08 THU FEB 09

Class 08 THU FEB 09

Genius Hypothesis

How would you construct an experiment to test the Hypothesis “Bees Don’t Fly in the Dark”?

Too Late to Meme

First, you might need to know who Christopher Walken is. He has one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces. But it never occurred to me that he resembled a famous actress until I saw
a particular image of him as a young man.

Writing Advice

declaration-of-independence-1

This is a reminder that your essay is, by definition, an expression of your opinion. Your goal as a persuasive writer should be, through the authority of your voice and the soundness of your reasoning, to convince your readers that they are reading facts, not opinions. Reminding them that you’re just another knucklehead who read a book called “Declarations for Dummies” undercuts your authority.

Click here to see how constantly qualifying your claims turns a Declaration of Independence into a Weak Suggestion of Independence.

The “Give Directly” Hypothesis


Housekeeping—Feedback Please

  1. Want to scoot to the top of the Feedback Please queue? Leave a Reply on your post detailing the type of feedback you would most like to receive.
  2. Want to continue to receive feedback after your beloved professor has already demonstrated a desire to overwhelm you with free advice? RESPOND to the feedback you receive.

Powerful Rhetoric 1.

From the president of Colombia.

Powerful Rhetoric 2.

From Topher Grace in “Traffic”
Same message, different medium.

Claims Task

DEADLINE: Before Class THU FEB 16

You’ll find both the Lecture material (Claim Types) and the Assignment (Claims Task) at the same link. You’ll need guidance before trying to categorize the dozens of ways we can transmit information, opinion, facts, in language.

The non-Portfolio PTSD Claims Task is a critical reading exercise of an assigned reading. It is designed to take less than two hours to complete and has a one-week deadline. The first part of the assignment is to read or listen to the article “Is PTSD Contagious?” The second part is to spend ONE HOUR selecting very short excerpts from the article and identifying the claims it contains.

68 Responses to 08 THU FEB 09

  1. davidbdale says:

    Good Notes, CN
    3/3

    Like

  2. davidbdale says:

    Good Notes, CN
    3/3

    Like

  3. -To test the hypothesis that bees don’t fly in the dark, a beekeeper kept tons of bees in a giant class container and had them flying around, and he turned off some of the lights, but not all of them so that we can see, and almost all of them already fell. If it was totally dark, they would definitely not be flying around.
    -Your essays are an expression of your opinion, but don’t make it seem like that in the essay itself. You want to make your essay seem really factual. You want to take pride in what you are writing.
    -Our next assignment is our claims task assignment. We have to read/listen to the article about PTSD, and then look at tons of short excerpts and identify the types of claims they are.

    Like

  4. queenrandom04 says:

    The warmup was to show us the value of a ridiculous hypothesis that you’re still able to prove. While writing your essay it’s obviously your opinion, but you should attempt to make your essay so strong that you don’t need to suggest anything you are presenting. When you speak in absolute truths it makes the message overall you’re presenting more defendable. We talked about malnourishment but the lesson of it was that if you can’t immediately prove your hypothesis you should continue to look for more evidence to support your claim. We did a lesson on claims and building your argument around them. We learned about different types of claims to help us with our assignment due Tuesday where we have to recognize the claims made in our portion of the podcast we are assigned. We were then assigned sections for our assignment. We spent time recognizing how many claims can be in a small amount of writing

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  5. rowanluver29 says:

    – There is no point in developing an idea of it doesn’t sound crazy at first, it is not worth your time!
    – How would we construct an experiment to prove/disprove that bees don’t fly in the dark? We watched a video of bees flying in bright light and when the light turned off, they all immediately stopped flying and drop to the floor.
    – Our essays should be an expression of our opinion, but not directly telling the audience that.
    – We watched a video of the movie traffic and discussed how it displayed rhetoric. Rhetoric is the way authors use words to influence the way an audience thinks.
    – Discussed our claim assignment. We should spend an hour getting used to the information, and then spend an hour focusing on a specific part of the article and point out all of the claims named in that specific piece of the article.
    – “Admittedly, I do not know much.” are 2 claims that might be confused as 1. This is because the author is 1.) admitting something and 2.) does not know the claim.
    – Is PTSD contagious? We read all of the claims and how each of them correlated to this question/hypothesis.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    -It could be discouraging to see that someone already proved what you are researching, but you can take that opportunity to prove something else, or disprove it.
    -Our writing is an expression of our opinion, but the reader shouldn’t know this. Just write it how it is, and let the reader decide for themselves.
    Basic Claim Type
    – a claim about how a term is defined or what category of thing it belongs to
    -Definition Claim is simply stating what a word means in your writing.
    – Analogy Claim is claiming similarity from one thing to another
    -Categorical Claims would be naming off several examples that belong to the group/category
    – Factual Claim is a claim that circumstances or conditions exist beyond doubt. These claims can be proved by presenting indisputable evidence.
    -Evaluative Claim is a claim that involves judgement of the characteristics of an item or situation.
    -Ethical or Moral Claim is a type of evaluative claim that places a judgement on a social situation expresses an ethical or moral judgement.
    – Quantitative or Numerical Claim are claims that may be evaluative or factual depending on the reliability of the measurements.
    – Comparative Claims involves any claim that two or more things can be ranked
    -Casual Claims are assertions of cause and effect, consequences, preconditions, or predictions.
    -Illustrative Claims use the methods of poetry to draw similarities or to illustrate the frustration of medication seekers.

