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April 10, 2006
Houston, we have a ....
Roberts, Ch. 12 -- Jerz: American Lit II (EL 267)
“In non-scientific subjects like literature you seldom or never find absolute proofs, so your conclusions will not be proved in the way you prove triangles congruent in geometry. But your organization, your use of facts from the text, your interpretations, and your application of general or specific knowledge should all make your conclusions convincing. Thus your basic strategy is persuasion” (175-76).
I think I have seen these strategies somewhere before, but probably not all together at the same moment.
By the way, strategy 4: Argue against possible objections, seems to be what we’re expected to do as we write our papers: consider all the other arguments and outline why our own position is the better one.
And strategy 2: Analyze significant words in the phrasing of the problem, in which Roberts debates the seriousness of “delay” sounds to me that there’s a hint of the deconstructionist argument, but not exactly.
Posted by MattHampton at April 10, 2006 11:51 PM