Assignment Prompt, Handouts and Definitions of Terms Tips for  Assignment 2 Language, Social Construction & Rhetorical Strategies Constructing eCigs Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Responses, Extensions & Challenges to Carr

 

Assignment Prompt, Handouts and Definitions of Terms

• The prompt, definitions of strategies, and some sample student writing.
• Powerpoint on strategies 
• Don't forget to look at the textbook (Essentials of Argument) pages  140 - 161). It has some useful materials on the appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) and evaluation of strengths and weaknesses.
• Material on evaluating elements of an argument 

 

 

Tips for  Assignment 2

1. Identify the strategy and make a case for your interpretation – provide evidence and/or examples, including textual evidence (a quotation or two). 
2. Explain HOW the strategy supports or the claim
3. Explain WHY the author uses this strategy and how it is intended to persuade, or influence the audience (remember that the audience may include people like you).
4. Explain the EFFECTS the strategy is likely to have
5. [For one of the strategies] Evaluate the EFFECTIVENESS of the strategy – what strengths or weaknesses can you identify?

 

Language, Social Construction & Rhetorical Strategies

• Gender and color - the Smithsonian exhibit - when did girls start wearing pink?
• Metaphors and Frames (and fallacies) 
• Fallacies powerpoint 

 

 

Constructing eCigs

• http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/subtheme.php?token=fm_mt025.phpNot usually seen in action - the formation of a set of associations, the social construction of an identity and brand.
• http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/business/media/campaigns-for-electronic-cigarettes-borrow-from-their-tobacco-counterparts.html
• http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/tobacco_unfiltered/post/2013_10_02_ecigarettes
• http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/tobacco_unfiltered/post/2014_07_02_usa
• See http://www.esontechnologies.com/blog/tag/electronic-cigarette-marketing-strategy/ AND http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/216632/got-a-light-three-brands-three-strategies-for-se.html
• http://www.esontechnologies.com/blog/tag/electronic-cigarette-marketing-strategy/ THIS LETS YOU CREATE YOUR OWN STRATEGY

  

 

CARR QUESTIONS

1. What strategic choices do you see in the way evidence is selected, sequenced (organized), represented and presented to the reader?  

2. What is weakest strategic use of evidence? (relative effectiveness). Think also of STAR (sufficiency, typicality, accuracy, relevance).  

 

Peer Review

• Has the writer properly answered the prompt in the paragraphs present?

• What could be improved?

• How could you elevate the analysis?

• On a language level, is it clear?

 

 

Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

• Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
• Carr's blog page and his wikipedia page
• Videos of Carr explaining his arguments: 
  1) 6 minute PBS interview with Carr explaining his main arguments 
  2) video interview with Canadian host Steve Paikin ("Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?" 16 minutes) 
  3) The Harvard Book Store presents Nicholas Carr: The Shallows - What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (49 mins)
  4) Presentation at  the Commonwealth Club of California, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (60 minutes - you can select "chapters" from the talk)
  5) Nicholas Carr & Stephen Fry on The Effects of Web Culture (9 minutes)
  6) Scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey where Dave deactivates HAL. 
• IQ Squared debate featuring Carr (IQ Squared site, and from YouTube - starts at about 10 minutes) 

 

Responses, Extensions & Challenges to Carr

• Encyclopedia Britannica hosted a forum on Carr's text. Many prominent writers responded with some short, lively posts. Here, for example,  
  is Clay Shirky's "Why Abundance is Good: A Reply to Nick Carr." 
• Shirky, "Does The Internet Make You Smarter?" 
• Pinker, "Mind Over Mass Media"