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Class 20: ONLINE

EWRT 1A

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AGENDA

Review: Essay #4: Counterargument Alternative Solutions

Outline Integrating and Citing Sources Works Cited Page

+ The Counterargument

You anticipated objections for your homework. Now choose the two or three most important ones to acknowledge, accommodate, or refute. If you have written these out in paragraph form, take this opportunity to revise them.

Write down objection 1 Acknowledge, accommodate, or refute the objection.

Write down objection 2 Acknowledge, accommodate, or refute the objection.

And so on.

+Consideration of alternative solutions and their disadvantages

You identified alternative solutions for your homework. Now choose those you will discuss in your essay. Write out each alternative solution and discuss the disadvantages of it compared to your solution. If you have written these out in paragraph form, take this opportunity to revise them.

Write out alternative solution 1 What are the disadvantages of this solution?

Write out alternative solution 2 What are the disadvantages of this solution?

Write out alternative solution 3 What are the disadvantages of this solution?

+Counterargument vs. Alternative Solution A Counterargument is a challenge to your particular solution.

You must address the argument to your solution by explaining how or why your solution is the best one regardless of the specific challenge. For example, if someone says your solution is too expensive, you have to explain how you will fund it, or you can explain why your solution should be applied in spite of its cost.

An Alternative Solution section takes a look at other solutions people might consider. Then, you must explain how or why the solution you are offering is the superior choice. For example, if you suggest we alleviate parking problems at De Anza by adding several rapid buses to the local routes, you might also examine the alternative solution of building a parking structure. At the end of your discussion of the alternative solution, you must return to why the rapid buses are are the better solution.

+Putting it together: The Outline

Your outline will of course reflect your own writing situation. Once you have a working outline, you should not hesitate to change it as necessary while drafting and revising. For instance, you might find it more effective to hold back on presenting your own solution until you have discussed alternative but unacceptable solutions. Or you might find a better way to order the reasons for adopting your proposal. The purpose of an outline is to identify the basic features of your proposal and to help you organize them effectively, not to lock you into a particular structure.

+With your purpose and goals in mind, organize an outline that includes the following:

a clear statement of the problem (A complete discussion of the problem goes before your thesis statement).

your thesis statement, announcing the proposed solution and forecasting your reasons for it

your argument for the solution, giving reasons and support

anticipation of counterarguments and a response to objections readers might have about the proposed solution

your evaluation of alternative solutions

+Here is a possible outline for a proposal where readers may not understand the problem fully:

+

Integrating QuotationsUsing your library research

+Using Sources

Statistics can be helpful in establishing that the problem exists and is serious. For example, Patrick O’Malley cites research to support his assertion that students prefer frequent exams to fewer high-stakes exams: “A Harvard study notes students’ ‘strong preference for frequent evaluation in a course’ ” (par. 4). But his argument would have been stronger and possibly more convincing if he had cited statistics to support the study’s conclusion. All of the other writers in this chapter cite statistics in their proposals. Let us look at some of the ways Karen Kornbluh uses statistics to define the problem.

Today fully 70 percent of families with children are headed by two working parents or by an unmarried working parent. The “traditional family” of the breadwinner and homemaker has been replaced by the “juggler family,” in which no one is home fulltime. (par. 1)

Kornbluh also compares different time periods to show that the problem has worsened over the last thirty years. Here are several examples from paragraph 7. Note that Kornbluh presents statistics in three different ways: percentages, numbers, and proportion.

Between 1970 and 2000, the percentage of mothers in the workforce rose from 38 to 67 percent (Smolensky and Gootman). Moreover, the number of hours worked by dual-income families has increased dramatically. Couples with children worked a full 60 hours a week in 1979. By 2000 they were working 70 hours a week (Bernstein and Kornbluh). And more parents than ever are working long hours. In 2000, nearly 1 out of every 8 couples with children was putting in 100 hours a week or more on the job, compared to only 1 out of 12 families in 1970 (Jacobs and Gerson).

For statistics to be persuasive, they must be from sources that readers consider reliable. Researchers’ trustworthiness, in turn, depends on their credentials as experts in the field they are investigating and also on the degree to which they are disinterested, or free from bias.

Kornbluh provides a Works Cited list of sources that readers can follow up on to check whether the sources are indeed reliable. The fact that some of her sources are books published by major publishers (Harvard University Press and Basic Books, for example) helps establish their credibility. Other sources she cites are research institutes (such as New America Foundation, Economic Policy Institute, and Families and Work Institute) that readers can easily check out. Another factor that adds to the appearance of reliability is that Kornbluh cites statistics from a range of sources instead of relying on only one or two. Moreover, the statistics are current and clearly relevant to her argument.

+Ask Yourself:

Are my sources reliable?

Do they support my assertions with facts, statistics, or credible opinions?

Do I need more support?

Where will I find it?

+

In-Text Citations

+In-Text Quotations At the Beginning

“Kitten season is overwhelming, crowded, and very hectic. I can be examining one cat and there will be 10 or more waiting for me with more coming in one after the other on the other side of the exam room door. It's never-ending and it affects the cats. They pick up on the stress we feel," says Christa Raymond, a lead veterinary technician in the Animal Humane Society (“Cats in Crisis”).

In the Middle

In any given shelter, they are supposed to hold “strays up to only 5 days” according to animal shelter specialist Stephanie Watson (6).

At the End

According to Green Eco Services, “75% of Americans admit to littering within the past five years.”