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  7. blueee04 says:

    Today, in class we discussed the hypothesis of bees not flying in the dark. And then we watched a video proving it. I think it’s interesting how they all dropped at the bottom and stopped flying everywhere, it wasn’t even that dark. We then went over some writing advice, which was that our essays should declare themselves if their self evident and convince the reader that what they’re reading is facts. An essay shouldn’t be full of an opinion it should be just what you believe is facts, the reader will decide whether or not they agree with you.

    We discussed how $1,000 was used to give information to every family in places that people were malnourished but I believe it would’ve been better to give them the food at first I thought why not give them money but it turns out they don’t use the money properly just as they didn’t use the information.

    We talked about our next task which is due a week from now, it seems as we’ve been getting so much work lately but i’ve honestly learned a lot so far. I learn something different everyday in this class. I have been a little stressed out with the workload, not just in this class but also my other ones. However, Im looking at the bigger picture and cant wait to get my degree.

    We talked about an author saying PTSD is contagious and this is the article we are using for our next assignment. I never thought about it but I guess it does make sense that someone can pass down their PTSD to someone else. It may not be the same PTSD but they have some type of trauma from dealing with someone with it. This kind of reminds me of how parents were treated a way from their parents, when they were younger and then they do the same with their children, causing it to be a domino effect.

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    • davidbdale says:

      I admire that you take advantage of the Notes to interact with the course material, Blueeeeeeee. 🙂
      Sorry about the workload, of course, but it’s good to hear you’re finding it valuable.
      5/4

      Like

  8. sinatraman17 says:

    -Bees can’t fly in the dark: this hypothesis can simply be disproven by finding ONE example of a bee flying in the dark; like the Card Hypothesis metaphor.
    -Christopher Walken/Scarlett Johansen: a hypothesis Prof Hodges thought he had discovered first, however when researched it was found this has already been explored: “too late to meme”

    **Essays are opinions, but never let the audience think that. Shape your claims to be Self-evident – we should speak with “Author – ity”**

    Powerful Rhetoric- voicing claims in the most powerful, efficient, self-evident way.

    Claim Types- there are many types of claims that all present information with different rhetoric. Depending on the information they’re trying to persuade, each expresses their unique ideas powerfully and with the least opinionated language.

    Claims Task: Section 5

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    • davidbdale says:

      Loves this:

      **Essays are opinions, but never let the audience think that. Shape your claims to be Self-evident – we should speak with “Author – ity”**

      The important message is not that we can eliminate our opinions from our essays: they’re made up almost entirely of our opinions. But we express them as if they are facts.
      5/4

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  9. Water says:

    When making your counterintuitive hypothesis you must have something that isn’t very popular, you may think that you have an uncommon hypothesis until you do research and realize that you aren’t the first to think that. As the author, you have authority in what you get to have in your essay as long as you have evidence and believe it is right. when talking about evidence and relying upon a piece of text you must know whether it’s factual and not something someone said with no background. know the difference between a factual claim and a normal claim, one tells you an action or idea, while the other can be a statement of something that you may not know is factual. all claims are different depending on your wording and how you intend to share, certain words change the claim’s meaning, for example, the words “should”, “must”, and “can” are words used for a recommendation or proposal claim.

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  10. rowanstudent6 says:

    -An idea must be absurd to be worth studying
    -There are studies in which you only need one piece of evidence to prove or disprove your theory
    -A hypothesis must be absurd when spoken out loud
    -Essays must not sound like your opinion, but a fact as all you are resting on is your voice, so your work must be confident
    -Declare your work to be self-evident or otherwise your work can be refuted
    -A claim is ordinarily a phrase
    -Truth is unknown based on the claim, the only thing we know for sure is the author confirmed or didn’t confirm the claim
    -A factual claim is proven by appealing to indisputable evidence
    -Claims do not state facts but state an analyzation of a situation or evidence, the only way to determine a fact is to conduct the study yourself
    -Factual claims can be untruthful

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  11. gracchusbabeuf says:

    Today, we began class with examples of how the construction of a hypothesis changes how it must be tested. The example, do bees fly in the dark, needs to be worded so that one needs not observe every bee at all times to see if they fly in the dark. An associated video clip from twitter shows the results of an experiment testing this.

    The “writing advice” section advises against being too transparent about our fallibility. As a persuasive writer, the professor argues, our goal is to argue authoritatively and make our audience believe our opinions are facts. As an example, we looked at how weak of a document the declaration of independence becomes with the writing style of a high school essay.

    Next, we viewed the “give directly” hypothesis. It found that education and/or small cash initiatives had little or no effect. However, large cash grants had a noticeable positive impact. It seems counterintuitive, but cash alone is more effective than education initiatives. The class was direct to post a comment on the topic.

    We watched a very blue clip from a movie, “Traffic” (2000), which most of the class (myself included) were unfamiliar with. The clip, “drug economics”, was used as an example of rhetoric.

    We finally covered the details of the PTSD claims task. Specific types of claims were examined, taking the semantics of these claims very seriously. In total, we looked at 13 specific types of claims. The specifics of the assignment was covered.

