Synthesis Clarification for Creating Arguments

A good process when creating the eight argument outlines is:

1.)  Start by putting some sources combinations together.  What could I do with Source A, D, and E?

What could I do differently with Source B, C, and A?  Do this a bunch of times.

2.)  Use this visual/organization tool:

•       THESIS: (one sentence which states your claim and your supporting TOPICS.)
• Topic Sentence 1
• Source 1
• Source 2
• Topic Sentence 2
• Source 3
• Source 4
• Topic Sentence 3
• Source 5
• Source 6
• ETC for as many Topic sentences as you need. 

Below, I have created an outline moving backward from a student exemplar(scored an 8) answering the Monolingualism prompt from your deconstruction packet.   

OUTLINE OF AN 8----Even with the classic 5 paragraph arrangement!

THESIS:

Monolingual English speakers are at a disadvantage in today’s world because business practices benefits those who speak multiple languages, they miss out on the culture the rest of the world has to offer, and they don’t benefit from the educational benefits that learning a language offers.

Topic Sentence 1:

 As the globe becomes incredibly intertwined; English speakers who can communicate with those who speak other languages are at a great advantage in their professional lives.

                                Source A

                                Source F

Topic Sentence 2:

 Being multilingual not only helps English speakers in the business world, it also helps them absorb all the world has to offer culturally.

Source F

Source Thomes

Topic Sentence 3:

 Learning languages is also beneficial to the learner in that the act of learning itself has immense educational, personal, and healthy positives.

                                Source A

                                Source D

 STUDENT EXEMPLAR WITH OUTLINE ELEMENTS HIGHLIGHTED. Yellow=Thesis, Blue=Topic Sentence( and restated topic sentences) Green=supporting evidence from Sources. 

The world is increasingly globalizing every day. Companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Uniglo have spread from their original homes to countries half-way around the globe. In this age of globalization, people of different cultures who speak different languages come into contact frequently, but English speakers have lagged behind the rest of the world in learning these other dialects to be able to interact with a wide swath of people. Monolingual English speakers are at a disadvantage in today’s world because business practices benefits those who speak multiple languages, they miss out on the culture the rest of the world has to offer, and they don’t benefit from the educational benefits that learning a language offers.

                As the globe becomes incredibly intertwined; English speakers who can communicate with those who speak other languages are at a great advantage in their professional lives. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, explained that America needs more practices bilingual speakers in languages beneficial to American aims like Mandarin, Hindi, Korean, and Arabic. These languages help America extend its military and economic influence, and its benefits the speaker themselves by both increasing employability and the strength of the American industries they work for(Source A). The benefits to being multilingual for American business people is not confined, however, to foreign trade or commerce. American, itself, is becoming in a commercial sense, more heterogeneous in terms of language and being multi-cultural can help business people extend their influence. Writer Paul Cohen explained, “the number of native Spanish speakers in the United States has doubled since 1990, and is spoke at home by 37 million people.” Cohen also noted the great resume-booster speaking Spanish is in California or Miami. The same can be said about Chinese in lower Manhattan or Korean in San Francisco’s K-town(Source F). Being multilingual opens up opportunity in the business world for Americans abroad and at home.

                Being multilingual not only helps English speakers in the business world, it also helps them absorb all the world has to offer culturally. Cohen also noted that vast multilingualism of the world in a cultural sense. Outside of the major cities of the world, English will get you nowhere, and inside of them it will only get you so far. For all the culture America and Britain has to offer, English-only speakers miss out on Indian films from famous Bollywood and Asian cultures in Japan and China. While some English is spoken in their countries, Cohen notes, the cultural benefits can only be gained by those who understand the native tongue (Source F). While journalist David Thomes believes that English-only speakers are just fine how they are, a logical fallacy exposes a counter argument toward why multilingualism is so beneficial. Thomes notes that there are 6,900 living languages in the work and “Europe alone has 234…spoken on a daily basis.” This is true, but that doesn’t mean don’t learn any of them. Even if you’d only be able to “speak to a minority of… fellow Europeans in their native tongue,” that minority’s insight opens their door to cultural gain otherwise impossible, especially for native English speakers.

