Ewrt 2 class 7
- 1. EWRT 2 Class 7
- 2. AGENDA • Vocabulary Test #3 • Review: Essay #1 • Counterarguments • Conclusions • Rhetorical Strategies: Aphorism and Chiasmus • In-Class Writing: Counterarguments, Conclusions, Aphorism, Chiasmus
- 3. Take 20 minutes Use a piece of notebook paper for your answers
- 4. Review • Characterization • At least six different methods • The prompt • One of five: or you have blended two or more • Directed Summary • Working Thesis • Outline • Paragraph practice: Quotations with explanations • An analogy or two
- 6. What is a Counterargument? A counterargument is an argument, with factual evidence or other kinds of support, that challenges either your thesis or a major argument for it.
- 7. What is the purpose of identifying counterarguments? By identifying counterarguments to your ideas, and seeing whether you can respond to them adequately, you test the persuasiveness of the ideas. Some writers avoid thinking about counterarguments, because they fear that mentioning them will weaken their own arguments. They're wrong. Even if you don't mention arguments that might plausibly be used against your own argument, you can be certain that your readers will think of them, and discount your argument accordingly. A good response to a counterargument is often the most persuasive part of your own argument.
- 8. How do I think through arguments and counterarguments? • 1. You come up with a thesis that expresses your view of the evidence and of the conclusions that should be drawn from it. • 2. You clearly identify your evidence and arguments in your own mind. • 3. You seek evidence or logic on the other side, evidence or logic that might undermine your thesis; you anticipate what critics might say to attack your case. • 4. You state the opposing argument or arguments, and you show that they don't succeed in refuting your own arguments.
- 9. Where to Put a Counterargument Counterargument can appear anywhere in the essay. Try it in several places and see where it fits best: 1. as part of your introduction—before you propose your thesis—where the existence of a different view is the motive for your essay, the reason it needs writing. 2. as a section or paragraph just after your introduction, in which you lay out the expected reaction or standard position before turning away to develop your own. 3. as a quick move within a paragraph, where you imagine a counterargument not to your main idea but to the sub-idea that the paragraph is arguing or is about to argue. 4. as a section or paragraph just before the conclusion of your essay, in which you imagine what someone might object to what you have argued. But watch that you do not overdo it. A turn into counterargument here and there will sharpen and energize your essay, but too many such turns will have the reverse effect by obscuring your main idea or suggesting that you are ambivalent.
- 10. Do you need a counterargument? 1. Is there an obvious argument against your thesis? 2. Is there a different conclusion could be drawn from the same facts? 3. Do you make a key assumption with which others might disagree? 4. Do you use a term that someone else might define a different way? 5. Do you ignore certain evidence that others might believe you need to address? 6. Is there an alternative explanation or proposal that some might more readily believe?
- 11. A Counterargument • Address alternative opinions your readers might have regarding your character. • Think about instances when your character appears to act in a way that could be perceived as contrary to your thesis. Explain why you don’t see the behavior as contrary. • Explain behaviors that are out of the ordinary or out of line with your thesis by analyzing text to show extenuating circumstances. Consider the arguing exercises we have done in class. How might you address your peers’ questions and comments without the obvious question/answer format?
- 12. Conclusion Gotta have it!
- 13. Strategies for Writing a Conclusion Conclusions are often the most difficult part of an essay to write, and many writers feel that they have nothing left to say after having written the paper. A writer needs to keep in mind that the conclusion is often what a reader remembers best. Your conclusion should be the best part of your paper. A conclusion should • stress the importance of the thesis statement, • give the essay a sense of completeness, and • leave a final impression on the reader.
- 14. Strategies to Avoid • Beginning with an unnecessary, overused phrase such as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “in closing.” Although these phrases can work in speeches, they come across as wooden and trite in writing. • Stating the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion. • Introducing a new idea or subtopic in your conclusion. • Ending with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes. • Making sentimental, emotional appeals that are out of character with the rest of an analytical paper. • Including evidence (quotations, statistics, etc.) that should be in the body of the paper.
