Week 8: Research; Ethos, Logos, Pathos

Class Info

  • Dates: Wednesday, 3/20, Monday, 3/25
  • Meeting Info: Meeting Info: 11:30am-12:45pm in room N602A

Objectives

  • To read op-ed/opinion essays and find additional mentor texts
  • To finalize plans for Project 2
  • To consider research techniques and begin researching.
  • To consider ethos, pathos, and logos as appeals to connect with an audience
  • To discuss midsemester grades
  • To continue reading Nella Larsen’s Passing

For Wednesday, 3/20

Reading

Writing

  • Continue drafting your opinion essay to share on our site (posts with the category Project 2 Work).

In Class Wednesday, 3/20

  • What kind of research do you need to do?
    • Reading/Writing resource: “Sort Fact from Fiction with Lateral Reading” (Stanford History Education Group). If you like this video, you might also want to watch “How to Use Wikipedia Wisely” from the same group.
      • date relevance
      • topic relevance
      • who wrote it, what organization or author
    • What search terms can you use for your research? What feedback does your group have for you to get you started researching?
      • environment, Brooklyn, student groups
      • student engagement on CUNY campuses (also try specific campuses)
      • day in the life of a college student schedule self care (look at blogs as well as student newspapers, opinion essays)
      • benefits of support animals in school (college too specific)
    • What sources are you finding? Look for a discussion post asking you to share these on our OpenLab site before our next class.
  • Continue researching for Project 2
  • Finding op-ed models
  • Drafting proposals

For Monday, 3/25

Reading

Writing

In Class Monday, 3/25

  • Share a glimpse into how it’s going at midsemester
  • How do we convince or persuade someone? look at Passing, pages 123-131. How does Irene convince Clare of the details of the event she’s planning, and how does Clare convince Irene to let her come?
    • bottom of 123 “She hung up” to the bottom of 125
    • bottom of 125 to bottom of 127
    • 128-top of 131 “She gave in”
    • top of 131 “She gave in” to last full paragraph on 131.
  • What are ethos, pathos, and logos?
    • ethos has to do with persuading someone by gaining their trust using your position of status or authority, experience. that makes you convincing because you know more about it that others, so you are a credible source
    • pathos uses emotions such as sadness or pity as a call to action, like when you see commercials with sad animals that try to get you to care, feel guilty–other emotions, too
    • logos appeals to the audience’s reasoning, with logical arguments. Could be in your thesis statement and more so in support for the thesis statement with evidence, facts, data
  • where do we find these appeals in the op-eds we’ve read?
  • incorporating ethos, pathos, logos into our op-eds
    • what kinds of appeals do we want to make in our op-ed?
    • how/when/where etc
  • What is a thesis statement
    • in an opinion essay, the thesis statement doesn’t necessarily come in the first paragraph
    • also, the thesis statement in an opinion essay might not be as direct as in an academic essay
    • the thesis statement isn’t a question–it’s a statement
    • the thesis statement will express the opinion or claim you’re making in the opinion essay.
  • Use our resources to draft the opinion essay
  • Researching for Project 2

Photo Credit: “Light Writing” by Liji Janaraj via Flickr under the license CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed.