Cause and Effect Essay

Choose from any of the writing prompts on page 380 of your text and explore the ideas in a cause and effect essay. I recommend questions 4 or 6, as they can be accomplished without extensive reseach and rely on information you should be able to supply with observation and your own experience.

Please keep in mind the advice on page 328 about developing a thesis specific for cause and effect essays.

4- How do you account for the popularity of one of the following: email, blogs, hip-hop, video games, home schooling, reality TV, fast food, or sensationalist tabloids. Write an esay considering remote as well as immediate causes for the success of the phenomenon you choose.

6-Write an essay tracing a series of events in your life that constitutes a causal chain. Indicate clearly both the sequence of events and the causal connections among them, and be careful not to confuse coincidence with causality.
 
Due Sunday night at midnight via email attachment (WORD DOCS ONLY please).

The "Black Table" Is Still There

Please answer the following in fully explained responses:

1. What is Graham's thesis?
2. Are Graham's observations and experiences enough to substantiate his thesis? Explain.
3. How does the personal background information Graham gives in paragraphs 2 and 12 affect your perception of the essay and about the author himself?
4. What is Graham's purpose in writing the essay?
5. Graham asks rhetorical questions throughout his essay-- identify one of them and then explain his intention in asking them (i.e.- the effect or consideration it's meant to cause for the reader).
6. How does the use of first person affect your perception of the essay? Is it an effective choice? 
7. Do you see this matter as being relevant today? Please provide an example and illustration to substantiate your opinion. (Note: this may be in regard to any group of people, not necessarily Blacks.)

Down and Out in Discount America

1. What are Featherstone's most compelling arguments against Wal-Mart? 
2. What do Wal-Mart shoppers and employees have in common? What, according to Featherstone, is the "tremendous debt Wal-Mart owes women?
3. According to the author, why will boycotting Wal-Mart not work? What punitive strategy should be used instead?
4. What is Featherstone's purpose in writing this essay? 
5. Does Featherstone anticipate her audience to be friendly, hostile or neutral? What evidence in the text is there to support your opinion?
6. What is Featherstone's thesis? Is it stated or implied?

Argument Essay

Please choose from any of the following writing assignments for your essay using the rhetorical form of argument:

• Should high school students be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each school day?
• Should college students be required to perform community service?
• Should public school teachers be required to pass periodic competency tests?
• Should the legal drinking age be raised or lowered?
• Should states be required to educate the children of illegal immigrants?

If you feel strongly about another topic, you are encouraged to pursue it with my approval. 

Essay should be a minimum of 5-7 full paragraphs and should acknowledge at least one opposing argument and supply factual evidence when appropriate. Due this Saturday, December 4 at midnight via email. Mail as Word attachments ONLY please, as I will not be able to open other types of files.

Assignment Schedule

December 1

Argument/Cause and Effect
• “The Case of Wall-Mart”-- Coster/Edmonds*
• “Down and Out in Discount America”—Lisa Featherstone*

The Rhetorical Form of Cause and Effect

• Introduction—pg. 327-341

Argument Essay due Saturday Dec 4 via email attachment- WORD DOC ONLY~
Please choose from any of the assignments found in question 10 on page 704.

December 8

Final Exam 

“The ‘Black Table’ is Still There”—Lawrence Graham*

Cause/Effect Essay Due Saturday Dec 10 via email attachment- WORD DOC ONLY~

December 15
Short class-- Exam results disclosed

Announcement: No class Weds, November 24

Hi All,

I decided to cancel class on November 24 to give us all a little break before the holidays. Please check back in a few days for updated assignment schedules and info about the exit exam, and be sure to have any outstanding work in to me by our next class meeting.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

AF

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

This important work of literature is typically studied in light of history and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. However, it underscores the idea that mastering reading, writing and discourse is not a study in isolation, but is a means to convey the ideas and sentiments that are essential to our existence and co-existence as human beings.


Please consider the following questions about King's letter thoughtfully, fully and in regard to an argumentation essay in a minimum of one full paragraph each:

1. Why does King establish his setting (the Birmingham Jail) and define his intended audience in the first paragraph? How does this information impact the reader and his subsequent words?
2.  King begins his letter with a reference to his audience as "men of genuine good will" (1), yet later criticizes those same men. Is this phrase meant in irony? What is his intention in using it, and what effect does it have on you as the reader, and further, what effect might it have on you if you were one of the "men of good will" it refers to?
3. Who is King's intended audience? What evidence do you have of this, both within the text and without?
4. What is King's thesis? Is it directly stated or implied?
5. In argumentation, it's common-- and effective-- to acknowledge the opposing argument and the proceed to discredit it. Where does King do this? Is it effective and why?
6. King cites philosophers from Jewish, Catholic and Protestant religions. He also relies heavily on appeals to authorities such as Augustine, Aquinas, Buber, Tillich, etc. Why does he make both of these choices and how do these strategies work in his argument?
7. King is known for his eloquence and resonant oration-- this is also apparent in his written works. Select one quote you found moving or meaningful and analyze it.