There
are two sets of exercise here; one regarding the NY Times article
and another on quotations. Make sure to do both
exercises.
Be
sure to set aside enough time to do the quotations exercises --
they will help you grasp an essential concept we will use in many
homeworks and papers.
Estimated time for Quotation Exercise: 50 - 60 minutes depending
on your familiarity with expository writing for business or college
contexts.
Connecting
the Past to the Present: Questions On New
York Times article
A) Considering the textbook's discussion of India on pp. 19 -
21 and the New York Times
article, what historical forces from the time period
described by the textbook might explain the later emergence of
Barelvi Islam that the article
addresses? Be specific in your response and provide details from
the textbook and New
York Times article.
B) Does the Salafi form of Islam embraced by some of the educated
second-generation Indian Muslim immigrants to the United
Kingdom represent a continuation of the cultural traditions
of both their families' & India's Islamic heritage? Why or
Why not? Be specific in your response and provide details from
both
the textbook and New
York Times article.
C) How have economic forces shaped the lives of both
the first and second generations of Indian Muslim immigrants to
the United Kingdom? Be specific in your response and provide details
from the New York Times
article.
D)
In Beeston Hill, how have South
Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis) fared relative
to their white neighbors? Be specific in your response and provide
details from the New York
Times article.
Quotation
Exercises
Read this
discussion of using quotations in your paper, and then do the
three part (A, B & C) exercise that follows it. Be sure
that you have done all three parts; do not stop until you see
"END OF ASSIGNMENT."
Although it might be tempting to skip the various explanations
below, they are essential to doing the assignment.
Be sure to contact Prof. Umbach if you
have any questions
Making
& Supporting Logical Arguments
Much of this class will be focused on a central skill of both
college and workplace writing: making an argument. An argument
generally involves three elements.
1. The
Claim -- What you want your readers to believe; the "point"
you hope to persuade your reader of
2. The
Evidence -- What you will use to support the claim; your
"proof" -- often a direct or indirect quotation from
a text, but sometimes a statistic or the like
3. The
Warrant -- A general principle that explains why you think
your evidence is relevant to your claim
You might
want to think of making a point with evidence in a paper as a
conversation with a friend in which you attempt to persuade that
friend of a particular perspective.
Listed below are the questions your friend might ask as you tried
to make your argument, followed by the element described above
that would answer your friend's questions:
| QUESTION |
ELEMENT |
| What
are you trying to demonstrate? |
CLAIM |
| What
proof do you have? |
EVIDENCE |
| Why
do you think that your proof is relevant to your claim? |
WARRANT |
You must
always state both your claim and your
supporting evidence explicitly; one
without the other is either pointless evidence or an ungrounded
opinion. Taking a fairly straightforward example:
"
(claim) I know it rained last night
because (evidence) the streets are
wet ."
| It
rained last night |
<--> |
the
streets are wet |
It would
be difficult to take issue with this claim-evidence relationship.
But most
evidence-claim relationships are not so simple.
They require
an additional element: a
warrant.
A warrant is a general principal that
serves as a bridge between your claim and your evidence -- it
explains how your evidence is both accurate and relevant to your
claim. If one claims, say:
"(claim)
The emancipation of Russian peasants was merely symbolic because
(evidence) it didn't improve the material
conditions of their daily lives."
"Even
if I grant that your evidence regarding the quality of life for
Russian peasants did not improve, why should that lead me to believe
your claim that their emancipation was merely symbolic?"
This questions
underscores that even if both your claim
and your evidence are entirely accurate,
it is possible to make a weak argument.
You must explain why the evidence you
are presenting supports the claim you
are making. In short, you need to establish a warrant
between your claim and your evidence
In this
example, the warrant might be:
"Whenever
a political action fails to improve the lives of those it is alleged
to help, we judge that reform to have been only symbolic."
The whole
argument, then, would read:
"The emancipation of Russian peasants was merely symbolic because
it didn't improve the material conditions of their daily lives. Whenever
a political action fails to improve the lives of those it was supposed
to help, we judge that reform to have been only symbolic rather than
substantial."
