Honors English 3-4 Mrs. Amber Gould Amber.Gould@guhsdaz.org Summer Assignment Ms. Britt Davis Britt.Davis@guhsdaz.org To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee Logic and Literary Elements Next year, you will have to think logically, understand complex reading and recognize weaknesses in the work of others. To that end, you need to make sure that you can recognize the types of logical errors that weak writers make. Dr. Wheeler at Carson-Newman College has a good list, which is why we will be using his terms. The Nizkor project and a dozen other sources also have strong examples, but there are subtle differences in the names of fallacies, so we need to use Dr. Wheeler s names to avoid confusion. If you re going to have limited Internet access over the summer, ask your English teacher for a hard copy of the fallacy list or go into the counseling office for one if you enroll in summer. Fallacies: Appeal to force Personal Attack (ad hominem) Bandwagon Patriotic Approach Appeal to Tradition Appeal to Improper Authority Appeal to Emotion Argument from Adverse Consequences Hasty Generalization False Cause (including post hoc ergo propter hoc) Straw Man Argument Slippery Slope Fallacy Either/Or Fallacy Faulty Analogy Equivocation Complex/Loaded Question Once you find a solid list of fallacies, you need to understand fallacies and identify them in the real world. Using the newspaper, an online newspaper or the evening news, your job is to search out fallacies. Do NOT leave this until the last minute or you may find it very difficult to find enough. You must find twenty different errors in the news, and you need to make sure those errors are from ten different fallacies. You may NOT share your fallacies with any classmates. The Assignment: Part 1 Logic Section A: For each fallacy, you need to give (1) original version as the illogical speaker gave it. Then (2) identify the fallacy, (3) explain the fallacy and how it applies in this case, and then (4) give a citation for the article you just ripped apart with your mad skills of logic. So one entry will look like this:
Example: It took 277 embryos to make one Dolly, they point out, and that was for a simple sheep. Think how many more will be required to make a human and how many deformed fetuses may result. Will we see mass abortions? Miscarriages? Human suffering? Even a monster in a laboratory? Slippery Slope. This is trying to say that cloning an animal is going to lead to deformed fetuses and then abortions and then a monster in the laboratory. It s more likely that as scientists practice more, the number of mistakes and the number of embryos required will go down. The Slippery Slope is a fallacy in which a person asserts that some event must inevitably follow from another without any argument for the inevitability of the event in question. In most cases, there are a series of steps or gradations between one event and the one in question and no reason is given as to why the intervening steps or gradations will simply be bypassed. This "argument" has the following form: 1. Event X has occurred (or will or might occur). 2. Therefore event Y will inevitably happen. This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because there is no reason to believe that one event must inevitably follow from another without an argument for such a claim. This is especially clear in cases in which there is a significant number of steps or gradations between one event and another. *You will NOT include a definition in your assignment. This is only to show you what Slippery Slope is and why the text is an example of this fallacy. Gergen, David. Trouble in Paradise. U.S. News & World Report. 27 Aug. 2001: 80. Print. Example: One of Antinori s key supporters in his cloning effort is linked to a group that believes humans are clones in the image of aliens from another solar system. Red Herring. The author brings up something that has nothing to do with cloning because he knows we ll all agree that humans being cloned aliens is a little weird. It is weird, but that doesn t tell us anything about cloning. A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. The basic idea is to "win" an argument by leading attention away from the argument and to another topic. This sort of "reasoning" has the following form: 1. Topic A is under discussion. 2. Topic B is introduced under the guise of being relevant to topic A (when topic B is actually not relevant to topic A). 3. Topic A is abandoned. This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because merely changing the topic of discussion hardly counts as an argument against a claim. Gergen, David. Trouble in Paradise. U.S. News & World Report. 27 Aug. 2001: 80. Print.
Section B: Pick your favorite two fallacies the ones you want to share with the world and create posters. Your posters do NOT have to be large (8 ½ X 11 or 11 X 17 paper is as large as you should go). These posters should have the name of the fallacy, the example, and a brief explanation of the logical error. More importantly, these two posters should be colorful, bold, and attractive enough to hang in a classroom. *Note: Do NOT choose two examples of fallacies you already completed for Section A. You may have done them wrong, and you don t want to get your posters wrong as well! Besides, exercise your brain and come up with two more examples! How To Do The Citations: Go to the Diana Hacker site and look for Documenting Sources or go to the O.W.L. at Purdue site and search Documenting Sources. *Note: These citations are for MLA (Modern Language Association). There are other citation styles; however, this class requires MLA. In MLA formatting, the main title can be put in italics or underlined. It is shown in italics because it is typed; however, if you are writing your entry by hand, you would underline the same piece of information. The Assignment: Part 2 To Kill A Mockingbird **You can find To Kill A Mockingbird in its entirety at this address: https://sites.google.com/a/pndhs.org/mrs-girsch-s-online-classroom/home/introduction-to-literaturemodified/what-s-going-on-here--1/to-kill-a-mockingbird Section A: You need to see how logic and literary elements help create strong characters and conflicts in the world and in literature. Get a copy of Harper Lee s To Kill A Mockingbird. You will read the entire novel and keep a reading journal/log in the process. As you read you may want to have a pencil in hand, sticky notes, or flags to mark logical fallacies and literary elements in the text. Requirements for the Literary Elements Journal/Log: You must have a minimum of 5 entries per section with a maximum of 2 entries per chapter. Sections: o Chapters 1-6 o Chapters 7-11 o Chapters 12-16 o Chapters 17-21 o Chapters 22-31
The required format for your journals/logs: Chapter 1 Quote (citation) Literary Device Analysis Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to read slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square (Lee 5). Amplification: refers to when a writer embellishes the sentence by adding more information to it in order to increase its worth and understandability When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident (Lee 3). The Radley Place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings and explanations it drew him as the moon draws the water (Lee 8). Foreshadowing: used to suggest an upcoming outcome to the story. Simile: drawing parallels or comparisons between two unrelated and dissimilar things, people, beings, places and concepts using the words as or such as or like. The author could have just said that the town was old; however, Lee continues on to describe the town in detail using words with timeworn connotations. This gives the reader an even deeper understanding on the town which seems lost in its own primordial time where the view from the street remains as unchanged as the view of the people themselves. The narrator, Scout, informs the reader that, not only did Jem break his arm, but that it was a major event in our lives. She explains this within the first few lines of the text which tells the reader that this is an important detail that will be explained later on in the novel. Yet, Scout doesn t go into much detail and leaves the suspense for later on in the story. While the other children seem to stay away from the Radley House, all that Dill wants to do is investigate. The author demonstrates just how bad his curiosity is by comparing it to the moon. Just like the ocean tide doesn t have a choice but to rise when the moon s gravitation pull is strong, Dill is compelled to explore the Radley place due to his own inquisitiveness.
