Engl 1020 Critical Thinking and Argumentation, sec 15, Spring 2014, O'Donnell


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Calendar
last update: April 25, 2014

 

Class meets MWF 11:30am-12:25pm, in Burleson 303. 

RRE = Reading Response Essay. 

 

Week 1 (Jan 17) 

 

Week 2 (MLK DAY; Jan 22-24)

Wednesday

- RRE 1 due. 

- "All You Can Eat: A Journey Through a Seafood Fantasy." By Jim Carrier. Orion Magazine, March/ April 2009. www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4395/

- "The Killer in the Pool." By Tim Zimmerman. Outside, Friday, July 30, 2010. www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-Killer-in-the-Pool.html.  (Click here for a printable pdf file.) 

- "The Last Distinction?:  Talking to the animals."  By Benjamin Hale.  Harper's Magazine, August 2012, p65-70.  (Cached here.) 

 

Friday 

- "Flesh of Your Flesh: Should you eat meat?" [review of J. Foer's Eating Animals].  By Elizabeth Kolbert. The New Yorker, November 9, 2009. www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/11/09/091109crbo_books_kolbert.  (Click here for a cached version.)

- "Should You Eat Chicken? [Contributing Op-Ed Writer]."  By Mark Bittman.  The New York Times, October 15, 2013.  www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/opinion/bittman-should-you-eat-chicken.html

- "Consider the Lobster." By David Foster Wallace. Gourmet Magazine, August 2004. www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster. (Click here for a cached version.) 

 

Week 3 (Jan 27-31) 

Monday  

- RRE 2 due. 

- "I Want My Prostate Back: The urologist diagnosed his prostate cancer. A high-tech robot removed the diseased organ. Then came two common aftereffects: sexual dysfunction, and nagging questions. Was it all a monstrous mistake?" By Laurence Roy Stains. Photographs by Nigel Cox. Men's Health, January 28, 2010. www.menshealth.com/health/coping-prostate-cancer

- "Relationship Violence: The Secret That Kills 4 Women a Day." By Liz Brody. Glamour Magazine, May 2011. www.glamour.com/tell-somebody/2011/05/relationship-violence-the-secret-that-kills-4-women-a-day. Click here for a cached version.

 

Wednesday

- "The Teeming Metropolis of You: Every day, a host of bacteria are at war within you."  By Brendan Buhler.  California Magazine, Fall 2011.  alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/fall-2011-good-fight/teeming-metropolis-you

- "The T-Cell Army: Can the body’s immune response help treat cancer?"  By Jerome Groopman.  The New Yorker, April 23, 2012.  www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/23/120423fa_fact_groopman  (Click here for a cached version.) 

 

Friday

- "Genetically Modified Forest Planned for U.S. Southeast: International Paper and MeadWestvaco are planning to transform plantation forests of the southeastern U.S. by replacing native pine with genetically engineered eucalyptus." By Paul Voosen. Scientific American, Jan 29, 2010.  www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eucalyptus-genetically-modified-pine-tree-southwest-forest

 

Week 4 (Feb 3-7)

Monday

- RRE 3 due.

- "Why Not Frack?" By Bill McKibben. The New York Review of Books. March 8, 2012. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/08/why-not-frack/ 

- "Fracking Water: It’s Just So Hard to Clean."  Blog post by Bill Chameides, October 4, 2013.  At "The Great Energy Challenge" subsection of the Environment section at nationalgeographic.com, the website of the National Geographic Society.  energyblog.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/04/fracking-water-its-just-so-hard-to-clean/

- "Fracking explained: opportunity or danger."  Youtube.  Running time: 5:03.  Published on Sep 3, 2013.  Posted by Kurzgesagt, affiliated with Phillip Dettmer, a freelance Information Designer based in Munich, Germany.   www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uti2niW2BRA

 

Wednesday

- Annotated bib, topic proposal due:  Write a memo to me and your classmates, in which you propose an area of inquiry for your annotated bib.  Answer the following questions:  1) Why are you interested in the topic--what personal connection do you have to it?  2) What have you read so far, related to that topic?  Also include 3) a detailed, generous, specific working title. 

 

Friday

- "My Polluted Kentucky Home [Op-Ed Contributor]." By Silas House. NY Times online. February 19, 2011. www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20House.html

- "Officials Don’t Really Know How Dangerous the Chemical Spilled in West Virginia Is: Authorities have virtually no way of regulating many industrial chemicals. The latest spill could change that."  By Bryan Walsh.  Time Magazine online, Jan. 14, 2014.  science.time.com/2014/01/14/how-dangerous-is-chemical-spilled-in-west-virginia/ 

 

Week 5 (Feb 10-14) 

Monday 

- RRE 4 due. 

