Eng 1510 pg. 85 QD:1,2 AEI:2, Meta Moment

Alex Gilkerson

ENG 1510

9-4-12

Questions for Discussion 

1. Kantz describes facts and opinions to be the same type of statement.  She present them as claims.  The deciding factor is on how the audience or they people listening, take in the information.  For example, saying that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all-time.  In the records, he has accomplished the most, but some people will disagree.  An argument, can be questioned by the audience but must be supported with evidence to create another argument or to state a fact.

1. -Concept of the rhetorical gap

             -Plagiarism

             -Longer and More sources

             -Subtasks

             -Rhetorical reading strategy (discovering what is worth writing about)

          From my experience I think she is correct on some aspects and I think there are some exceptions on other topics. The topics I agree with are plagiarism and longer & more sources.  I feel students don’t know everything about plagiarism and still commit minor offenses.  Also I feel that students don’t use enough sources.  There are millions of sources that we are capable of using yet we limit ourselves to few.  

The topic I disagree with is the rhetorical reading strategy.  There are many students out there that are exceptional readers and can look passed the nonsense information. 

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1. Creativity and research are a bit similar but there is one thing that makes them different.  Research is just facts about something.  You can bring creativity into research by presenting your own ideas and different things to question the topic.  Our ideas overlap on the point that creativity can change the research.  I feel that it can make a research paper better.  It brings your own ideas into the mix.  It seems to work with me all around.  I agree with her ideas.

Meta Moment

Kantz is trying to analyze the difference between facts, opinions, and arguments.  This is important to understand because it is crucial in the writing world.  Knowing that the main thing that separates facts and opinions is how the audience receives the information, is a big part in writing.   

Summary

In this reading, they explain the differences between facts, opinions, and arguments.  They go over and try different things to fix they way that students learn and take in certain information.  Things that stuck out to me were that using different and more sources will help gain information and knowledge.  Also I found it interesting that a big difference of facts and opinions was based on the audience.  I never thought of it like that and completely agree with it.