Divided by Your Own Words

“We are always telling people about spay/neuter,” says Kit Belcher, the executive director of Beltrami Humane Society, and “[t]he responsibility starts the day the animal is born, but many don’t accept the responsibility” (“Spaying/Neutering” 14).

+ Write four sentences that integrate your textual evidence into your essay: Put one quotation at the beginning, one in the middle, one at the end, and one broken by your own words. Remembering just a few simple rules can help you use the correct

punctuation as you introduce quotations.

o Rule 1: Complete sentence: "quotation." (If you use a complete sentence to introduce a quotation, use a colon (:) just before the quotation.)

o  Rule 2: Someone says, "quotation." (If the word just before the quotation is a verb indicating someone uttering the quoted words, use a comma. Examples include the words "says," "said," "states," "asks," and "yells."

o Rule 3: Ending with that “quotation.” (There is no punctuation if the word "that" comes just before the quotation, as in "the narrator says that.") 

o And remember that a semicolon (;) never is used to introduce quotations.

+ Block Quotations

In the MLA style, use the block form for prose quotations of more than four typed lines. Indent the quotation an inch (ten character spaces) from the left margin, as shown in the following example. Double space, just as you do in your paper.

US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has, in essence, supported this position:

Americans will be more likely to change their behavior if they have a meaningful reward--something more than just reaching a certain weight or dress size. The real reward is invigorating, energizing, joyous health. It is a level of health that allows people to embrace each day and live their lives to the fullest without disease or disability.

+Practice integrating one long quotation (four or more lines) into your essay. Indent the quotation an inch (ten character spaces) from the left

margin, as shown in the following example. Double space, just as you do in your paper.

Remember these rules:• Rule 1: Complete sentence: "quotation." (If you use a complete sentence

to introduce a quotation, use a colon (:) just before the quotation.)

•  Rule 2: Someone says, "quotation." (If the word just before the quotation is a verb indicating someone uttering the quoted words, use a comma. Examples include the words "says," "said," "states," "asks," and "yells."

• Rule 3: Ending with that “quotation.” (There is no punctuation if the word "that" comes just before the quotation, as in "the narrator says that.")

+Citing Summarized Material

Currently, the law states that the speed limit in a residential area is 25 miles per hour unless posted otherwise (California Driver Handbook).

Since Generation X, major food corporations have peddled addicting junk food to children from their birth. This has helped to create the worst obesity epidemic in human history (Fox).

Despite euthanasia being the very last method to make room in the shelter, 70 percent of the 3 to 4 million pets euthanized nationwide are cats (“Pet Statistics”).

+Integrate information from your sources into your essay using summarized material. Summarizing involves putting an idea into your own words. Summaries are significantly shorter than an original text. It is a good idea to summarize material when you want to briefly discuss the main idea(s) of a longer piece. Summarizing allows you to discuss central points without reproducing multiple quotation from a single source. Remember, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source; that is, you must cite even summarized material.

+Punctuating within QuotationsAlthough punctuation within a quotation should reproduce the original, some adaptations may be necessary. Use single quotation marks for quotations within the quotation:

Original from David Guterson’s Family Matters (pages 16 – 17) E. D. Hirsch also recognizes the connection between family and learning,

suggesting in his discussion of family background and academic achievement “that the significant part of our children’s education has been going on outside rather than inside the schools.”

Quoted Version Guterson claims that E. D. Hirsch “also recognizes the connection

between family and learning, suggesting in his discussion of family background and academic achievement ‘that the significant part of our children’s education has been going on outside rather than inside the schools’ ” (16-17).

+ Punctuation

If the quotation ends with a question mark or an exclamation point, retain the original punctuation: “Did you think I loved you?” Edith later asks

Dombey (566).

If a quotation ending with a question mark or an exclamation point concludes your sentence, retain the question mark or exclamation point, and put the parenthetical reference and sentence period outside the quotation marks: Edith later asks Dombey, “Did you think I

loved you?” (566).

+Avoiding Grammatical Tangles

When you incorporate quotations into your writing, and especially when you omit words from quotations, you run the risk of creating ungrammatical sentences. Three common errors you should try to avoid are verb incompatibility, ungrammatical omissions, and sentence fragments.

+Verb Incompatibility.

When this error occurs, the verb form in the introductory statement is grammatically incompatible with the verb form in the quotation. When your quotation has a verb form that does not fit in with your text, it is usually possible to use just part of the quotation, thus avoiding verb incompatibility.

As this sentence illustrates, use the present tense when you refer to events in a literary work.

+ Ungrammatical Omission. Sometimes omitting text from a quotation leaves you with an

ungrammatical sentence. Two ways of correcting the grammar are (1) adapting the quotation (with brackets) so that its parts fit together grammatically and (2) using only one part of the quotation.

+Sentence Fragment.

Sometimes when a quotation is a complete sentence, writers neglect the sentence that introduces the quote — for example, by forgetting to include a verb. Make sure that the quotation is introduced by a complete sentence.

+Check your integrated quotations for grammatical tangles

Look for these problemsverb incompatibilityungrammatical omissionssentence fragments.

Works Cited How to make your page

All of the information on the next slides can be found in your St. Martin’s Guide.Alternatively, you can click on the “MLA Help” link on the homepage of our website. This will take you to Purdue Owl, which also offers great help.

Alphabetical Order

Title Centered

Five spaces

+HOMEWORK

Put all of the parts of your essay into the outline you wrote today. Read your essay aloud to make sure it is in a logical order. Integrate your research into your essay. Begin your works cited page.

Post #25: your working draft.

Bring a copy of post #25