Letter to Editor

9th Grade Research Project

Students in English 9 will write a mock response to an editorial.

Grade This research paper is 30 percent of your grade. These are the assignment scores for the research paper:

1. 6 points: You have three reasons and each reason has one source to support it. Assigned on Wednesday, March 5
2. 6 points: Works Cited page with 6 sources documented. Assigned on March 3, 5, 6, and 10 Use this or this
3. 4 points: Proper Format avoiding contractions, the word “you,” sentences starting with “there” or starting with the same word, each is worth one point. Assigned on Tuesday, March 4
4. 3 points: One paragraph with three things your opponent would agree with. Assigned on Friday, March 8
5. 3 points: One paragraph with three things you will NOT dispute. Assigned on Friday, March 8
6. 13 points: You have comments beside your document that label each of these parts: problem, thesis, reason 1, fact 1A, fact 1B, reason 2, fact 2A, fact 2B, reason 3, fact 3A, fact 3B, Opponent Agreement, Concessions, Value. Assigned on Tuesday, March 11
7. 6 points: You have six footnotes correctly cited

Thursday, April 3: Identify Sentences

Determine what type of sentence each of your first ten sentences are.

Label each as

1. simple
2. simple complex
3. compound
4. compound complex

Color code the parts of your sentences

• SUBJECTS in red
• PREDICATES in blue
• DEPENDENT CLAUSE in green

Wednesday, April 2: Identify Sentences

With a partner, identify the first ten sentences of your report.

Subject + Predicate = Clause

Two types of clauses:

• independent The boy left.
• dependent After the boy left.

Simple Sentence: The cat ate.

Simple Complex Sentences: After the boy left, the cat ate.

Compound: The cat ate, and the dog slept.

Compound-Complex: After the boy left, the cat ate, and the dog slept.

Save your document as "Sentences Your Name, Partner's Name

Wednesday, March 26: Evaluate Another's Essay

Make a copy of your short version essay. Save it as "Essay Your Name." Share it with another person. When you get the other person's essay, you save their essay as "Your Name's Evaluation of their Name's Essay" Kira's Eval of Bailey's Essay

Instructions

1. At the end of their essay, you add 150 words
2. You may agree with what they wrote: add suggestions, add information they do not have, help them out
3. You may disagree with what they wrote: write a response, argue against their claims
4. Then answer these 12 questions
5. What is the author’s purpose in writing this letter? What is he or she trying to accomplish?
6. What is the single most important problem or issue in the letter? What problem is he or she complaining about?
7. What is the single most significant information or data in this text? What does the writer reveal to the readers that seems dangerous or harmful?
8. What is the single most basic idea in this text? What should be done and why and what would happen if it isn’t done -- what should the reader do or care about?
9. What is the most fundamental assumption of this text? What is the writer assuming to be true without actually finding out whether or not it is true?
10. From whose point of view is this text written? What kind of person does the writer seem to be? If the writer was a stereotype, which stereotype would the writer be?
11. What facts and opinions are contained in this article and which seem strongest?
12. Explain wether this article is objective or biased.
13. Explain how the author used facts appropriately or inappropriately.
14. Who wrote the letter to the editor?
15. What is missing? In your opinion, which important facts, points of view, or opinions have been left out? You can NOT say, “nothing has been left out.” This is why, if ALL information WAS included, then the person who wrote the letter wins, and you have NO response to their letter. You will respond to their letter and will inform the author of what he or she did leave out.
16. Do I agree with this article? Why?

Copy and paste these questions. One-word answers are automatically wrong. Use full sentences.

Extra Credit Option 1: Respond to another person's essay. You must argue against their point. You must have their permission to argue against their point. Save as "Extra Credit Essay."

Extra Credit Option2: Describe what happened on the trip. Save as "Extra Credit Vacation."