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  12. Fulcrum66 says:

    At the beginning of class, we discuss the hypothesis Bees can’t fly in the dark and watch a clip of a live experiment. In order to correctly format your paper, you must express your writing through your opinion, but you must not openly express your view. As the author you have the authority to declare and express anything. Make sure your hypothesis is clear and states everything correctly with wording and grammar. The USAID sent resources and education to feed malnourished children. They failed over all because it was not fully thought out and was not properly planned out. We go over our next class assignment “Claims Task.” We go over various different claims such as definition, Analogy, factual, and categorical.
    Claim Types:
    Definition: stating something
    Analogy: Viewing the similarities from one thing to another
    Categorical: Things are stated that belong to a specific category
    Factual: All the circumstances for this claim actually exist
    Evaluated: This involves the judgment of the characteristics of an item or situation.
    Ethical or moral: Claiming something is the right thing to do for yourself or society.
    Quantitative claim: these claims could be factual or evaluative
    Comparative claim: Any claim that will involve multiple things and can be ranked.
    Recommendation: has an ethical basis.
    Attribution: authors claim can’t be verified.
    Illustrative: using poetry to draw similarities.
    Credibility: proving someone did something

    Section number 9 for Claim Task*

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    • davidbdale says:

      Not quite, Fulcrum:

      In order to correctly format your paper, you must express your writing through your opinion, but you must not openly express your view.

      You must of course express your opinion (it’s impossible NOT to), what you want to avoid is CALLING IT an OPINION.
      4/4

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  13. oatmealvibes says:

    Quote of the day: If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it. – Albert Einstein.
    Too Late to Meme: Christopher Walken also looks like Scarlett Johansson (he actually does) the professor wanted to make a meme out of it but someone already discovered it before him (oh no!).
    Writing Advice: Our essay is an expression of our opinions. The Declaration of Independence is an expression of the founding fathers opinion but it’s self-evident. Our essay should also be self-evident, don’t put “I think” or any opinion language so that others can decide if it’s right or wrong. We are the author(ity) of our essays. The “Declarations for Dummies” made me chuckle a little.
    The “Give Directly” Hypothesis: A guy named David Handel was hired at an American Agency to help underdeveloped countries. They go to places where kids are malnourished, we go there and give them a bunch of information on how to properly feed their children for better nutrition. They measured if anybody was better nourished but none of the kids were. The hypothesis was if we give them information for them to nourish their children correctly, nourishment would resolve. The Hypothesis was disproved. Daniel Handel had the idea to give them cash and let them use the money on what they need. He was given the chance to do that experiment. The first group received no help, the second group was visited by nutrition and hygiene education, the third group got $114 and education, and the 4th group got $500. Money nor education helped, however just money did make some differences.
    Powerful Rhetoric 1: The President of Colombia makes it clear we are only using their country for the benefit of our country and our drug problem. I agree with him and the U.S. has to stop doing that.
    Powerful Rhetoric 2: Traffic the movie. The boy talks about drug economics and how black people sell drugs because it’s profitable for them because it’s in high demand. White people would do the same thing if black people came to their neighborhood asking for drugs.
    Claims Task: is due by February 16th. If you want feedback, specify what type of feedback you need.
    PTSD Claims Task is to read that article by Mother Jones and analyze a small part of the article. Basic claim types include (and more):
    1) definition claim
    2) analogy claim
    3) categorical claim
    4) factual claim
    5) evaluative claim
    6) ethical or moral claim
    7) quantitative or numerical claim
    8) comparative claim
    9) casual claim
    10) recommendation or proposal claim
    11) attributive claim
    12) Illustrative claim
    13) credibility claim

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    • davidbdale says:

      You offer this entire paragraph:

      The “Give Directly” Hypothesis: A guy named David Handel was hired at an American Agency to help underdeveloped countries. They go to places where kids are malnourished, we go there and give them a bunch of information on how to properly feed their children for better nutrition. They measured if anybody was better nourished but none of the kids were. The hypothesis was if we give them information for them to nourish their children correctly, nourishment would resolve. The Hypothesis was disproved. Daniel Handel had the idea to give them cash and let them use the money on what they need. He was given the chance to do that experiment. The first group received no help, the second group was visited by nutrition and hygiene education, the third group got $114 and education, and the 4th group got $500. Money nor education helped, however just money did make some differences.

      Where this brief analysis might have been more to the point:

      A USAID program designed to improve childhood nutrition demonstrates that a single experiment (or hypothesis) is rarely enough. Money grants were better than education in improving nutrition, but probably more of both would be even better.

      4/4

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  14. saycheese03 says:

    Quote: Einstein wouldn’t try to make an idea if it didn’t sound crazy at first. Our hypothesis should sound nutty at first.

    The experiment of if bees could fly in the dark sounded ridiculous however it was provable.

    Christopher Walkins looking like Scarlet Johansson: someone already made the evidence you aren’t contributing anything

    Writing advice: although our essays are an expression of our opinion, we should not declare that rather through the authority of our voice and our evidence, we should try to persuade our reader.

    The USAIDs is an organization that helps countries that need a little assistance. To help malnourishment in children We tried to send over recourses and education on how to feed children the correct way. This didn’t work because it wasn’t a well-designed experiment. They changed this by just giving the people money instead of education to see how they would spend it. The thought behind this is that it m isay not be the fact that they aren’t educated maybe they don’t have the money to feed their children. The experiment didn’t turn out very well however with $500 dollars it made some difference.

