Thursday, October 7, 2010

-- 08 -- Evaluations; Inference




Evaluations
Inference
TFY C7, Evaluations
CRCB C7, Inference



TFY Chapter Seven Evaluations
This is a chapter about one variety of opinion called evaluations. Evaluations can be openly stated or remain hidden and manipulative. They can be based on explicit or vague criteria, clear or vague feelings. Their effects are powerful. When we mistake them for facts or are influenced by them unawares, we get into trouble. This chapter teaches how to both recognize and detach from evaluations. Exercises and discussion in this chapter will show you how evaluations express and influence feelings, how they can be used covertly to persuade or directly to advise. The writing application in this chapter gives you a choice of analyzing evaluations in advertisements or of writing a critical review. One concluding reading evaluates the monetary evaluation of human life; a second reading evaluates the use of pornography for profit.


TFY Glossary Chapter 7




Evaluate
To determine the value or worth of something.
Evaluations in word connotations
Highly connotative words can be chosen to convey a person’s likes and dislikes under the guise of offering facts.
Expectations
Mental constructs that anticipate the way things will be or should be.
Infer
To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots.
Opinion
Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court.
Premature evaluation
To judge something before one has finished examining it.
Principal claim and reasons
These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something.
Propaganda
Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion for the benefit of the propagator.
Relativism
Relativism is the belief that concepts such as right and wrong are not absolutes but depend on situations and the cultures.
Skilled Evaluations
Skilled evaluations are opinions formed by experts after a careful and impartial study.
Thinking
Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering.


Web Links
Chapter 7
FRANK ACKERMAN AND LISA HEINZERLING
If you want to know more about cost-benefit analysis, read these interviews with the authors of Priceless.
MOVIE REVIEWS
Enjoy reading from this wide assortment of movie reviews. Select a film that you have already seen. Evaluate the review.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
This site offers a critical account of Edward Bernays’ creation of the U.S. public relations industry.
SOME PROPAGANDA BASICS
This website can get you started learning more about propaganda.
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY
In this 1999 Salon interview, learn more about the career of author of Porn, Pervasive Presence: The Creepy Wallpaper of Our Lives.
WORLD WAR II PROPAGANDA
In hindsight, propaganda can seem quaint and obvious. Study the posters shown in this website and see if you agree with this statement.

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CRCB C7, Inference
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER GOALS
After learning Chapter 7, you should be able to demonstrate:
What inference is.
Strategies you can use to infer an author’s meaning as you read.
What limits the amount of information you should infer.
How to identify implied main ideas.

What is Inference?
Inference is the process of making assumptions and drawing conclusions about information when an author’s ideas are not directly stated.
Inference Strategies
Understand an author’s purpose.
Note comparisons and implied similarities.
Understand an author’s use of tone.
Detect an author’s bias.
Recognize information gaps.
Tips For Recognizing Information Gaps
Consider all information presented.
Note author’s use of key words and phrases.
Identify when an author leaps from one idea to the next, and mentally fill in the blanks.
Knowing How Much to Infer
Recognize author’s perspective.
Use the text to support your conclusion.

Chapter Vocabulary
inference
diction
imply
purpose
tone
author’s bias
information gaps
implied main idea

Do You Speak American?

http://www.pbs.org/speak/transcripts/2.html

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Assumption -- Identify Hidden

Identify the likely hidden assumptions in these arguments:
  1. We should reduce the penalty for drunken driving, as a milder penalty would mean more convictions.
  2. Moby Dick is a whale. So Moby Dick is a mammal.
  3. Giving students a fail grade will damage their self-confidence. Therefore, we should not fail students.
  4. It should not be illegal for adults to smoke pot. After all, it does not harm anyone.
  5. There is nothing wrong talking on a mobile phone during lectures. Other students do it all the time.
  6. Killing an innocent person is wrong. Therefore, abortion is wrong.
  7. Traces of ammonia have been found in Mars' atmosphere. So there must be life on Mars.
  8. There cannot be more than one God. Otherwise, there would be two Gods equally powerful, or one is more powerful than the other. 

Assumption -- Identify Hidden

Identify the likely hidden assumptions in these arguments:
  1. We should reduce the penalty for drunken driving, as a milder penalty would mean more convictions.
  2. Moby Dick is a whale. So Moby Dick is a mammal.
  3. Giving students a fail grade will damage their self-confidence. Therefore, we should not fail students.
  4. It should not be illegal for adults to smoke pot. After all, it does not harm anyone.
  5. There is nothing wrong talking on a mobile phone during lectures. Other students do it all the time.
  6. Killing an innocent person is wrong. Therefore, abortion is wrong.
  7. Traces of ammonia have been found in Mars' atmosphere. So there must be life on Mars.
  8. There cannot be more than one God. Otherwise, there would be two Gods equally powerful, or one is more powerful than the other. 

