home

=Exigence and the fluidity of language: Synthesis essay =

Purpose and Materials:
Students will further develop their skills determining elements of argumentation with the texts produced within a common context and exigence. Consideration will be given to the language generated following the 911 terrorist attack, the source, and point of view. Peter Berkowitz and M.M. Faul's “Studying Islam, Strenghtening the Nation,” Teresa Wiltz, “Popular Culture in the Aftermath of September 11 th ,” Thomas Beller's “The Ashen Guy: Lower Broadway, September 11, 2001,” PBS collection of Arab American Stories (http://www.pbs.org/itvs/caughtinthecrossfire/after911.html), James Nachtwey's photoessay “Shattered” ( [|http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/shattered/index.html__] ), Daniel Okrent's “The War of Words: A dispatch from the Front Lines” and responses.

Synthesis essay assignment:
Major Essay 6: Students will consider a passage from Geoffrey Nunber's “How Much Wallop Can a Simple Word Pack?” in which he examines the history and use of the word terror and its derivatives illuminating the fluidity of language as it bends within its context and its inevitable metamorphosis. Students will draw on the texts in response to this passage:

“Broad linguistic shifts like those usually owe less to conscious decisions by editors or speechwriters than to often unnoticed changes in the way people perceive their world. Terrorism may itself be a vague term, as critics have argued. But terror is still more amorphous and elastic, and alters the understanding not just of the enemy but of the war against it.”

Students are asked to make use of their knowledge of rhetoric as it applies to prominent images and narratives associated with a particular context. Students will synthesize their reading in formulating a purposeful essay of their own.

Clarification and further instruction (Please read):

You must use 4 of these sources (one passage or part, image, etc) from the above sources in your essay response to the above quotation, pay particular attention to how language changes over time and within an exigent circumstance (in this case the 911 attack) while considering possible influences for change. Utilize 4 of the 6 sources that address various responses to 911 (you may also utilize Nunber's essay as a possible seventh source in which to choose) and choose from those you and your peers have posted to this wiki. The essays chosen for potential sources emerge from varying perspectives from eye-witness accounts (Ashen Guy, Shattered), personal narratives from Arab Americans speaking toward perceptions and experiences (PBS Arab American Stories), observation of the roles popular culture, the media, and Hollywood have played (Berkowitz and Faul, Okrent, Nunber). Formulate an argument regarding the relationship between exigent circumstance and fluidity of language utilizing the varied sources to support your thinking.

Use APA format for citing your sources within the body of your text as follows (you may also use source reflective statements like Beller utilizes....(2001) ) "quote quote quote" (Beller, 2001)

First draft will be due April 10th (a move and extension). Final draft will be due the week before April vacation.

= =