1a 8 18

1. S
EWRT 1A
Class 8

2. AGENDA
S Magical Creatures Order
S Discussion
S New Yorker article
S Basic Features
S Ways to begin your concept essay.
S Focusing your Concept
S In-Class Writing:
S Preparing for the Library
S Review: The Works Cited Page

3. Get out your rankings of the supernatural beings from last class.
Remember that you ranked them from 1 (most plausible) to 20 (least
plausible).
In your House:
1. Try to reach consensus on
which creatures should
rank 1-5.
2. Try to reach consensus on
which creatures should
rank 16-20.
3. Discuss which creatures
were easiest to “place” on
the list. Why?
4. Which were most difficult to
“place”? Why?

4. S
Fantastic Beasts and How to Rank Them
By Kathryn Schulz
Schulz, Kathryn. “Fantastic Beasts and How to Rank Them.” The New Yorker,
November 6, 2017 Issue, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/06/is-bigfoot-
likelier-than-the-loch-ness-monster. Accessed 26 January 2018.
How do I cite an online magazine?
Provide the author name, article name in quotation
marks, title of the web magazine in italics, Issue, URL,
and the date of access.

5. Discussion: “Fantastic Beasts”:
talk in your houses.
S How does the author hook the reader in the first paragraph? How or why?
S What rhetorical strategy does the author use? Why does it work?
S How does the author use the strategy of counterargument?
S How does the author support the theories she investigates?
S What is the thesis? Where does the thesis appear?
S What is the “So What?” in this essay? Where do you see it?
S What is the reader left with in the conclusion?

6. How does the author hook the reader in
the first paragraph? How or why?

7. How does the author hook the reader in
the first paragraph? How or why?
Consider the yeti. Reputed to live in the mountainous regions of Tibet,
Bhutan, and Nepal. Also known by the alias Abominable Snowman.
Overgrown, in both senses: eight or ten or twelve feet tall; shaggy.
Shy. Possibly a remnant of an otherwise extinct species. More
possibly an elaborate hoax, or an inextinguishable hope. Closely
related to the Australian Yowie, the Canadian Nuk-luk, the Missouri
Momo, the Louisiana Swamp Ape, and Bigfoot. O.K., then: on a scale
not of zero to ten but of, say, leprechaun to zombie, how likely do you
think it is that the yeti exists? (par. 1)

8. What rhetorical strategy does the author
use? Why does it work?

9. What rhetorical strategy does the author
use? Why does it work?
S What’s odd about this exercise is that everyone knows that “impossible” is an
absolute condition. “Possible versus impossible” is not like “tall versus short.”
Tall and short exist on a gradient, and when we adjudge the Empire State
Building taller than LeBron James and LeBron James taller than Meryl Streep,
we are reflecting facts about the world we live in. But possibility and
impossibility are binary, and when we adjudge the yeti more probable than the
leprechaun we aren’t reflecting facts about the world we live in; we aren’t
reflecting the world we live in at all. So how, exactly, are we drawing these
distinctions? And what does it say about our own wildly implausible,
unmistakably real selves that we are able to do so? (par. 3 second half)

10. How does the author use the strategy of
counterargument?

11. How does the author use the strategy of
counterargument?
So much for biology as the basis of our unified theory. But we can resolve at least some of these
problems by modifying our hypothesis slightly. Perhaps we don’t care how much supernatural creatures
resemble the animal kingdom in general; perhaps we only care how much they resemble us. This mirror
theory of plausibility would still account for the high ranking of yetis, which, aside from not existing, are not
so different from Homo sapiens (para 17 end).
[L]ike the biological theory of plausibility, [the mirror theory] fails to account for some of our intuitions
about supernatural beings (par 18 beginning).
Given this tendency to situate unnatural beings in the natural world, it seems conceivable that our
judgments about their plausibility might reflect how well they conform to the constraints of modern
biology (par 11 end).
If you couldn’t make it through that paragraph without starting to formulate an objection, you
already know the first problem with this theory: it invites a lot of quibbling over what is and isn’t
biologically feasible (par 13 beginning).

12. How does the author support the theories
she investigates?

13. How does the author support the theories
she investigates?
S Refers to historical authority: But [Plato] did allow that, if forced to choose, writers
“should prefer a probable impossibility to an unconvincing possibility” (par. 4).
S Quotes popular contemporary authority: “We cannot do the fantastic things,
based on the real, unless we first know the real,” [Walt Disney] once wrote (par.
8).
S Cites studies:
S As it happens, intuitions like these are broadly shared—a fact we know because, speaking of
implausible things, two cognitive scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have
shown it (par. 22).
S Happily, two other cognitive scientists, Andrew Shtulman and Caitlin Morgan, of Occidental
College, have addressed that question (par 25).

14. What is the thesis? Where does the
thesis appear?

15. What is the thesis? Where does the thesis
appear?
Thesis questions:
So how, exactly, are we drawing these distinctions? And what does it say about our own
wildly implausible, unmistakably real selves that we are able to do so? (par 3).
Thesis statement:
Patterns of evidence, a grasp of biology, theories of physics: as it turns out, we need all of
these to account for our intuitions about supernatural beings. [. . .] the ability to think about
nonexistent things isn’t just handy for playing parlor games on Halloween. It is utterly
fundamental to who we are. Studying that ability helps us learn about ourselves; exercising it
helps us learn about the world (4 from the end).

