2016.2.

15 class brain storm and notes

Talking about student will have quiz on Wednesday
Issue Social attitude in the past.
now
--LGBT rights (U.S.):
1. PASS: No legal right, wrong, mistis, unaccepting, judgmental, punishing
2. Now: legalized, marriage, accepting, respect
-------What we can look for:
Government action/laws
Majority of people
Observe social behavior
Surveys
Popular culture
Goal for today :
Find out many ideas about the social attitude (can look relationships (Sexual relationships,
familychildren(19th in peoples mind : child labor, responsibility, no work, taken care of, the
number of kids, having children, freedom for child) parents, spouses(divorce, marriage a
necessity for family, partner qualifications), education, religion, careers, jobs, leisure, health,
wellness.
Doing a brain storm (society minds doing relationships).
Separate the groups to discover the topics( recent and now, how the topics change)Each
group have their own topics.
Students example:
Religion: inferable or chosen

From Then to Now

Because we are often bombarded by the same news-stories over and over again, or by
everybody talking about the same thing at the same time on social media, it can be easy to only
live in the present moment of any given issue. It can be easy to forget about the historical
context of an issue or that any different reality existed before the current paradigm became so
prominent. This is especially true when it comes to social attitudes, beliefs, or feelings (of
course, not each person in a society will have the same attitude, beliefs, or feelings toward
something. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the overall society will share a certain attitude,
belief, or feeling toward something. We can see that this is true when we see pop culture, the
media, prominent figures like politicians, cultural critics, celebrities, etc., and a majority of
ordinary people espousing the same attitude or belief). When the overall society has embraced
a particular attitude toward an issue, it can be difficult to remember that people, and society as a
whole, once embraced a different attitude toward the same issue.

For example, many young Americans have an attitude of acceptance and respect for
LGBT people. They may take for granted the labor required for LGBT people to gain rights.
They may forget that as recently as the 90's and early 2000's, gay people were regularly
subjected to social scorn, abuse, and even physical violence. For another example, many
Americans might take for granted the existence of a loud anti-vaccination movement in the
U.S., but many might not know the origins of this movement or how it became so prominent.
This blinder-vision itself might be a relatively recent phenomenon: perhaps it's only recently
that society as a whole immerses itself in one moment after another without much thoughtful
consideration of their historical antecedents or how they might connect with each other.
For this project, you will identify a contemporary social attitude toward or stance on an
issue that is very different from the social attitudes toward the same issue in the recent past.
You will also use critical thinking and primary and secondary research to choose one important
influence on society's collective understanding of and stance on the issue. You will use critical
thinking and primary and secondary research to figure out the exact way and degree to which
your chosen influence affected society.
You will include the following research in your essay:
1. the results of one interview (that you will create and conduct)
2. the results of primary research that you conduct into appropriate source
material either produced by your influence or produced in response to it
3. one relevant and credible secondary source
You may have your own views about whether the development is a positive or a negative
one, but you will present your findings in a way that minimizes your own feelings and opinions
about the change and that achieves the kind of objectivity that will make readers of any
persuasion consider your findings.
Learning Objectives
In this project, you will learn to
brainstorm a topic that fits the criteria of the assignment, is appropriately focused,
intellectually challenging and interesting to a wide audience
create and conduct an interview as a source of knowledge
conduct primary research into source material as a source of knowledge
conduct secondary research as a source of knowledge
critically evaluate material you find on the internet
synthesize and analyze multiple points of view
develop new ideas to contribute to an ongoing conversation
identify and rectify errors or weaknesses in logic
adjust your writing to appeal to an audience that will include people who do not agree
with you
consider and control the tone of your writing
write an annotated bibliography
use MLA style

Audience

Your readers are well-educated people and well-read people. They are the kind of
readers who also read online newsmagazines like Slate.com, theAtlantic.com, theNation.com,
etc. (you can read these websites to get ideas of the kind and quality of thinking and writing your
readers will expect from you!). These readers already have a general understanding of current
issues and have a general sense of the common attitudes that people have toward these
issues. They may even already have a general knowledge about the origins of these attitudes.
To keep their interest, you must pick one influence and conduct a focused and deep
investigation into how and to what extent that one influence affected society's overall thinking.
Because they are well-educated, they will expect you to make a logical argument and
support it with strong evidence from credible sources. Many of your readers will probably
accept the prevailing social view of your issue. Some may not. In this essay, it is not your job to
pick a side. Instead, it is your job to show both sides how the current state of affairs came to be
so that they can perhaps better understand how and why they've come to believe what they
believe.
Genre of Research Paper
In your introduction, you need to introduce the current social attitude toward your chosen
issue and then draw a compelling contrast between the current and past attitudes. You will
provide an overview of different influences in this attitude-shift and then direct your readers'
attention to one very compelling influence that you will focus on. In your thesis statement, you
will make an argument about the exact way and the extent to which your chosen influence
affected society's overall attitude and brought us from then to now.
In the body, you will support your thesis with strong evidence and reasoning.
Specifically, you will first explain what your influence did. This explanation will include
primary source material. So for example, if you are trying to figure out how celebrity
spokespeople influenced the anti-vaccine movement, you need to find and examine the actual
content of those celebrities' speeches/Tweets/blog posts/etc.
Then you will develop an argument for how your influence's actions affected society as a
whole. You will have to prove that your influence actually did affect society and to the degree
you say it did. For example, if you are trying to figure out how celebrity spokespeople
influenced the anti-vaccine movement, then you need to find out exactly how individual
people/the media/etc. responded to the celebrities' statements. This part will likely involve a few
to several paragraphs and will likely include your interview data and perhaps your secondary
research.
Finally, you will create a connection between your influence and the other reasons that
you mentioned in your introduction. You will have to figure out how they are connected, how
one led to the other, etc.

Your conclusion will concisely take your readers from then to now, clearly presenting the
role your influence had on the overall social attitude toward your issue. Your conclusion should
answer the questions So what? and Who cares?
You will use MLA style, providing in-text citations and a Works Cited list.

Length Requirement
The body of your essay must be a minimum of 1,200 words. A significant grade penalty
will be imposed on essays that fail to meet this requirement.
Grading Rubric for the Writing Project
Topic Proposal/Brainstorm

10%

Research

15%

Power Drafting in class

15%

Full Draft

5%

Peer Feedback

10%

Research Log/Reflection

10%

Final Draft

35%
____

Total

100%