Activities
Week of Dec 5
Peer Partner:
Using a different color, type your comments:
Were at least 5 sources/citations used in the paper?
Were they cited correctly in MLA?
Were there page numbers listed for the print sources? Were they listed correctly? Were there any sources without page numbers?
Was the introduction interesting? Was it effective? Was the thesis stated well?
Did the essay make sense? Was it logical?
Was the essay written well? Was it interesting to read or was it boring?
Was a variety of styles used for the citations? Or was the same style used over and over?
What suggestions do you have to "kick it up a notch"?
Did your partner's argument convincing? Did you to understand the reasoning? Do you think they are correct?
Was the essay written with passion?
Did the arguments make sense?
Spelling errors?
Grammatical errors?
Does the essay appear to be about 90% completed?
Week of Nov 28
Activity 34 - Outline Essay
Activity 33
Quote, Paraphrase, and Respond
Choose three passages from the article you might be able to use in
a letter or an essay. You may want to choose passages you strongly
agree or disagree with.
1. First, write each passage down as a correctly punctuated direct
2. Second, paraphrase the material in your own words. What does
the author mean by this?
3. Third, respond to the idea expressed in the passage by agreeing
or disagreeing with it and explaining why
Activity 32
Gathering Evidence to Support Your Claims
1. What are you going to quote or paraphrase from the article or articles you read? What do you want to say in response?
2. What information do you need to support your claims? Where are you going to find it? (This may involve Internet searches. If so, what search terms will you use?)
3. How closely does this piece of evidence relate to the claim it is supposed to support?
4. Is this piece of evidence a fact or an opinion? Is it an example?
5. If this evidence is a fact, what kind of fact is it (statistic, experimental result, quotation)?
6. If it is an opinion, what makes the opinion credible?
7. What makes this evidence persuasive?
8. How well will the evidence suit the audience and the rhetorical purpose of the piece?
Week of Nov 14
Activity 27 - Letter to Editor (Rifkin/Braithwaite)
Activity 25 Yong Article
Activity 24 Hiasl questions to think about.
Week of Nov 1
Activity 18 - descriptive Outline of Braithwaite (Fish Article)
Activity 14
Questions about the Writer (Ethos)
1. Who is Rifkin? If you have not done so already, do an Internet
search to find out something about him. What is his profession?
What does he usually write about? Does everybody agree with
him? Do the facts you find about his life, his credentials, and his
interests make him more credible to you? Less credible?
2. Pick one of the studies Rifkin mentions, and try to find out more.
Is Rifkin’s description of the study accurate?
3. Does Rifkin have the right background to speak with authority on
this subject?
4. What does the author’s style and language tell you about him?
5. Do you trust this author? Do you think this author is deceptive?
Why or why not?
Questions about Logic (Logos)
6. Locate major claims and assertions you have identified in your
previous analysis and ask yourself: Do I agree with Rifkin’s claim
that …?
7. Look at support for major claims and ask yourself: Is there any
claim that appears to be weak or unsupported? Which one and
why?
8. Can you think of counterarguments that the author does not deal
with?
9. Do you think Rifkin has left something out on purpose? Why or
why not?
Questions about Emotions (Pathos)
10. Rifkin says that Germany is encouraging farmers to give pigs
human contact and toys. Does this fact have an emotional impact
on the reader? If so, what triggers it? What are some other
passages that have an emotional effect?
11. Rifkin calls his essay “A Change of Heart about Animals.” Does
this imply that the scientific discoveries he summarizes here
should change how we feel about animals?
12. Does this piece affect you emotionally? Which parts?
13. Do you think Rifkin is trying to manipulate your emotions? How?
14. Do your emotions conflict with your logical interpretation of the
arguments? In what ways?
Week of Oct 24
Activity 13
#2 - group summary
#1 - Revisit the reflections you made in the right margin when
you annotated the text, and write a paragraph based on your
experiences and opinions
Activity 12
1. How would you describe the style of this article? Is it formal?
Informal? Academic? Scientific? Conversational?
2. What is the effect of giving the names of most of the animals
involved in the experiments but not the names of the scientists?
3. Throughout most of the article, Rifkin refers to “researchers”
and “scientists.” In paragraph 13, however, he directly quotes
Stephen M. Siviy, whom he refers to as “a behavioral scientist
at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.” What is the effect of this
sudden specificity?
4. What is the effect of all the rhetorical questions in paragraph
15, followed by “such questions are being raised” in the next
paragraph?
Activity 10
Week of Oct 17
Activity 8 - Structure
Activity 3
4 quadrants - Controversy - I favor Trump/Clinton for president.
What I know How I know it
What I believe Why I believe it
Activity 2