9-4-12 Katz Assignment

Greg Warman

Eng 1510

9-4-12

Reading Response

                In “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively” by Margaret Kantz, facts, opinions, and arguments are brought into play.  Margaret explains how readers interact with a text by applying it to themselves and deriving a meaning from their context of what they’ve read.  She goes on to explain how instead of research being the transition to facts from one text to your own paper, it should be the use of conflicting sources to create a new argument about the subject of research.  This goes along with the idea that one must realize facts should be looked at merely as a claim instead of a said truth.  She goes in depth as to what the difference is between the truth and what many people have claimed to be acceptable as truth. This is what allows us to do what Kantz explains: Use the claimed facts in one’s research and then use the claims from a conflicting research to arouse another argument.

QDJ Answers

1)      Based on what Kantz says throughout the entire article, she explains how her views of facts and opinions are different in arguments than that of Shirley’s. Kantz emphasizes that facts are merely claims that have been “accepted as truth” by a group of people instead of a set in stone truth. This allows for counterarguments for those who don’t fall into the bandwagon of believers of the acclaimed “fact.” Kantz also goes into detail about how opinion can tie into factual research with the example of the battle told by the Britain side and then by the French side.  The facts can be skewed by an opinionated perspective. These definitions of facts and opinions give an argument a new outlook because it changes the basis of information used in it.

2)      Things students don’t know, misunderstand, or don’t comprehend

-          Concept of the rhetorical gap

-          Plagiarism

-          Amount of Sources

-          Subtasks

-          Pinpointing what is worth writing about

After reading her views, I do agree that students lack the knowledge they need to potentially fully grasp the topics above. and that may be the source of the struggling with writing that some students face.  I feel as if I’ve obtained a better idea of how each of these topics in the list relates to writing that I do better understand each of them.

AEI Answers

3)      My ideas of a research paper prior to this class consisted of blandly taking the ideas and research of other resources and putting them into my own research paper. After reading the ideas of Kantz, I’ve learned the process of rhetorical reading and understanding to help myself create new ideas and perspectives of the topic I’ve researched.  This allows for me to bring forward a personalized approach to the research I’ve done and opens up opportunities for me to broaden and expand my paper with research of my own to create a new view in my papers.

Meta Moment

Kantz analyzes the use of facts and opinions in arguments. It’s useful to understand her findings and claims because by grasping her views of a fact being a claim accepted by a group of people instead of a truth accepted by all, one can devise a counterargument that goes against what has been previously  proclaimed as a fact. By reading her views, one can basically broaden the way they do research and find ways to contradict other research in a new personalized way.