Reading Response 3

Summary

In her article “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively” Margaret Kantz attempts to persuade college students that all facts have the capability to be subjective. She argues that the regurgitation of facts is the way teachers have shaped today’s research paper, and that this needs to change. Kantz urges that personal investment should be essential when conducting research, and without it, academia will suffer substantially.

Comparison to Other Readings

            Kantz’s article is very similar to Stuart Greene’s article. She touches on the idea that all facts are arguments, which is the primary theme of Greene’s article.

Pre-reading Exercise Option 2

            A fact is an idea or interpretation that is unanimously accepted by any given audience. A claim is also an idea/interpretation that has the potential to be true, but has yet to be proven so. I feel like there is no difference between a claim and an opinion. Really, they are the same thing. A claim may be a bit more substantiated, but they both originate from the same place, and lack the essential acceptance that is necessary for claims/opinions to make the transition into undisputed fact. And an argument is the platform/arena/battleground that claims are proved and disproved upon. (If this makes any sense.) You fight with fact, with concise observation and with validated opinion.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

1)        Kantz speculates that facts, opinions and arguments are all simply claims–

the only difference being how audiences receive them, whether it be with belief or hesitance. A fact is seen as a claim that is labeled truthful by an audience without the need to provide a thorough and well-developed explanation of said claim. An opinion is a claim an audience approaches with skepticism or flat-out disbelief. In order to substantiate this claim, the author must provide sufficient proof.  Even after the claim is solidified, skepticism may remain, and the audience will come to regard the claim as completely false, completely true, somewhat true or somewhat false. Therefore, an argument is simply the way in which you defend or attack a claim. It is not the stance you take that renders you either correct or incorrect; it is how well you substantiate your beliefs in order to paint yourself as credible and academic.

2)        Kantz argues that students don’t realize that the information they ascertain from textbooks isn’t entirely true. Students must look at the background of the author, the context of the fact etc. etc. I believe that Kantz is correct. I’ll admit to not taking the time to ask myself if I sincerely believed that this or that fact was undeniably true. This is partial laziness, partial unawareness of this researching process. I do feel that I’ve gained a heightened sense of awareness when researching or reading about a disputed subject.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

2)        I’ve always tried to approach my academic writing with a sense of individuality. By individuality, I mean the attempt to make it clear that someone has written this piece of work, and has not simply compiled facts together and organized them in a comprehensible fashion that lacks voice. So I don’t want to say Kantz’s observations are nothing new to me, because in ways, they certainly are, but I’ve never been one to focus on a list of requirements, meet those requirements and subsequently arrive at the completion of the assignment. That’s not to say that the specified requirements for any writing assignment are unimportant or irrelevant, but there has to be more thought, more desire to present your work in an idiosyncratic light so that you can create an argument that will garner you both a personally sufficient grade and the recognition of your peers.

Thoughts/Opinions

            To be honest, I am struggling to find these readings personally interesting. I recognize their importance, and that the subject matter they analyze, synthesize, critique and evaluate are especially significant to me, given that I’m an English major, but sometimes they are ridiculously dry. It is getting increasingly difficult to run through these articles with attentiveness. I find myself going back to a specific page many, many times simply because I’ve forgotten what I’ve just read. This is in no way meant to be offensive to my classmates or instructor. I’m just simply voicing my honest opinion on the material. I reiterate that I see and value the information I’m presented with, but I value it in selfish ways. I value it because it benefits me as a writer. It enables me to write with more precision and confidence, which in turn enables me to certify myself as a simply better, more competent writer than others. So in a way, it could be a begrudging appreciation or attentiveness, because the monotony of the articles clash with the personal benefit I receive, but there is recognition and it is sincere. One thing that I did find truly interesting was the suggestion that questioning the things you’ve always believed to be true is much more important than questioning the things you naturally don’t agree with. It really causes you to dig deep and reevaluate not just the one principle you’ve never questioned, but many others as well. This could lead to a reevaluation that would cause you to see the world in an entirely different light.

MM

            Kantz is trying to analyze the conception that a sufficiently researched argument is composed entirely of facts, with no questioning of whether or not these facts are biased or misconstrued in any way. This questioning is useful to me because it urges me to dig deeper with my research, and not take believe everything I read.