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November 18, 2010

Graff and Will essays

Please read the essays by Gerald Graff and George Will in your reader. Comment below who has the better argument and why? What evidence does your favorite author use to make his argument? What larger conversations does your author contribute to?

Feel free to respond to your colleague's comments if you wish.

(The post is due by Sunday night at midnight and will be graded - any later posts will be read but not graded.)

Posted by

Kevin P. at 1:24 PM EST

displaying most recent comments (12 ommitted) | Comments (15)

Justin Mack

says:

I believe George had a better argument. George uses examples that i see more of. Something that caught my attention is when he said adults don't pay attention to what their children do. They watch so much tv and play so many video games wouldn't you think that they may try to imitate some of the things they are around all the time? The thing we have that will always be free is choice. In our culture all we see is sex, drugs and money and this is something that is shown in commercials, movies tv shows...It's starting to get to the point were sexual things are getting put into children's tv shows and even toys. Everyone is being exposed to this and its starting to effect people like a virus. Its shocking but sadly some people expect it in our society because thats just how our culture is. Over all i agreed with this essay and it was also straight to the point. Some essays take a while to get to the point. He also made a good point at the end of the essay when he said if people were offered to play russian roulette with a loaded gun. People would watch it because our morals are messed up. We would watch people die in our living room and probably wouldn't find nothing wrong with it, thats just the world we live in.

Posted on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:17 AM EST by Justin M.

Mark Bonin

says:

I believe that Graff's argument is a little more consistant and is backed up in detail a little bit more than Will's. George Graff's argument that non-sports are important in developing a person is backed up throughout his entire work and is reinforced strongly. on the other hand George Will's argument is not well reinforced and i feel there is room for more detail and more emphisis on his claim that real sports are better in influencing a person. While Graff appears to go in to detail about his subject, I believe that Will just leaves it there.

Posted on Mon, 22 Nov 2010 6:24 AM EST by Mark B.

James Pehl

says:

Both Will and Graff had excellent points to argue and both backed their views up with evidence. Although the question is how has a better argument I would like to argue that they both have completly different topics that they are supporting. Will is stating that with degraded television that society is also degrading. Whereas Graff is arguing that people have different views on intellegence and there may be a link between street smart and book smarts. With this Will uses more technical evidence to back himself where Graff uses his own personal experiences. Both can be a beneficial approach where more "intellectual" people would mostlikely prefer Wills, but others would prefer Will's for his concrete example of real life application. The authors are arguing on the greater topic of how society reacts in certain instances. Will, with society is on a downward spiral and that its a vicious cirle that's pushing us further down and Graff who argues that using street smart in an intellectuals eye can actually be more beneficail then with an intellectual peace of work looked at with an unregarding eye.

Posted on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 5:30 PM EST by James P.

November 8, 2010

Grading Rubric

The following should give you some detail on how I will evaluate your essays. Grading essays is not mathematical and the following is meant to serve as a guide. But I hope the topics will help you focus your revision.

Thesis: The paper needs to announce a clear, arguable thesis in the beginning of the paper. For the paper to succeed it needs to engage with opposing or differing views of your thesis, the "they say" in your textbook.

Organization: The paper needs to progress logically with each point (reason) building off of the previous. Each paragraph should provide a clear topic and then develop or analyze that topic with analysis and evidence (quotes). Furthermore, the conclusion should not be a simple reiteration of the introduction, but it should gesture toward larger issues or topics that your paper relates to. One way to think of a conclusion is to answer (or begin to answer) "why does it all matter?"

Readability: Sentences need to be largely without grammatical, syntactical, or logical errors. Confusing sentences structures, quotes without context, or rough transitions between paragraphs distract the reader and take away from the paper's purpose. The essay needs to move forward and develop an argument rather than repeat points made in the beginning.

Use of Evidence: Papers need to demonstrate a competent knowledge of the texts, and they need to integrate quotes into the essay when needed. Quotes should serve a purpose in the essay, such as providing an example of your critique or providing evidence to a claim. Quotes should be incorporated organically into the essay with a set-up and a follow-up after explaining to the reader why the quote is relevant. Quotes need to be cited properly (parenthetically).

Posted by

Kevin P. at 7:42 AM EST

Tags: essay, grading

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