Major Viewpoints: for Tues. March 17

Now that you've done your research, let's do a little more assimilation, categorizing of your research. This will help you figure out how your thesis, your argument, fits into the discourse of what everyone else is saying and writing about this issue.

When you're thinking about your issue, it's easy to over-simplifying, to say people are either FOR something or AGAINST it. But most the time it's much more complicated than that. There tend to people that are FOR except with one element, or AGAINST but with a different proposed solution to the problem. And there tend to be a lot of people somewhere in between.

Your assignment is to categorize your sources into 4 or 5 main viewpoints. Give a 1-2 sentence summary of each viewpoint and then give a list of the sources that relate to that viewpoint.

Example:

My topic is on how we should use new media in the composition classroom. The debate seems to be not on whether or not we should use new media in the composition classroom, but on how we should use new media in the composition classroom.

Major viewpoints on how new media should be used in the composition classroom:

1. People that argue that we need to teach advanced technologies, complex database programs, and really focus on giving our students technical skills. (Sources: Simmons and Grabill.)
2. People should focus on new media writing as a way of taking advantage of "networks", of connections, of using new media to create those connections. (Sources: Rice.)
3. People should use new media in the classroom by requiring students to write projects by using multiple genres. (Sources: DeVoss, Yancey).
4. People should use low-bridge approaches, with technologies that are easy or that the students already know (like blogs), to incorporate new media in the classroom. (Sources: Anderson.)

Types of comments to make: You'll receive time to make these comments during class, and we'll discuss comments then.

Label to put on post: viewpoints