Week 7 Objectives - The Narration

Week 7 Objectives

1. Do you want to see examples of good student blogs? Did I leave a comment on your blog? Check! Instructions here.

3. Read this page for instructions on how to write your narration.

4. Make your own narration post - Follow the instructions in red.

This is explanation of Narration is from the Classical Argument PDF I provided:

In the narration, you want to establish a context for your argument. This means that you need to explain the situation to which your argument is responding, as well as any relevant background information, history, statistics, and so on that affect it. (For instance, the abortion argument might well mention Roe vs. Wade, more recent cases, legal precedents, and even public opinion polls.) Once again, the language with which you describe this background will give the audience a picture of you, so choose it carefully. By the end of this section, the readers should understand what’s at stake in this argument—the issues and alternatives the community faces—so that they can evaluate your claims fairly.

In layman's terms, the narration is where you explain how your very focused, targeted and narrow argument fits into the big picture or the real world. For example, "Humans are smarter than computers," is not a very powerful or interesting statement by itself. But now, consider these ideas, too:

1. For a long time, science fiction has dreamed of a world where computers enslave humans.
2. Computers have reached a level of power that allows them to beat humans in certain tasks.
3. Certain predictions claim computers will surpass human intelligence within the next 50 years.
4. The growth of computer power exceeds the speed with which any other technology has ever grown.
5. The current generation in the developed world cannot imagine life without cellphones, computers, the internet or the 100 other ways we use computers every day. 

In the context of those facts, the relationship and competition between human and computer intelligence becomes more significant and interesting. 

Connect your island to the world!

Basically, the narration takes your little topic's island and connects it to the rest of the world. The questions you should be asking yourself for the narration are:

1. What do people already know about my topic?
2. What research has already been done about my topic?
3. What are the implications of my argument (What if I'm right? What if I'm right and people ignore me?)

The information you decide to include will influence the rest of your article. On the internet there will be a million articles that come from different sources with different opinions. You want to use reliable sources, not opinions on blogs, and you want to focus on articles and sources that will benefit your argument. (Later, in the refutation and concession you will spend time examining the opponent's perspective.)