Breakdown!

STEP ONE

Each partner will create his or her own blog through blogger.com

• It can be as fancy or as bare-bones as you desire, but have fun with it.
• This will be set up in class Monday, March 24.
• Have your topic decided on for class Friday.
  

STEP TWO
Create a blog entry that is a BRIEF for your “side” of the argument. Remember you are arguing to convince or persuade, so you may want to review Chapters 7 and 8 in The Aims of Argument.

Each partner will choose one side of an argument to research and support. Your topic can be anything from the war in Iraq, terrorism, foreign policy (should be narrowed down), abortion, gun control, health care issues, social security, distribution of natural resources (the water shortage in GA, FL, AL, SC, NC, etc), immigration, capitalism v. democracy, electoral process, trade policy, gay rights, environmental issues, ETC. These suggestions are from last semester and can be explored, but make note of what I said in "The Assignment" post about redoing something my students did last semester.

• This step will require some preliminary research. Don't wait.
• Reference Chapter 7 and page 215 in The Aims of Argument, if needed.
• The BRIEF needs to be posted before class on Wednesday, April 2.

STEP THREE

Post a COMMENT on your partners BRIEF blog entry that lists the facts on which you disagree with his or her side of the argument.

• This will be done in class Friday, April 4, allowing you time to physically discuss these issues and where/how to proceed in regards to fulfilling your next entry in Step Four.
• Read through Step Four in order for it to help you focus your research over the weekend on the points which you disagree.
  

STEP FOUR

Post another COMMENT on your partners BRIEF blog entry explaining why you disagree with the facts you listed from STEP THREE.

• Where you don’t agree on key facts, do research to decide how valid the facts cited on both sides are? This may involve sharing materials/research to try to persuade or convince your partner of your reasons for the validity of the fact in question.
• Due Wednesday, April 9. There might be some class time to work on this step.
  

STEP FIVE

Define the problem in terms of the key interests that must be addressed.

• In this step, you and your partner will work together to address the issues negotiated in Step Four and create a NEW brief that seeks to mediate your argument.
• Both sides will work from their original position and come to some sort of agreement or common ground using the arguments key interests. The process will require mediation, advancing the issue beyond a stalemate of ideas--a compromise of sorts.
• This post will be due Friday, April 11 by 11:59 p.m. and should be posted as a new blog post.
  

STEP SIX
Create a new post that is the rough draft of your mediated argument. You should have a complete argument, including a working bibliography, links to other sites you are using, etc. You are free to include additional components in your final post other than what you put into your rough draft, but the more information you have posted at this point, then the easier it will be to help you organize everything into an effective final post.

• Each partner will write his or her own paper, working from mediated brief created in Step Six.
• Due Wednesday, April 16 by11:59 p.m
• Remember, if you are using someone else's images or audio, then make sure you cite it correctly.
  

STEP SEVEN

State how the debatable issue (your topic) was resolved, identifying the principles upon which the resolution was based—if a resolution was possible. If your group decides there is no way to resolve the issue, then there needs to be a detailed (and valid) explanation of why.

• It is basically your final draft. There is no page length requirement, because the intent of this assignment is to produce an active discourse throughout the course of the project. The only length requirement will be to accurately and convincingly produce a piece of writing that mediates both sides of the chosen argument.
• This step will be completed by both partners, individually, and each will propose the facts, compromises, exceptions, etc. that were worked out regrading the issue in his or her own words--formally.
• You must include a works cited / bibliography in this post.
• Due date for this final post is Monday, April 21, 2008 by 11:59 pm. This date may be negotiable.