Today’s class

If you were absent today, read this blog post then do assignments 1.1 and 3.5

1. Philosophy: Who Needs It? A look at the grammar, logic and rhetoric. (The speech was recorded and you can listen to it here. Ayn Rand starts speaking at 3 minutes 45 seconds.)  I wrote a sample response essay to this speech which you can download here [wpdm_package id=’1903′] [wpdm_package id=’1884′] [wpdm_package id=1861 template=”link-template-calltoaction3.php”] 
   
   1. grammar – answer the 3 questions
      1. Where am I?
      2. How do I know it?
      3. What should I do?
   2. logic – what is the writer’s argument?
      1. In this speech, the writer argues that 
         1. philosophy is necessary in order to answer three very important questions: where am I? How do I know it? What should I do?
         2. as these questions are important for everyone, everyone needs philosophy.
         3. philosophy is not some difficult, abstract, impractical topic, interesting only to professors, academics, philosophers, and no use for ordinary people and their everyday lives. On the contrary, everybody uses and needs philosophy, even people who think they don’t.
   3. rhetoric – or how the writer introduces the topic
      1. Instead of beginning with the history of philosophy or telling about some famous philosophers, the writer begins with a story about an imaginary person who is in a difficult situation and needs to find an answer to the three questions. In this way, the writer introduces the topic and catches the interest of the audience, most of who could not be expected to be interested in philosophy or understand why it is important and useful for them.
2. Academic style.  Checklist:
   1. Does it cite its sources?
   2. Does it use objective facts, especially primary sources?
   3. Does it mostly use “logos” and “ethos” and avoid “pathos” to make its arguments?
3. Responding to a reading: 2 models 
   1. Model A (the one given in class Friday 13th December; this is more suitable for non-fiction, academic texts)
      1. Understand the meaning (grammar)
      2. Understand the arguments (logic), summarize them and if necessary add explanation (especially cultural references that readers might not know)
      3. Evaluate: see the academic style checklist above. Evaluate does NOT mean say whether you agree or disagree. Your purpose should be to give the reader objective facts about the original (book, movie, article, essay, etc); your agreement or disagreement is not an objective fact and will have zero persuasive power on an attentive reader.
   2. Model B: this model is perhaps more suitable for literary texts.
      1. Tell about the author
      2. Tell about the story (a short summary)
      3. Give your personal response
      4. Works Cited – list all your sources in alphabetical order using the MLA style.
   3. Here is a sample essay using Model B, responding to the children’s story “The Elephant’s Child” by Rudyard Kipling. [wpdm_package id=’1890′]
   4. And here are some links to the original text:
      1. “The Elephant’s Child”. Lit2Go, etc.usf.edu/lit2go/79/just-so-stories/1299/the-elephants-child/  Accessed 14 December 2019.
      2. And here is an audio of someone reading the text: http://bit.ly/ws2kipling 
   5. Now write 3 paragraphs about a story or movie that you like, using Model B.
   6. Here is a sample essay using Model B but for a non-fiction text. [wpdm_package id=’1903′]