Journal 11: Optimistic Quote

Often in college (and on the TOEFL and GMAT!) we have to respond to quotes. Here's a great one:

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill

Prompt: What does this quote mean? Do you agree with it? How does it apply to your life? Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic? 

Due Wednesday, December 12 by 10PM.
Note: A famous example of pessimism and optimism is the question, "Is the glass half empty or half full?"

"The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole",

Journal 10: Analyzing an Argument

Arguments are around us all the time. We make and hear them whenever we try to persuade someone we're right or whenever someone wants to convince us to buy their product. To be a critical thinker and an effective academic writer, we need to understand how arguments are put together.

Prompt: Choose an opinion article (or letter to the editor) from a magazine or newspaper. In the journal first give the reference (APA style!) and then analyze the argument being made.

• What is the THESIS?
• What is the CLAIM (Definition, Cause, Value, Policy)?
• To what is the argument appealing - to reason (logos), to emotion (pathos), or to trust and values (ethos)?
• What is the evidence or premises the author uses to reach his conclusion?
• Finally - What do you think?

Here are some on-line versions of opinion articles.

Daily Titan Opinion Articles

Orange County Register Opinion Articles

Los Angeles Times Opinion Articles

New York Times Opinion Articles

For example, here's a response to an article from the immaculate Daily Titan:

Landsman, A. (2008, October 27). I'll have some breast milk with my Ben and Jerry's please. Daily Titan, p. 4.

In this article Landsman pokes fun at the argument by PETA that the famous ice cream company, Ben & Jerry's, should use human breast milk instead of cow milk (par. 3). PETA's argument that we shouldn't use animal milk for nourishment (par. 8) is a claim of policy which appeals to emotion: disgust, in particular. Landsman seems to think this tactic is really strange. She admits that she doesn't have any scientific evidence on how hard it would be to do this (par. 15), but then PETA also offers weak evidence, too. They argue that it is stranger to use another creature's milk than our own (par. 8).

Due Monday, Dec 3

Your very appealing teacher who claims to know it all,

Journal 9: Anticipating Your Parents' Objections

A good argument includes concessions and anticipation of objections from the other side. Who is better to argue with than our parents!?

Prompt: Write a letter to your parent arguing one of the positions we discussed. You must concede one point and counter-argue two points. Be sure to use the correct persuasive language that we have talked about to anticipate and concede to objections from your parents.

Due: Sunday, 11/12 by 10:00PM 

Never telling his mother to "chill",

Journal 8: Your First Source

I hope that you learned a lot from our research librarians. As you can see, the CSUF librarians are very busy, but they love to help students work on their research projects. You will have to write many important research papers during your time at an American university. The more you learn now, the less you'll have to worry later!

Prompt: In the university, professors often require you to submit an "Annotated Bibliography" before you start working on your research paper. This bibliography helps the professor know whether or not you are going in the right direction for your research.

Step 1) Use one of the databases that we learned about in the library. You may use a popular (newspaper/magazine) OR scholarly database. Find at least ONE article.

Step 2) Read or skim through the article.

Step 3) In this journal entry, tell us where you found the article and who wrote it. Later on we will learn how to "document" the source using the APA style. If you want, you can try to do that now.

Step 4) Give me a paragraph summary of how you might use this source. This is sometimes called an annotated bibliography. You should include the following information: Who is the author? Will this help you answer your research question or give you a background on your topic? How?

For example, here is a annotation from the annotated bibliography I wrote for a research paper I wrote on place names in English.

Angus, D. (2005). Place name morphology and the people of Los Angeles. California Linguistic Notes. 30 (2). Retrieved from http://hss.fullerton.edu/linguistics/cln
Duncan Angus is a linguistics professor at CSUF. He noticed that while many people used the word Angeleno to refer to people from Los Angeles, not everyone did. It made him wonder what the most common form was. In this article Angus discusses the results of his survey. This was useful for me because this is what made me interested in the topic of place name morphology in English. I will conduct my own survey and compared my answers with Angus's. I want to find out if most people who live here in Orange County use Angeleno or something else.

Due: Friday, November 2

Get ready for research!

Journal 7: Research Question

Prompt: What did you learn about your topic today in class on Wikipedia? What areas seem interesting to you? Have you already started to think about some possible research questions? Remember that a good research topic is one that you already know a little about but about which you are interested in learning more. What did you already know about this topic? In what area do you want to learn more?


Due: Today!

Note: Don't forget to stay on schedule or else you'll look like this guy!

Let the intellectual adventure begin!

Journal 6: Life's Soundtrack

Just like a movie our life has a soundtrack. We can't help but associate songs we hear with the memories we make. The song above, "Such Great Heights", is a song which I will always associate with my relationship with my wife, Lisa. Many of our friends have told us that the lyrics to this song really describe our relationship. (I also like this acoustic version, which is very pretty.)

Prompt: What is your favorite song (or one of your most favorite)? Or, what song is very significant to you? When did you first hear the song, and how has it described or affected your life?

Due: Wednesday, Oct 17 by 10PM

Rock out!

Journal 5: Birds of a Feather

Some people say "birds of a feather flock together", and others say "opposites attract". When you look at your friends, which seems to be true for you?

Prompt: Compare your best friend (or friends) with yourself. How are you alike or different? You can compare any areas of your life - hobbies, beliefs, likes & dislikes, etc. If you're different, how can you be friends? Be sure to use the organization and unity strategies we've studied for Compare/Contrast essays.

Due Wednesday,Oct. 3 by 10PM

Note: "Birds of a feather flock together" is a very old saying which means people who are alike will hang out together and probably be close friends.


Your very different friend,