010 Titles and Arguments Professor Ramos Blog

010 Titles and Arguments Titles as Metacommentary Quick Write Titles as Metacommentary Chapter 10 (â€Å"But Don’t Get Me Wrong†: The Art of Metacommentary) Metacommentary is â€Å"a way of commenting on your claims and telling others how – and how not – to think about them† (129). Metacommentary is telling the audience how to interpret what has been said. They aid the reader by helping them understand why you are saying what you are saying. They prevent readers from getting confused and lead to a more developed paper. How can we use titles to tell the readers about your paper? Let’s look at some examples. Casso â€Å"Worth the Lie† Take 10-15 minutes to review the article. Work in groups of 2 or 3. What is Casso’s argument? How does Casso support the argument he is making? Find examples of ethos, pathos, and logos. Lance Armstrong crossing the finish line to win the 17th stage of the 2004 Tour de France.CreditCreditWolfgang Rattay/Reuters Notes: Sort of cost-benefit analysis Measuring praise and blame Making the weaker argument the stronger one, playing devil’s advocate Group Presentation Take 10 minutes to plan your presentation. Solution Argument Examples One example of a solution argument essay that we have previously discussed in this class is â€Å"The Danger of a Single Story† by Chimamanda Adichie. To quote a  CNN article on the Danger of a Single Story: Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie believes in the power of stories, and warns that hearing only one about a people or nation leads to ignorance. She says the truth is revealed by many tales. She illustrates this with a story about coming to the United States, as a middle-class daughter of a professor and an administrator, and meeting her college roommate. Adichie says that her roommate’s â€Å"default position toward me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning, pity. My roommate had a single story of Africa. A single story of catastrophe.† Adichie also tells how growing up in Nigeria reading only American and English children’s books made her deaf to her authentic voice. As a child, she wrote about such things as blue-eyed white children eating apples, thinking brown skin and mangos had no place in literature. That changed as she discovered African writers, particularly the Nigerian Chinua Achebe. This is a great quote that highlights some of the moves we need to do in our article. It summarizes her topic, problem she is addressing, and solution; including examples she uses. Topic:  Many people do not realize that they are getting only one story. A single story is incomplete and she says dangerous. Problem:  Having a single story about an issue or group of people leads to stereotypes and incomplete information. Solution:  To look for multiple stories of whatever issue or topic you are hearing. She recommends we get our news and stories from multiple perspectives. Reasons and evidence:  She gives examples from her personal life to highlight that she has a personal connection. Background:  She gives background information, citing quotes and examples that place her issue in a historical context. She also uses current examples to place the issue in a contemporary context. Audience Who do you think her audience is? What do they value? Does she address those values? Sample Essays Clicking Originality Away: Social Media’s Effect On Young Female’s Self Esteem Papers Please! The Illegal Immigration Problem Creating Structure Structure is very important to making an argument. It needs to be deliberate and well organized. You cannot come across as being all over the place. An argument needs order in order for the audience to follow along. Here is one possible outline to use to build your paper: Position (thesis) Background Reason with evidence Reason with evidence Reason with evidence Reason with evidence Counterargument with refutation Conclusion with so what question addressing audience

Oft, Often, and Oftentimes

Oft, Often, and Oftentimes Oft, Often, and Oftentimes Oft, Often, and Oftentimes By Mark Nichol What is the difference between often and oftentimes, and is oft a word? The short answers are that there is no difference, and yes. These three adverbs all stem from the Old English (and Middle English) term oft, meaning â€Å"frequently.† The longer variants developed in the 1300s. Just as often is an extended alteration of oft (likely invented to ease the transition to a word beginning with a vowel), oftentimes derived from ofttimes. That last word is all but unknown in Modern English, and even oft is rare but survives in a saying from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, â€Å"The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.† It is also used in combination with verbs in constructions such as oft-praised and oft-told. Often and oftentimes are interchangeable, but the more archaic-sounding latter word is less economical and has an obsolete taint equivalent to that of the superfluous -st ending in words such as amidst and amongst or the extraneous first syllable of upon. (Interestingly, against differs from its cousins amidst and amongst in that the truncated form again is not a variation but a word with a distinct meaning.) The antonym seldom, meaning â€Å"rarely,† which also comes from Old English, originally had a compound -times form as well (though it was hyphenated), and seldhweanne (â€Å"seldwhen†) and seldsiene (â€Å"seldseen†) were part of the word-hoard, though only the latter word evolved into a later form (seldom-seen). (The variant seld-shown appeared in Shakespeare.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What Is Irony? (With Examples)Do you "orient" yourself, or "orientate" yourself?5 Tips to Understand Hyphenated Words