For the second formal assignment, we will be working as a class to develop a question at issue about a topic based on each of the three assigned readings from this section of the class. You will then choose which question you want to write about. After discussing developing research questions in class today and reading the final assigned reading, your job for this blog post is to select the topic that you want to work with for this assignment, develop a potential research question for that topic, and locate at least two scholarly sources that look like promising sources for an essay on this topic. So, consider the next 2 blog posts two parts of a larger single assignment to prepare you to write Formal Assignment 2:

Blog Post 4 – Moving from topic to question
Using the specific popular text that you are working with, introduce your chosen topic and explain how this topic raises the question at issue. Imagine an audience who has not read (or listened to) the text. Use a brief summary of that text to both pique the reader’s interest in this topic and raise the issue that you will research and answer for your second formal assignment. In addition, make it clear why this is an important question that should be answered.

Blog post 4 should be about 300-500 words, and is due by the beginning of class on Thursday, October 12.

Blog Post 5 – Looking for answers
Revised 10/18
For this post, introduce the question at issue that the class settles on for your chosen topic, identify the two scholarly sources (name of author[s] and title of source) you’ll be using as you complete this assignment, and summarize these sources–making it clear how these sources are addressing (in whole or in part) the question at issue you and your group have settled on.

Include full Works Cited entries for all sources used in these posts (there should be at least 3 between them, but there may be more). Blog post 5 should be 500-700 words, and is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday October 24.*

For this assignment (which should help you prepare for your first formal assignment), you will find a specific instance from A Time to Kill where empathy–either real or apparent–is invoked. This can be one of three types of invocation of empathy:

1. one character attempting to invoke empathy in another character;
2. the film invoking empathy in the viewer; or
3. some combination of the two.

For your post, you will need to explain how/why the invocation of empathy occurs. You will also need explain whether this is a real, or only apparent invocation of empathy. If it’s only apparently an invocation of empathy, what other emotion or perspective is it invoking?

Your post should be 500-700 words, and is due in class on Thursday, September 21.

Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson in court

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch tries, and ultimately fails, to clear Tom Robinson of rape charges. Integral to his attempted appeal to the jurors–and to the film’s appeal to its viewers–is his closing argument. This represents his final opportunity, in the words of Clarence Darrow, to “make [the] jury like his client, or at least feel sympathy for him” (qtd. in Hoffman 251).

We’ve discussed Atticus’ closing argument and its ultimate failure to convince the jurors. Now it’s your turn. Pretend that you are Atticus Finch, and create an argument that represents your best attempt to convince the jury to acquit Tom Robinson. Consider your audience. Who are they? What are their feelings and biases? How will you take these feelings and biases into consideration? What sorts of appeals are likely to reach them–and what sorts will alienate them? What sorts of evidence should you remind them of? How will you make them “like [Tom], or at least feel sympathy for him”?

One additional requirement: You need to quote at least one line from the film here. Again, pretend you are Atticus. You want to use the direct testimony of any of the court’s witnesses as part of your argument. This means you will need to introduce a quotation, cite that quotation (using the abbreviated title TKM in your parenthetical citation), and include a Works Cited entry for a film (which you will look up how to do).

Your closing arguments should be about 500-700 words in length, and are due in class on Thursday (9/14). To cite the film, use the citation guidelines specified here, with one addition: for your parenthetical citation in the text, use the abbreviation “TKAM” and a time stamp to indicate what portion of the movie you are citing. eg, (TKAM 1:30:14-1:32:12).

Works Cited

Hoffman, Martin L. “Empathy, Justice, and the Law.” Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives. Ed. Amy Coplan and Peter Goldie. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2011. 230-244.

Image Reference

Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson in court.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/02/2a/0e/022a0e3bbe0571f1731766c0e99ad4e6.jpg