Writing Titles

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There are many ways to argue. The first place you begin to argue is in your title. Your title forecasts what you are writing about, your disposition toward the problematic questions raised by your topic, and more. 

Titles can be serious, playful, allusive, and provocative. Your content (what you have written) should help determine the nature of your title.

Some common ways of generating creative titles include:

1. Reference (allusion) a famous literary or popular text. (hint: If I read even ONE take on "To Be or Not to Be," i will literally die. This one has been done to death, so please avoid "To Smoke or Not to Smoke," "To Text or Not to Text," and so on). There are so many compelling cultural texts to play with in generating creative titles -- go beyond this familiar old take. Think about favorite novels, films, TV shows, series, etc. Can you play on the popular title "Breaking Bad"? or "Dancing With the Stars"? What's your thing? It's likely that by starting there, you will be able to create a title that gets at your vibe in the essay and is true to your vision.
2. Verbal Wordplay. Is there a pun or creative new spelling? Is there fusion term for your topic? (example: "bingewatching," "hypertasking," etc.)? Go there!
3. Use strategies from this list of helpful tips for generating creative titles. Play! Make it work to advance your argument and compel your readers!

Note: If you want to think about the value of titles, look at some of your favorite website's home pages. How effective are they at compelling you to enter and spend time there? Just LOOK at all the tricks they are using to get and keep you!! You might also look at this site, devoted to famous movie stills! So much visual rhetoric, working so hard! Shadows! Fonts! Layering! Dramatic poses!!

be creative. have fun.

Integrating Sources

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Many of you need to work on "set-up" or the "framing" of your source material, the stuff you are using to make and support your argument.

I have referred to this practice with several examples, since the beginning of the semester. I hope you have been taking notes and attempting to put my teaching into practice.

Now that we are nearing the conclusion of our time to work on the Rational Argument, I want to share a resource from Harvard University. This helpful guide should show you very clearly many of the practices I'm needing to see at play in your essay.

Please spend time reading this, reading the whole thing, slowly and carefully. It is a very detailed resource, with examples and explanatory bubbles (bubbles!) 

Take note of where you see places in your essay that could benefit from one or more of the kinds of advice at the Harvard document. Then, edit for that passage. 

In most cases, these edits will be about Integrating Sources, use of Signal Phrases (or "Attributive Tags"), Topic Sentences, and Citation. These are very important matters in terms of clear Documentation (honesty, integrity), and Syntax (the "flow" of your essay, readability).

Follow the link at the word "resource" in sentence 1 of paragraph 3 of this post. Or, look for the "Integrating Sources" link under "Resources" at this blog.

You can do it!!

common trends & helpful tips ...

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I wrote up a list of tips to help you. I created it based upon the fine work i've been seeing. Most of you are doing well, and these tips want simply to help you refine the work. Keep going!

slacktivism and ...

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Still struggling? Find a source that explores the meanings of slacktivism and argue from there. EXPLAIN through your strong, reliable sources. Try to connect to your particular interest, but even a simple argument that seeks to define the complexities of slacktivism may do. 

so much stuff on Google Scholar!

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In attempting to help one student think about valuable sources for his essay, I found a lot of great sources on Google Scholar. This reminds me, generally, to remind you to be sure that you DEFINE "SLACKTIVISM" ... or whatever your key terms may be (i.e., "social media"). Define by USING sources, not a dictionary. 

My Google Scholar search, for example, pointed me to this book (see left), which is sure to have some interesting claims and effective appeals. One great thing about some of the sources I found is that many pages are available for access, perhaps even enough to get a good sense of the work and to use it as a resource (in the event that you cannot find a full text of full pdf of the work).  

Be flexible! Be creative in your research! Don't give up! Don't wait for me to do it for you; YOU can do this!! 

Have fun ... 

don't forget pop culture references!!

Let's start an anonymous club, we can sit close in the dark.
Come round to mine, we can swap clothes and drink wine all night.
Turn your phone off friend, you're amongst friends and we don't need no interruptions.
Leave your shoes at the door, along with your troubles.

Let's start an anonymous club, I'll make us name badges with question marks.
Come round to mine, we can swap clothes and drink wine all night.
Turn your phone off friend, you"re amongst friends and we don"t need no interruptions.
Leave your shoes at the door, along with your troubles.

Thank you for cooking for me, I had a really nice evening, just you and me.

Jen insists that we buy organic vegetables
And I must admit that I was a little skeptical at first
A little pesticide can't hurt

Never having too much money, I get the cheap stuff at the supermarket
But they're all pumped up with the shit
A friend told me that they stick nicotine in the apples

If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you

Heading down the Highway Hume
Somewhere at the end of June
Taxidermied kangaroos are littered on the shoulders
A possum Jackson Pollack is painted on the tar
Sometimes I think a single sneeze could be the end of us
My hay-fever is turning up, just swerved into a passing truck
Big business overtaking
Without indicating
He passes on the right, been driving through the night
To bring us the best price

If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you

More people die on the road than they do in the ocean
Maybe we should mull over culling cars instead of sharks
Or just lock them up in parks where we can go and view them
There's a bypass over Holbrook now
Paid for with burgers no doubt
I've lost count of all the cows
There'll be no salad sandwiches
The law of averages says we'll stop in the next town
Where petrol price is down...
What do I know anyhow?

If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you

remember 2 collect files 4 multimodal work (like this!)

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please consider leaving a comment! 

Remember to begin collecting images, video, and audio ... and maybe storyboarding your Multimoda Microtheme. Here is a great clip one might use.

quote sammies!