PAPER 4: ARGUMENT

Remember, the basic structure of the course is we're doing four papers, then you'll pick one to revise and research into a persuasive term paper. So this fourth paper has three, no four aims (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition):

1) to make sure that everyone has a topic for the final paper they can be passionate about (and to explore some aspect of popular culture we didn't get to yet (You can look for ideas on this  popular culture site and on

McHenry Library's resources ).  If you want to go with the default topic video games, you might want to check out this rough bibliography from the games course.  If you're interested in non-gaming virtual reality spaces that people build themselves, see video overview of Second Life.

2) to learn how to make an effective argument

3) to learn how to use a dialogue prewriting technique to generate and test arguments and counter-arguments.

4) To practice the library research techniques, and to learn how to choose, integrate and cite research.

In some ways, this is a practice mini-term paper to work out the strategies and kinks.

Earlier papers were about gathering data, looking for patterns, and learning how to do analysis; in short, they were exploratory. Now you'll be speaking as an expert who has an opinion that someone else needs to hear. But without supporting evidence any position is open to the charge by those who don't want to believe it as "anecdotal," just one person's opinion, and thus limited and possibly biased. You can counter this by including other researchers who have done larger studies that support your findings. That means research, but it also means evaluating what sources you think are credible (you might want to use Rhetorical analysis to help with this (for basic background see http://people.ucsc.edu/~pmmckerc/rhet1.htm ). How to do rhetorical analysis is also on How to Be Brilliant handout http://people.ucsc.edu/~pmmckerc/howbrill.html).

Persuasion is essential in doing anything in the world, but it's also the hardest kind of writing to do, since it requires that you predict with great precision what effect your words will have, perhaps on someone that you've never met thousands of miles away. However, it builds on skills we've been developing all quarter. Our prewriting strategy here will be especially important: a dialogue with an opponent (to gather arguments, counter-arguments, and understand values at stake/play). This dialogue technique will be described in class and is also on the course website: http://people.ucsc.edu/~pmmckerc/reshowto.html.

The Lunsford handout on rhetoric and argumentation will be useful in generating arguments, and in organizing them.

Your argument should be about four pages, and you should have three (at least one scholarly) research sources. The fuller research paper will be assessed on how successful it would be with the audience you specify, but you can try them out on this version too. We'll also use rhetorical analysis to determine this. The questions are at http://people.ucsc.edu/~pmmckerc/termfdbk.htm

If you have questions or suggestions, let me know