16. What is the “So What?” in this essay?
Where do you see it?

17. What is the “So What?” in this essay?
Where do you see it?
[P]erhaps the most extraordinary thing about this ability [to think about
things that aren’t real all the time] is that we can use it to nudge the
impossible into the realm of the real. We stare at the sky, watch a seagull bob
on a thermal, build wax wings and then fixed wings and then Apollo XI. We dream
of black Presidents and female scientists; we dream, still, of self-driving cars, a
cure for cancer, peace in the Middle East. These last things are interestingly like
dragons and also interestingly unlike dragons, in ways that suggest that we may
be wise, after all, to treat impossibility as something other than an absolute
condition. Alone among all the creatures in the world, we can think about
fantastical things and, at least some of the time, bring them into being (3 pars.
from the bottom).

18. What is the reader left with in the
conclusion?
S That world, the one we inhabit every day of
our lives, is a yeti—a fantastical thing
constructed out of bits and pieces of reality
plus the magic wand of the mind. If we could
hand it over to some superior being for
consideration, it might not even rank very
high on the scale of plausibility. Then again,
plausibility itself might not rank very high on
the scale of qualities we prize. Better,
perhaps, to know that what we feel in our
happiest moments has some truth to it: life is
magical. ♦

19. S
The Concept essay
The Basic Features

20. The Basic Features of the Concept Essay
S A Focused Concept
S An Appeal to Readers’ Interests
S A Logical Plan
S Clear Definitions
S Appropriate Writing Strategies
S Classification
S Process Narration
S Comparison and Contrast
S Cause and Effect
S Careful Use of Sources

21. A Focused Concept: Feature #1
S By now you have a limited concept or two
that you are considering; that is, you are
close to deciding on a specific type of magic
to write about. In order to focus your essay,
you must limit your explanation to reflect
both your special interest in the concept
and your readers’ likely knowledge and
interest. Let’s narrow your concept and
limiter a bit more to make sure you are
investigating the most promising
information.

22. Remember, you must limit your concept of Magic. For example, you must focus on one
kind of magic. For example, I might limit it by focusing on magic tricks. You could also
apply other limiters to the concept of “magic.”
1. Defense Against the Dark Arts
2. Potions
3. Divination
4. Magical Creatures
5. Transfiguration
6. History of Magic
7. Herbology
8. Spellcasting
9. Animagi.
The First Basic Feature:
Focusing your Concept

23. Remember, your concept is ”magic,” but you still have to limit magic to a particular
kind. Use your post #9 to remind you of your thoughts. For example, I might write
about Magic tricks.
Then split your limited concept into two or three (or more) categories. I might split
my “Magic Tricks” concept into “mind reading,” “transportation tricks,” and
“levitation.”
Focusing your Concept of
Magic

24. Concept: Magic
Limiter: Tricks
Category 1:
Mind Reading
Category 2:
Transportation

25. Listing Types
S Next, you must break the categories down
even further: you need different types of those
categories. Think back to the cannibalism
essay. Remember, Ngo listed two categories:
Exo cannibalism and Endo cannibalism. Under
those, he listed three types: survival, dietary,
and religious/ritual. Under “Magic Tricks,” and
“mind reading,” for example, I might put “silent
telepathy,” “telephone telepathy,” and “book
telepathy.”

26. Concept: Magic
Limiter: Tricks
Category 1:
Mind Reading
 Types
1. Silent
2. Telephone
3. Book
Category 2:
Transportation
 Types
1. Coins
2. Cards
Category 3:
Levitation.
 Types
1. People
2. Objects

27. Adding Examples
S Finally, under the category of
“types,” you list the examples
you are going to use from
Prisoner of Azkaban (and other
HP novels or films) and other
outside sources, which you will
find in the library during our next
class.

28. Concept: Magic: Limiter: Tricks
Categories: Types: Examples
Category 1:
Mind Reading
 Types
1. With an assistant
a) Pick a card
b) Identify a person
2. Without an assistant
a) False bottom
trays
b) “One Ahead”
method
Category 2:
Transportation
 Types
1. People
a) Chris Angel
“Teleport trick”
2. Cards and coins
a) “Ultimate
Transition” two
card trick
b) “Matrix Coin”
transportation trick
Category 3:
Levitation.
 Types
1. People
a) Asrah
b) Balducci
c) Chair
2. Objects
a) Blackstone's
Floating Light
Bulb
b) Hummer card

29. S
Preparing for the Library
 Make sure you have your limiter clear in your
mind.
 Consider how to frame any information you
already have, including categories, types, and
examples from Harry Potter.
 Consider your needs concerning research of
categories. What do you need to look for?
 Once you figure out your categories, you will
look for examples.

30. Works Cited
How to make your page

31. 1” Margins all around
Alphabetical Order Title Centered
Five
spaces
Works Cited
Last Name 1
Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in
Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol.
15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.
The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic, 2008.
Zinkievich, Craig. Interview by Gareth Von Kallenbach. Skewed & Reviewed, 27
Apr. 2009, www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-
online/news/detail/1056940-skewed-%2526-reviewed-interviews-craig.
Accessed 15 Mar. 2009.
Website
Book
Periodical
Specific version

33. HOMEWORK
S Read HP (Chapters 19-
End)
S Discussion #10:
Finish and post your in-
class writing: Concept
limiter, categories, and
types.
S Remember, our next
meeting is in the library.
Meet in the lobby five
minutes before class
starts.