Ian RolonUniversity of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

INGL 3103|Course Outline (III)

Unit Three – November (Essay 3 (Argumentative); introduction to concepts and writing of) 10hrs / 10 Days of Class MWF ||

1 – Finished Presentations that were not finished last week (amended Oct 29th); Today’s activity is “Your Fifth Element,” which asks students to think of the one object/person/experience they can’t live without, and argue why that is. Students then Pair and Share their ideas, with their partners either agreeing or disagreeing with their choice. (This is done to segue into the idea of “Multiple Viewpoints” in terms of arguments.)

Homework: Read Pages 377-387 of “Joining the Conversation,” and complete all questions on 387.

2 – Discussion of Homework. Today’s activity has students switch papers amongst themselves, whereupon they will then proceed to find a way to “disagree” with what their partner has written. Further discussion centers on the idea of “Not Everyone Thinks the Same Way You Do,” and class ends with students reacting to how their partners disagreed with them.

3 – (Rhetorical Analysis Papers and Graded Informative Presentations Returned) Structure of the Argumentative Paper explained, along with a short power point over what Argument Is and how to write one. Students will then do the activity on page 400 of “Joining the Conversation,” which is a mock debate about a topic that affects all of them.

Homework: Think of three topics you find interesting and “Want to take a side,” on for next class. Write brief summaries of each of your ideas.

4 – Discussion of homework. Class will watch a short video (“For Argument’s Sake,” by Daniel H Cohen) and react to it—what is the purpose of arguing? What do they want to achieve with their papers? How are argumentative papers different from Rhetorical or Informative papers?

The class activity is for students to look at their topics and brainstorm ideas for how they can argue for or against their topic. This is done to help them narrow down “what” they want to argue.

Homework: Students will choose one topic to write about and write a thesis statement explaining their position on the topic.

5 – Students will use the handout “The Classical Argument” to plan the structure of their essay. Today focuses on narration and confirmation, the latter of which has students using the computers in class to start looking for sources to support their argument.

Homework: Find 10 sources (not necessarily sources you will use) and format them manually into MLA format.

6 -- Review of Logic Fallacies; Power Point about what are they, how do they arise, and what we can do to avoid them? The day’s activity is “This statement is true, but,” wherein, using fake and real news articles collected from the internet, students will break into groups of two and write a short response over whether or not they believe the articles given to them (2 per group) contain logical fallacies or do not.

Homework: Students will write the first draft of their Argumentative Essay.

7 -- Peer review of First Draft for the Argumentative essay. “The and That” activity is done, along with the “Common Spelling Mistakes” activity.

8 – First Draft of Argumentative Essay Due; (Paper does not need to include citations yet, but must be “complete,” insofar as the student has at least 850 words of work to edit and begin revising)

Activity: Reintroduction to Proper MLA Format, including Citations and how to build a Works Cited page.

9 – Checking of Homework. Students will (briefly) present their topics aloud and will (again, briefly) defend their arguments against both myself and other students—this is done both to check that they’ve done research and an in effort to get them to see where they may require more work to solidify their argument.

10 – Peer Review of Second Draft. “Common Spelling Mistakes” activity redone; each student will correct two papers before leaving class.

11 – (December) Second Draft of Third Paper Due. Again, students will defend their arguments against both myself and other students and must cite two or more of their sources as part of their defense.