading discussion and in class activities
• Reading quizzes
Discussion Topics
• What is a narrative?
• Why are zombie narratives so exciting/interesting?
Everything Is an Argument
CHAPTER 1
Before we start…
• How do you define “Argument?”
• Jot down a few notes, then talk to the person next to you.
Then we’ll talk as a group.
Purposes of Argument
•
•
•
•
•
•
To Win
To Inform
To Convince
To Explore
To Make Decisions
To Meditate or Pray
Arguments to Win
• Politics
• Business
• Law
• Argument = use of evidence and reason to discover some
version of the truth.
• Persuasion = to change a point of view or to move others from
conviction or action. The truth is already known.
Arguments to Inform
• Some arguments, like street signs, may not seem “argumentative”
because their purpose is to inform.
• However, some arguments to inform, like advertising, also exists to
persuade, since the first step in encouraging someone to buy
your product is to tell them it exists in the first place.
Arguments to Convince
• These types of arguments are usually geared toward a general
audience, to convince them that a topic is worth their time
and attention to consider.
Arguments to Persuade
• These arguments are intended to promote action or response,
through moving an audience in some way.
Arguments to Explore
• These arguments likely have no “opponent” other than the
existing status quo or current trend.
• Usually these arguments will challenge an idea of a problem in
society, or something more personal to the writer.
Arguments to Make Decisions
• These arguments are made to encourage people to make the
best decision possible, and quite often, pair up with
exploratory arguments.
Arguments to Meditate or Pray
• These are usually internal arguments, in which the author hopes
to evoke a change within his/herself.
Academic Arguments
• “Academic” here means that it holds to the conventions or
standards of a particular field or discipline.
Occasions for Argument
• Past
• Present
• Future
Kinds of Argument
•
•
•
•
Fact
Definition
Evaluation and Causality
Proposal
Audience
• The audience is whomever it is that is being addressed
through an argument. It can be a room of people, the readers
of a magazine or blog, or the viewers of a nightly television
news broadcast.
Appealing to Audience
•
•
•
•
Ethos
Pathos
Logos
Rhetorical Situations
Class Discussion
• I’ve placed images on the following slides. I want us to
consider what kind of argument, if any, can be made by the
images?
Freewrite
• Spend a few minutes writing about situations in the recent
past where you’ve used language to inform, convince,
persuade, explore, make decisions, and/or meditate/pray.
Write then Discuss
• Using the collage on the next slide, spend a few minutes
taking notes on what, if anything, the images:
• A) evoke in you
• B) have in common
• C) what audience these images individually and together might
appeal to
Also, consider what the arrangement of the photos suggests.
Group Work
• With the people in your row, consider the image below. What it its
purpose? What kind of argument is it? Which of the stasis
questions does it most appropriately respond to? What appeals
does it make to the readers, and how?
Watch this video
• Do you think this commercial is effective in selling computers?
• Why or why not? What evidence can you provide
• Why do you think the company chose to go this direction with
the commercial?
• Is this commercial memorable for the computer, the zombies,
or something else?
Homework
• For Wednesday: read “Off the Page and Into Your Brain”
(handout). Write a 1 page response.