    Rhetoric- “These facts we hold to be self-evident”

    Claim types:
    Definition claim- “PTSD is a psychological disorder,” Stating something
    Analogy Claim- claiming similarity of one thing to another
    Categorical Claim- everything stated belongs to a category an example would be symptoms
    Factual claim- circumstances of the claim exist beyond doubt
    Evaluative claim- involves judgment of characteristics of an item or situation. They are arguable a can be supported by expertise.
    Ethical or moral claim: saying what we should do or what is the right thing to do.
    Quantitative claim- such claims may be factual or evaluative depending on the reliability of the measurements
    Comparative claim- any claim that two or more things can be ranked involves a comparative claim
    Casual claim- a simple claim that gets straight to the point and is easy to understand
    Recommendations claim- ethical basis “we should do this”
    Attributive claim: authors don’t or can’t verify every claim they make, so, to signal that they use terms like “according to”
    Illustrative claim: use of poetry to draw similarities or to illustrative claim
    Credibility claim- Proven that someone did something

    Responsible for 10 for the assignment

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  15. philsfan1133 says:

    -The most unconventional and seemingly absurd ideas that can be the most worth studying. This is because it is the ideas that push boundaries and challenge conventional rhetoric are not common.
    -For a hypothesis or theory to be considered credible, it must be supported by evidence. In some cases, it may only take one piece of evidence to prove or disprove the hypothesis, making the research both challenging and exciting.
    -Presenting a hypothesis can be difficult, especially when it goes against the norm. It is important to present the work in a confident and self-evident manner, as this makes it more difficult for others to refute.
    -There can be many different claims to be made but you must thoroughly go through the information to make the specific claims

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  16. pinkheart84 says:

    Quote- “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein.
    We discussed the hypothesis of Bees can’t fly in the dark and watched a video of a live experiment. Once the lights turn off the bees drop to the ground and stop flying around.
    Too late to meme- Christopher Walken looks like Scarlett Johansson.
    Writing advice- The authority of our voice is all we have to convince our readers. Our essay is an expression of our opinions.
    The “Give Directly” Hypothesis- David Handel was hired for an agency to help people. Handel had the idea to give them cash and let them use the money on what they need. He was given the chance to do that experiment. The first group received no help, the second group was visited by nutrition and hygiene education, the third group got $114 and education, and the 4th group got $500. Children were healthier when giving them money. Education had no results. They didn’t need the education; they just needed the money.
    Housekeeping- Leave a reply on your posts if you wish to get feedback.
    Powerful Rhetoric 1- The President of Colombia states that our country uses theirs for the benefit of our country and our drug problem.
    Powerful Rhetoric 2: Traffic the movie. It’s about drug trafficking and how black people sell drugs because it makes them money. It’s an unbeatable market source and whites would do the same.
    An assignment due next Thursday the 16th is a claims task assignment. We must read/listen to the article about PTSD, and then look at a good number of short excerpts and identify the types of claims they are.
    Factual claims may be proven true or false.

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  17. mellowtacos says:

    QUOTE
    Come up with ideas that are crazy; researchable maybe not provable

    DO BEES FLY IN THE DARK?
    -Maybe we just can’t see them fly
    -Maybe they don’t fly
    Tested: they don’t fly

    DISCOVERY:
    Young Christopher Walken looks like Scarlett Johanssen
    -Thought he discover something
    -Unfortunately not “no longer an absurd irrational hypothesis”
    This is like when we go on google scholar to find evidence for our hypothesis

    WRITING ADVICE
    -If we undercut our own authority by wondering if something is true or not
    – Our essay are expressions of our opinion
    – The soundness of our reading is what we have to convince the reader
    – write as if it has been proved and if you knew
    – don’t invite them to dispute you

    THE “GIVE DIRECTLY” HYPOTHESIS
    Control group- no money (given nothing)
    2 group – gave them education and 114 dollars
    3 group- 500 dollars per household no education
    4 group- just education

    *they hope that the group with money and education was the most successful
    What did happen was the only improvement they found was in the group that got 500 dollars. Their kids ate better and were healthier.

    Did the authors of the study fail?
    No they proved
    that cash-equivalent grants were as beneficial as the education program if not more

    FEEDBACK PLEASE
    – need to leave comment about what feedback you need in order to be prioritized
    – if no feedback you get what you get when you get it

    HOMEWORK DUE THE 16TH
    – Is PTSD contagious (listen to or read it)
    – select certain parts of article and identify the claim

    WHAT IS A CLAIM
    A factual claim my not be proven correct but still a factual claim
    – many different types of claims

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  18. anonymous123 says:

    -When writing your main goal needs to be sounding as truthful and to show authority in your voice so you readers know theyre reading facts.
    -When using feedback please make sure you provide specific questions so you can be helped most effectively for you.
    -then we talked about powerful rhetoric and showed us in the videos how well words can be used to get a point across and make everyone listening believe you with how well you speak it.
    -we have a claims task due on the sixteenth about if ptsd is contagious.
    -We then went over all the different types of claim and talked about what differs them all from each other

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  19. Shazammm says:

    “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” The person who said this was Albert Einstein. Professor Hodges wants us to research topics that sound crazy, but are researchable.

    Hypothesis: Bees don’t fly in the dark. How do you prove that? They don’t fly in the dark because when the person testing the hypothesis shut the lights off, the bees simply dropped to the ground. Fascinating. You must test YOUR hypothesis through research.

    Young Scarlett Johansson and Christopher Walken look extremely similar. Professor Hodges wanted to make a meme about them, but people have already caught onto this. So it is no longer an absurd hypothesis/unique hypothesis. This connects with our own hypotheses.

