Topic Selection for Researched Argument
This discussion should be helpful in generating and refining topics for your Researched Argument essay (look ahead to week six). This practice also may be helpful in future writing projects.
1. List three potential topics that interest you.
2. Write at least one question about each of the above topics (remember: who, what, where, when, why, and how)
3. Answer each of the above questions with a statement/sentence that contains the words should, must, or need as a helping verb. This should help to establish your thesis.
4. After answering the questions, which of these topics interests you enough to research and write about?
5. Write a paragraph or two based on what you already know about this topic. Try to come up with several points (or reasons) why your statement (aka thesis) is true. Think about how someone would try to prove it isn't.
Next, respond to at least two of your classmates' entries. Try to find some questions to ask about your classmates' topics that could help them craft a better argument. Perhaps there may be something about their proposal that doesn't quite make sense yet; perhaps you've come across a piece of research that could help; whatever the case, get in there and lend a hand.
Week 2
Read
Go to the resources tab and use the EBSCOhost link to search for the following articles:
1. King, M. (2009). Letter from Birmingham Jail. Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1.
2. Kim, R. (2011). The audacity of Occupy Wall Street. Nation, 293(21), 15-21.
Respond
In his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights activist, claims that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws" (King, Jr., 1963, p. 5). These sentiments have been shared by some of the most recognizable names throughout history, including America's forefathers, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and so on. Dr. King, as well as other from our list, were practicing civil disobedience.
Civil disobedience does not advocate a lawless society. Civil ddisobedience is not the same as someone simply breaking the law. Civil disobedience is an organized process of law breaking that follows very strict guidelines:
- Conscientiousness generally aimed at creating or restoring a certain freedom or liberty for all members of that society,
- communication with the governing body,
- publicity,
- and non-violence.
Practitioners of civil disobedience. more often than not, take aim at laws considered to be unjust.
1. How do we choose which laws are just and which ones are not?
2. What laws do you see that seem to fit the model of what King would call unjust?
King goes on to explain that those who are "more devoted to 'order' than to justice" were the real enemy of his movement toward civil rights (p. 7). To do nothing, King implies, is to err on the side of the status quo. Think of some unjust things you have witnessed, yet failed to act on.
1. Had you acted on it alone, would your involvement have changed anything?
2. What if we all reacted too swiftly and jointly to matters of injustice?
3. How does the act of exercising of our first amendment rights, especially when we work together, help to shape the world we live in?
4. How did the Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWS) use civil disobedience to further its cause?
5. Considering the outcomes associated with the OWS Movement, could we claim that the days of effective civil disobedience are over?
Week 3
Read
Go to the resources tab and use the EBSCOhost link to search for the following articles:
1. Harjo, J. (2007). When the world as we knew it ended. World Literature Today, 81(6), 34-35 (please read both "No" and "When the World as We Knew it Ended--").
2. Melville, H. (1976). Punishable by death. Saturday Evening Post, 248(5), 16-17
3. Alexie, S. (1994). Flight. Ploughshares, 20(1), 38.
Respond
The effect of war is broad-reaching. It is not restricted to the soldiers who fight the battles, it deeply affects the families of those who have sent their sons and daughters into the fray. War affects those who live within one or the other societies engaged in the war and those who live their lives within the war zone.
For those who live inside of these war zones, day to day life must still continue, despite the "inconvieniece" of war. These people, though not directly involved with the conflicts going on between opposing forces, have to live with the disruptions to their daily lives.
In contrast, America, at least in recent years, has been fortunate to have avoided engaging in war on its own soil. Thankfully, most Americans are not faced with the day to day reality of war-- instead laying the burden of fighting and dying mostly on the back of the American soldier.
Soldiers, those who have layed down their lives for the good of a nation, are likely the most directly affected (though not necessarily the most deeply affected). Soldiers have a duty to their country and a mission to keep their nation and their families safe. Most soldiers do not specifically choose to enter battle; they are compelled.
This begs the question: Who are the real victims of war? Families, soldiers, bystanders, governments, society itself? Perhaps war can be a good thing, not simply a necessary evil as this prompt has implied. Perhaps the victims of war are actually those who do not partake in it.
In your opinion, who are the victims of war and why? Remember, no answer is wrong provided you support your answer. Take some time to really consider this issue and make your post.
Week 4
Revision Plan
After reviewing the tips for revision, editing, and proofreading from the reading this week, craft an informal letter to your instructor and your classmates. In your letter, identify at least three techniques you are working with as you revise your researched argument essay. Discuss how each of them have either helped or hindered your revision process.
Next, read and respond to your classmates' posts. See if you can share a few ideas, help a classmate who may be struggling, or get some help getting past one of your own barriers.