Class 20

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Class 20: EWRT 1A
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AGENDA
 Review: Essay #4:
 Counterargument
 Alternative Solutions
 New
 Conclusions
 Technical Aspects
 Sentence Strategies
 Integrating and Citing Sources
 Works Cited Page

+ REVIEW: 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.

+ The Counterargument
 You anticipated objections in our last class. You should have developed one or
more of them for your homework. Now choose another important one to
accommodate or refute in your essay. If you have written out more than one in
paragraph form, take this opportunity to read and revise them. If you have only
considered one counterargument, consider a second one now.
 Write down objection 1
 Accommodate or refute the objection.
 Write down objection 2
 Accommodate, or refute the objection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmqETlEJLyk

+ Consideration of alternative
solutions and their disadvantages
 You identified alternative solutions in our last class. You should have developed one or more of
them for your homework. Now choose another important one to discuss in your essay. If you
have written out more than one in paragraph form, take this opportunity to read and revise your
work. If you have only considered one alternative solution, consider a second one now.
Write out alternative solution 1
What are the disadvantages of this solution?

NEW:
Conclusions
Endings are
Important too!

+ End by summarizing your solution and its
advantages, as O’Malley does.
 From the evidence and from my talks with professors and
students, I see frequent, brief in-class exams as the only
way to improve students’ study habits and learning, reduce
their anxiety and procrastination, and increase their
satisfaction with college. These exams are not a panacea,
but only more parking spaces and a winning football team
would do as much to improve college life. Professors can’t
do much about parking or football, but they can give more
frequent exams. Campus administrators should get behind
this effort, and professors should get together to consider
giving exams more frequently. It would make a difference.

+ Or, try one of these endings
End with a scenario
suggesting the
consequences of a failure
to solve the problem.
End with an inspiring call
to action.

+Try writing two endings! Then choose the
best one or combine them!
1. End by summarizing your solution
and its advantages.
2. End with a scenario suggesting
the consequences of a failure to
solve the problem.
3. End with an inspiring call to
action.

+
Putting it together:
Organizing your essay
 Your outline/essay organization will of course reflect
your own writing situation. While you already have a
working plan, 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 or
essay plan is to identify the basic features of your
proposal and to help you organize the pieces
effectively, not to lock you into a particular structure.

+ With your purpose and goals in mind, organize
an essay plan that includes the following:
1. a clear statement of the problem (A complete discussion of the
problem goes before your thesis statement).
2. your thesis statement, announcing the proposed solution and
forecasting your reasons for it
3. your argument for the solution, giving reasons and support
4. anticipation of counterarguments and a response to objections
readers might have about the proposed solution
5. your evaluation of alternative solutions

+Here is a possible outline for a proposal. Yours may differ in order, but it
should include all of these parts:
I. Presentation of the problem (This is likely multiple paragraphs).
A. Its existence
B. Its seriousness
C. Its causes
D. Consequences of failing to solve the problem
II. Description of the proposed solution (Your thesis)
III. Reasons and support for the solution ( This is likely multiple paragraphs).
A. How or why will your solution solve the problem
B. How or why it is possible
IV. List of steps for implementing the solution
V. Counterargument
A. Acknowledgment of objections
B. Accommodation or refutation of objections
VI. Consideration of alternative solutions and their disadvantages.
VII.Conclusion
A. Restatement of the proposed solution and its advantages
B. A warning about the failure to solve the problem
C. A call to action

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Sentence
Strategy:
Writing
Better
Sentences

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Avoiding Ambiguous Use of “This” and “That”
The Problem: Because you must
frequently refer to the problem
and the solution in a proposal,
you will often use pronouns to
avoid the monotony or wordiness
of repeatedly referring to them by
name. Using this and that vaguely
to refer to other words or ideas,
however, can confuse readers.