    Writing advice: Do not start with phrases like “in my opinion,” “don’t you think,” or “I believe.” Our authority is our voice. We must write as if we have authority/as if our truth is the only truth {at least that is what I get from it}. You don’t want to make your writing sound “wishy-washy.” Look at the Declaration of Independence, for example. Its writing does not sound polite or weak. It is firm in its opinions and demands.

    The “Give Directly” Hypothesis: Daniel Handel wanted to prove that some combination of money and education would result to improvement in Rwanda youth. The only improvement was giving children in Rwanda $500. Spending money on education did not help them. However, giving them money for food and necessities did. If they had education beforehand, however, the case would have been different. Sometimes, the hypothesis you’re trying to test is not what you’d expect. The conclusion may be totally different. And that’s okay.

    Do not give up, for giving up is failing. Sometimes you must go through a lot of “no’s” to get to a “yes.”

    Did discussion questions about Daniel Handel’s hypothesis.

    Deadline before class Thursday February 16: do the PTSD Claims Task. Look at different claims.

    Stone Money is due February 14.

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  20. cherries267 says:

    We first went over a quote from Albert Einstein about how absurd ideas are the ones worth something. At first I didn’t understand, then I really thought of the technological advancements we’ve made, and if you told someone from 100 years ago about cell phones they would think that’s absurd.

    We saw a little video about bees not flying in the dark. It seems so silly how they would drop when the lights turned off.

    Our counterintuitive arguments will always have someone else who already proved it.

    We have to write with confidence. How will anyone believe what you have to say if you undermine your own voice? The founding fathers would not have any respect if they didn’t write with bold claims and confidence.

    Failure is giving up, if the study did not prove what they wanted that still a success. It still proved something in the end.

    If my hypothesis could not be proven I would honestly be upset, because I worked hard and thought I found something that I thought would work. Then i would find a new hypothesis that does work

    Like

    • davidbdale says:

      If your Hypothesis is well-crafted, you can make a contribution to the discussion by proving that it’s NOT true, Cherries. Nobody needs to know which way you were hoping things would turn out.
      4/4

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  21. doglover846 says:

    – “If the first idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” You have to think outside of the box with your ideas.
    – Writing Advice:
    – We should not state our opinion but instead persuade.
    – You write if you knew, or had the authority to say what’s true.
    – When you put your post in the “Feedback Please” category make sure you write a comment on what you need feed back on to get to the top of the cue.
    Claim Task: (2 Hours)
    – 1 definition claim
    – 2 analogy claim
    – 3 categorical claim
    – 4 factual claim
    – 5 evaluative claim
    – 6 ethical or moral claim
    – 7 quantitative claim
    – 8 comparative claim
    – 9 casual claim
    – 10 recommendation claim
    – 11 attributive claim
    – 12 Illustrative claim
    – 13 credibility claim
    Section: 18

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    • davidbdale says:

      Well . . .

      – We should not state our opinion but instead persuade.
      – You write if you knew, or had the authority to say what’s true.

      You do both. We can’t help expressing our opinions. It’s all we do, actually. The trick is to state them as fact instead of admitting that they’re “just my opinion.”
      3/4

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  22. sunflower0311 says:

    Quote of the Day: “if at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” – Albert Einstein

    Agenda Notes:
    – Do not use what if, it seems to me, in my opinion, don’t you think, or I believe. The only authority we have while writing is the clarity that we write. By using those phrases, it will have your reader think you do not really know what you are talking about when in reality you want them to believe what you are saying is fact.
    – Write as if it has been proved
    – To have good rhetoric you do not want to deviate from the point.

    Types of claims:
    – Factual Claim: Involves factual information
    – Definition Claim: “PTSD is a psychological disorder.” Defines a term.
    – Analogy Claims: Claiming that something is similar to another thing.
    – Categorical Claims: Your saying certain things belong to a category. EX: PTSD symptoms
    – Evaluative Claim: involves judgement supported by expertise, authority, credentials.
    – Ethical Claim: a claim that places a judgement on a social situation expressed an ethical or moral judgement.
    – Quantitative Claim: Claims may be factorial or evaluate depending on reliability of the measurements
    – Comparative Claims: any claim that two or more things can be ranked (best, worst, most, least)
    – Casual Claim: assertions of cause and effect, consequences, preconditions or predictions will occur in certain circumstances.
    – Recommendation or proposal claims: write to convince an audience to adopt a course of action
    – Attributive claim: When you say what someone else says. (According to, says x, it is said)
    – Illustrative claim: draw similarities or to illustrate situations. describe people in ways that evoke sympathy.
    Credibility Claim: the credentials of the person responsible for the claim as in: “Harvard professor of Film Ethan Coen”

    Claim Task Section: 17

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  23. sortableelms says:

