Assertion Journal
The purpose of the Assertion Journal is to strengthen both your analysis skills and your argument skills.
Using the quote, reading or visual image:
Intro Paragraph – Type the quote. Clearly explain the author or artist’s assertion (claim). This means you will explain to your reader what the author/artist is really saying. Explain the underlying Warrant (assumptions) for this argument.
Body Paragraphs 1-2 - Once you have stated the claim, you must defend, challenge or qualify the assertion noting any complexities of the issue. This is the part where you include what you believe. You may use personal relevant examples, including historical/contemporary/pop culture/etc.
Body Paragraph 3 – Identify objections to your argument and then rebut the objection identifying the logical fallacy in the opposing argument.
Concluding Paragraph – Restate the quote. Review your defense/challenge/qualifying arguments. Restate your thesis.
Use specific examples and reasoning to support your claim (defend, challenge, qualify belief). This is not what students love to think of “opinion based” writing that cannot be wrong. The way to go wrong is to be vague and not support your claims with specific evidence.
Your responses will need to be at least one (1) page and no more than two (2) typed pages of polished, grammatically sound prose. This is not an informal assignment just because it is called a journal. Follow your paper requirements.
EXAMPLE: Quote “I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”
–Truman Capote
Truman Capote seems to be talking about school supplies, but he is really talking about his writing process. He places the emphasis not on a pencil, which one might expect when talking about writing, but rather focuses on scissors. By saying he believes more in the scissors, Capote proclaims that for him, writing is as much an act of revision as it is an act of creation. Scissors are used for cutting, so he means that he writes a great deal and then slices out the bad parts. This leaves only the good writing, and apparently, for Capote, the most important way to get there is to cut, or revise a great deal. Capote is right. The writing process is not some mystical experience where a writer sits on a mountaintop and divines inspired writing directly from the muses, but instead is a process of drafts and revisions .
Most writers, myself included, have to get a draft on paper, however bad it may be, and then go about changing and honing it. I once rewrote a poem fifteen times in the course of one summer. The rewrites were all aimed at shortening the poem and compressing its ideas into as few words as possible. It was hard, but by the end it had gone from a page and a half to just under a half page. I had effectively cut it down and thus improved it. Rarely is any piece of creative art accomplished perfectly the first time.
I have also read about many writers who have labored over many drafts of a short story or novel before finally "getting it right." F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example, went through many drafts of The Great Gatsby prior to its publication. Even after sending it to his publisher, he lamented that he was unsure if it was ready for the public.
Some may say that artists do not work, they magically create. This, however, is a Straw Man Argument. Inspiration may be unexplainable, but good art takes inspiration AND hard work. Leonardo DaVinci did not simply sit down and paint the “Mona Lisa.” He extensively sketched all of his work in his sketchbook and revised extensively before ever putting brush to canvase. Excellent artists recognize that the corrective materials are just as necessary as the creative materials in developing good writing.
As with many other endeavors, writing can be about starting with a great deal of material and shaping and cutting it into something much more worthwhile. Ice sculptures, the rotors on your brakes, even paper dolls. They all start with a large amount of something and cut it down to something better. Writing is the same; often the most important tool is not the pencil, but the scissors.
The purpose of the Assertion Journal is to strengthen both your analysis skills and your argument skills.
Using the quote, reading or visual image:
Intro Paragraph – Type the quote. Clearly explain the author or artist’s assertion (claim). This means you will explain to your reader what the author/artist is really saying. Explain the underlying Warrant (assumptions) for this argument.
Body Paragraphs 1-2 - Once you have stated the claim, you must defend, challenge or qualify the assertion noting any complexities of the issue. This is the part where you include what you believe. You may use personal relevant examples, including historical/contemporary/pop culture/etc.
Body Paragraph 3 – Identify objections to your argument and then rebut the objection identifying the logical fallacy in the opposing argument.
Concluding Paragraph – Restate the quote. Review your defense/challenge/qualifying arguments. Restate your thesis.
Use specific examples and reasoning to support your claim (defend, challenge, qualify belief). This is not what students love to think of “opinion based” writing that cannot be wrong. The way to go wrong is to be vague and not support your claims with specific evidence.
Your responses will need to be at least one (1) page and no more than two (2) typed pages of polished, grammatically sound prose. This is not an informal assignment just because it is called a journal. Follow your paper requirements.
EXAMPLE: Quote “I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.”
–Truman Capote
Truman Capote seems to be talking about school supplies, but he is really talking about his writing process. He places the emphasis not on a pencil, which one might expect when talking about writing, but rather focuses on scissors. By saying he believes more in the scissors, Capote proclaims that for him, writing is as much an act of revision as it is an act of creation. Scissors are used for cutting, so he means that he writes a great deal and then slices out the bad parts. This leaves only the good writing, and apparently, for Capote, the most important way to get there is to cut, or revise a great deal. Capote is right. The writing process is not some mystical experience where a writer sits on a mountaintop and divines inspired writing directly from the muses, but instead is a process of drafts and revisions .
Most writers, myself included, have to get a draft on paper, however bad it may be, and then go about changing and honing it. I once rewrote a poem fifteen times in the course of one summer. The rewrites were all aimed at shortening the poem and compressing its ideas into as few words as possible. It was hard, but by the end it had gone from a page and a half to just under a half page. I had effectively cut it down and thus improved it. Rarely is any piece of creative art accomplished perfectly the first time.
I have also read about many writers who have labored over many drafts of a short story or novel before finally "getting it right." F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example, went through many drafts of The Great Gatsby prior to its publication. Even after sending it to his publisher, he lamented that he was unsure if it was ready for the public.
Some may say that artists do not work, they magically create. This, however, is a Straw Man Argument. Inspiration may be unexplainable, but good art takes inspiration AND hard work. Leonardo DaVinci did not simply sit down and paint the “Mona Lisa.” He extensively sketched all of his work in his sketchbook and revised extensively before ever putting brush to canvase. Excellent artists recognize that the corrective materials are just as necessary as the creative materials in developing good writing.
As with many other endeavors, writing can be about starting with a great deal of material and shaping and cutting it into something much more worthwhile. Ice sculptures, the rotors on your brakes, even paper dolls. They all start with a large amount of something and cut it down to something better. Writing is the same; often the most important tool is not the pencil, but the scissors.