Repetitive Coherent Paragraphs Gender Inequality

Your main task for Project 4 is to draw on your current life as the context from which to understand and evaluate the texts explored in Project 3; linking information from LSC that (illustrates, complicates, extends, qualifies, or challenges) information in 5 other arguments (keep/replace sources from P3) with some attention on the intended audiences and contexts. Analysis first, evaluation second. Select 1-2 of most useful tasks from the Evaluate argument guide below to assess your arguments. Use your two scholarly articles (LSC & ___) to fine tune a focus for your evaluation and argument. For relevance to your focus, adjustment to your target articles is OK. You are not taking a side in a pro/con debate, rather, you are forming a position in the conversation as you construct it.

Evaluate argument. Before beginning your paper, spend hours doing a detailed analysis of your target text’s claim(s) to identify a couple points that you would like to authentically evaluate (you might have done this in P3). Refer to the following list to guide your evaluation:

1) Find the argument (main claim, dependent claims, support, appeals, purpose).

2) Identify the intended audience, and a possible wider audience.

3) Evaluate ethos of the author: qualifications, reputation, motive, bias.

4) Examine the evidence as: sufficient, reasonable (typical), accurate, relevant, factual, truthful, accurate for its numbers & statistics, complete (is anything missing?).

5) Are terms well defined when necessary?

6) Does the argument directly or indirectly address counter claim(s)? It is not a reason for quick dismissal if an argument avoids the opposing views.

7) Is the language appropriate for the audience or is it overly emotional/logical?

8) Is the reasoning logical? Do you detect any fallacies?

9) Are the underlying assumptions reasonable, known as true, or easily acceptable?

10) Based on your prior knowledge or additional research on the subject (like from Lair et al. 2005), how effective is the argument for its intended audience?

Come up with a tentative working thesis. This could reflect 1-2 of the evaluation points above. Or you could make a point that the image of ____ portrayed in LSC &/or _____ seems equally/less/more relevant ten years later or through a different lens of ____. Or you could argue that the impression of _____ analyzed in LSC &/or ____ is reflected/complicated/clarified in other arguments on _____ . {You may swap your other scholarly article for LSC as your main text.} Remember that you are analyzing these texts, not making a bold claim about the condition in society; instead you might argue that factors of self-preservation (context, culture) could help understand a certain current context/issue/viewpoint (your focus).

For Project 4, you will analyze:

I. LSC targeted section’s claim(s) as your main text (I), then you will Illustrate, Complicate, Extend, Qualify or Challenge (ICEQC) information in this section with information in:

II. your new scholarly article from P3;

III. mainstream article(s) from P3;

IV. new mainstream article from P3;

V. the audio &/or visual text from P3 (video, movie, song);

VI. the infographic from P3 or an infographic you design;

VII. you may research additional sources if you wish.

Prompt:

For Project 4, write a formal academic essay in which you add to your analysis and evaluation (strengths/weaknesses) of your core scholarly text (LSC) through analysis/evaluation of your new scholarly article. Contribute to the conversation (your broader topic) using your knowledge of self-preservation (individual/collective) to conclude which of your non-scholarly arguments (yes, even the song) is most (or least) effective for its intended audience. In other words, you’ll use your scholarly & initial texts to set up a basis to link the other four texts together (with ICEQC), then you’ll evaluate the effectiveness of these texts briefly for their intended audiences near the end. Extend from this evaluation with your contribution to the conversation reflected in your thesis.

Successful papers (earning a grade of “C” or above) will handle your sources analytically and accomplish most of the following tasks (* indicates the main requirement of this assignment):

1. Describe for a reader unfamiliar with these texts the common issues, beginning your introduction with a brief discussion of your larger topic/focus (inequality/American culture/ careers—employment/social media privacy/trust/personal branding/communicative (inter-net) context/ economic context/or _____).
2. Provide an accurate and complete introduction to your core text (LSC or scholarly). End your introduction with a clear main claim that sets up your analysis (see above ***). This will be your position.
3. Use brainstorming/outlining to determine the best structure for your purpose. You might order your moves from least to most critical given your focus. For example, your focus might fit the other group presentation from class (VII) best in your introduction, or body, or conclusion. {1}
4. *In one paragraph, construct an account of the claim(s) in your section of your core text (LSC), addressing the following tasks in an appropriate order:

• Use a modified rhetorical situation to give an overview of the context and argument of your core text, emphasizing the authors’ perspective on the context/issue/viewpoint.
• Identify one of the important or dependent claims.
• Identify the intended audience of the scholarly article and their analysis of the intended audience &/or relevant context for the audience targeted by the branding movement.
• *Describe the analysis being done in your targeted section of LSC. What are they analyzing and how are they doing it?
• *Discuss the strength of the analysis by LSC (use 1-2 relevant Evaluate argument tasks
  i-x from above for this step). You are making a claim here. {2}

1. In one paragraph, discuss your selected other group presentation from P3. Describe how information in it illustrates, complicates, extends, qualifies, OR challenges information in your core text. (This might work better in your introduction for some.) You might put this elsewhere for a better fit. Info from Lair, Sullivan, and Cheney should just be inserted where it is useful for this synthesis (but only cite them in parenthesis). {3}
2. Perform the following analysis for your second scholarly article without beginning any paragraph with an author or title, instead transitioning with how information in this scholarly article illustrates, complicates, extends, qualifies, OR challenges, or information in your core text’s argument.

