April 3-7: Happy Spring!
It's been a couple of weeks since I checked in with folks. Hope you're surviving the semester now that spring is here, and have taken advantage of the rain -- collected in puddles along the rear of the campus...the fertile earth your feet sink into as you run across campus and the friendly geese who continue to fertilize the grasses.

We've been looking at argumentation. I showed a film on the topic and we've completed the chapter in Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers on Argument, completed and graded the exercises at the end of the chapter where students are asked to name the fallacious arguments.

The most common fallacies are: either/or p. 362, argument with missing claim p. 362, non-sequitar p. 363, untrue premise p. 363, false analogy p. 360, false cause and effect or post hoc, ergo proter hoc p. 360-1, biased language, language which is carries mostly negative connotations not based on fact p. 359,365, which includes a lot of things such as: hasty generalization p. 359, stereotypes p. 359, ad hominem where the person is attacked the argument p.365, transfer p. 365, bandwagon, and red herring p. 365. If you don't have Hacker, I copied this section for students. Ask me for a copy.

We watched a film by Jean Kilbourne called Killing Us Softly, a short video which looked at how sexuality, namely that of women and girls is used to sell products and its subtle influence on the way women and girls are perceived in American society.

This was accompanied by a essay: Propaganda Techniques by Barbara McClintock, which students were to read and notice the similarities between the propaganda techniques and the logic fallacies both material and formal, that is flaws in the way words are used --inductive reasoning and flaws in the form -- the major, minor or conclusion or deductive argument.

Students were to answer all the questions at the end of the McClintock essay, then choose one of the five writing assignments and respond in 250 words by Friday, March 31.

The initial planning sheet was due weeks ago, so Hacker: pp. 370-373 should be review. I have returned all of the IPS, I received.

Homework for March 29 and March 31 was to complete the bibliography and bring to class on Monday to share. See Hacker pp. 396-400.

Complete the schedule on page 370 also, and read pp. 370-395. You should be sleeping with this chapter under your pillow. If you do not own Hacker, go to the library borrow the book from the reference section and copy the chapter then put it under your pillow after you read it.

Go to the website for Hacker where indicated and practice: 373, 380, 386, 395, 402, 403, 406, 422, 432, 447. Also, use the College of Alameda website "library" for assistance on managing information, search engines and how to avoid plagiarism.

I posited the claim that all conflict was the result of miscommunication. We had just finished watching Brandy's video about two guys who wanted one girl, her choices and the guys' disagreement.

We defined the words "objective" and "disinterested" and came to the conclusion that to be objective one had to be interested and care about the outcome of whatever was being discussed.

I maintained that none of us is truly objective and knowing this helps us achieve a greater sense of objectivity because we are aware of the limited vision our rose-colored-glasses afford us... a.k.a. baggage: the experiences we've had which prejudice us, often unconsciously, towards the issue at hand.

Our innate biases, once recognized, help us move from a bigoted state to simply a place of "not knowing." How does the saying go? When one knows better one does better.

We can only hope the baggage will get lighter as more light comes in and our eyes see farther and more clearly despite the glasses which according to philosopher Emmanuel Kant we can't remove. Therein lies the handicap, if you believe his theory.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week we will have conferences, so bring in all your papers so we can talk about your work and how you can earn the grade you desire. Briefly, deep profound discussions which tackle complex ideas with acuity and grace will receive As. Such a paper shows the writer's expertise in handling her topic. The paper is structurally sound and is not ambiguous. See Clarity p. 83 in Hacker. Such papers do not have to be perfect, but they should be void of simple grammatical and errors such as: run-on sentences, sentence fragments, verb tense problems, subject-verb agreement problems, missing words, wrong words.There should be no structural errors. See Hacker: The Writing Process.

Bring your questions to the conference. You know how I feel about Cs. If you've done your best, a C grade is nothing to be ashamed of. C- is not a passing grade, so if your work is getting 3/4s then you should be worried. Passing grades are 4,5,6s.

For English 201 we have read and completed the Narrative, Description, Examples essays. We are in Chapter 4 now and your Process Essay will be due April 17 -- you can write it that day and turn it in Wednesday, April 19. It should be at least 500 words. We have read Corn Bread with Character, 12 Steps to Quit Smoking, How to Make a House Look Good in a Hurry.

Homework for April 5: How to Write a Personal Letter p. 143.

Children of the Movement: We completed The Next Generation. Students were to answer the questions posed in the assignment sheet for Julie Guyot and Andrew "Bo" Young III. This 500 word essay was due last week: March 26, 29 or 31.

Children of the Segregationists: Essay 1 pp. 119-130, was assigned. Please read it and the next essay on Ouida Barnett Atkins pp. 131-142 by April 19. For each essay write a brief summary of about 250 words. The summary is an essay not a paragraph.

Final Exam for English 201
Your final will look at the Civil Rights Movement from three perspectives: an academic scholar who put the movement in perspective, a parent whose child was profiled in CoM, a child of a CR Veteran. The question I want your paper to answer is, Where do we go from here?

Look at current pending legislation such as: the federal immigration bill being considered, the legislation passed which makes abortion illegal in the state of Denver?... etc., to couch your critique or analysis of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, Segregationist Movement, and other movements then and now.

Films in English 1A
We watched the films: Shakespeare behind Bars in English 1A. The film look at the issue of rehabilitation, and the role theatre can and does play in the lives of the men profiled, many serving long sentences for violent crimes.

We explored the term in the Wednesday night class and used the class time to analysis the arguments the men posed to explain their thinking when they committed the crimes they were charged with. It is interesting to note, not one man spoke of wrongful conviction.

In the TTh English 1A class we also watch a film about DNA evidence used to exonerate innocent men who were serving terms for crimes they did not commit.

Earlier this semester we watched: King of the BINGO Game based on a short story by Ralph Elison, and The Murder of Emmitt Till. Papers were assigned for the Till film that discussed the concept of "strong women."

In the TTh English 1A we watched a film on Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin and responded to the film in essays discussing the debate Rustin had with Malcolm X or other essays posted at pbs.org.

Final Exam in English 1A
English 1A students will look at a big topic such as: war, prison, public education, poverty, electoral politics, hunger, family, and discuss it from the point of view of an expert, a primary source or case study, and from personal experience. This will be 3 pages.

In Dreams and Inward Journeys: Owning Your Own Shadow, assigned 3/21; Henry Jekyll's Full Statement p. 393; Being Black and Feeling Blue p. 406 assigned the day of midterm; Ideologies of Madness p. 418, assigned March 30; Us and Them p. 427, assigned 4/18; I Like Guys p. 349, assigned 4/25; A New Vision of Masculinity p. 358, assigned 4/27.

Wednesday night class, proceed chronologically in the assignments listed.