Don’t forget to bring a draft of the
THESIS STATEMENT
you will be using for your final research paper. We will be workshopping these statements to make them stronger and more effective.
We will use the following form for peer review of thesis statements.
We will also use this PowerPoint presentation: your-thesis-statement.ppt.
As a result of reading student drafts, I now have some advice of problems to watch for:
In the RESTATEMENT of OPPONENT’S POSITION, remember that the opponent states his/her position in the form of claim and support (Which sounds like “This thing is true because…”). If you state it in the form of “You say this… and then you claim that…” the result is that the tone seems to be accusatory. Instead, try something like “I was really interested in the part of your article that explains…. because…” or “I know that you believe …..because….. and I wanted to explore this idea further.”
In the section that requires you to express the circumstances under which you AGREE with your OPPONENT’S POSITION, be sure to be specific about why, when, and how you might agree. Don’t just say, “I can see your point,” or “that could be true in some ways.” Also remember that by saying “I agree …. is true when …. happens,” you are ALREADY implying that you believe the thing is NOT TRUE when the thing does NOT happen. You should not say this here in a Rogerian Argument. Your goal is to make your opponent listen to you, to build a relationship with him/her. Watch out for words like “BUT…HOWEVER…ALTHOUGH…” in this section. Don’t let these slip in!
Your TRANSITION should directly address your opponent and invite him/her to consider a new way of thinking. Don’t just launch in to the argument that supports the second position and call it transition. Transition needs to gently help the reader move along into the next part of the argument.
Remember to bring the draft of your Rogerian Assignment on Friday, 3/30.
As we discussed in class today, please be curteous to your peer reviewers by typing your draft (double-spaced), and by bracketing and labeling (in pencil or pen) the following major parts of your paper in the margin:
Remember that the peer review and self-assessment are part of the process grade, so to avoid losing points, you need to be in class prepared with a draft. If unavoidable circumstances prevent your attendance, you may print the review forms and have the peer review done in the writing center instead. If you choose to do this, however, you will still miss the grade from Friday’s daily activity.
Having said this, here are the forms:
Rogerian Peer Review and Rogerian Self-Assessment
Remember that revisions of the Annotated Bibliography are due
Monday, 4/2/07.
Revisions must be submitted in a folder containing the following:
IN ADDITION, you must HIGHLIGHT the revised copy to indicate any CHANGES MADE from the original.
GRADES for the revision will be AVERAGED with the original grade to arrive at a final grade for the assignment. This grade is 15% of your course grade.
Since submission of revision requires that you have received your graded original back, the LAST DAY to submit LATE papers (at 40 points off) is WEDNESDAY, 3/28/07. If you have not submitted an original by this date, your revision will be averaged with an original grade of zero.
WHO SHOULD REVISE? In order to raise an averaged grade by one letter grade, your revised grade must be at least two letter grades higher than the original. This means that students with grades of C or lower are the best candidates for revision.
Here is the PowerPoint we are using in class on Monday:
building-the-rogerian-paper.ppt .
Click here for the Peer Review Sheet we are using to work on our Rogerian Position Statements.
See you tomorrow!
Here is an electronic copy of the assignment sheet: Rogerian Assignment
In order to write Rogerian argument, you must be able to clearly articulate your opponent’s position (which means their claim and their major support). You must also be able to clearly articulate your own position (your claim and your major support).
You must be able to articulate both of these positions in neutral, dispassionate (not inflammatory or biased) language. Only then can you go on to build the links between the two positions that constitute the Rogerian argument.
On Monday, 3/26, you will bring to class a draft of both position statements necessary for your argument. In peer review groups, we will check to see if you have managed to remain unbiased when stating these two positions. One tool is to use the template “Some people believe….. because… Other people believe …. because ….” In stating these positions, you will not indicate which of the “people” you agree with, and you should be able to state both positions with equal attention and equal value, so that it is not possible to tell which side you are taking. This part comes later in the paper.
To clarify, these two position statements will become part of your Rogerian paper. However, you are NOT writing a draft of the entire paper on Monday, 3/26. You are only writing the two positions, giving them “separate but equal” treatment. This is an important first step in writing a good Rogerian argument, and it is important to do this separately from writing the entire paper.
P.S. Thanks to Amanda for asking this question!
Be prepared for a quiz on Chapter 12.
Bring in your grammar handbook (Simon and Schuster or other), your theory textbook (Wood), the MLA handout from the library, and any sources you are having trouble citing.
Be prepared to be quizzed on chapters 10 and 11.
Be prepared to turn in Reading Logs 9 and 10. The directions for Reading Log 10 are stated on the syllabus, but here is a more detailed version:
Also be prepared to turn in ALL missing work. Wednesday, March 7th, is the final day that late work will be accepted without penalty. After this date, ONLY work that constitutes a major portion of the course grade (5% or more) will be accepted late, and a penalty will be assessed of 1 full letter grade (10 points) for each late day. This is the policy listed in the syllabus.
As of Wednesday 3/7, you should have turned in the following for a grade:
In addition, you have had the following extra credit opportunities:
I hope to have all of the above grades in and averaged by Friday 3/9 for progress reports. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about your progress. Thanks!
Class meets in B-20 of the Library on both
FRIDAY, 3/2 and MONDAY 3/5.
Attendance at both of these presentations is important. Gretchen Terkay will provide us with information about research methods and resources that will improve both the process and the product of our Annotated Bibliographies and Researched Position Papers.
In addition, participation in these activities may count as a daily grade.
Please also remember
