Paragraphs
What is a topic sentence?
A topic sentence summarizes the main idea of a paragraph and is the first sentence of a paragraph. For our rebuttal, claims and counterclaims will mostly be our topic sentences.
What is a signal phrase?
A signal phrase helps introduce a quote and shows who said what you're quoting and where it came from. For example: Professor Meyerhoff stated in his CCI Review Jeopardy game that quotes...
Never just drag and drop a quote without a signal phrase!
What is Synthesis?
It is combining two ideas together to come up with a new idea. Sometimes this looks like comparing/contrasting two authors/data with some personal opinion thrown in!
For example, one person might argue that we should have a Kahoot! to review CCI skills since it is a fun and interactive game! Another student argues that we've had too many Kahoot, so maybe we should just stick to a PowerPoint since having all the skills in one place would be helpful.
A synthesis of this might be: I've decided to do Jeopardy, since I want to use a fun and interactive game that is not Kahoot, while also having all our terms in one place without using another PowerPoint (and I added the terms to Canvas).
When is the Rebuttal Due & what is the length of this essay?
March 25th at 11:59pm in your Google Drive Folder and on Canvas!
Your essay should be between 800-1100 words (it is okay if it is longer).
What is Core Value I?
Core Value I. Writing is a practice that involves a multi-stage, recursive and social process.
Writing is a process that involves multiple stages and that does not always follow a linear path. In other words, we don’t read, write, and revise once and in that exact order; rather, we engage in a variety of activities at multiple points as we compose a piece of writing. These activities include but are not limited to reading, generating and discussing ideas, researching, drafting, reviewing and sharing our work, reflecting, and revising. Many of these activities require you to discuss your work with others—your peers, your instructor, and potentially people outside the class—to both give and receive feedback; in this way, writing is a social experience that depends on collaboration.
How many ideas should be presented in a paragraph?
Typically, you want to stay with one idea per paragraph as to not confuse your readers. This will keep your ideas flowing coherently! So if you have two claims, you might have two paragraphs. And if you have two counterclaims, then you'll have two more paragraphs. Alternatively, you may have a claim that requires more than one paragraph to discuss as it has multiple ideas / sub-claims.
How do you indicate to your readers that something is quoted?
You should use "quotations" around the quoted material following the signal phrase. If you need to slightly change anything in a quote, use [brackets]. I've found that college students often skip these important steps. They usually forget to add quotations.
Example: In Professor Meyerhoff's Jeopardy CCI Review, he stated in the Quotes Question for 200 that, "[College students] usually forget to add quotations.
Can you use more than two sources for Synthesis?
Of course! You might have lots of common ideas that, when merged together, create a brand new idea. For example, I discussed the whether or not we should get rid of or keep the penny. One side argues it is too expensive to keep producing pennies so we should get rid of them, but the other side says getting rid of the penny will cause the price of everything else to go up! The middle ground says that we should just stop producing pennies but keep those that we already have in circulation. How do we synthesis this?
What if we just find a cheaper material to make pennies out of, that way we keep them and/or we slowly get rid of making new pennies, then only round up prices if someone pays in cash and doesn't have a penny to use.
What is in the Introduction?
Introduce your analysis by first introducing the argument you are going to refute. Introduce it, contextualize and summarize it. You need to provide the necessary information about the author, source, context and purpose of the article you are rebutting as well as an overall picture of how the argument is made.
Next, address the strengths of the argument. What are the major claims, evidence, and stakeholders? Consider how supporters of the argument use ethos, logos, and pathos. This is known as making a concession.
What is Core Value II?
Core Value II. Close and critical reading/analysis is necessary for listening to and questioning texts, arriving at a thoughtful understanding of those texts, and joining the academic and/or public conversations represented by those texts.
Writers create texts to communicate ideas, and they make specific choices in their writing to achieve their goals, be it with words, images, sound, editing, or other elements. As readers, we must analyze these elements to determine the authors’ meanings. Readers engage with texts not only to understand their meanings and listen to other authors but also to question them. By engaging with multiple authors during the reading and writing processes, and by constructing relationships among texts, you will discover and create “conversations” to join by working with and adding to those authors’ ideas.
Roughly how many sentences does a paragraph have?
Paragraphs often vary in length depending on the genre of the article. For most academic essays, paragraphs usually range between seven to ten sentences, but may be less or more! A good rule of thumb is simply making sure you've said all you wanted to say within a single idea before moving into a new paragraph!
An in-text citation is usually at the end of a quote in parenthesis and tells your reader where to find the quoted material in your Works Cited page. Often an in-text citation includes the date the source was published. Sometimes this also includes the author, but only if you did not properly "use a signal phrase to introduce the quote" (Meyerhoff 2021).
How many authors do I need for this essay?
At least three, but you can have more!
You should have a rebuttal author with opposing views to your own and then two sources that you'll use to counter your first author's claims.
Additional sources might include data/stats, videos/podcast clips, sources from your IBR, etc.
What is in the Body?
Explore the various points the author makes and introduce ways you can rebut those points. Remember, there may be multiple ways to refute a claim, so one claim may need to be explored more than once. These are known as counterclaims and make up the body of your essay.
What is Core Value III?
Core Value III: Writing is shaped by audience, purpose, genre, and context.
