English 1302 Journal
8/9/05
I'll be teaching 2nd. Semester freshman English this fall, deliberative discourse, using a text
by two SMU Profs, Timothy Crusius & Carolyn Channell, called The Aims of Argument.
There are Four Aims, say Tim & Carol: to Inquire, to Convince, to Persuade, & to Negotiate. The purpose of Negotiation
is to arrive at Consensus. My experience so far with Dot Tom Cafe, is that Consensus is a Goal Chimerical.
That pot of gold at the end of our rainbow of discourse is forever receding. But the rainbow is pretty.
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8/17/2005
Don Hockaday, Google
Plagiarism
Tom wrote: "In preparation
for teaching 2nd. semester freshman English I Googled <deliberative discourse>."
You might also Google <anti
plagiarism>
because:
http://www.coastal.edu/library/presentations/mills2.html
lists 250 sites for buying
themes and term papers (as of Dec 2004)
A couple are available as
sponsored links at Amazon.com.
Advice sites:
http://tlt.suny.edu/cheating.htm
http://168.53.200.6/reference/ref_web/AvoidingPlagiarism.htm
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~ehrlich/plagiarism598.html
http://www.aresearchguide.com/6plagiar.html
This is probably not a big
problem with Freshmen English classes because usually there are at least some in-class themes and many colleges have departmental
finals.
...
Don -
The local answer to plagiarism
(Aims, Page 111) is to have students
do a lot of journaling & in-class development of papers - in small groups, where they pass papers around, rate them, &c.
And of course, the teacher has to trouble-shoot grade desperation problems, and do all he/she can to make sure students don't
perceive themselves in an adversarial relationship to the course.
The course text, Aims of Argument, provides 2 fully-developed casebooks in Part Three, one on Terrorism and one on Marriage &
Family. Part Four offers readings in five topics:
*Feminism & Gender Roles
*Gay & Lesbian Rights
*News & Ethics
*Liberal Education &
Contemporary Culture
*Race & Class –
Social Inequality
Other topics introduced by
sample essays:
*Abortion – Pages 78
(4.2), 297-311
*Mercy-killing (Euthanasia)
– Pages 53-55, 79 (4.3), 132-136
*Capital Punishment –
Pages 63-67
*Tattoos & Piercing (psychological
& anthropological motives) – Pages 28-32, 46-51
*ADHD (diagnosis & causes)
– Pages 86-97
*Violence - Is Media to Blame?
– Pages 192-200
*Racial Profiling –
Pages 213-217
*Gay Lesbian Marriage –
Pages 246-249
*Civil Rights & Racism
– Pages 7-8, 254-271, 290-292
Googling <controversial
topics> turned up - amid many websites offering to sell me papers on same - a smorgasbord of controversial topics @
http://www.procon.org/
*Medical Marijuana - Should
marijuana be a medical option now?
*US-Iraq - Should the U.S. have gone to war with Iraq, with or without the U.N.?
*Israeli-Palestinian - What
are the solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
*Under God - Should the words
"under God" be in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance?
*Born Gay? - Is sexual orientation
determined at birth?
*ACLU - Is the ACLU good
for America?
&c.
Shall we take a vote?
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