- "Margaret Atwood: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, 50 years on." By Margaret Atwood. The Guardian [Manchester, England]. Friday, December 7, 2012. www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/07/why-rachel-carson-is-a-saint

- Rehabilitating Carson: Why do some people continue to hold Rachel Carson responsible for millions of malaria deaths?"  By John Quiggin.  Prospect Magazine,  May 24, 2008.  www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/rehabilitatingcarson/

- Browse these two web sites:

- RachelWasWrong.org. "Uncovering Silent Spring's Deadly Consequences," by the Competitive Enterprise Institute

- ihr.org.  "The Institute for Historical Review is an independent educational research and publishing center that works to promote peace, understanding and justice through greater public awareness of the past, and especially socially-politically relevant aspects of twentieth-century history."

 

Wednesday

- Bring in at least one of the sources that you would like to use for your annotated bib.  We'll practice writing annotations in class. 

 

Friday

- Bring in at least one more source (in addition to the one you brought on Wednesday) that you would like to use for your annotated bib.  We'll practice writing annotations in class. 

- Read the annotated bibliography assignment sheet for this class. 

- Read the following: 

    - "How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography."  Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York.  Last updated September 5, 2013.  guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography
    - "Writing an Annotated Bibliography."  Lucy Scribner Library, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.  lib.skidmore.edu/library/index.php/li371-annotated-bib
    - "Writing an Annotated Bibliography."  A handout adapted from Writing Across the Curriculum, by Sandra Nagy, and posted at the Writing Center website at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Illinois.  write.siu.edu/Handouts/Writing%20an%20Annotated%20Bibliography.pdf
    - "Annotated Bibliography Samples."  Online Writing Lab at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.  owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/03/

Week 6 (Feb 17-21)

Monday

- Draft of annotated bib due.  Bring 2 extra copies (3 copies, total) for writing groups.

- Browse the UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center Handouts on Writing Groups: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/. Read "Responding to Other People's Writing"-- writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/responding-to-other-peoples-writing/-- and read "Reacting to Other People's Responses to Your Writing"-- writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/reacting-to-other-peoples-responses-to-your-writing/--at the UNC Writing Center website.

 

Wednesday

Read "Fight Over Minimum Wage Illustrates Web of Industry Ties." By Eric Lipton. The New York Times online, February. 9, 2014. www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/us/politics/fight-over-minimum-wage-illustrates-web-of-industry-ties.html

Read "Cancer World: The making of a modern disease" [Review of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee].  By Steven Shapin. The New Yorker online, November 8, 2010.  www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/11/08/101108crbo_books_shapin.  (Click here for a cached version.) 

 

Friday

- Review essay, topic proposal due:  Write a memo to me and your classmates, in which you propose the title of a book or full-length documentary film you would like to review, for the 1000-1500 word review essay which is due on March 31.  Include the annotation which you will include with the citation for this book, in your bibliography. 

 

Week 7 (Feb 24-28) 

This week, you're continuing work on the annotated bib. 

 

Wednesday

Read "Review of the must-read book: Merchants of Doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from smoke to global warming." By John Atcheson. Posted July 14, 2010, at "Climate Progress," the climate section edited by Joe Romm at ThinkProgress.org, a blog site sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a nonpartisan, liberal organization.  thinkprogress.org/romm/2010/07/14/206422/merchants-of-doubt-naomi-oreskes-review/

 

Week 8 (March 3-7) 

Monday

- Annotated bibliography due, revised for a grade. 

 

Wednesday

- Read "A Valuable Reputation: After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursued him" [Annals of Science]. By Rachel Aviv. The New Yorker Magazine online, February 10, 2014. www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/10/140210fa_fact_aviv

- RRE 5 due. 

 

Friday

- Class cancelled!  Read the book which you'll review for the next writing assignment. 

 

SPRING BREAK!  March 10-14

Week 9 (March 17-21) 

Monday 

Read the following reviews:

- "When computers take over: What if the current exponential increase in information-processing power could continue unabated?"  [Review of The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, by Ray Kurzweil.)  By Paul Davies.  Nature, volume 437 (23 March 2006): p421-422.  Posted at Kurzweil's "Singularity" website: www.singularity.com/When_computers_take_over.pdf.  Accessed March 2014. 

- "The Mind of a Disease" [review of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee].  By Jonathan Weiner.  New York Times Sunday Book Review, November 12, 2010.  www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/books/review/Weiner-t.html.  (Click here for a cached version.) 

- RRE 6 due. 