                Learning languages is also beneficial to the learner in that the act of learning itself has immense educational, personal, and healthy positives. Educational writer Russell A. Berman noted learning a second language strengthens one’s ability in their first. Second language acquisition allows one to gain attributes like language grammar, and root-analysis that span educational fields beyond the foreign language (Source A). Ursula Oaks, a trilingual American, explained that writing in her acquired French or speaking in the familial Hungarian provided a workout for the brain, that “afterwards I feel like I’ve had a mental jog on the treadmill”(Source D). This educational and mental benefit comes from the learning and utilizing of a second or third language, proving another benefit of multilingualism for Americans.

                As our globe creates a spider-web of connection in the fields of business, education, and even family, being multicultural is becoming more and more essential. While some rely on English in foreign lands, this reliance leads to a dropping of vital business, cultural, and educational benefits. Multilingualism helps American of all backgrounds in all places, including American itself. (703 words)

Synthesis Room for Debate

This exercise should work through the process the thinking and writing of a synthesis essay.

Step one:
Read the sources and the introduction information for the debate from the link below:
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/12/05/is-artificial-intelligence-taking-over-our-lives

Step two:
For each source, write a brief summary of the author's claim and then list 2-4 plausible ways the source COULD be used.

Step three:
Create and outline for 8 DIFFERENT arguments that could be supported by the sources.  Use different source combinations or use sources in different ways.

OUTLINE FORMAT:

Thesis statement:  One sentence that states your claim and the backing logic of your claim.(This is not where sources should be listed or discussed).

Topic Sentences:  Two to five(?) topic sentence depending on your organization and need. Each sentence should make a DIRECT connection to your claim from your thesis and a component of your backing logic  (Again, This is not where sources should be listed or discussed).

Sources:  These should be organized below the topic sentence which they support and should include how they will be applied as supporting evidence to your ideas.


EXAMPLE:

Thesis
Artificial intelligence is taking over our lives by limiting our interaction with our environment and the people around us while at the same time opening a door to a 'library' of information never before available in the palm of our hands.

Topic Sentence:
AI reduces our connection to nature, to the sights and sounds that surround us, and diminish our ability to use our five senses in the most natural way.

Source Harbisson could be used to discuss the way we interact with our surroundings:
"We are the first generation that can truly decide who we want to be as a species. We can add new senses and additional organs to extend our bodies’ capacity to experience the world. We can, in effect, redesign ourselves. Our current evolutionary step is to merge with technology and take an active part in the birth of our future selves."


Topic Sentence:
AI disconnects us from our fellow human beings by reducing them to 2 dimensional avatars, text messages, and video clips or digital photographs.

Source Ito could be used to support this claim when he states: " predicted that an open internet would play a significant role in democratizing society and fostering peace. Later, in the early days of the Arab Spring, it felt as though the internet had indeed helped spark the uprising. But as the internet has increasingly become a place for bigotry and malicious trolling as well as a platform for organizations like ISIS to advance a wave of hatred, I wonder, “What hath the internet wrought?”" 



Topic Sentence: AI expands our access to knowledge, data, and intellectual property in a way that previous human societies could never imagine.

Source Popcorn could be used to support this idea:"At the same time, however, voice recognition and transcription software will allow us to speak, not write, our Great American Novels. Translation apps are on the verge of making real-time conversations flow around the globe. Watson, the IBM supercomputer, may have saved a Tokyo woman’s life, diagnosing her rare leukemia when doctors couldn’t"

Q4 Syllabus up to 5/25

The Final Journals and Class Notes are due on Friday 5/25 by 3PM.

The Class notes(as of 5/2) are:
1. Rhetoric from the "Superpowers" episode of This American Life
2. The comparison of your writing from the first day of school with your recent response to the same prompt.


Timed writings and Multiple Choice quizzes will be 25 pts.
Deconstruction packets and the Visual Text project will be 50 pts.
Journals and Notes will be 100 pts each.