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How to Correct It.
 Add a specific noun after this or that. For example, in his
essay in this chapter, Patrick O’Malley writes:
 Another possible solution would be to help students prepare for
midterm and final exams by providing sets of questions from
which the exam questions will be selected. . . . This solution
would have the advantage of reducing students’ anxiety about
learning every fact in the textbook. . . . (par. 12)
 O’Malley avoids an ambiguous this in the second sentence
by repeating the noun “solution.”
 (He might just as well have used preparation or action or
approach.)

Look for ambiguous uses of
“this” and “that” in your essay

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Revising Sentences that Lack an Agent
The Problem: A writer proposing a solution to a problem usually needs to
indicate who exactly should take action to solve it. Such actors—those
who are in a position to take action—are called “agents.” Look, for
example, at this sentence from O’Malley’s proposal:
 To get students to complete the questions in a timely way, professors
would have to collect and check the answers. (par. 11)
 In this sentence, professors are the agents. They have the authority to
assign and collect study questions, and they would need to take this
action in order for this solution to be successfully implemented.
 Had O’Malley instead written “the answers would have to be collected
and checked,” the sentence would lack an agent. Failing to name an
agent would have made his argument less convincing, because it would
have left unclear one of the key parts of any proposal: Who is going to
take action.

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How to Correct It
 When you revise your work, ask
yourself who or what performed the
action in any given sentence. If
there is no clear answer, rewrite the
sentence to give it an agent. Watch
in particular for forms of the verb to
be (the balls were dropped, exams
should be given, classroom size
should be reduced), which often
signal agentless sentences.

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Look for sentences lacking agents in your own essay
Examples

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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.

For statistics and facts 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.
O’Malley 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 his sources come from research institutes (such
as the University of Vermont and the Harvard study) adds to his
credibility. He also relies on reputable academic journals for his
information (Journal of Counseling Psychology). Another factor that
adds to the appearance of reliability is that O’Malley cites a range of
sources instead of relying on only one or two. Moreover, the
information is current and clearly relevant to his argument.

+ Citing an Image
 Reproducing Figures and Tables
 Reproducing happens when you copy or recreate a photo, image, chart, graph, or table that is
not your original creation. If you reproduce one of these works in your assignment, you
must create a note (or "caption") underneath the photo, image, chart, graph, or table to
show where you found it. If you do not refer to it anywhere else in your assignment, you do
not have to include the citation for this source in a Works Cited list.
 Citing Information From a Photo, Image, Chart, Graph, or Table
 If you refer to information from the photo, image, chart, graph, or table but do not reproduce
it (the image) in your paper, create a citation both in-text and on your Works Cited list.
 If the information is part of another format, for example a book, magazine article, encyclopedia,
etc., cite the work it came from. For example if information came from a table in an article in
National Geographic magazine, you would cite the entire magazine article.

Fig. 1. Example of an MLA citation of an image. “MLA Citation Guide (8th Edition): Images, Charts,
Graphs, Maps & Tables” Columbia College. www.columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/mla/images.
Accessed 16 March 2019.

+
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?

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Review: Reference material for your convenience:
Integrating Quotations, Citations, and Works Cited
The next 20 slides contain
information to help you
integrate and cite your
quotations and summary
correctly. Please use it to
minimize your errors.

+ 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).

+
 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.

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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.

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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.

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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
5).
 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”).

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Punctuating within Quotations
Although 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).

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

1” Margins all around
Alphabetical Order Title Centered
Five
spaces
Works Cited
Last Name 1
Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in
Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol.
15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.
The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic, 2008.
Zinkievich, Craig. Interview by Gareth Von Kallenbach. Skewed & Reviewed, 27
Apr. 2009, www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-
online/news/detail/1056940-skewed-%2526-reviewed-interviews-craig.
Accessed 15 Mar. 2009.
Website
Book
Periodical
Specific version

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HOMEWORK
Add the conclusion we wrote today to your
draft. Read it aloud to make sure it is in a
logical order. Change the order of your
paragraphs if that makes sense to you.
Check your essay for ambiguity. Add words
to clarify “this” and “that.” Check your
sentences for “agents.”
Discussion #25: Your conclusion
Bring one complete, hard copy to
class.
• Your essay should be in MLA
format
• It should include a works cited
page

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