TOPIC: ARGUMENTATION

Ch. 9, “Making an Argument,” from Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research, by Cheryl Lowry. Accessible at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. This chapter, whose content is briefer than it first appears, breaks down argumentation into claims, reasons, evidence, and counterarguments. Its coverage of counterarguments is particularly helpful for any discussion of the kind of moves that distinguish academic arguments from arguments in general. Also, it situates these components of arguments in relation to an initial research question, which often applies in academic situations. This was my first assigned reading in my ENGL 1304 class. – Nathan Shepley

TOPIC: ARGUMENTATION

Pages 201-214 and 223-231 from Ch. 7, “Argumentation,” in EmpoWord: A Student-Centered Anthology & Handbook for College Writers, by Shane Abrams. Accessible at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. These sections of Ch. 7 break down argumentation further than Lowry’s Ch. 9 does, making this chapter useful as follow-up reading. It discusses the most popular rhetorical appeals, identifies some of the better known logical fallacies, compares Aristotelian arguments and Rogerian arguments, and gives a nod to the role of sociohistorical context in shaping what counts as a good argument. Pages 223-231 consist of a sample essay from a student. The information from this reading selection could be applied to multiple in-class activities. – Nathan Shepley

TOPICS: SUMMARIZING, PARAPHRASING, AND QUOTING

Ch. 3, “Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Avoiding Plagiarism,” from The Process of Research Writing, by Steven Krause. Accessible at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. This ten-page chapter runs through the topics identified in its title, addresses some in-text citation conventions for MLA vs. APA, and includes brief examples. However, some of its writing samples that it calls good are, in my perspective, not yet A material. Feel free to push harder than this book chapter does. Note: the chapter could be used in ENGL 1303 and/or in ENGL 1304. – Nathan Shepley

TOPIC: WRITING A CRITIQUE

Ch. 7, “The Critique Exercise,” from The Process of Research Writing, by Steven Krause. Accessible at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. This 14-page chapter explains critique writing (or, more broadly, evaluation arguments) as involving close reading, summarizing, developing your own perspective as a reader, and questioning a text. Most importantly, though, on p. 6 it covers the importance of criteria for giving direction to any particular critique. This is a hugely important point for students to explore across multiple activities. If, for example, students evaluate UH as being a good, bad, decent, or problematic research university, then first the students must establish what counts as a good research university and why. Ditto for other categories of things or for any genre of text. A sample student paper is given on pp. 12-14, but in my opinion it isn’t strong. I could see a class and an instructor improving the student paper together, partly by further clarifying and defending the criteria underlying the critique. – Nathan Shepley

TOPICS: SCRUTINIZING WEB SOURCES; HANDLING DISINFORMATION

Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers (2017), a textbook by Mike Caulfield. Accessible at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks or https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com. Across multiple class meetings, I assigned sections I.2, I.3, II.4, II.5, III.7, III.8, III.10, IV.16, IV.17, IV.18, and VI.40 from the book’s e-pub version. These sections offer specific tools to help students scrutinize various kinds of sources on the web at large. Also, the book assumes that disinformation is ubiquitous online. Note: this textbook was not written for first year writing classes but for beginning journalism students. So it may gesture to writing goals and assignments that don’t fit your class. In discussion with your students, recontextualize parts of the book as needed for ENGL 1304. Also note: this book exists in multiple formats, including PDF, and some formats aren’t identical to the others. – Nathan Shepley

TOPIC: SEARCHES ON LIBRARY DATABASES AND GOOGLE SCHOLAR; EVALUATING SOURCES

EmpoWord: A Student-Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers, a textbook by Shane Abrams. Accessible at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. I assigned pp. 274-287 of this book. One part addresses searches on library databases (pp. 275-279), another part addresses Google Scholar (pp. 280-281), and another part gives tips for evaluating sources (pp. 283-287). – Nathan Shepley

TOPICS: GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION, AND PROOFREADING

“Grammar and Style,” pp. 165-169 in the textbook The Word on College Reading and Writing, by Monique Babin et al. Accessible at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. This section offers a top-ten error list, a detailed checklist for proofreading a paper, one way to keep an error log, special attention to independent clauses and dependent clauses, and a brief review of common punctuation conventions. Finally, it includes links to some popular grammar and punctuation websites. I found that this section helped me explain dependent and independent clauses and how assembling clauses in certain ways can generate more complex sentences. Also, I use the punctuation section to support my explanation of the FANBOYS convention for compound sentences containing particular coordinating conjunctions. I tell students that I expect them to master these conventions even though they will find journalists and other writers (maybe even some teachers) who never learned them. Note: this reading could apply to both ENGL 1303 and ENGL 1304. – Nathan Shepley