Developing and Explaining Ideas

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Developing and Explaining Ideas
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A few things to keep in mind

• Your readers rely on you to make ideas
  understandable and connections clear so they can
  see the unique insight you have to offer.
• Think carefully about what your audience needs to
  know in order to see the legitimacy of your claim
  and the value of your insight.
• Carefully strategize to discover the most
  effective ways to communicate to your readers
  what they need to know.
• Think like your reader.
• It is better to err on the side of explaining too
  much than too little.

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• What does it mean to explain an idea?
• What might cause a person to explain an idea
  unsatisfactorily or incompletely?
• How can a writer know if he/she has explained an
  idea sufficiently for a reader?

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The Power of Why? How? and What? as Prompts

• Why? Why does what I just said matter?
• How does this happen? How does one cause or lead
  to the other?
• Why do I say that?
• What causes and/or allows me to say that?
• What do I mean by that?
• Capital punishment makes irrevocable any possible
  miscarriage of justice. Time and again we have
  witnessed mistakenly convicted people being put
  to death in the name of justice. To those who
  say that, after all, this doesnt occur too
  often, I can only reply that if it happens just
  once, that is too often.

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Examples

• What are they?
• What do they do?
• How are they different from explanations?
• How are they useful to writers and readers?
• Whats an example of an example?

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3 Kinds of Examples

• Personal (generally not effective in academic
  argument)
• e.g. Writers often struggle when dealing with
  the objections of their opponents. For example,
  in my last paper, I had a hard time imagining how
  someone else could see the issue so differently
  from me.
• Third Person/Other Party
• e.g. Writers often struggle to discover the
  objections of their opponents. For example,
  author Jane Tompkins said that when she realizes
  what those objections are she becomes incapable
  of writing and convinced that shell not be able
  to persuade her readers.
• Hypothetical
• e.g. Writers often struggle to discover the
  objections of their opponents. For example,
  college writers dealing with a new subject may
  find it difficult to imagine what their opponents
  may think because they arent yet familiar enough
  with the issue to know what the different
  positions actually are.

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• One of the greatest threats to personal freedom
  is having narrow-minded people in positions of
  power. (Why?) I say this because freedom means,
  in part, having the ability to make choices
  without coercion, and I recognize that in any
  governed society the people in power have the
  ability to coerce people. If the people in power
  are broad-minded and tolerant, freedom can exist
  (Why?) because open-minded people are likely
  believe that there are many different but equally
  legitimate ways to live and make choices, and
  they will preserve that diversity and freedom.
  However, narrow-minded people often believe the
  way they think and act are the only correct ways
  to think and act.(What do I mean by that?) These
  people expect everyone else to see things as they
  do. (Why does what I just said matter?) They
  often take personal offense at others who think
  or live differently than they do, and when these
  particular people are in positions of power
  individual liberty is threatened. (What allows
  me to say that?) After all, someone in power, by
  definition, has control over others, and if those
  others dont happen to think/act the same way the
  person in power does, they are likely to be
  coerced into acting differently or punished.

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For example, some child protective services
workers make parents and children suffer because
they dont live in the same ways the worker does.
In some cases, children have been taken away
from their parents simply because CPS workers
thought the parents didnt keep their houses as
clean as they thought they should. Some CPS
workers have one idea in their heads about what
it means to have a clean house and how essential
having a clean house is to parenting, and they
then act on their notions without ever giving
thought to the possibility that there are other,
equally-valid ways to live. These people impose
their personal beliefs and value judgments on
others as if their own views were part of the
law. ACPS worker in Arizona, for instance, took
a six-year-old girl away from her family because
the mother washed the little girls mouth out
with soap for using foul language. The CPS
worker considered this child abuse simply because
her own parents had never done anything like this
to her. However, to the parents, this form of
punishment is an acceptable, non-violent option
to discipline a child.
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Body Paragraphs

• What is their reason for existencei.e. why are
  they there? What are they doing?
• How long should they be?
• How many main ideas are in each?
• How do you know when to start a new one?

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One of the greatest threats to personal freedom
is having narrow-minded people in positions of
power. I say this because freedom means, in part,
having the ability to make choices without
coercion, and I recognize that in any governed
society the people in power have the ability to
coerce people. If the people in power are
broad-minded and tolerant, freedom can exist
because open-minded people are likely believe
that there are many different but equally
legitimate ways to live and make choices, and
they will preserve that diversity and freedom.
However, narrow-minded people often believe the
way they think and act are the only correct ways
to think and act. These people expect everyone
else to see things as they do. They often take
personal offense at others who think or live
differently than they do, and when these
particular people are in positions of power
individual liberty is threatened. After all,
someone in power, by definition, has control over
others, and if those others dont happen to
think/act the same way the person in power does,
they are likely to be coerced into acting
differently or punished. For example, some child
protective services workers make parents and
children suffer because they dont live in the
same ways the worker does. In some cases,
children have been taken away from their parents
simply because CPS workers thought the parents
didnt keep their houses as clean as they thought
they should. Some CPS workers have one idea in
their heads about what it means to have a clean
house and how essential having a clean house is
to parenting, and they then act on their notions
without ever giving thought to the possibility
that there are other, equally-valid ways to live.
These people impose their personal beliefs and
value judgments on others as if their own views
were part of the law. ACPS worker in Arizona,
for instance, took a six-year-old girl away from
her family because the mother washed the little
girls mouth out with soup for using foul
language. The CPS worker considered this child
abuse simply because her own parents had never
done anything like this to her. However, to the
parents, this form of punishment is an
acceptable, non-violent option to discipline a
child.