Paragraph -- sentence order

Arrange for Main Ideas

1.  The rosary beads they’d twisted and looped around her knotty hands were her everyday amber ones, not the good wine-red ones she took out of their velvet case at Easter and Christmas – the ones Grandma herself would have chosen for this occasion. 
 


2.  Mrs. Mumphy and her daughter had gone to Grandma’s house to pick out her clothes. 



3.  She had on the green print dress she’d worn to our wedding.
 


4.  I forced my eyes up to her wax-museum face.
 


5.  Death or the undertaker had relaxed her facial muscles.
 


6. She was and wasn’t Grandma.





Paragraph -- sentence order

Arrange for Main Ideas

1.  The rosary beads they’d twisted and looped around her knotty hands were her everyday amber ones, not the good wine-red ones she took out of their velvet case at Easter and Christmas – the ones Grandma herself would have chosen for this occasion. 
 


2.  Mrs. Mumphy and her daughter had gone to Grandma’s house to pick out her clothes. 



3.  She had on the green print dress she’d worn to our wedding.
 


4.  I forced my eyes up to her wax-museum face.
 


5.  Death or the undertaker had relaxed her facial muscles.
 


6. She was and wasn’t Grandma.





Paragraph 1 - Meaning

Six days before the sunset, two girls walked into town.  The dog was small and brown; he sat patiently waiting by the tree for the green side.  But, how many times must it be returned before it can be eaten.  Matter as we have seen, can exist in three forms.  However, blood was the elixir that sustained his dark, dark life.



In one of Watson's most famous experiments, he and his second wife conditioned a boy named Albert to fear a white rat.  At the beginning of the study, Albert was unafraid of the animal and played with it freely.  While Albert was doing so one day, Watson deliberately frightened the child by sounding a terrifying noise behind him.  Albert was startled and began to cry.  Thereafter, he avoided the rat and cried if it was brought close to him.
(Adapted from:  McConnell, J.   (1986).  Understanding Human Behavior.  Holt, Rinehart, and Winston:  Fort Worth  P, 268)

Paragraph 1 - Meaning

Six days before the sunset, two girls walked into town.  The dog was small and brown; he sat patiently waiting by the tree for the green side.  But, how many times must it be returned before it can be eaten.  Matter as we have seen, can exist in three forms.  However, blood was the elixir that sustained his dark, dark life.



In one of Watson's most famous experiments, he and his second wife conditioned a boy named Albert to fear a white rat.  At the beginning of the study, Albert was unafraid of the animal and played with it freely.  While Albert was doing so one day, Watson deliberately frightened the child by sounding a terrifying noise behind him.  Albert was startled and began to cry.  Thereafter, he avoided the rat and cried if it was brought close to him.
(Adapted from:  McConnell, J.   (1986).  Understanding Human Behavior.  Holt, Rinehart, and Winston:  Fort Worth  P, 268)

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Humanities Focus -- Art

Links -- Reading

Web Links

Writing Narration and Description
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/narrative.htm

Mary Seymour's "Call Me Crazy But I Have to Be Myself" originally appeared in Newsweek.
www.newsweek.com

Writing a Cause-and-Effect Essay
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/cause_effect.htm

Christy Haubegger's "The Legacy of Generation Ñ" originally appeared in Newsweek.
www.newsweek.com

Writing a Comparison and Contrast Essay
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CompAnalysis.html

Writing a Classification Essay
http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/mgarcia/writfils/modclass.htm

Writing About a Process
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/process.html

Writing a Definition Essay http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/definition.html

Building Persuasive Arguments http://www.nutsandboltsguide.com/arguments.htm

Writing Lab, Experiment, or Field Reports
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/LabBact.html

Writing About Literature and the Arts
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ReadingPoetry.html

Letter of Application
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/apessay.html

For online resources for employment
http://college.hmco.com/english/vanrys/business_writer/1e/resources/web_links03.html

Webpage design tips

Analysis of webpages

OWLs
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

MUDs, MOOs, and MUSHes
http://www.marshall.edu/commdis/moo/

Message Boards
http://www.quicktopic.com/teachers.html

Mailing Lists
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/listservs/subjectsearch.html

Chat Servers
http://chat.yahoo.com/

Instant Messaging Services
http://www.icq.com/

Blogs
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices



Sunday, September 26, 2010

Analytical Writing -- Scientific vs. Humanistic



Analytical Writing



ScientificHumanistic
EpistemologyDiscover the truthCreate meaning
Human NatureDeterminismFree will
Value PriorityObjectivityEmancipation
Purpose of TheoryGive universal lawsGive rules for interpretation
Research MethodsExperiment and SurveyTextual analysis and ethnography
Standards for EvaluationExplanation of data
Prediction of future
Relative simplicity
Testable hypotheses
Practical utility
Understanding of people
Clarification of values
Aesthetic appeal
Community of agreement
Reform society

