for Tuesday
we are starting by looking at the way basic arguments work, whether they are the sort we might use as a thesis, or the sort we use in everyday life. to that end, as i stated in class, i want you to think about a conviction you hold dear, and i want you to have a go at applying reason to that conviction.
consider the example i gave you in class, wherein i built up an argument regarding our founding principles in conjunction with the reality of our country’s incarceration rates; you will essentially be doing the reverse for homework: you will write down a belief (not religious, just something you feel strongly about, which pertains to life, and is not a mathematical formula), and then you will have a go at writing down some of the premises/facts-as-reasons that wold make your belief an arguable position.
this is an informal exercise, and i absolutely do not expect you to write an essay. homework journal entries are to be 150 words, so not even a page of double-spaced writing; keeping them short and informal, allows us to focus on the content of our ideas, as we learn to express them in more formal and lengthy formats.