In Class Today

Last time, we began to isolate some places in Bork's text where people thought he was loading his language, using spin, betraying bias, etc.  Today, we'll talk about some of those.  We marked some of the them on the online version of the text. Looking at them (and the other suggestions for biased or spun passages that I collected last time), it seemed to me that many of them were pretty long -- two or three sentences -- and I found it difficult to see from the passage itself (though often the chooser's explanations made it clear) where exactly the spin or bias was coming in.

What I propose now is that I'll set up some groups, give each a set of the pages selecting passages, and ask you to look them over, pick one, and decide exactly where -- what word or phrase -- is the one you think, if rewritten to convey the same information, might put the spin in a different direction.  Each person in the group can pick a different one (but you should agree on which they are).  We'll do another "round" -- only this time we'll ask each person to identify the passage -- and then tell us where your group thinks the bias comes in most clearly.

You can pass if you want; I simply want to focus the discussion, as much as we can, on the small elements that add up to an effective piece of persuasion ("effective" even if we happen not to be persuaded).

Monbiot for Tuesday

Between now and Tuesday, pick one passage of no more than 50 words from "Left Behind to Starve," copy it out, and rewrite it to convey the same information or use the same facts, but to have a different "spin."  You should pick a passage which actually does convey or include facts, not one which simply expresses an opinion.  Here's an example.
 

Bring your passage to class -- again, if you can do it so that the original appears on one side of a page and the revision on the other, or below a fold, that would be useful.