Day 3

Well Day Three was full. I covered a lot in the two hours. We had an extended and quite provocative conversation about Tim Wise's argument about race and privilege as we looked at the invention process: asking questions, listing, and connecting ideas.

As the white board became covered in writing, students shared passages from Wise's book that supported claims noted. We agreed and disagreed, defined words and then redefined them for clarity.

We looked at a process called Topical Invention to develop thesis sentences which are: definitions, analogies, consequences and testimony. We talked about the two types of arguments: inductive and deductive and the three major types of argumentative claims: fact,value and policy and what kind of claim Wise makes in his book.

Inductive argument is a movement from the specific data to the general claim, while the deductive argument moves from the general statement which is presumed true to the specific examples that prove it. Inductive arguments are said to lead to probability rather than certainty. Whereas, the deductive argument leads to certainty if the major points outlined in a syllogism are true.

This discussion led to a brief conversation about flawed thinking or fallacies. There are two types of fallacies: formal and material. Formal has to do with deductive reasoning and inductive, has to do with the material or evidence.

We talked about the form of the essay and where the thesis usually appears in the written discourse. We didn't talk about the parts of an essay or paragraph for that matter. We will later and the textbook, Writing Logically Thinking Critically discusses thesis development, structuring the argument and evidence--what is evidence and why is it important.

Homework
We reviewed the homework from WLTC in class. Homework for the evening was to keep reading Wise. We will finish the book on Monday, June 28, and start the essay then. Homework was to go through the book, up to page 61 and identify 10 arguments and of the ten choose 5 and find evidence that supports it from the text. Students could write in the book.

We will continue in WLTC this morning and watch a video on Argumentation (The Write Course).