    Ideas that are crazy that are researchable are the best ideas. During writing don’t undercut your own voice or opinion. There is no need to remind readers that it is your opinion. You should be proud of it and not apologize for it. Much like the Declaration of Independence. It is unwilling to apologize for the truth. You don’t want your reader to undercut you. With Feedback Please it is a good idea in the comments of your post to write what you’d like feedback on. The President of Colombia makes it clear we are only using their country for the benefit of our country and our drug problem.
    Factual claims that are false are still factual claims.
    Claim types:
    Definition claim- “PTSD is a psychological disorder,” Stating something
    Analogy Claim- “PTSD is similar to other communicable diseases because it can be spread by a victim to others with whom he interacts,” Claims similarity of one thing to another
    Categorical Claim- “PTSD is not only a psychological disorder but also one that can be spread to others through close contact,” All things stated belongs to one category
    Factual claim- Ten thousand veterans of the Iraq war have been diagnosed with PTSD,” Claim exists beyond doubt. Factual claims that are false are still factual claims.
    Evaluative claim- “Family members of veterans suffering from PTSD are not getting adequate support to deal with their own traumas,” Judgment of characteristics of an item or situation. They are arguable and can be supported by experts.
    Ethical or moral claim: “Family members are not getting the support THEY DESERVE,” Claim what we should do or what is the right thing to do.
    Quantitative claim- “There are more returning veterans with PTSD now than ever before in the history of warfare,” Claims may be factual or evaluative depending on the reliability of the measurements
    Comparative claim- A claim that two or more things can be ranked involves a comparative claim
    Casual claim- “Trauma causes PTSD.” Straight to the point and is easy to understand
    Recommendations claim- “We should do this”
    Attributive claim: Don’t or can’t verify every claim they make, so, to signal that they use terms like “according to”
    Illustrative claim: The use of poetry to draw similarities.
    Credibility claim- Proves that someone did something. Factual

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  24. fatjoe000 says:

    -Find an idea that sounds ridiculous and try to prove it
    -When researching your hypothesis you want to find something that has not already been proven
    -Make bold statements
    -Write as if you had the authority to say if it is true or not
    -When requesting feedback make sure to say what you want feedback on
    -A factual claim that turns out to be false is still a factual claim
    -Types of claims:
    1. Definition claim- first five words are your definition claim
    2. Analogy claim- claiming a similarity of one thing to another
    3. Categorical claim- naming several examples of whatever the claim is
    4. Factual claim- circumstances or conditions that exist beyond doubt
    5. Evaluative claim- a claim that involves judgment
    6. Ethical or moral claim- type of evaluation claim that places a judgment of a situation
    7. Quantitative or numerical claim-claims may be factual or evaluative depending on the reliability of the measurements
    8. Comparative claim- any claim that two or more things are being compared
    9. Causal claim- Assertions of cause and effect, consequences, preconditions or predictions
    10. Recommendation or proposal claim- Write to convince an audience to adopt a course of action
    11. Attributive claim- Passing along someone else’s claim
    12. Illustrative claim- Methods of poetry to draw similarities or to illustrate situations
    13. Credibility claim- Special type of evaluation claim, names the credentials of the person responsible for the claim

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  25. tlap23 says:

    -Albert Einstein’s Quote: “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”
    -Need hypothesis to be bizarre– prove something that has not been proven and make your own idea
    -Bees do not fly in the dark- proved by having the lights on while the bees fly around, but as soon as the lights shut out, the bees immediately drop to the floor
    – Reviewed the 13 different types of claims
    – A factual claim that is proven to be false is still considered a factual claim
    Factual Claim- Claim backed up by factual information
    PTSD Claims Task due before class on Thursday Feb. 16

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  26. g00dsoup says:

    “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” -Albert Einstein
    Any idea doesn’t have to be provable…but it should be researchable. We should be willing to explore something that sounds completely crazy.

    Can bees fly in the dark? No, they can’t. When this hypothesis was tested, (most of) the bees immediately fell to the ground after the light went off. You must test your hypothesis through research.

    Writing Advice: You should not begin with phrases such as: “In my opinion…” or “Don’t you think…” or “I believe….” Our authority is in OUR voice. We should be writing as if our truth is the truth.

    Give Directly Hypothesis: Daniel Handel sought to demonstrate how a combination of wealth and education can benefit Rwandan children. One of the improvements that was made was the provision of $500 for Rwandan children. They did not benefit from their investment in education. Giving them cash for food and other basics did, though. But the situation would have been different if they had received education beforehand. It is not always the case that the hypothesis that you are seeking to test will turn out to be what you expect it to be. There is a possibility that the results might be very different from what is expected.

    PTSD Claims Task is due before class on Thursday, February 16.

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    • davidbdale says:

      SHAZAMM’S:
      The “Give Directly” Hypothesis: Daniel Handel wanted to prove that some combination of money and education would result to improvement in Rwanda youth. The only improvement was giving children in Rwanda $500. Spending money on education did not help them. However, giving them money for food and necessities did. If they had education beforehand, however, the case would have been different. Sometimes, the hypothesis you’re trying to test is not what you’d expect. The conclusion may be totally different. And that’s okay.

      YOURS:
      Give Directly Hypothesis: Daniel Handel sought to demonstrate how a combination of wealth and education can benefit Rwandan children. One of the improvements that was made was the provision of $500 for Rwandan children. They did not benefit from their investment in education. Giving them cash for food and other basics did, though. But the situation would have been different if they had received education beforehand. It is not always the case that the hypothesis that you are seeking to test will turn out to be what you expect it to be. There is a possibility that the results might be very different from what is expected.

      Collaborating is fine. Absolutely fine. Encouraged, even. But when you work together, to avoid my confusion, please indicate that you’ve done so.