- 15. The Conclusion You can discuss how this character fits into the work as a whole. You might address how the work would be changed if your character were gone. You can apply insights about this character to a real-world situation. Do we grow as readers from interacting with your character? You might SUBTLY remind the reader of your central idea and thesis.
- 16. Rhetorical Strategies: Aphorism and Chiasmus Learning to recognize them Learning to write them
- 17. Aphorism • An aphorism is a saying—a concise statement of a principle—that has been accepted (or we want to be accepted) as true. • Familiar example • “A penny saved is a penny earned” • There is no fool like an old fool”
- 18. Aphorisms •Such statements have important qualities: • They are pithy: they say a great deal in a few words. • They appear to contain wisdom: they are delivered as truth and they have the ring of other aphorisms we accept as true.
- 21. Writing Aphorisms: Method One • There is the ‘spontaneous combustion’ method, in which the aphorism flares out fully formed at unexpected moments, sending the writer scrabbling for napkins, envelopes or any other scrap of paper on which to write it down. Stanislaw Jerzy Lec was a great practitioner of this method: No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. Thanks to author and journalist James Geary for the information and examples of aphorisms: http://www.jamesgeary.com/blog/how-to-write-an-aphorism/
- 22. Method Two • Then there is the “deliberate composition” method as practiced by the likes of La Rochefoucauld. He would attend a swanky salon, discuss all manner of subjects, such as love and friendship, then retire for hours to his room where he would produce several sheets of prose, all of which he would eventually distill down to one or two sharp, shining sentences: In the adversity of even our best friends we always find something not wholly displeasing.
- 23. Method Three • And then there are the “accidental aphorists,” those writers who never intend to compose aphorisms but just can’t help themselves— aphorisms occur naturally within longer stretches of text, such as essays, novels, or poems. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a classic accidental aphorist: What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.
- 24. Rules to Consider •Keep it short (after all, only a fool gives a speech in a burning house), •Definitive (no ifs, ands, or buts), •Philosophical (it should make you think), and give it a twist.
- 25. Not fancy, just thoughtful • What is a bastard? A man whose birth right overshadows his human rights. • Bravery conquers fear; otherwise, it is stupidity. • If Arya cannot save herself, she cannot hope to be saved.
- 26. Give it a try: Choose a word and write a short, pointed statement expressing a truth, doctrine, or principle. • Power • Execution • Death • Betrayal • Prostitution • Hostage • Bastard • Winter • Brave • Fear • Throne • Honor Example: Marriage A lottery in which men stake their liberty and women their happiness. -- Madame DiRieux One long conversation, checkered by disputes. -- Robert Louis Stevenson
- 27. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines chiasmus as, "A grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other.” This may involve a repetition of the same words ("Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure" —Byron) or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas. Chiasmus "to mark with an X.”
- 28. Simple Grammatical Chiasmus A reversed order of the grammar in two or more clauses in a sentence will yield a chiasmus. Consider the example of a parallel sentence: “He knowingly led and we blindly followed” Inverting into chiasmus: “He knowingly led and we followed blindly”
- 29. Parallelism: The code breakers worked constantly but succeeded rarely. Chiasmus: The code breakers worked constantly but rarely succeeded. Chiasmus is effective for bringing two elements close together for contrast or emphasis, as you can see with the adverbs constantly and rarely in the example above. The chiastic structure places them almost next to each other for greater contrast than would be provided by a strictly parallel structure. From Writing with Clarity and style: Chapter 1 by Robert A. Harris
- 30. Another useful effect of chiasmus results from the natural emphasis given to the end of a sentence. Note in the example below how the word forgotten receives greater stress when it appears as the last word of the sentence. Example verb adverb verb adverb Parallelism: What is learned unwillingly is forgotten gladly. verb adverb adverb verb Chiasmus: What is learned unwillingly is gladly forgotten.
- 31. In addition to contrast and emphasis, chiasmus can add beauty to sentences with no sacrifice of clarity. Reversing the order of independent and subordinate clauses is one way to do this. From Writing with Clarity and style: Chapter 1 by Robert A. Harris
- 32. Try converting these two from parallelism to chiasmus • Parallelism: Arya trains Nymeria daily and plays with her happily • Parallelism: When Jon Snow arrives at the wall, he seems happy enough, but when the arms master treats him badly, he becomes frustrated and angry.