Wednesday, March 19: Abstract

Their abstract is due on March 26 at start of class

Abstract, What is It

• An abstract is the shortest version of your writing
• An abstract is a one-paragraph summary of your writing
• It is the blurb of information people read when searching for articles
• It lets people searching your topic know the content of your paper

Abstract, How to Write It

• It is 150-200 words long
• It follows in order the main ideas of your paper
• All main ideas of your paper are included in the abstract
• Each main idea OR each paragraph is condensed
• Personal pronouns are forbidden in an abstact: It, they, them, their, you, your, I, me, mine, he, she, him, her, his, hers
• Facts are forbidden in an abstract
• Questions are forbidden in an abstract

Example from student paper:

The writer of this article contends that abortion is a problem in society. The writer states that abortion can be stopped by passing laws. Abortion should not be allowed to have an abortion, because abortion is murder. Abortion does not follow the Founding Fathers intentions in the Constitution. A child is human at conception. Abortion can hurt both the mother and child. Both mother and child feel pain. All negative effects of abortion would not happen if abortion was illegal. Many women are harmed from unsafe abortions. Abortion is murder. Abortions are harmful towards the mother. The writer acknowledges that many women do not want their own child, after becoming pregnant, and when women are raped or find out the child has a medical condition, some want to have an abortion. Many women do not want their own child after becoming pregnant. The writer states that abortion not the best choice. Abortion can affect the mother long term. A solution to this problem is to not get pregnant. Another solution is to put the child up for adoption.

Tuesday, March 18: Abridge Your Argument

Abridge means to shorten in length [information such as a book, speech, or essay] without losing the sense or meaning of the original.

Assignment: Remove 1/3 of your writing. Keep all main points. Read ALL of these instructions so that you do not miss points on your grade.

• Now that you have a finished document, we have something that we can work with.
• What we are about to do with your document is an academic exercise in writing--specifically summarizing, paraphrasing, condensing, and reducing
• Adding 300 words to a 600 word document is easy; removing 300 words from a 900 word document is hard

Step 1 COPY

• Make a copy of your essay
• Rename this copy as Short Version Your Name

Step 2 COUNT

• Do a word count on your document
• Do NOT count words these words
  • Title page
  • Footnotes
  • Works Cited

Step 3 CUT

• Cut. Remove the filler words you may have added: words that take up space but contribute little. If you have any, you will know where to look in your argument. Go there and delete
• Combine. Many of your sentences can say the same thing using fewer words--use fewer words. Get right to the point.
• Avoid adjectives--they detract, they make a strong argument weak, they add little

Step 4 KEEP

• Keep ALL 14 essential elements of your argument
• These are the 14 essential elements of your argument
  • Problem
  • Thesis
  • Reason 1
  • Fact 1A
  • Fact 1B
  • REASON 2
  • Fact 2A
  • Fact 2B
  • REASON 3
  • Opponent Agreement
  • Concessions
  • Value
  • Opponent's Best Reason
  • Opponent's Second Best Reason
• These labels must appear in front of the paragraph that contains that information

Monday, March 17: Respond and Reduce

Step 1

Remove ALL colored font. Put thesis in BOLD font. Put each reason in BOLD font. ONE sentence only per paragraph can be in bold font. One sentence only is in bold font.

Step 2

Share with another person. Read their argument. Respond to their argument. You must respond from these four points of view:

1. Friendly: Give comments, ideas, suggestions from the perspective of somebody who is in favor of the thesis
2. Undecided: Read the paper from the point of view of somebody who is greatly concerned about the issue but is as yet undecided on the issue; which parts of the paper would appeal to a reader who is undecided? Give suggestions on what could be added.
3. Apathetic: Read the paper from the point of view of somebody who does not care about the issue; which parts of the report appeal to an apathetic audience? Give suggestions on what could be added.
4. Hostile: Give comments from the point of view of somebody who is against the thesis; which arguments, reasons, facts are flimsy?

Friday, March 14: Work on paper or extra credit

All work is due on Monday, March 17.

