Developing and Explaining Ideas

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.

• 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?

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 doesn’t occur too often, I can only reply that if it happens just once, that is too often.

Examples

• What are they?

• What do they do?

• How are they different from explanations?

• How are they useful to writers and readers?

• What’s an example of an example?

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 she’ll 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 aren’t yet familiar enough with the issue to know what the different positions actually are.

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 don’t 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 don’t 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 didn’t 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 girl’s 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.

Body Paragraphs

• What is their reason for existence—i.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?

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 don’t 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 don’t 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 didn’t 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 girl’s 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.