- 33. Here are two possibilities • Parallelism: Arya trains Nymeria daily and plays with her happily • Chiasmus: Arya trains Nymeria daily and happily plays with her • Parallelism: When Jon Snow arrives at the wall, he seems happy enough, but when the arms master treats him badly, he gets frustrated and angry. • Chiasmus: When Jon Snow arrives at the wall, he seems happy enough, but he gets frustrated and angry when the arms master treats him badly.
- 34. Try it! • Write a couple of sentences using chiasmus instead of parallelism. • Try writing new sentences. • Look for some sentences in your writing that will lend themselves to chiasmus.
- 35. A Little Trickier Kind of Chiasmus
- 36. • One of the most fascinating features of chiasmus is this "marking with an X" notion (word reversal). Take Mae West's signature line, "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men." By laying out the two clauses parallel to each other, it's possible to draw two lines connecting the key words: It's not the men in my life X it's the life in my men. Thanks to author and psychologist Dr. Mardy Grothe for the information and examples of chiasmus http://www.drmardy.com/chiasmus/definition.shtml
- 37. Word Reversal Chiasmus Home is where the great are small X and the small are great One should eat to live X not live to eat
- 38. The ABBA Method One other interesting way to view chiastic quotes is the ABBA method. Let's go back to the Mae West quote. If you assign the letters A and B to the first appearance of the key words and A' and B' (read "A prime" and "B prime") to their second appearance, they follow what is referred to as an ABBA pattern: A It's not the men B in my life B' it's the life A' in my men
- 39. Chiasmus can also be achieved by reversing more than two key words. This observation from the 18th century English writer, Charles Caleb Colton, is a good example: "How strange it is that we of the present day are constantly praising that past age which our fathers abused, and as constantly abusing that present age, which our children will praise.”
- 40. Word Reversal Laid out schematically, it looks like this: A How strange it is that we of the present day are constantly praising B that past age C which our fathers abused, C' and as constantly abusing B' that present age, A' which our children will praise
- 41. Another good example comes from Genesis 9:6:
- 42. Phrase Reversal • "Lust is what makes you keep wanting to do it, even when you have no desire to be with each other. Love is what makes you keep wanting to be with each other, even when you have no desire to do it." • — Judith Viorst
- 43. More Examples • "We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." -- Benjamin Franklin • "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." -- Carl Sagan • “All for one and one for all” --Alexandre Dumas • "I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me." (advertising jingle for Band-Aid bandages)
- 44. Review and Practice: Try to use words and phrases that link to your character • Word Reversal: • One should eat to live not live to eat • Home is where the great are small and the small are great • Phrase Reversal: • "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." -- Carl Sagan • “All for one and one for all” --Alexandre Dumas • "I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me."
- 46. Letter Reversal • "A magician is a person who pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist is a person who pulls habits out of rats.” • "a doe and fawn" hide from "their foe at dawn."
- 47. Sound Reversal •"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me Than a frontal lobotomy." — Randy Hanzlick, title of song
- 48. Reversal of Homonyms • "Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?” — Richard Lederer • "Here's champagne for our real friends and real pain for our sham friends.” — Edwardian Toast
- 49. Number Reversal • "A lawyer starts life giving $500 worth of law for $5 and ends giving $5 worth for $500.” — Benjamin H. Brewster • "Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17- year-old girl. Walter has always wanted to go that way, but he's going to settle for a 17-footer with a 70-year-old. — Betsy Maxwell Cronkite, wife of Walter Cronkite.
- 50. Review and Practice: Try to use words and phrases that link to your character • Letter Reversal: "A magician is a person who pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist is a person who pulls habits out of rats.” • Sound Reversal: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me Than a frontal lobotomy.” • Reversal of Homonyms: "Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?” • Number Reversal: "Errol Flynn died on a 70-foot boat with a 17-year-old girl. Walter has always wanted to go that way, but he's going to settle for a 17-footer with a 70-year-old.
- 51. Homework •Read A Game of Thrones through page 700 •Post # 12: Counterargument •Post #13: Conclusion •Post #14: Examples of aphorism and chiasmus