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    • davidbdale says:

      Maybe bees CAN fly in the dark but DON’T. 🙂
      4/4

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  27. miliwawa says:

    -There is no hope for an idea that is not absurd. Bees cannot fly in the dark might sound absurd, but once tested, they indeed cannot fly in the dark.
    -when you craft what you think is counterintuitive but find sources that someone has already proved, it can be frustrating. But take that as the opportunity to either disprove it or find something else to be unique.
    -The authority, and clarity with which we explain our brilliant ideas Is our voice. The firmness with which we share our beliefs is the only Authority we have. As the author (which is our Authority) by seeming to be wondering whether something is true or not then we’ve qualified because our essays are already by definition expressions of our opinion, and there’s no need to constantly remind people that were sharing our opinions. The authority of our voice is all we have to convince our readers that they’re reading hard facts and not opinions
    -Be specific in what kind of feedback you need.

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    • davidbdale says:

      Wordy and repetitive, but you appear to have taken this advice very seriously:

      -The authority, and clarity with which we explain our brilliant ideas Is our voice. The firmness with which we share our beliefs is the only Authority we have. As the author (which is our Authority) by seeming to be wondering whether something is true or not then we’ve qualified because our essays are already by definition expressions of our opinion, and there’s no need to constantly remind people that were sharing our opinions. The authority of our voice is all we have to convince our readers that they’re reading hard facts and not opinions

      4/4

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  28. gobirds115 says:

    Class Notes 2/9:

    – “If the first idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” Ideas that don’t present or explore something new don’t accomplish much in the long run. Think of something unheard of.
    -When writing, create authority and credibility. Don’t give your readers a reason to think you have any doubts in your own writing. Create a powerful stance in your writing.
    -Make sure that when you put a post in the “Feedback Please” category, you identify what it is that you would like feedback on
    -Claims Task: Factual Claim; Definition Claim; Analogy Claim; Categorical Claim; Evaluative Claim; Ethical Claim; Quantitative Claim; Comparative Claim; Casual Claim; Recommendation/Proposal Claim; Attributive Claim; Illustrative Claim; Credibility Claim

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  29. inspireangels says:

    Writing Advice: Reminder that your essay is just expression of your opinion. We write as if we knew, you write like you knew you had authority. You need to be a persuasive write that has authority of your voice and soundness of your reasoning. You need to be able to convince your readers that they are listening to fact and not your opinion.

    The “Give Directly” Hypothesis: We discuss in class an experiment to see whether education with small amount of cash or just huge cash grants would be more effective in nutrition for the children. Discover that education and small initiatives serve little to no effective compare to giving huge cash grants to families. There’s was more of a positive result when families receive more money.

    Types of Claims: 13 different types of claims
    1. Definition Claim
    2. Analogy Claim
    3. Categorical Claim
    4. Factual Claim
    5. Evaluate Claim
    6. Ethical or Moral Claim
    7. Quantitative or Numerical Claim
    8. Comparative Claim
    9. Casual Claim
    10. Recommendation or Proposal Claim
    11. Attributive Claim
    12. Illustrative Claim
    13. Credibility Claim

    For our assignment we are to write a claim analysis on the article “Is the PTSD contagious?”

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  30. clevelandbrown03 says:

    To test if the bees didn’t fly in the dark the man turned off the lights and the bees immediately stopped working.

    Make your Hypothesis sound factual.

    Next assignment is about PTSD and what claim they are.

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    • clevelandbrown03 says:

      make sure people understand your message, for example, the people if you tell people the info, they need but they don’t understand what you’re saying because they speak Spanish, and you speak English. in your mind, you gave them the info but to them, you were talking gibberish.
      Enstines quote wants you to challenge what’s normal because that means you are contributing something new to the topic.

      Liked by 1 person

  31. chickennugget246 says:

    “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – We all should come up with something that sounds crazy for our research paper.
    A hypothesis was tested that bees do not fly in the dark. An experiment was conducted where bees were in an enclosed cage with a light and then the light was turned off and the bees just dropped to the bottom of the cage. So, this concludes and verifies the hypothesis that bees do not fly in the dark.
    The picture of Christopher Walken looks like Scarlett Johansson and Professor Hodges thought that he was the only one to realize this, so he put their pictures side by side since they resemble each other, but when he searched this up, there were already pictures of them together, side by side. So, Professor Hodges was not the only person who thought of this. We come across this when we search up google scholar and find articles similar to what we are proposing in our hypothesis.
    How to water down self-evident truths: our authority is our voice and we are the author of our work. Our essay is an expression of our opinion.
    We write as if we knew, as if our claim had been proved.
    The “Give Directly” Hypothesis: Daniel Handel, an economist, heard about a charity that was testing a bold idea: Instead of giving people in poor countries livestock or job training to help improve their standard of living, why not just give them cash and let them decide how best to spend it?
    An experiment was conducted and they did not know if these people would spend the money on the right things or not, but turns out they did spend the money on the right things.
    They proved education alone was useless.
    We do not know whether or not the people we give money to will do the right thing once they receive the money; like the panhandlers.
    We send Americans to countries where need is obvious. If something does not seem absurd it is not worth pursuing.
    When we ask for “feedback please” we should leave a comment saying what kind of feedback we want so that the professor answers it right when he sees our comment. Professor Hodges replies first to the ones that have comments from us under our own post.
    We can say something like, “How can I improve my grade on this and can I rewrite it?”
    **What do we know about rhetoric from those video examples? We can clearly see how the president of Colombia and Topher Grace are persuading their audience/viewers through their speeches and use of language.
    All types of claims are in small bits of text.
    Factual claims can be proven true or false based on evidence.

