Philosophy Extra Credit

Dear Freshies,

Choose between either plus ten on your essay, or to drop your lowest quiz grade.

Watch on of the videos below and write a 1-2 page response (via email) to the following question:

Describe the core beliefs of the philosopher as you best understand them. Have you encountered any of these ideas before? Why do you think this philosopher is important? How could our modern society benefit from some of the ideas as presented by the philosopher?

When you submit your response be sure to indicate what extra credit you would like me to put int.

Due Sunday by 4 PM

Passion
Epicurus
The Stoics
Rene Descartes
Baruch Spinoza

Education / Character
Montaigne

Existence / Fate
Boethius
Rene Descartes
Soren Kierkegaard
Nietzsche
Sartre

Faith & Reason
Augustine
Thomas Aquinas
Immanuel Kant

Due Sunday @ 4pm

Best,
M.W.S.

Philosophical Terms & Quiz Schedule

Dear Freshies,

Click here for a Quizlet I've created. This will help you study for your vocabulary quiz.

There will be a short response quiz on Thursday, 3/21. There will be 3-5 questions relating to what we have been and will be discussing in class.

These videos were screened in class:

"PHILOSOPHY - Plato" 

"PLATO ON: The Forms"

There will be a vocabulary quiz on Monday, 3/25. You will be informed of any additional words by Wednesday 3/20.

Best,
M.W.S.

Essay Workshop

Dear Freshies,

We spent the majority of this week discussing different elements of academic writing.

Today I want you to comment on your fellow classmates' essay, here are the pairings:

Denniz, Joanne

Andrew, Joe

Manny, Julissa

Amado, Caleb

Jessica, Daniel

Victoria, --> Naomi, --> Lydia --> Victoria

Your comments should follow this model:
1) What I found most effective....
2) An area I think you can improve on is...

You can comment by bringing the cursor over the area you want to comment on, highlight it, and click "Add Comment."

Best,
M.W.S.

MLA Format, Guidelines, and Practice

Dear Freshies,

Click here for Today's notes

Click here for a link to Purdue Owl

Click here for the MLA Guide

Click here for a link to today's 1st activity

Click here for a link to today's 2nd activity

The Uneven U

Dear Freshies,

Notes from Today's Lesson

General Paragraph Structure

Introduction

Introduces the topic and tone of the essay and should lead into the thesis statement. Since the thesis statement is the specific, central idea of the essay, it generally appears towards the end of the introduction, once the writer has introduced the topic and tone and grabbed the reader’s attention.

Body / Analysis

A body paragraph is a group of related sentences about a particular topic or idea directly relating to the thesis.

Conclusion

Restates the thesis and/or the main points from the paper.

Sentence Types

Thesis 

controls the subject matter of the essay and states something significant to the reader. It is the one statement that summarizes the main point of the essay and states why the essay is important and worth reading.

Topic Sentence

A topic sentence generally appears early in a body paragraph (often the first or second sentence) and controls the paragraph. A topic sentence is like a mini thesis sentence for each paragraph and serves to unify the contents of the paragraph.

Supporting Sentence

A sentence that supports a statement or analysis with additional information, ideas, and / or examination

Bridging Sentence

Connects a simple sentence to an abstract sentence, vice-versa

Evidence

The literal material you are commenting on

Analytical Sentence

An examination of the evidence

Concluding Sentence

A sentence that wraps up the paragraph and ideas discussed in the paragraph and sets fourth a new idea to be discussed

Today's Materials

"The Uneven U"

Today's Task - The Scrambled Paragraph:

Posted below are two paragraphs that I have scrambled out of the original order.
On a blog post I want you to:
1st - Arrange the paragraph into an order you believe is most effective.
2nd - Evaluate each sentence according to the "Uneven U" writing Model

A sample post might look as follows


1st Paragraph
1st - C. - Level 4
2nd. B. - Level 3
3rd D, - Level 2
4th A - Level 1
5th - F - Level 2

1st Paragraph
A. In a survey published by Farmers Insurance Group, 87% of those polled said that cell phones affect a driver’s ability, and 40% reported having close calls with drivers distracted by phones. 

B. Expert testimony, public opinion, and even cartoons suggest that driving while phoning is dangerous. 

C. Frances Bents, an expert on the relation between cell phones and accidents, estimates that between 450 and 1,000 crashes a year have some connection to cell phone use (Layton C9). 