Master Checklist Each of these items is a separate paragraph

1. Problem--your first paragraph. You state that we have a problem and something has to be done
2. Thesis--paragraph number 2. You offer a solution--your thesis--and say how its good
3. Reason 1
4. Fact 1A This is paragraph 4. It is your first fact. It supports your first reason.
5. Fact 1B This is paragraph 5. It is your second fact that supports your first reason
6. REASON 2
7. Fact 2A
8. Fact 2B
9. REASON 3
10. Opponent Agreement This is the paragraph where you say things that your opponent would agree with--it makes you seem reasonable [need three statements]
11. Concessions This is the paragraph where you admit things about your argument that you can NOT win on IF you had to defend them, so you will NOT defend those things [need three statements]
12. Value
13. Opponent's Best Reason You acknowledge your opponent's best reason against you and give two reasons for how your opponent is wrong
14. Opponent's Second Best Reason

Question for you: This is the order in which we wrote the essay. It makes sense to learn or to write these paragraphs in the order we wrote them. But, now that they are done, is this the best order that the paragraphs SHOULD go in?

The Answer is NO. What is a better order?

Thursday, March 13: Title Page, Footnotes, and Extra Credit

Add a title page to your report. Here is how

1. At the top of your document have hit <return> 10 times
2. Click <center>
3. Add a TITLE to your paper, hit <return>
4. Add a SUBTITLE to your paper, hit <return>; a subtitle is simply a longer version of your title, it does NOT need to be a complete sentence, it should summarize your paper's main idea and identify the important items you will discuss
5. Add Mr. DeGroot, English 9, Letter to Editor Assignment, hit <return>; that is, Name of instructor, name of course, name of assignment
6. Add today's date, hit <return>
7. Add your name, hit <return>
8. Click <insert>, click <page break>; hit return to remove a page break
9. EVERYTHING on title page MUST be in 12 point font and SHOULD be in Times font

Add a footnote to every source in your paper. Add a footnote to every fact, quote, statistic, item that you found that you pasted into your report.

Adding footnotes is easy.

1. Find your first fact
2. Go to your works cited page and find the complete documentation for that fact
3. Highlight and copy the complete documentation
4. Go back to your first fact
5. Go to the end of the sentence that uses that fact
6. Click <insert>
7. Click <footnote>
8. Paste
9. You did it!

Extra Credit

Option 1: (This is worth a LOT of points) Write a new argument AGAINST your thesis statement. You must adopt your opponent's point of view.

REMEMBER: The purpose of writing these arguments is to learn (1) persuasive strategies and (2) how to document. The purpose is NOT (NOT!) to change a person's opinion on an issue. Part of writing a successful argument is seeing the issue and predicting reasons from your opponent's point of view.

• Adopt your opponent's point of view
• If the report you have been writing said, "NO! No we should NOT do ____!" then this new report says, "YES! Yes we SHOULD do ____!"
• The more reasons you use, the more points you receive
• The more facts you use, the more points you receive
• NO PLACE in this paper can you argue AGAINST the thesis of the paper; ALL statements in the paper must be FOR the thesis
• DO put your thesis and all reasons in BOLD font--each reason MUST be written in ONE complete sentence
• If you use facts, you must footnote them and have a works cited page--even MORE points

Option 2: Write a new argument either FOR or AGAINST expanding the HMS buildings

• Include any number of reasons that you want to include
• Use any style of reason (solves a problem, saves resources, is best choice of many good choices, is least painful of many bad choices, is actually about this value or that value)
• Use or do NOT use sources [using sources will boost your score]
• Make concessions or NOT
• Name, or do NOT name, items that your opponent would agree with
• DO put your thesis and all reasons in BOLD font--each reason MUST be written in ONE complete sentence
• If you use facts, you must footnote them and have a works cited page--even MORE points

Wednesday, March 12: Opponent's Response

Add two paragraphs.

List your opponent's two best arguments against your thesis. Give two reasons for why each is wrong.

• Opponent's first reason against you
  • Your explanation of how it is wrong
  • Your other explanation of how it is wrong [Put all of this in one paragraph, label (comment function) this as Opponent Reason 1]
• Opponent's second reason against you
  • Your explanation of how it is wrong
  • Your other explanation of how it is wrong [Put all of this in one paragraph, label (comment function) this as Opponent Reason 2]

Intelligent people view an argument from both sides--this does NOT mean that they agree with the other side. They explore their opponent's reasons so they can find counter arguments.

