Outline for Essay Unit 1

The "Why Terror" text serves as exercise for us to create our Essay Unit 1 about a song. On Monday, you will receive your final summary versions back which I got from you today. Then, I will model how to write an A,B,C,D, and F paper "response." Therefore, those of you who have not emailed me the response part yet (just the summary), email it before Sunday, so I can give advisory grades before class on Monday.

Today, we are creating the outline for the "response part" of our song essay. You have finished the "summary part" already, which was due today in class.



For the OUTLINE, which is due in an email to me today after class, please use the following guidelines:

You will look for the following elements of argumentation we have talked about in class (remember they can be mixed; not exclusively one or the other):

1) determine the type of argument (to inform, to convince, or to explore)
· Does the composer tell mere facts?
· Does he/she try to manipulate/convince the audience, lead them in a certain direction?
Make them believe something?
· Does he/she invite/encourage the audience to become active and do something against this
social issue? (exploration)

2) determine what the argument is about (the past (forensic), the present (ceremonial), or
the future (deliberative))

3) determine how the composer connects to the audience (argument based on values,
credibility, and character (ETHOS); argument from the heart (feelings; PATHOS); or
argument based on facts and reason (LOGOS))

· How does the composer address the audience? Does he/she use a certain language or slang
to create group feeling and a sense of belonging? (Give examples.) Does he/she talk to
teenagers, adults, or people in general?

· Does the composer use autobiographical incidents (does he/she offer himself/herself as an
example) to tell a story/warn the audience/talk about overcoming problems?

· Are the incidents narrated in the lyrics mere fiction, or founded on real life events?

· Does the author use any stylistic elements to make his argument more visible or striking,
such as symbols, metaphors, proverbs, images, allusions, etc?

4) rhetorical analysis (who is the audience (age; social status; race), what is the purpose of the
argument, what are the contexts, etc.)

The discussion of these elements must be backed up with citing lines or keywords (in quotation marks, mentioning the stanza or line of the song) from the lyrics which describe the claims the composer is making. Also, you need to use at least one scholarly research article (no Wikipedia!) to prove that you have investigated in the social/political/economical background of your song.

For example: when your song deals with runaway kids (such as in “Runaway Train” from Soul Asylum), you should cite some statistics about children living on the street, or from Amber Alert, or recent cases from the media as examples, to show the importance of this social issue today. Why did they run away, what became of them? Don’t just generalize, do some in-depth research to explain why the composer wrote a song about this topic, why he/she wrote it at that time, and not twenty years ago, and what he/she wants to achieve with it.

The following search engines should be used to find background material:

JSTOR
search engine

ERIC

Google Scholar

Task for today: copy and paste these guidelines into a word document, and type your text under each of the points. This is our brainstorming and pre-writing activity. We collect data before starting our response.

When you're done filling in the blanks, try out the three search engines and look for background material that you can use to support your thesis why your song is important today. Copy the links to any research article you find into your word document, and email all this to me at the end of today's lesson. No late documents accepted. If you don't get done, just email what you have. MAKE SURE YOU TAKE AN ARTICLE FROM A TIME THAT MATCHES YOUR SONG!!! So, if your song is from 2006, don't pick a research article that talks about the background of the 1920's, and if your song is a hippie song from 1969, don't use an article that talks about drug abuse in 2007!

HOMEWORK for Monday: complete your outline, including at least one link, and bring a paper version to class on Monday/or email it to me for class on Monday.