D. Many cartoons have depicted the very real dangers of driving while distracted (see fig. 1).

2nd Paragraph
A.  The authors, Donald Redelmeier and Robert Tibshirani, studied 699 volunteers who made their cell phone bills available in order to confirm the times when they had placed calls.

B. Scientific research confirms the dangers of using phones while on the road. 

C. The news media often exaggerated the latter claim (“similar to” is not “equal to”); nonetheless, the comparison with drunk driving suggests the extent to which cell phone use while driving can impair judgment. 

D.  We found that using a cellular telephone was associated with a risk of having a motor vehicle collision that was about about four times as high as that among the same drivers when they were not using their cellular telephones. This relative risk is similar to the hazard associated with driving with a blood alcohol level at the legal limit. (456) 

E. The participants agreed to report any nonfatal collision in which they were involved.

F. In 1997 an important study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

G.  By comparing the time of a collision with the phone records, the researchers assessed the dangers of driving while phoning. The results are unsettling:

Applying Academic Writing to our own

Dear Freshies,

For this blog post response I want you to first read "1. The Writing Process" to "2. Draft" in your textbook (pg. 991 - 995)

Then using this reading, as well as our class activity I want you to respond to the following question:

• How can you apply the concepts of academic writing to your own writing? 

Due Tonight by 11:59 PM

Best,

M.W.S.

Today's Jigsaw Task

Dear Freshies,

Please follow along with me and do not click or move ahead. Wait until I tell you open the files

Click Here for Weekly Participation Guidelines

Click Here for Academic Writing Do's and Don'ts

Click Here for the Academic Writing Example

Today's Jigsaw Activity:

Jigsaw

1st Part (10 Mins)

You will work on your reading with your new group. Start off by reading the passage independently, then as a group read, answer, and discuss the following questions:

•  What effective / useful elements do you recognize in your passage?
• What ineffective / not useful elements do you recognize in your passage?
• What elements, moments, ideas, sentences can we categorize as “Academic Writing.”?

Create a shared document to answer these questions.

Group Readings

Denniz, Joanne - Introduction

Andrew, Joe - Body Paragraph 1

Manny, Julissa - Body Paragraph 2

Amado, Caleb - Body Paragraph 3

Jessica, Daniel - Conclusion

Victoria, Naomi, Lydia - Body Paragraph 2

Best,

M.W.S.

Drafts are Due 11:59

Dear Freshies, 

This is a friendly reminder that the draft to your essay is due tonight by 11:59. Please keep in mind that this is a DRAFT and is not expected to be perfect. We will all be making revisions to our drafts over the course of the week. 

Please note, as I said in class, if I do not receive anything from you by 11:59, your paper will be late and you will lose ten points each day. When you revise your paper, you will have a ceiling (e.g. If your paper is late one day, the highest revision grade you can receive will be a 90)

I hope everyone had a great break,
M.W.S.

The Cave and the Underworld

Dear Freshies,

As we have discussed in class, we will be looking at Odysseus's journey to the underworld tomorrow. Today in class I showed you this video by School of Life, and asked you to write a response to the following question:

"If the prisoner gains enlightenment by leaving the cave, what does the hero gain through entering the underworld?'

Please post your responses on your blogger. Try to either develop or edit the one you had for class.

Due by 2/14 @ 11:59 PM

Best,
M.W.S.

Work for 2/11

Dear Freshies,

As you might have already found out, I will not be in school today. Please take class time to work on the following task.

Tomorrow we will talk about book IX and I will excerpt Book X for you. Book X is one of the more interesting books because it depicts Odysseus's journey into the Underworld.

Read this post on the underworld's role in Greek Mythology. After you have finished compose a post addressing the following questions:

1. What about Ancient Greek culture & values is reflected in their beliefs towards the underworld? 
2. Do you recognize any similarities between the Greek's beliefs towards death and the underworld and those which are held in your own religion?
3. The Journey of the soul is described to be an elaborate process, why do you think that is? Why can't it be more simple?
4. Looking back (to The Epic of Gilgamesh) this will be the 2nd text in which the protagonist journey to the underworld to confront death, why do you the hero "needs" to visit the underworld?

Due by tonight, 2/11 @ 11:59 PM

Best,

M.W.S.

Readings

Dear Freshies,

Here are the texts you can use tomorrow if you have lost them:

Book I

Book II

Book V

Book VI

Book VII

Good luck,

M.W.S.