You must think of your opponent's two best reasons. This does NOT mean that you must agree with those reasons.

EXTRA CREDIT: Use and document a new source for each paragraph.

Tuesday, March 11:

(1) Learn to use the <COMMENT> function of Google Docs.

• Put "Problem" beside the sentence where you describe a problem that society has solve
• Put "Thesis" beside your thesis
• Put "Reason 1" beside your first reason
• Put "Fact 1A" beside the first fact that supports your first reason
• Put "Fact 1B" "Fact C" and so on beside any other facts that support your FIRST reason
• Repeat this for REASON 2 and all FACTS that support your second reason
• Put "Fact 2A" beside the first fact that supports your second reason
• Put "Fact 2B" beside second fact that supports your second reason
• Repeat this for REASON 3 and all ....
• Put "Opponent Agreement" beside the paragraph that has three statements made by you that your opponent would agree with
• Put "Concessions" beside the paragraph that has three statements made by you that you will NOT dispute
• Put "Value" beside the paragraph where you connect your thesis to some value

(2) Condense your long quotations

(3) Have six citations on a works cited page

Monday, March 10: Values

ONE: Add one new paragraph. Connect your thesis to one or more values.

Below is list of values. You must decide which one or two or three of these values is the origin of your argument. You must explain to your reader that your argument is about either having or NOT having that value. Explain that by agreeing with your thesis the value is acquired, that be disagreeing the value is lost.

Achievement, aesthetics, altruism, autonomy, creativity, emotional health, honesty, justice, knowledge, love, loyalty, morality, physical health, physical looks, pleasure, power, recognition, religious faith, skill, wealth, wisdom

Explanation for three of them:

• Aesthetics: appreciation for the way something looks, example: Same old house (1) cracked, peeling paint or (2) new paint. Clothes that match (aesthetics) vs. mismatched clothes (unaesthetic). A snowmobile helmet OR a snowmobile helmet with a "FLAMES" decal on it. An item that is plain OR one that is decorated.
• Altruism: to volunteer, to do something nice without looking for recognition or reward, to help out anonymously
• Autonomy: to be independent, to NOT need help or assistance, to be self-governing.

TWO: Have one NEW source for this paragraph. FACT # 6

THREE: Clean up your essay

• No TWO sentences in the same paragraph begin the same way. Reasoning: To break up predictable writing patterns that many students are stuck in
• Do NOT use the word "you." Reasoning: Personal pronouns are avoided in formal writing. Using the word "you" in writing creates a second-person point of view. Some writing needs to be second-person point of view: [You] Preheat oven to 350, [You] Turn left at the corner, [You] Drink Mountain Dew. The danger is in misusing you: It is like trying to walk in deep snow and you are wearing high heals, OR You know when you are on a 12-hour flight and the batteries in the game die, so you have to... OR Have you ever wondered why Columbia grows lots of coffee? Well, no. Most readers do not wonder about coffee; do not have an experience with a long airplane flight, much less one that includes dead batteries; and half of the readers do not wear high heals. The YOU does not apply.
• Do NOT use contractions (I'm, isn't, can't, won't, ...). Formal writing does not use contractions.
• NO sentences anywhere in your document start with the word "There." One explanation is here. There is a table should be rewritten as A table are there; There is a bug in the soup should be rewritten as A bug is in the soup.

Friday, March 8: Agreement and Concessions

Add two new paragraphs to their essay.

• One paragraph must contain three statements that your opponent will agree with.
• The other paragraph must contain three statements that you are NOT going to argue--three things that you openly acknowledge that you would lose on if you tried to argue it. These three items are concessions; there is simply no way to win-over an audience by debating ___ or ___ or ___, so I will not try. “My opponent is right, ___ was a bad idea. It was an opportunity for us to improve.” Note: Doing this makes you look reasonable, fair-minded, and rational.