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  32. jasrielle2 says:

    Today we started class with “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” a quote by Albert Einstein. We then went into a hypothesis “Bees don’t fly in the dark”. We went over how to test the hypothesis by asking questions on how to see if bees fly in the dark. We watched a video of an experiment being taken with bees inside a container turning on and off the light showing bees ceasing to fly when the lights go off.
    Memes were discussed, how you take pictures and make it a relatable or funny scenario. Scarlet Johannson looks like Christopher Walken. It has already been discovered, so find things outside of discovery and make you own that no one has done yet.
    “How to water down self- evident truths” do not use phrases like “i believe”. Authority is what you have in your essay, having independence in your essay is obtained by your claims.
    We went over hypothesis and how to prove or disprove our hypothesis. Different scenarios were made like education not being or being made with everyone not speaking the understanding language, to show the topic of malnourishment in children ( feeding the children better). Instead of giving people being given food etc, would it be better to just give them money and let them spend it? An experiment was made between 4 different groups to bring the conclusion of no change.
    We watched a video of the president of Colombia speaking about how the system is failing to actually care about the community but to make business with oils and coal. He made a very clear statement and delivered it well with a powerful rhetoric.
    we then discussed different types of claims. We back up the definitions of the claims with examples of them being used.

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  33. pinkmonkey32 says:

    – study things that are off the path and may seem weird
    -theories vary in range some you just need one piece of evidence while others needs a lot of evidence
    -Your hypothesis should sound crazy when you say it if it doesn’t its not good
    -This essay is not opinion based so you need to make your opinion sound or be like facts
    -Declare your work to be self-evident or otherwise your work can be refuted
    -A claim is just a regular phrase
    -A factual claim is proven by undeniable evidence
    -Claims are just the start its the evidence you find that creates the fact
    -Factual claims can be untruthful

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  34. tmjj4345 says:

    – “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”
    – This means an idea must be absurd in order to be worth studying
    – In some cases it can only take one piece of evidence to prove or disprove your theory to the audience
    – Essays should be less opinionated, and more factual as it’s your writer’s voice and your words, but not your personal bias.
    – Self-evident to prevent your work from being refuted
    – A claim is a phrase
    – An author can state a claim, but it is unknown if the claim is truthful
    – A factual claim is proven by appealing to indisputable evidence that can’t be argued
    – Claims don’t state facts but are a summary and analysis of a situation or the presented evidence

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  35. music0392 says:

    First we looked at an example hypothesis “Bees don’t fly in the dark”, which may seem crazy at first but would be able to prove or disprove in an experiment, in which we saw a video where all bees stopped flying once a light was turned off. Then we looked at a “Meme” of a young Christopher Walken looking like Scarlet Johansson, which was thought to be a funny new discovery, but it turned out someone already had thought of it. This is like a hypothesis that you think is counterintuitive but has already been thought of before, and how you may have to think more outside the box. We also discussed how our essays should be an expression of our opinion, but not to let people know. The authority of your voice and reasoning should convince people that they’re reading facts and to shape their opinion based on the facts presented. We saw how the Declaration of Independence doesn’t apologize or make weak claims, it has authority and communicates its point. We looked at the Declaration written as a high school essay which doesn’t declare its belief but makes a weak suggestion. We looked at a hypothesis that said “if we give information about nutrition to malnourished children in foreign countries, they will not be malnourished”. If they were still malnourished, it could disprove it, or it could just be bad education, which means that the hypothesis isn’t necessarily disproven, it just wasn’t carried out correctly. Another hypothesis called the “give directly” hypothesis is presented, which would give money directly to the countries. There were different groups given different amounts of money, and the group with more money given did benefit the most.

    I wouldn’t think the study failed because it was only one time and is the first step in proving or disproving the hypothesis. I think that the money does help briefly, but won’t help over a longer period of time, as eventually they may have to go back to having less food or less healthy and nutritional food. Poor people do know what to do with the money because the group with the most money given to them did benefit from it. Maybe the more nutritional food is more expensive so it would take more money to get it frequently enough to get good nutrition everyday.

    We watched a video of a United Nations conference which the politician explained that the US only pretends to help Columbia for benefit by getting oil and polluting the jungle, which is a very persuasive point and rhetoric, and he didn’t say “in my opinion” or “I think”. We also saw a clip from the movie Traffic which a character explained the drug economics between white and black people and he communicated his point without saying “in my opinion” or anything like that. We also talked about claims, and that “the author invested $1000” is not the same as “the author says she invested $1000” as the second one shows that we don’t know for sure if the claim is factual or not. We looked at different claims pertaining to whether or not PTSD is contagious, a definition claim which simple says a definition of PTSD, an analogy claim which uses other subjects to show what is similar to PTSD and use them to explain your point, a categorical claim which explains the different parts of PTSD, a factual claim shows facts or claims that exist without doubt or fault, an evaluative claim evaluates the quality of a claim, a moral claim which explains the morality of a claim, a quantitative or numerical claim which shows an evaluative numerical claim, a causal claim which shows what causes the claim and the reason, a recommendation claim which communicates that we should or shouldn’t do something, an attributive claim which doesn’t verify the claim but shares information to be evaluated by facts, an illustrative claim which describe things or people in ways that evoke sympathy or other emotions, and a credibility claim which encourages you to believe the claim because it came from a viable source with credibility.

    (I am doing no 16 on the PTSD claims)

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