Writing is an act of communication that involves an author writing for a purpose and using a genre to reach an audience in a specific context--these elements constitute the rhetorical situation. Taking the rhetorical situation into account helps you to analyze the choices and strategies of other authors, as well as to create effective texts of your own. Effective writers assess audience expectations and the textual conventions associated with a situation or genre as they create a text for a specific purpose; they then make strategic decisions about how they want to meet or challenge those expectations in terms of content, structure, rhetorical appeals, presentation/design, language, and style.
What is usually included in the middle of a paragraph?
Usually after some context around the idea you've present, you'll bring in quotes/authors and conduct some analysis as to why this evidence is important and how it is relevant for that paragraph's idea / topic sentence.
What is paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing is when you take a long quote from a source and restate it in your own words, often keeping the most important parts. You should ALWAYS cite when you paraphrase or bring in information from an outside source. Paraphrasing works very well with bringing in data/statistic into your essay! Between the years 2017-2021, I've seen roughly 20% of my students forget to cite, about 30% or more not include a signal phrase, and 50 add in three or four continuous sentences of bulky quoted material. These numbers have only increased to 40% forgetful citations, 60% no signal phrases, and nearly all my students over-quoting.
Example: Professor Meyerhoff has seen the number of students forgetting to cite, not use signal phrases, and over-quote double over the last five years Recently, 60% of his students are not using signal phrases (2021).
Where should you synthesize all of your authors, research, and findings?
In your conclusion. This is a great place to discuss all of your main authors, including why your rebuttal source's claims are overall flawed and why your audience should find a common ground after reading your essay!
What is in the Conclusion?
Finally, synthesize your findings and counterclaims, discussing how the weaknesses in this argument are greater than the argument’s strengths. You may consider comparing your previous concession with your current evidence against the argument’s claims. Why should your audience shift their perspective and question the argument that they had originally supported? What is the common ground between both sides? This will lead into the Part II: The Proposal Essay, which you will add onto this document after conferencing and revising Part I.
What is Core Value IV?
Core Value IV. Information literacy is essential to the practice of writing.
Academic and intellectual writing is informed writing, which means contextualizing our ideas within pre-existing conversations and providing evidence beyond our personal experiences or opinions. To do this, you will need to develop the skills necessary to locate and evaluate source information in a digital environment, to determine which information to incorporate into your own writing depending on the rhetorical situation, and to document your sources appropriately.
What is usually at the end of a paragraph?
After introducing and analyzing evidence, you may bring in personal opinions, correlating data to expand on the idea, or synthesize another author's views. Often, paragraphs may refer back to previous paragraphs or set up for an idea presented in the next paragraph.
What is a quote sandwich and what do you do after including a quote in your paragraph?
A quote sandwich is a signal phrase, a quote, and an analysis. After using a quote, you should always spend between two to four sentences explaining what the author means and connecting back to the topic sentence. You may also synthesize this quote by comparing it to evidence or a paraphrase from another quote.
Example: In Professor Meyerhoff's fantastic CCI Skills Jeopardy Review, he states that students should "spend between two to four sentences explaining what the author means" (2021). Often, students will skip this part of the quoting process and just move onto the next quote or idea. Instead, by spending more than just a single sentence discussing it, you will give your readers an accurate portrayal of what the author means. This can also be a good place to explain terms that you've quoted for the reader, like what "synthesis" might mean! Then, you can finally move into bigger picture ideas and why this quote is relevant to your topic sentence, which for me would be helping you to review CCI Skills!
How else do I use Synthesis in my essay?
You should ideally include more than one author/source in a body paragraph!
For example, you might have one claim that focuses on a single author and that might be all you discuss & breakdown for that paragraph. For your next paragraph, you would introduce a counterclaim that goes against the previous claim/author!
So in that second paragraph, you'll most likely bring in a new quote from your countering author while paraphrasing the previous author! This sort of looks like this:
While Professor Meyerhoff said that Jeopardy is great for reviewing CCI skills, the recent study titled "No More Kahoots" published in Teachers Against Fun Games In Class Monthly argues that "games like Kahoot actually bore students as they are overused in the classroom" (2021). However, the fact that Meyerhoff uses Jeopardy actually breaks up the monotony of class as well as using a multitude of games so as not to get boring.
What should you have for peer review on Thursday (3/25) and where can you find my feedback after you submit your essay?
You should have at least your intro and a body paragraph or two finished and in your Google Drive folder! Peer Review counts for 20% of your essay submission grade.
I'll type comments directly on your Google Doc! You should revise directly on this document and not make additional copies. Feel free to delete my comments as you revise. Do not use Microsoft Word or PDFs to upload your essay.
What is Core Value V?
Core Value V. Writing has power and comes with ethical responsibilities.
Because writing is not only personal but also public and social, there are ethical concerns that we must take into account. The most obvious component of ethical writing is crediting others for their ideas through proper citation, which is also an act of sharing research with others. Ethical writing, however, is more than avoiding plagiarism: it also involves conscientiously reading other authors’ texts so as to listen to them, understand their ideas and how they have arrived at their perspective, and accurately represent them in your own writing. Through this process of critical and conscientious reading, you will understand that there can be a variety of valid perspectives on an issue/topic and that ethical writing represents the complexity of an issue by respectfully acknowledging multiple perspectives.