Thursday, March 6: Additional factual support

Put your thesis in bold font

Put your reasons in blue font

Put your quote / fact in red font

Assignment for Friday:

Find a second fact, quote, statistic, expert opinion for TWO of your reasons. Each of these two new facts will go into a new paragraph

• Paragraph 1: We have a problem, ____ is the problem
• Paragraph 2: We have solutions. We could do ___ or ___ but my idea is best
• Paragraph 3: My idea is best for this reason ___ and this fact ___ proves it
• Paragraph 4: New fact to support "reason number 1" OR FACT # 4
• Paragraph 5: Here is another reason I'm right AND a fact that proves it
• Paragraph 6: New fact to support "reason number 2" OR FACT # 5
• Paragraph 7: Here is yet a third reason I'm right AND a fact that proves it
• Paragraph 8: New fact to support "reason number 3"

When done, you will have 7 (not 8) paragraphs. You will have 3 reasons. Two of those reasons will each have two sources that agree with what you said. One reason will have only one source. Fully document your sources using APA. Add the complete citation to your works cited page.

• No TWO sentences in the same paragraph begin the same way. Reasoning: To break up predictable writing patterns that many students are stuck in
• Do NOT use the word "you." Reasoning: Personal pronouns are avoided in formal writing. Using the word "you" in writing creates a second-person point of view. Some writing needs to be second-person point of view: [You] Preheat oven to 350, [You] Turn left at the corner, [You] Drink Mountain Dew. The danger is in misusing you: It is like trying to walk in deep snow and you are wearing high heals, OR You know when you are on a 12-hour flight and the batteries in the game die, so you have to... OR Have you ever wondered why Columbia grows lots of coffee? Well, no. Most readers do not wonder about coffee; do not have an experience with a long airplane flight, much less one that includes dead batteries; and half of the readers do not wear high heals. The YOU does not apply.
• Do NOT use contractions (I'm, isn't, can't, won't, ...). Formal writing does not use contractions.
• NO sentences anywhere in your document start with the word "There." One explanation is here. There is a table should be rewritten as A table are there; There is a bug in the soup should be rewritten as A bug is in the soup.

Wednesday, March 5: Add to your argument

Add two paragraphs to your essay.

• Chose two reasons from your list of "D-E-F-G reasons" to write about.
• These will be paragraphs four and five.
• Repeat the process you did yesterday
• Explain the situation
  • the old reasons for doing ____ no longer apply
  • alternative solutions won't work for these reasons _______
  • my idea does have these flaws ______ but my idea is still better than doing [this alternative] for these reasons ________
  • the problems of ____, ____, and ____ are solved by doing [your thesis]
• Both of these new paragraphs need to use a fact
• You must add the full documentation for these two facts at the end of your essay
• Use this Son of Citation Machine
• Include TWO sentences about your source
  • Who is this source?
  • What are you using this source?
  • How is it credible (worth trusting)?
  • How does it connect to your argument

Summary--You're done when you have this:

• Paragraph 1: We have a problem, ____ is the problem
• Paragraph 2: We have solutions. We could do ___ or ___ but my idea is best
• Paragraph 3: My idea is best for this reason ___ and this fact ___ proves it FACT # 1
• Paragraph 4: Here is another reason I'm right AND a fact that proves it FACT # 2
• Paragraph 5: Here is yet a third reason I'm right AND a fact that proves it FACT # 3

Tuesday, March 4: Begin writing your argument

Write the first few paragraphs of your persuasive "letter to an editor." Follow this format:

First Paragraph

• Explain that we (society) have a problem
• Explain what the problem is
• Explain how we are negatively affected by this problem
• [Challenge: Try to think of the one person who is in NO WAY negatively affected by this problem AND THEN show how that person is indeed DIRECTLY affected by this problem. In other words, you have people -- your readers -- who think they have nothing to do with this issue and you need to show them that they are affected by this issue.]
• Explain what will happen if nothing is done

Second Paragraph

• Explain that something can be done
• State your thesis
• State alternative solutions to the problem you mentioned
• Explain how the alternative solutions will NOT work