 

Wednesday

Read the following reviews:

- "Our Debt to the Dog. Book Review."  [Review of Our Debt to the Dog: How the Domestic Dog Helped Shape Human Societies, by Bryan Cummins.]  By Don Messerschmidt.  Posted on September 22, 2013.  LiteraryDogs.  literarydogs.com/2013/09/22/our-debt-to-the-dog-book-review/

- "'Under The Surface,' Marcellus Shale Book, Joins Other Fracking Stories."  [Review of Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale, by Tom Wilber.]  No author listed.  Huffington Post, April 9, 2012.  www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/09/under-the-surface-book_n_1411936.html

 

Friday

Read "Unsentimental Education."  [Review of Breaking Night:  A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey From Homeless to Harvard, by Liz Murray.)  By Tara McKelvey.  New York Times, Sunday Book Review online.  September 12, 2010.  www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/books/review/McKelvey-t.html

 

Week 10 (March 24-28) 

Monday

- Draft of review essay, 1000-1500 words, due.  Bring 2 extra copies (3 copies, total) for writing groups.

 

Wednesday

Read "The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert: Review."  By Jeet Heer.  National Post, online, February 14, 2014.  arts.nationalpost.com/2014/02/14/the-sixth-extinction-by-elizabeth-kolbert-review/

 

Friday

- Class cancelled!  (I will be at an academic conference.)   Work on your review essay, which is due Monday. 

 

Week 11 (March 31-Apr 4) 

Monday

- Bring one copy of the latest version of your review essay.  We will use it to do an outline/ organization workshop in class.

Wednesday

- Review essay, 1000-1500 words, due. 

Friday

- Reading Proposal Memo due.  CLICK HERE FOR READING PROPOSAL MEMO INSTRUCTIONS.

 

Week 12 (Apr 7-11)

Monday

Read the following:

- How to Write a Research Question – George Mason University  --  http://writingcenter.gmu.edu/?p=307
- Developing Strong Thesis Statements – Purdue OWL  --  https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/01/
- Writing a Research Paper – Purdue OWL  --  https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/1/

Memo due:  In a memo to me and your classmates, write a draft of your research question, and a working title for your research essay.

 

Wednesday

Bring to class a working outline (or "informal outline"). 

We'll work on drafting your research essay, in class.

 

Friday

Bring to class a copy of your most useful source. 

We'll continue to work on drafting your research essay, in class.

 

Week 13 (Apr 14-16, Good Friday) 

Monday

Draft of your research essay, 1500-2000 words, due.  Bring 2 extra copies (3 copies, total) for writing groups.

 

Wednesday

Read this article:  Seamus McGraw.  "Is Fracking Safe? The Top 10 Controversial Claims About Natural Gas Drilling."  Popular Mechanics online, no date (approximately December 2013).  www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593

 

Friday

Read this article:  Paul Solotaroff.  "In the Belly of the Beast: Animal Cruelty is the Price We Pay for Cheap Meat."  Rolling Stone Magazine, online, December 10, 2013.  www.rollingstone.com/feature/belly-beast-meat-factory-farms-animal-activists

 

 

Week 14 (Apr 21-25)

Monday

Read the following:

- "How to Read a Scientific Paper," by Phillip Scheuerman, ETSU Professor of Environmental Health --  http://www.etsu.edu/intopform/How%20to%20read%20a%20scientific%20paper.pdf

- Jacquelyn C Campbell.  "Health consequences of intimate partner violence."  The Lancet, Volume 359, Issue 9314 (13 April 2002): pages 1331-1336.  www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)08336-8/abstract

 

Wednesday

Bring to class your revised outline, and your complete bibliography, as well as your most recent iteration of your research essay.

 

Also, bring your handbook to class, and review the last two chapters under the "MLA" tab:  "MLA 4: Documenting sources" (beginning on p440), and "MLA 5: Manuscript format; sample paper" (beginning on p481). 

 

Read Peter Eisler, "Deadly 'superbugs' invade U.S. health care facilities."  USA Today online, March 6, 2013.  www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/29/bacteria-deadly-hospital-infection/1727667/

 

 

Friday

Read Bethany McLean, "Book review: ‘The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon,’ By Brad Stone."  The Washington Post, online, October 15, 2013.  www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-the-everything-store-jeff-bezos-and-the-age-of-amazon-by-brad-stone/2013/10/15/185c6c3e-34cc-11e3-be86-6aeaa439845b_story.html

 

 

Week 15 (Apr 28-May 2) 

Monday

- Research essay due:  Bring to class one printed copy with your name, my name, and the course section number removed.  In place of your name, use your initials.  These essays will be "group graded," this summer, as part of a course assessment project, by a team of Engl 1020 instructors. 

 

Wednesday

- Review the readings from the past two weeks.  We will write about and discuss these, as we review for the final exam.   

 

            Final exam period:  Monday, May 5, 3:50-5:50pm.