Review last week’s lecture on The Toulmin Model and past weeks’ lectures on Appealing to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos and Claims and Counterclaims in Argument. After reviewing these lectures, skim over the following selections in Everything’s an Argument with Readings:
“Getting Personal about Cybersecurity” (689-701)
“70 Percent of Employers Are Snooping Candidates’ Social Media Profiles” (708-09)
“Creative Ways to Get Noticed by Employers on Social Media” (709-11)
“Congress Let Internet Providers ‘Spy on’ Your Underwear Purchases, Advocacy Group Says” (713-18)
“from World without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech” (719-23)
“How Privacy Became a Commodity for the Rich and Powerful” (724-28)
After skimming over these essays, choose one essay to read and examine closely. After selecting this one essay, complete the following activities by Saturday at 11:59 p.m. Do not wait until the last minute to post part 1 of this assignment! (If you wait until the last minute, you–and potentially others–will be unable to complete part 2 of the assignment.) Please note that you will not be able to see other students’ messages in this discussion until after your own initial message has been posted.
Please read the following instructions carefully.
1. Using the one essay you selected to examine closely from the essays listed above, post a thoughtful message that explains, in some depth, whether or not the essay, in your opinion, follows the Toulmin Model to present its argument.
If you believe that the essay does use the Toulmin Model to present its argument, then explain (numbered and in order) the following:
What is the essay’s case and claim? Does the essay note qualifiers and/or exceptions? Is the essay’s claim based on value, policy, cause/effect, fact, or definition?
What particular reasons support the essay’s argument?
How does the essay explain why these reasons are important and compelling?
What specific evidence is used to back/support the essay’s reasons?
How (and where in the essay) are opposing points of view acknowledged and explained?
How (and where in the essay) are opposing points of view refuted?
If you believe that the essay does not use the Toulmin Model to present its argument, then explain (numbered and in order) the following:
Which particular aspects of the Toulmin Model (case, claim, reasons, why the reasons are important/compelling, evidence to support reasons, opposing points of view, and/or rebuttal of opposing points of view) seem to be missing?
In order to use the Toulmin Model, how would the essay need to be revised and restructured? What additional ideas/information would the essay need to include?
Your message should:
clearly identify, by title and author, the essay you are discussing,
be written using complete and grammatically correct sentences,
go beyond simply summarizing (or re-telling) the essay’s argument,
go beyond simply agreeing or disagreeing with the ideas or argument in the essay,
use multiple specific details, examples, and/or direct quotations from the essay itself to thoroughly illustrate and support your opinion concerning whether or not the essay uses the Toulmin Model,
not be repetitive of messages or ideas that have already been posted by other students, and
not be plagiarized from someone or somewhere else. (Do not copy ideas from the Internet, for example. I want to see your analysis of the essay, not a web site’s or other person’s analysis of the essay.)