Requirements for the Logical Fallacies Journal/Log: You must have a minimum of 5 entries from chapters 15-21 (the courtroom scene). The required format for your journal/log: In your analysis of the fallacy, consider the following questions: Who tries to influence others to act using fallacies? Who is logical? How does an understanding of logic affect the way you see these characters? Quote (citation) Fallacy Analysis Atticus, I said one evening, what exactly is a nigger-lover?...mrs. Dubose calls you that. She warms up every afternoon calling you that. Francis called me that last Christmas, that s where I first heard it (Lee 108). Personal Attack: when a person substitutes abusive remarks for evidence when attacking another person's claim or claims. This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because the attack is directed at the person making the claim and not the claim itself. The truth value of a claim is independent of the person making the claim. After all, no matter how repugnant an individual might be, he or she can still make true claims. Mrs. Dubose and Atticus s own family don t approve of him defending Tom Robinson because he is black. They attack him and his family perhaps to get Atticus to change his mind, or to influence his level of commitment to Robinson s defense. They believe Atticus is disgracing himself and his family by actually defending a black man to the full extent. Is this logical? Absolutely not! Mrs. Dubose and others do not even consider Tom s innocence or guilt; they don t care. This flaw in logic emphasizes to the reader the extreme prejudice in the characters. Mr. Avery said it was written on the Rosetta Stone that when children disobeyed their parents, smoked cigarettes and made war on each other, the seasons would change: Jem and I were burdened with the guilt of contributing to the aberrations of nature, thereby causing unhappiness to our neighbors and discomfort to ourselves (Lee 63). Slippery Slope a person asserts that some event must inevitably follow from another without any argument for the inevitability of the event in question. In most cases, there are a series of steps or gradations between one event and the one in question and no reason is given as to why the intervening steps or gradations will simply be bypassed. This "argument" has the following form: 1. Event X has occurred (or will or might occur). 2. Therefore event Y will inevitably happen. This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because there is no reason to believe that one event must inevitably follow from another without an argument for such a claim. This is especially clear in cases in which there is a significant number of steps or gradations between one event and another Mr. Avery tries to control the children s behavior by blaming bad things such as the extreme weather on the misdeeds of children in general. This is supposed to be a cautionary remark that Mr. Avery uses to manipulate the Finch children into guilt over their actions because they are very curious and to some, mischievous. It is obvious that disobeying parents, smoking cigarettes, and making war do not cause a change in the weather, so Mr. Avery is indeed illogical. This glimpse into Mr. Avery s character leads the reader to see that he is a definite contrast to Atticus Finch and the way he raises his children. Atticus is open and wants his children to make their own good decisions, not guilt them into making a decision.
Section B: On the second day of school, you will have a test over To Kill A Mockingbird. You will be tested on the following objectives: 1) Can you identify characters? 2) Can you identify speakers of significant quotations? 3) Can you recognize significant setting descriptions? 4) Did you comprehend events of the novel? Can you define the words Harper Lee used in the writing? After discussion in class with your teacher and classmates, you will have a test over the logical fallacies within the first two weeks of school. You will be tested on the following objectives: 1) Can you identify logical fallacies? You will be provided a list of fallacies, but you will need to identify examples from the news and the novel as either logical or fallacious, and you will need to identify the fallacy used. The following example is a sample of what test questions might look like. 1. Mr. Ewell? My memory stirred. Does he have anything to do with those Ewells that come every first day of school an then go home? Why, Atticus said they were absolute trash I never heard Atticus talk about folks the way he talked about the Ewells. Which of the following best describes the logic in this quote? A. Logical Arguments B. Appeal to Emotion C. Appeal to Force D. Argument from Adverse Consequences E. Argument from the Negative F. Equivocation G. Genetic Fallacy H. Snob Approach (Argumentum ad Populum) 2. I was expecting a tirade. Which of the following is the best definition of tirade? A. A rivulet, a small stream or brook B. A benefactor, a doer of charitable acts C. A resurrection, a return from death to life D. A harangue, a long angry or violent speech E. A skirmish, fighting between advanced detachments of enemy armies F. A repudiation, a refusal to have anything to do with a subject, a denial of it Correct Answers: 1. G. The fallacy is assuming the family is a certain way because of their background. While this makes the speaker sound like a snob, a snob approach fallacy says that a person should do something because all the really smart/educated/classy/good people do it. That s not the case here. 2. D.