Cause and Effect and Human Tragedy ( logic & Rhetoric) Custom Essay

1: What caused the death of Veronica Moser? In case you are unfamiliar with the background of this situation, you can go to Wikipedia to fill you in at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_shooting. (If you choose to Google Veronica Moser, please be forewarned: we’re talking about the 6-year-old girl who was part of the Aurora Theater Shooting in 2012.)

¶2: Using an online library database (e.g., Academic Search Premier, Lexis-Nexis, etc.), find at least two articles that discuss different possible causes for the theater attack and the deaths it caused. Bring the bibliographic data for the articles to class. Then write a second paragraph where you summarize (through quotation and paraphrase) the two articles’ distinct claims about what caused the death of this child. Be sure to paraphrase, quote, and cite your sources properly. (Review Section 51 in The Bedford Handbook, pp. 498-503).

¶3: In one paragraph, analyze both the causes you initially argued for and the causes presented in the source material. Evaluate the credibility of all the causes presented in the source material. Evaluate the credibility of all the causes and draw a conclusion about what caused this child’s death.

¶4: Re-read your previous paragraphs and, in one paragraph, draw some conclusions about cause and effect from what you have presented earlier in the paper. What has writing the first 3 paragraphs shown you about using cause and effect logic?

Use the following checklist on your own to make sure you fulfill the following format and essay requirements. You don’t need to staple it to your essay; you may if it helps you.
Format:
______ Staple your original P1 and P2 to the final essay if you’ve revised them, please!
(otherwise, just cut and paste your P1 and P2 before your P3)
______ Page numbers, bottom right
______ Double-spaced
______ 1” margins, size 12 font, Times New Roman
______ Heading in top LEFT corner, single-spaced:
Your name
Class (ENG 101, Section #)
Instructor (Mrs. Michael)
Date (current date or due date of essay)
Assignment (Assignment 1, 2, etc.)

Essay Requirements:

______ Good writing:
o Is my writing clear, concise, and correct? (proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling)
o Is my word choice concrete and specific, original, and thoughtful?
o Is my sentence structure elevated and varied? (don’t always begin with a “subject-verb” construction; delete “wordy” or redundant phrases)
o Does my paragraph have a topic sentence and a concluding sentence?
o Do I transition coherently between sentences?

______ Good logic:
o Do I answer each paragraph’s questions thoroughly and immediately?
o Do I have a topic sentence answering P3’s questions as my first sentence of P3?
o Do I use P1 and P2 as evidence to support and explain my topic sentence?
o Is my final sentence of P3 a thesis statement?
o Is my thesis a universal arguable claim that is abstracted from the particulars of P1 and P2?
_____________________________________________________________________________________

**Note: organize P3 as follows:
1. The topic sentence is first and immediately answers P3’s question. You may use qualifiers “seems” or “appears to be” and so on to avoid making unfounded, broad, or overly general claims.
2. The body of the paragraph shows the process of induction that you used in order to explain how you reached the claim that you made in the topic sentence. Remember that induction is a process of logic that moves from particular facts (P1 and P2) to a universal claim (P3), so be sure to use the examples in P1 and P2 to support your claims.
3. The concluding sentence should rephrase your topic sentence as a thesis statement; i.e., an arguable claim answering P3’s questions. Try to revise your concluding sentence so that it is not a word-for-word repeat of your topic sentence. It should be abstracted from the particular examples of P1 and P2; i.e., the thesis statement should apply to any and all situations of that weekly topic.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

______ Good rhetoric:
o Do I give a creative title that interests the audience?
o Do I begin each paragraph with an engaging first sentence that makes the audience want to keep reading?
o Do I conclude each paragraph with a statement that clarifies the point of the paragraph, and helps the audience remember what was written?
o Do I keep my audience in mind as I write?
o Do I have a purpose in writing this paragraph?
Do I, as author, present a good ethos to my audience?