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Reader-Response Form

Reader-Response Form
Writer’s name: ________________________________
Reader’s name: _______________________________
As the writer, my major concerns/questions for my readers are:
Reader, please respond to each question.
1. What is the writer’s topic?
2. What is/are the dominant impression(s) the writer seems to be making? If there is a sentence that states the dominant impression, write it here. If there is not a sentence that states the dominant impression, write what you believe it is.
3. Has the writer used a subjective or objective perspective? What makes the choice of perspective work well in the essay?
4. What makes the opening effective? How might it be made more effective?
5. What do you find to be most effective about the essay as a whole?
6. Discuss the level and breadth of detail used—where does the writer use language effectively? Where does she/he use sensory images? Which senses does the writer appeal to? Where has the writer used active verbs?
7. Make some suggestions for increasing the level and breadth of detail. Please make specific references to the essay.
8. What two or three specific questions do you have for the writer?
9. Please circle any words that you suspect are misspelled or are typos—DON’T CORRECT THEM!
10. Indicate with “frag” any sentence fragments you suspect or find.
11. Indicated with “r-o” any comma splices or fused sentences that you suspect or find.
12. Please check off each of the following items that apply:
_____ proper heading (you, me, class, date)
_____ a title that describes the contents of the essay
_____ 2 full pages minimum length
_____ a good opening gambit
_____ appeals to all the senses
_____sight
_____sound
_____smell
_____taste
_____touch
_____ uses strong verbs
_____ uses at least one simile or metaphor

Narrative Essay Writing

Narrative Essays

As a mode of expository writing, the narrative approach, more than any other, offers writers a chance to think and write about themselves. We all have experiences lodged in our memories which are worthy of sharing with readers. Yet sometimes they are so fused with other memories that a lot of the time spent in writing narrative is in the prewriting stage.

In this stage, writers first need to select an incident worthy of writing about and, second, to find relevance in that incident. To do this, writers might ask themselves what about the incident provided new insights or awareness. Finally, writers must dredge up details which will make the incident real for readers.

PRINCIPLES OF WRITING NARRATIVE ESSAYS

Once an incident is chosen, the writer should keep three principles in mind.

  1. Remember to involve readers in the story. It is much more interesting to actually recreate an incident for readers than to simply tell about it.

  2. Find a generalization which the story supports. This is the only way the writer's personal experience will take on meaning for readers. This generalization does not have to encompass humanity as a whole; it can concern the writer, men, women, or children of various ages and backgrounds.

  3. Remember that although the main component of a narrative is the story, details must be carefully selected to support, explain, and enhance the story.

CONVENTIONS OF NARRATIVE ESSAYS

In writing your narrative essay, keep the following conventions in mind.

  • Narratives are generally written in the first person, that is, using "I." However, third person ("he," "she," or "it") can also be used.

  • Narratives rely on concrete, sensory details to convey their point. These details should create a unified, forceful effect, a dominant impression.

  • Narratives, as stories, should include these story conventions: a plot, including setting and characters; a climax; and an ending.
from http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/narrative.html

Thursday, September 9, 2010


BioPoem


1 Line 1: First Name

1.1 Gail

2 Line 2: Three or Four adjectives to describe the person

2.1 Friendly

2.2 Protective

2.3 Supportive

2.4 Caring

3 Line 3: Important Relationship

3.1 Grandchildren

3.1.1 Most important relationship

3.1.2 Never wants to break this bond

4 Line 4: Two or three things, people or ideas the person loves

4.1 Making things

4.1.1 For Husband

4.1.2 For Others

5 Line: 5: Three feelings the person experienced

5.1 Joy

5.1.1 Giving Birth

5.1.2 Watching grandchildren come into the world

6 Line 6: Three fears the person experienced

6.1 Love

6.2 Death of those I love

6.3 Losing Life

7 LIne 7: Accomplishments

7.1 Raising 3 children by herself

7.2 Going Back & Finishing High School

7.3 Change life for the better

8 Line 8: Two or three things the person wants to see happen or wants to experience

8.1 Getting Married

8.2 Have large family dinners

8.3 Riding in a Rolls Royce

9 Line 9: Her residence

9.1 Oakland, CA

9.1.1 3170 High Street

10 Line 10: Last Name

10.1 Trumbo-Martin

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Where do you stand with regard to critical thinking?

Where do you stand with regard to critical thinking?

FEET: What do I stand for as a foundation of critical thinking?

STOMACH: What upsets me about critical thinking?

HEART: What do I love about critical thinking?

HANDS: What do I feel about critical thinking?

EARS: What do I hear about critical thinking?

EYES: What do I see about critical thinking?

BRAIN: What do I think about critical thinking?