Aphorisms: An Optional Prompt for Today

If you've already got an idea for your argument essay, you may spend this whole class period developing this idea and working on your draft.

If you're still searching for something to delve into, see if this prompt helps lead you to a topic worth arguing about:

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed aphorism as a rhetorical strategy in an argument essay: the author frames a debatable claim as if it were a truth universally acknowledged, in the form of a succinct statement or assertion, sweeping in scope. Some examples from our readings this semester include Fitzgerald ("in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day") and Stevenson ("There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy"). Robert J. Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago, opens his personal statement in an aphoristic vein: "Questioning, not deference, is the route to clarity."

Think of an aphorism you've encountered before in your life, and contemplate it critically. Do you believe it? Do you agree with its assumptions? Does it reflect something important about your experience in life? Or does it seem to you misguided, simplistic, or otherwise wrong? Write a couple of paragraphs sorting through your thoughts about this aphorism, and see if a position emerges that might become the basis for a more extensive argument.

Here are some examples of well-known aphorisms, if you can't think of one off the top of your head:

"That which does not kill me makes me stronger" (Friedrich Nietzsche)

"Comparison is the thief of joy" (attributed to Theodore Roosevelt)

"If you want a thing done well, do it yourself" (attributed to Napoleon)

"Melancholy is an appetite no misery satisfies."

"Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late."

"The slope contains many wonders not found at the summit" (Marty Rubin)

"We find comfort among those who agree with us; growth among those who don't."

"It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees" (Emiliano Zapato)

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" (attributed to Lord Acton)

OR

Compose your own aphorism, either using a familiar one as a point of departure, or to sum up and articulate an idea or "truth" that you have gained from your own experience. Try to express your idea as compactly and succinctly as possible--make it "quotable"--and then write a paragraph or two illustrating or elaborating on your original aphorism.

Today's Group Work: Admissions Committee

In groups of three or four, consider the seven personal statements by college presidents in light of the following two categories/activities:

1. Choose the three essays that seem most like argument essays to you, the ones that seem to make a debatable point. For each of these three essays, identify a sentence that you think is the best candidate for a thesis statement.

2. Imagine that your group is the admissions committee for an elite graduate program for college administrators seeking an advanced certificate in Social and Emotional Learning. Excellent writing skills are one of the criteria for admission. Other qualities the committee is looking for are strong leadership abilities, good critical thinking skills, and emotional intelligence. 

You have a group of seven finalists, all of whom have been deemed equal in every respect (graduate school transcripts, publications, service to their universities, etc.) and now you must choose which two candidates to admit based on the writing samples you have before you. Who would your committee choose, and how would you justify this choice?

Revising the words of college presidents

Let's see if we can suggest any improvements to some sentences by the authors of personal essays number 2 and 3. Choose one of these sentences from each essay (#2 and #3), and work out a revised version of the sentence in your notebook. When you're satisfied with it, enter it onto the Google Doc.

Essay 2: Personal Essay that Makes an Argument

The second essay was assigned in class last Friday, September 15. This time, you will be writing a personal narrative that also makes and defends an argument: the draft is due in class for a peer-edit session on Friday, September 29, and the final draft is due via Google Doc by 9:00 PM Monday, October 9.

Open Letters

Directed writing (15 minutes):

With James Baldwin's "A Letter to My Nephew" in mind as an example, conceive and begin drafting an open letter on an issue that is important to you. Think about to whom you should address your letter, and how you might frame or present your appeal or argument both to appeal to that individual audience and to the implied wider audience.

Baldwin's open letter to his nephew was originally published in The Progressive, but it later became part of one of his most well-known and influential long essays, The Fire Next Time. If you're interested in a discussion of the open letter as a form of public protest, see "The Intimate, Political Power of the Open Letter" by Emily Nordi, which explores how the form has been deployed for literary activism by writers of color.

Reflections on the Writing Process

In a pair or a group of three, share and discuss your writing process for Essay 1 (the notes you took after the peer-edit and on Friday after turning in the final draft). You can either read/summarize your two sets of notes (if they mainly take the form of writing), share the two visual representations (if you illustrated your process visually), or describe either in a more general sense.

After everyone has shared their summary of their writing process, go to the document linked here and contribute a concise statement of at least one thing you learned from mapping your own process, and (scrolling down) one thing you learned, realized, or were reminded of from hearing your partner(s) share theirs.

For Monday: James Baldwin, "A Letter to My Nephew"

For Monday, please read James Baldwin's "Letter to My Nephew" and answer the prompts in your writer's notebook.

If you prefer, you can print a pdf version.

* * *

In class today: Write for 10 minutes

Choose one of the either/or categories on the board and begin a brief argument essay, either 1.) defending one of the categories against the other; or 2.) exploring some aspect of this divide and making a case for what a person's choice says about them. 

OR

How do you feel about "cussing"? Decide on and articulate a position on "strong language" and its use in particular contexts, offering evidence to persuade your reader of your position. 

"On the Pleasure of Hating" and "An Apology for Idlers"

The essays we're looking at yesterday and today--Hazlitt's "On the Pleasure of Hating" and Stevenson's "An Apology for Idlers"--are both examples of a particular mode or subset of the opinion essay, in which the essay is present as a "defense" of or "apology" (or justification) for some abstract concept. Other examples include Sir Philip Sidney's "Defence of Poesy" and Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Defense of Poetry"; Bertrand Russell's "In Praise of Idleness"; Susan Sontag's "Against Interpretation"; and longer philosophical essays like Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason or Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman."

For today's in-class writing (10 minutes):

Choose a claim from either Hazlitt's "On the Pleasure of Hating" or Stevenson's "An Apology for Idlers" and write three paragraphs agreeing and expanding on it (and/or updating it for the twenty-first century) OR disagreeing with and disproving it (and/or suggesting why it isn't relevant in the twenty-first century).

New Syllabus for Essay 2!

Today in class I distributed the new syllabus, which will take us almost through the remainder of the first quarter. The second essay will be formally assigned on Friday: you will be writing a personal essay that also presents and defends an argument, and our next set of readings will focus on personal essays that make an argument. For these next readings, you should use this new set of questions for your entries in your Writer's Notebook.