1. Which city is furthest west?
A.Reno
B. Las Vegas
C. Los Angeles
D.Porterville
E. San Diego

4. A. Yes
B. I think so, but I don’t
remember any of it!
C. No

5. Link

6. The human species is in peril of becoming extinct.
Each country with space shuttles has two days to
send a group of people to the Space Station to live
indefinitely in order to repopulate the Earth, should
things progress to total annihilation. The United
States’ powers-that-be have chosen its five-member
mission crew and have narrowed its passenger pool
to the below twenty-six healthy people. Your job as
the commander is to create a seven-person passenger
list. The passengers must be able to aid in
repopulation and in sustaining life inside the Space
Station and afterward in the post-Apocalyptic world.
Record your reasoning for each choice.

7.  Decide who the other six passengers
will be
 Explain how you chose the six
passengers in a paragraph for each

9. Report Essay
Topic
•often a topic
without opposing
sides (for example,
weightlifting)
•usually a question,
proposition, or
theory (for
example, should
parents install
spyware on home
computers to
monitor their
children’s
activities?)

10. Report Essay
Purpose
•to investigate and
present information
thoroughly and
logically
•to articulate a well-
argued response to a
question or
proposition through
examples and
references
•to present a writer’s
informed theories
and opinions
•to analyze or argue
a point

11. Report Essay
Reader
•one who intends to
gain knowledge on
the subject (reading
for reference)
•reasonably
intelligent,
thoughtful adults
who will have
opinions on the
topic (some may
disagree with the
thesis)

12. Report Essay
Format
•often uses
Chicago style
(footnotes and
bibliography)
•depends heavily
on sources
•comprises
sections with
headings
•MLA format (in-
text citations,
works cited page)
•integrates sources
•usually does not
include sections

13. Report Essay
Style
•has to be
objective
•presents
information to the
reader
•can be subjective
•writer uses
sources to create a
conversation
•sources are
commented upon,
elaborated, or
exemplified by
writer

14. Report Essay
Assessment
Success depends on:
•the demonstration
of good research
skills
•the objective
presentation of
relevant information
Success depends on:
•the interest of the
argument
•how the essay
relates one point to
the next and how
well it establishes
the position
•having a clear,
readable, interesting
style

15. Facebook is a social networking phenomenon that has taken the
United States by storm and gained universal popularity.
Facebook has more than one-half trillion members; 1 out of
every 12 people on the planet has a Facebook account. More
than 70% of those accounts are outside of the United States.
Membership grows by almost three-quarters of a million
people each day. If Facebook were a country, only China
and India would surpass it in population (Grossman, 2010).
About a billion new pieces of information are posted on
Facebook each day (Stengel, 2010). Mark Zuckerberg created
Facebook as a Web service from his Harvard University
dorm room in February 2004 when he was a 19-year-old
student. Last December, Time named the Facebook founder
its 2010 Person of the Year. The now 26-year-old joins a list
of honorées who have included American Presidents,
royalty, and Nobel Laureates.
(Siegle, D.. "Facing Facebook: A Guide for Nonteens. " Gifted Child Today 1 Apr. 2011: General Interest Module, ProQuest. Web. 16 Mar. 2011.)

16. But Facebook friends and social networking are not adequate
substitutes for authentic friendship. We long for relationships
with people who know us so well that their lives impact and
influence ours. Young people love the high-tech world of
multitasking and interactive media, but like the rest of us, they
long for personal intimacy. On our campus, we are converting
spaces in dorms back to common rooms because of the increasing
desire of undergraduates to gather together in small groups.
We may have multiple social networks and thousands of
acquaintances and still find ourselves profoundly lonely. A
sociological study found that between 1985 and 2004 the average
American's number of close confidants declined from three to two,
and that those reporting "no close confidants" jumped from 10 to
25 percent. Lynn Smith-Lovin, one of the study's authors, noted
that "you usually don't expect major features of social life to
change very much from year to year or even decade to decade."
But the data suggest a "remarkable drop" in the number and
quality of friendships in American culture. The findings also
confirm and amplify my anecdotal sense that more and more
"connected" people, from CEOs to talented youth and young
adults, are struggling with loneliness.
(Jones, L. Gregory. "My Facebook friends." Christian Century 15 July 2008: 35. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Mar. 2011.)

18. What do you think
of when you hear
the word
“argument”?

24. Argumentative
skill is acquired;
it is not innate.

25.  Your thesis states your position but
it is not necessarily arguable and
debatable.
 You don’t acknowledge and weigh
alternative views.
 Your purpose is to present your
position. You are not intent on
persuading your readers that your
position is superior to other
positions.

26.  Your thesis is arguable and
debatable.
 You anticipate alternative views,
acknowledge them, and address
them.
 You are intent on persuading
your readers that your position
is superior to other positions.

27. Who is your audience?
What values do they likely
hold?
How are their views going to
differ or be similar to your
own?

28.  An argument in the specialized sense is usually
not
 An absolute truth.
 A revelation or brand new insight.
 The last word.
 Bad-tempered complaining.
 An exercise in pure logic.
 A chance to prove that you’re smarter than everyone
else.
 And, most emphatically, it is not necessarily about
some grand issue of concern to humankind in
general.

31.  Read what experts have already written about the issue.
 Examine the various dimensions of the issue by analyzing
and evaluating the experts’ arguments to determine which
are the most convincing, which are reasonable but not
terribly persuasive, and which are flawed.
 Articulate a thesis expressing your own position. Make sure
you are adding to the conversation (not just saying, “I
agree”).
 Discover solid reasons to support your thesis.
 Return to the sources to extract evidence you will use to
back up each of your reasons.
 Summarize alternative views and reasonable objections to
your argument.
 Respond tactfully to these alternative views.
 Decide how you will structure your essay.

32.  You must convince yourself that writing an
argument is something you can do without
becoming someone you’re not. Do that in four
steps:
 Notice that you make arguments all the time.
 Shake the fallacy of the absolute and
exclusive truth.
 Shake the fallacy of the final word.
 Begin with arguments that are easy to make.

34.  I will put you into groups of four or five
 Work together to produce a two-page
persuasive essay on your assigned topic
 Use fictitious research for support with quotations
and paraphrases
 Today, you want to discuss your topic and
work on creating some supporting points.

35. A. Introduction to The Lord of the
Flies
B. Critical Thinking Exercise
C. Report vs. Essay
D. Introduction to Argument
E. Proving the Impossible

36. A. Introduction to The Lord of the
Flies
B. Critical Thinking Exercise
C. Report vs. Essay
D. Introduction to Argument
E. Proving the Impossible

37.  Read The Lord of the Flies chapters 1-2
 Come up with your two pretend
sources and how they will work into
your “Proving the Impossible” essay
 Write a one-page argument essay for
the six people you chose in the critical
thinking assignment (due to Moodle
by Thursday at 1:40 p.m.)
 Participate in the weekly discussion
(post due Thursday and replies due
Sunday)