Good morning, good day, and good evening! How was your weekend? Anything in the nature of an argument arise? Or an important moral or ethical matter to consider? I got in to a doozy of a spat, went on for hours and hours and hours, with angry words and shouting and accusations, the whole ugliness of it will not bear repeating. And do you know what it involved, at least on the surface? The way politicians sometimes use religion to influence the voting public! And I'm not even religious or particularly interested in politics at this point. That said, being able to state issues clearly and the reasons why we do or perhaps do not feel one way or another about them is a skill and an art even, when it comes to oral and written communication. Convincing others of our "rightness" is not necessarily the best tactic, but being able to lay out side by side some of the conflicting claims, whether of fact or analysis, and the arguments being put forward by the media and authorities on the subject is a primary way of simply looking at the matter from various angles, before coming to any decision or judgment on the issue. Our personal experience is also a source of rational and emotional appeal, as are the stories of others that may be representative of a general or particular truth. Staying calm, and appearing fair-minded and decent is a means of keeping an audience's attention and respect. Anger and vitriol, personal attacks and irrelevant digressions, appeals to emotion that obscure the issue, and illogical analyses and conclusions we want to avoid.
We'll spend some time today exploring the issues meaningful to you all and getting class responses. We'll look at the work of cartoonists that serve to highlight some of the issues being discussed in the news. Then we'll work on putting together an essay that defines an issue and one possible stance towards it.
Essay #7: Introduce the subject you intend to address in the opening paragraph of a short essay and proceed to show why you feel the way you do as regards the ethical or moral concerns the subject raises. What is at stake? What are the human costs and consequences associated with the matter at hand? Why is one's sense of injustice and indignation aroused? Whatever personal story, facts, or authoritative opinions you want to include to support your position belong somewhere in the body paragraph(s). Write a 350-word essay, three paragraph minimum, and title the piece.
