Chewing on Law

We have just read his introduction to Stephen Law's short dialogue "Carving the Roast Beast", in which he tells us the topic and main idea as we expect a writer to do in an introduction. Law's topic in "Carving the Roast Beast" is eating meat, and his main idea about this topic is that it is morally wrong (2003, p. 124)¹.

What do you think about this? Is Law right or wrong?

• Is it morally acceptable to eat meat? 
• When is it right to eat meat? Why? What makes it right? 
• When is it wrong? Why is it wrong? 
• Is it ever wrong to eat meat? Why do you think that? 
• Is it ever right to eat meat? Why do you think that?
  and moving on 
• What do you expect Law to do next? If you think he is wrong, what does he need to do to persuade that he is right? 

This is a response writing to share our ideas on Law's topic and main idea. You cannot explicitly discuss Law's supporting ideas because we have not read them yet. Our purpose here is to start thinking about the topic and write down our ideas. That's all. It's a response writing exercise similar to exercise G on page 156 of Quest, so feel free to respond with whatever ideas you like on the topic, or even a bit off the topic, following the same guidelines that Hartmann gives (2007). The questions I wrote above were just some prompts to hopefully get you thinking. 

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References

Law, S. (2003). Carving the roast beast. In The Xmas Files (p.124 – 140). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.²

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2^nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Notes

The title of my post 
The phrasal verb chew on means "chew over" as defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. It also suggests a weaker version of the idea in the verb phrase chew out. I thought that it worked well in the title of this blog post.  

^1. Parenthetic citations like this example are usual and are normally required in academic writing. If you use an idea from a source, you must cite that source. For more examples of parenthetic citations, see Hartmann, pages 151 - 153.  

^2. And if you have cited a source in your writing, the full reference citation for that source must normally be included in your list of references. Sadly, Hartmann completely fails to do this on page 153. (Why? Where is the expected list of references? Do  you agree with Hartmann's decision here?)

One of our main goals this term is to practise using and correctly citing sources. If this is new to you, don't worry. 

Response writing is not academic writing, so don't even think about parenthetic citations or a reference list as you write your comments. 

Welcome to AEP Reading and Writing 4 + Have Your Say

Thank you for registering for the Reading and Writing level 4 class in AUA's Academic English Program (AEP).

Over the next six weeks we will be working through two chapters in Hartmann's Quest 2 Reading and Writing [Quest] (2007), which is probably already familiar to some of you from level 3 last term, or perhaps even more familiar. We will be doing both a a bit more writing than Quest asks for and a bit more reading.

And this being 2011, we will be using the tools that are normal in modern academic institutions: email, the internet and so on; academics and students no longer submit their written work on scraps of paper, and we won't be doing that either.

I hope that you find the class both enjoyable and challenging so that our six weeks together will be productive and pleasant.

And if you ever have any question about anything, please feel welcome to ask us in class, email me, or write it up here on our class blog (Peter, 2011). 

Have Your Say

I have some overall plans for the term, and more specific class plans for the coming week and for each day, but since we can also be flexible, I have a couple of questions for discussion here.

The first one follows up the poll on the right - how should we spend our two and a half hours of Monday to Thursday class time? After you cast your vote in the poll, please feel welcome to add a comment below supporting your answer, and if necessary, explaining why your classmates who favour a different answer should change their minds. 

You are also welcome to share your ideas on what we should, or should not, be doing outside of class in the two to three hours of daily homework that I think is appropriate for a course in academic English.

You can start commenting as soon as you have accepted your invitation to join the blog, which I will email to you at 8:00 PM on Monday evening. 

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References

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing, (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Peter. (2011, February). AEP, Blogging our class. Class Blog - AEP at AUA. Retrieved February 25, 2011 from http://peteraep.blogspot.com/p/blogging-our-class.html