• Link to the argument from your core text using illustrates, clarifies, extends, qualifies, OR challenges. Give a brief sketch of the argument using rhetorical situation, emphasizing the author’s (authors’) perspective on the issue. Include the author’s (s’) credentials.
• Describe the related dependent claim and supporting evidence. Explain how it links with LSC. Set up your focus point for your link to your other 4 sources. This focus can stay as LSC or it can be combined with/modified from your other scholarly article. {4}

1. Perform the following analysis for your four additional sources (mainstream articles, video/movie/song, infographic) without beginning any paragraph with an author or title, craft TWO paragraphs with synthesis, transitioning with how information in each illustrates, complicates, extends, qualifies, OR challenges, or information in your core scholarly claim.

• Link to the argument from your core text using illustrates, clarifies, extends, qualifies, OR challenges. Give a brief sketch of the argument using a modified rhetorical situation, emphasizing context and the author’s (authors’) perspective on the issue. Include the author’s (s’) credentials.
• Describe what you see as the related dependent claim and supporting evidence, explaining what the author is doing for his/her argument (understand the argument for what it is).
• Identify the intended audience, support your identification with textual evidence from the text if it is not obvious from above, and examine the direct appeal to this audience.
• Using your evaluation of your core text as a guide, briefly discuss the relative strengths/weaknesses of this new text for how that information from it illustrates, clarifies, extends, qualifies, OR challenges information in your core scholarly article(s).
• If you created an infographic instead of finding one, insert your description of your rhetorical strategies for your design along with your infographic as one of your paragraphs. {5-6}

1. Using your evaluation of your core scholarly as a guide, discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of these new texts, and synthesize how the information in them illustrates, clarifies, extends, qualifies, OR challenges information in your core scholarly article(s). Highlight the strongest (or weakest) argument for its intended but review how it fits with your position. {7}
2. Based directly on your analysis in this paper, evaluate the significance of this group of texts, and explain how viewing the issue through a self-preservation (culture/context) lens offers a new way to understand the context/issue/viewpoint. Check that this lens (in)directly threads through your argument for coherence. In what ways do you want to influence your own reader’s view of this context/issue/viewpoint? {8}
3. Highlight, label and explain one fallacy somewhere in your analysis. One fallacy total.
4. Integrate a commentary on an underlying assumption at some relevant place in your analysis.
5. Include a perfectly formatted Works Cited as the last page of your paper.
6. Write the paper for readers (other SDSU students) unfamiliar with the identified issues and the power of individual/collective self-preservation.
7. Review your feedback on prior assignments to avoid committing similar issues that will lower your grade.
8. Watch end punctuation with quotations { ,” or (#) , // .” or (#).}and be mindful of italics.
9. Use an effective structure that carefully guides your reader from one idea to the next, and thoroughly edit your paper so that sentences and vocabulary are readable and appropriate for your SDSU academic audience.
10. Support your analysis with direct evidence from the texts using short-direct integrated quotes that also enhance your analysis, your prose and your own ethos. When you make an analytical claim, back it up with directly quoted textual evidence and supporting examples. Avoid unsubstantiated claims and vague references to the texts. Cite the paragraph or page number for quotations and paraphrased material, as follows: (12), specifying the author when necessary—e.g., (Kuznia 3).

Learning outcomes:  Analyze a variety of print and digital texts to articulate relationships between an argument’s elements and the contexts within which the argument was created.  Evaluate both print and digital arguments through a process of critical inquiry, examining the arguments in their original contexts and in the context of other arguments in order to discover relationships between texts.  Locate, evaluate, and synthesize material from sources related to a public discussion in order to generate and support arguments.  Contribute an informed argument to an ongoing public discussion by identifying and assessing the rhetorical context for an issue.  Employ conventions of academic writing in rhetorically purposeful ways.

Guidelines:

Length: 7-8 well developed non-repetitive coherent paragraphs (+ Works Cited)

Format: Follow standard MLA formatting guidelines (Raimes 340-342)

One-inch margins

Double-space text

Use standard 12-point font (e.g., Times, Palatino, Ariel)

Your Name, Instructor’s Name, Course and section # & time, Date, and Word Count double-spaced at top left of first page

Center title on first page (no separate cover page) no bold, no italics, no quotation marks

Paginate using the Header Function for your last name and page number in top right margin of page (e.g., Smith 1) including on page 1. Do not do this if you use a word processor that cannot affix the header to the top of the page.

Note the example on Raimes 341—this is how your first page should look!