Third Paragraph

• Describe your thesis
• Describe how your thesis is the best solution to the problem
• Use your fact / source of information / statistic / expert opinion you found in this paragraph
• Put your fact inside quotation marks
• Write the name of the source (the person who wrote the article OR the name of the website your information came from) either directly in front of the fact or immediately after the fact. Example: According to the NRA, "Seventy percent of gun owners approve of owning guns (McNeil)."
• Read the pdf below titled Parenthetical
• Include TWO sentences about your source
  • Who is this source?
  • What are you using this source?
  • How is it credible (worth trusting)?
  • How does it connect to your argument

At Bottom of Document: Paste the complete citation of the source you used

General Items

• No TWO sentences in the same paragraph begin the same way
• Do NOT use the word "you"
• Do NOT use contractions (I'm, isn't, can't, won't, ...)
• NO sentences anywhere in your document start with the word "There."

Save Document as Letter to Editor -- Rough Draft

Due on Wednesday at start of class

Monday, March 3: Prove that you are right

Prove that one of your reasons is true or factual or valid.

Find one source of information (a newspaper article, a government report, an item from AEA online), quote the sentence that supports what you said, document the article that the information came from. Use Google Scholar. Use AEA Online.

Find and document one source for Tuesday.

Son of Citation Machine

Use APA to document your sources. Use Son of Citation Machine to quote your sources. Enter your information into the citation making website. Copy the result that is given to you; paste the result onto your own document. Read the .pdf below titled "Documentation 1" and "Documentation 2."

Friday: Create Usable Thesis; Create Reason You are Correct

1. Commit to your thesis
2. Complete letters A-G on your worksheet titled "Reasons" see attached files below

You are going to write a counter argument. At this point you have found a letter to the editor that you disagree with. You have read and summarized it. You have analyzed some of the letter's basic intentions, assumptions, ideas, implications, facts, and goals.

Now you are ready to respond. Start with writing one sentence that says what you think should be done. This will be your thesis. A thesis is a one-sentence statement that an argument can be build upon.

A thesis does these four things:

1. It takes on a topic that reasonable people could disagree with each other
2. It deals with a topic that can be adequately covered / discussed in 3-5 pages
3. It expresses ONE idea
4. It asserts your conclusion on the topic

Copy/paste and answer these

A. My Thesis: [You must do this, write one]

Plastic bottles should be worth twenty-five cents.

B. List alternatives to your thesis (how many could you think of?) [You must do this, write one]

Keep redemption value at ten cents.

C. List reasons that a friendly audience would agree with [You must do this, write one]

More people would recycle plastic bottles.

Do letters D -- G. You MUST have at least ONE answer for three (3) of the letters D -- G. One letter is allowed to have NO answer.

D. List reasons for why some original policy for having the law (that applies to the student’s thesis) no longer applies (That is, we once had a really good reason for why we should or should NOT do something, but things change--so what changed that makes that old law obsolete, out of date, outmoded, unneeded.) Find 1-3 reasons for this.

Ten cents was a lot of money in 1978 when pop costs fifty cents; now it is not.

E. List examples of problems that are solved by doing your thesis. Find 1-3 reasons for this.

Less trash would be in ditches.

F. List ways that your thesis is better than alternatives. Find 1-3 reasons for this.

Doing nothing will lead to increased levels of trash on roadways as the value of redemption continues to go down.

G. List ways your thesis is bad, yet not as bad as the alternatives. Find 1-3 reasons for this.

The cost of pop will increase (for a short time) but grocery stores will again be able to make a profit on returned bottles and pass the savings onto customers.

[These letters are for next week's assignments. You do nothing with letters H - M. They are NOT part of your assignment for Monday]

H. List ways that the thesis can save money or time

Fewer volunteers will be needed to clean roadways and they could volunteer their efforts to other good causes.

I. Try to think of people who are negatively impacted if thesis is NOT done, i.e. (that is) small businesses, property owners, seniors, college students, single parents

Grocery stores will continue to lose money recycling bottles for ten cents.

