MON MAR 19
Link to the Daily Class Agenda
- Register to Vote in New Jersey
- Why the Challenger Exploded
- Deadline Reminder
- The middle of the semester comes knocking. And the consequences seem real and immediate. The White Paper that two weeks ago was a vague pledge to “donate when I get my tax refund” is suddenly an overdue bill, and the Rebuttal Argument certainly can’t be accomplished until my Hypothesis is nailed down to something like a firm Thesis that another author might want to refute.
- About half of my students are usually ready for this drastic rise in the sea level. The other half feel as if they’re suddenly drowning.
- Right on cue, students who aren’t ready to fully commit to their research miss a class, maybe two classes. They ignore emails and texts from their professor, figuring that he’s too busy to pester them more than once.
- Once the deadlines for the Short Arguments are past, they no longer feel like a weight around the neck. It’s easy to let those delinquencies slide for a few days. A week. After 48 hours, they’re already worth no more than 50/100 points, so “what’s the point?”
- For some, this slide is irreversible.
- For the in-betweeners, interaction with the professor is something to dread. Coming to class late, leaving early, or sneaking out to avoid confrontation, seems like a reasonable survival technique.
- I get it.
- I too put things off.
- I do them when I absolutely have to.
- I do them poorly sometimes because I haven’t left myself enough time.
- But I’m an idiot.
- You don’t have to be.
- The people I have to report to are reasonable people who gladly work with me when I acknowledge my thoughtless procrastination, my dread at confronting the problem.
- Don’t be like me.
- Be an enlightened version of me.
- Don’t miss classes. Don’t ignore my texts or emails. Don’t think you’re too late, or too far behind, or too confused to catch up, or too fill-in-the-blank.
- IT’S THE HALFWAY POINT. (Well, to be honest, it’s past half way.)
- You can turn this sucker around.
- I will push you up that hill like nobody else who ever had your back.
- But I won’t pull you up.
- You have to take the first step.
- If you haven’t posted your three Short Arguments yet (Definition, Causal, Rebuttal) for godssake post them now before you suffer irrecoverable late penalties. Post anything that looks like a Definition Argument. Ask for very specific feedback. Get into the game. Pretend it’s essential to you. It might not feel like it right now, but I am your biggest supporter and fan. Until you let it slide.
- Don’t. Let. It. Slide.
- Very few of the 50% who start to fade at the Midterm do well at the end of the course. Beat those odds. Right now.
- Exercise E06: Robust Subjects and Verbs
- DUE WED MAR 21
Rowan Counterintuitive 
For the rebuttal assignment, we should look for the best possible argument against our own. That doesn’t mean it’s the direct opposite of our thesis, but it’s the opposing view.
Prof. showed and explained to us his model Rebuttal essay.
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In today’s class we further discussed the research which is needed to be done and have been reminded to add this to our white paper. We also discussed the rebuttal argument and how we can prove the opposite side wrong. For example, the rebuttal of the statement that diseases can be treated the same as ones before. The professor rebuttals this by saying this can be done is they were identical to each other. Polio can be treated the same way smallpox was treated if they were identical.
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We started class today with donuts, sandwiches, or drinks and began to talk about our Rebuttal Assignment, specifically our target audience and how we should ignore those who have already developed their stance on the argument and we should focus on those in the middle who have yet to make up their mind. The reasoning behind this is those who have decided aren’t going to change but those in the middle can be persuaded with better more clear evidence. We learned in our “References” we must use the correct APA form through Citation Machine. To end class we talking about the Challenger space launch and the disaster that occurred during takeoff. We talked about the reason why it occurred, the cold whether and rubber O-Rings resulting in an explosion killing the crew. Horses Asses caused the Challenger to go down.
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Class started with the promised donuts (thank you). Prof. asked us to place a short essay into the feedback box, but I already had my rebuttal document reviewed and have not touched any of my other documents since their reviews. We further discussed how we are suppose to write the rebuttal argument essay, because most of the class is still unclear on it. We looked at what was essentially the prof.’s white paper (posted on the home page) and then he discussed his draft rebuttal with us. His stance was that just because smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1980, polio couldn’t be eradicated in quite the same way, despite the lofty standard set by that. Went over a method to help us cite our sources (Bibme). The last thing we went over in class was why the challenger exploded. “The US space program used to be as interesting as Star Wars or Star Trek.” The Prof. tried to explain the challenger explosion in a very roundabout way including horses, the Romans, and their roads.
I was interested in class till the end with the horse thing, then you lost me just a little bit. The challenger bit was a little out there too.
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With a rebuttal argument, we seek to convince the people who do not yet have a concrete opinion on the topic. We seek to convince these people because they sway in either direction but are open to persuasion. We should ignore the readers that already have formed their opinions because they either already agree with us or they already disagree with us and will not change their minds. We should seek to become familiar with the full range of arguments, not try to find the “opposite” of our theses. Most of our theses will be blanket statements that we will then narrow as we argue. The best rebuttals challenge good arguments and prove to the skeptical reader that ours is the more logical argument. Prof. explained how to disprove the strongest refutation to our argument and therefore prove our theses by using the example of smallpox not representing polio because they are not identical. We should ensure that our citations are longer than just the URL. We can use bibme.org or citationmachine.net but we should use APA format. In APA format, works cited is now called “references”. NASA caused people to lose interest in space exploration by advancing its technology to the point where it could autopilot itself. This helped contribute to tragedy later when they rushed for the next exciting concept, sending a civilian to space. Chariots->roads->trains->tunnels all forced standards on each other in that causation chain. This led to the rings of the shuttle to malfunction.
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To begin class, we started talking about to importance of feedback of being successful in this course. Without feedback from Professor, passing may be a long shot. Then we started discussing the rebuttal argument. This assignment is not meant to discuss the claims against our hypothesis, it is to refute those claims. We should take the strongest points against our hypothesis and prove them wrong or come up with better evidence than them. Another important part of our final portfolios is citing our sources. We should cite everything in APA format. This means that it is a reference page, not a works cited page. Going on a citation generator will make creating a reference page much simpler.
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Professor started our first class back from break by treating us with donuts, breakfast sandwiches, and drinks, which was very thoughtful (and yummy). We then started talking about how we should put our short arguments on the feedback category list because feedback is key and always helpful. It helps us to succeed and to pass the class if we engage with the professor about our work. We talked about the rebuttal argument assignment for a while, and made it clear that we are not supposed to write it to support the opposing side, but rather to take the strongest point against our thesis and then prove them wrong. To cite sources, professor showed us websites that make it easier to link them, such as bibme.org.
The challenger exploded due to horses butts. Not literally, but professor told us how the o-rings in the challenger were not secured correctly, and the pressure made the o-rings shrink, causes gas and air to go into the holes, and the challenger exploded. Horses butts come into play when we think about chariots, and tunnels, and how the challenger had to be put together into parts, which is why there are o-rings in the first place. This is a causation argument that is very effective.
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