Due 11/14
Today we will practice making claims. Even though this inquiry paper is not an “argumentative” essay intended to persuade, you still need to make claims based on 1) what you learn in your research and 2) the relationships between these ideas.
So, today we’ll practice using something that is hopefully easier and more fun: animated movies.
FIRST, read Chapter 8 of The Craft of Research, PDF is here. This explains some best practices for writing strong and specific claims.
SECOND, complete this Disney/Pixar movie bracket. For each pair, choose whichever movie you think is the best movie (not which one you like more). Work your way through the pairings until you have a winner. If you haven’t seen some of the movies, that’s okay — probably most people haven’t seen all of them. You can either just pick the ones you have seen, or pick which ones seem best based on your knowledge of them. Remember: BEST, not FAVORITE. There are a couple places on the bracket where it says “play-in winner.” This is because the bracket is originally from an internet contest where people voted on what would take these slots. Here, either ignore and advance the other movie, or you can choose one of your own favorites that isn’t on the bracket.
THIRD, once you have your winner, practice writing a strong claim about why this movie is the best of all of the other movies. Remember to use the best practices you learned from reading Chapter 8 of The Craft of Research. Post your claim as a comment on this post.
FOURTH, look at the other comments to read others’ claims. Either offer suggestions for how to strengthen the claims or write counter claims in response to those you disagree with. Why is your movie better than this specific movie?