J. What values (autonomy, honesty, justice) does your thesis represent

It's not really about tens cents or twenty-five cents, it's about motivating others to care for the environment--which is good citizenship. It's really about good citizenship.

K. What points could you make in your argument that your opponent would agree with

We all want clean ditches.

M. What points in this debate are you going to NOT argue, i.e. you simple can NOT defend this small detail or that small detail, so you will not try

The price of pop will increase.

Your Assignment (repeated): Answer letters A -- C (above). Answer any letter D -- G. Each answer to letters D -- G is worth one point. The more responses you provide to letters D -- G, the more points you can earn. NO letter may have more than three (3) responses--this does NOT apply to extra credit.

Your Grade: This grade is worth six (6) points--one point for each reason that you provide. The word "answer" and the word "reason" means the same thing for these instructions.

• 0 reason equals 0 out of 6 points
• 1 reason equals 1 out of 6 points
• 2 reason equals 2 out of 6 points
• 3 reason equals 3 out of 6 points
• 4 reason equals 4 out of 6 points
• 5 reason equals 5 out of 6 points
• 6 reason equals 6 out of 6 points FULL Credit !
• 7 reason equals 6 out of 6 points Now you are working towards extra credit. You now have NO restrictions on the number of answers can go with any letter
• 8 reason equals 6 out of 6 points Once you've met the requirements for 6 out of 6, you are unrestricted on the number of replies to any letter. If you want to
• 9 reason equals 6 out of 6 points add nine more to letter E, add nine more.
• 10 reason equals 10 out of 6 points You earned 1 out of 6 points of extra credit
• 11reason equals 11 out of 6 points You earned 2 out of 6 points of extra credit
• 12 reason equals 12 out of 6 points You earned 3 out of 6 points of extra credit
• 13 reason equals 13 out of 6 points You earned 4 out of 6 points of extra credit
• 14 reason equals 14 out of 6 points You earned 5 out of 6 points of extra credit
• 15 reason equals 15 out of 6 points You earned 6 out of 6 points of extra credit

Extra Credit: Six points of extra credit are available. Reasons numbers 10-15 are each worth one point of extra credit. Your first six reasons are your assignment. Reasons 7-8-9 are getting you towards extra credit points but are worth zero points by themselves. Reasons 10-11-12-13-14-15 are each worth one point of extra credit.

Due on Monday, March 3: Answers to letters A-G

Thursday: Map your argument

Assigned on Thursday, February 27 and due on Friday, 28.

1. Make document titled "Thesis--Your Name"
2. Share with Mr. DeGroot
3. In this document, include this information:
   1. The social issue that you picked Animals in captivity
   2. A statement about what is controversial in that social issue Some people think zoos represent animal cruelty, others do not
   3. Your thesis statement Animals in zoos should have space enough to mimic real-world conditions and environment

Due at start of class, February 28

Wednesday: Analyze Letter to Editor

1. What is the author’s purpose in writing this letter? What is he or she trying to accomplish?
2. What is the single most important problem or issue in the letter? What problem is he or she complaining about?
3. What is the single most significant information or data in this text? What does the writer reveal to the readers that seems dangerous or harmful?
4. What is the single most basic idea in this text? What should be done and why and what would happen if it isn’t done -- what should the reader do or care about?
5. What is the most fundamental assumption of this text? What is the writer assuming to be true without actually finding out whether or not it is true?
6. From whose point of view is this text written? What kind of person does the writer seem to be? If the writer was a stereotype, which stereotype would the writer be?
7. What facts and opinions are contained in this article and which seem strongest?
8. Explain wether this article is objective or biased.
9. Yes or no: Does the author use facts? Explain how the facts are either used appropriately or inappropriately.
10. Who wrote the letter to the editor?
11. What newspaper printed the letter to the editor?
12. What is missing? In your opinion, which important facts, points of view, or opinions have been left out? You can NOT say, “nothing has been left out.” This is why, if ALL information WAS included, then the person who wrote the letter wins, and you have NO response to their letter. You will respond to their letter and will inform the author of what he or she did leave out.
13. Do I agree with this article? Why?