Let's take a look at another
fairly simple example from the world of sports:
claim |
Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player who ever
lived
|
evidence |
Jordan was selected as the greatest basketball player of the
20th century by Sports Illustrated magazine
|
warrant |
Since professional basketball has only been played in the
20th century, and since no basketball player was rated higher
than Jordan in the survey, Jordan must be the greatest player
who
ever lived.
|
| Need
More Examples? |
| here
is a chart of several arguments with claim/evidence/warrant
structures. If you are confused, concrete -- but simple --
examples can sometimes help |
Let's
look at an example of a point supported by a quotation that might
have come from a student paper.
If I wanted to argue that Gandhi thought modern Western civilization
was corrupt specifically because of its promotion of material
greed, I might write the following:
(CLAIM)
Gandhi sees modern civilization as a threat to the Indian people
because it promotes an endless cycle of selfish want. (EVIDENCE)
He says, "the railways, machineries and the corresponding increase
of indulgent habits are the true badges of slavery of the Indian
people" (p. 118). In Gandhi’s mind, such things are unnecessary
because happiness -- he asserts -- is "largely a mental condition"
(p. 123). (WARRANT) For Gandhi, accordingly,
if acquiring material goods will not make us happier, then the money
and energy we devote to do so should be considered a form of slavery.
Some things to note about
the paragraph:
1) Note that in the sentences
with quoted material, I use an introductory phrase such as "he
says," or "he asserts" to introduce the quotation.
The quotation is, therefore, part of my own sentence. Again,
a quotation must always form part of your own sentence.
It cannot stand alone.
2) MOST
IMPORTANTLY, note that the last
sentence explains and interprets the quoted material in the context
of my claim that I wish to support. This last sentence does NOT
merely repeat the claim; instead
it interprets the evidence
and demonstrates how it is relevant to the claim.
3) If you want to see
yet another example from a student paper, click here.
If you would like to see several examples in the context of a paper
along with detailed explanations, click here.
| Who
was Ibn Battuta? |
Born
in Morocco, Ibn Battuta was the only medieval traveler who
is known to have visited the lands of every Muslim ruler of
his time. He also traveled in Ceylon (present Sri Lanka),
China and Byzantium and South Russia. The mere extent of his
travels is estimated at no less than 75,000 miles, a figure
which is not likely to have been surpassed before the age
of steam. He is a useful source of information on West Africa
for the period before extensive contact with Europe. More
on Ibn Battuta |
Exercise
A:
Read this
passage from p. 303 of the book The Adventures of Ibn Battuta,
A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century (1986) by
Ross Dunn, a historian at the University of California, and then
answer the 2 short questions that follow the passage by Dunn:
Ibn
Battuta ended a sojourn of a little more than eight months in
the capital in a state of ambivalence over the qualities of
Malian culture. On the one hand, he respected [the ruler's]
just and stable government and the earnest devotion of the
Muslim population
to their mosque prayers and Koranic studies. "They place
fetters on their children if there appears on their part a failure
to memorize the Koran," he reports approvingly, "and
they are not undone until they memorize it."
| Fetters?
|
| ibn
Battuta here refers to iron clamps on the leg; see whole
passage from Ibn Battuta |
On
the other hand he [criticized] the Sudanese severely for practices
obviously based in [their cultural] tradition but were, from
his point of view, either profane or ridiculous when set against
the model of the rightly guided Islamic state: female slaves
and servants who went stark naked into the court for all to
see, subjects who groveled before the sultan. . .royal poets
who romped about in feathers and bird masks...We may sense in
his reportage a certain embarrassment that a kingdom whose Islam
so profoundly influenced his own homeland...was not doing a
better job of keeping to the straight and narrow.
| Where
in the World?: |
|
Exercise A,B, and C follow Ibn Battuta in West Africa. You
can see a map of the region here,
with the location of the various quotation exercises indicated.
|
2
Questions for Exercise A:
1) Dunn uses both direct and indirect quotations.
Identify one example for each from Dunn's text. If you are uncertain
of the distinction between direct and indirect quotations, see
here.
(Remember as you write papers in college, that even
indirect quotations require
citations.)
2) Identify in Dunn's second paragraph both his
claim and his warrant
Exercise
B
| Want
to Know more? |
| you
can read & search the whole book on-line here |
Read the
following explanatory passage from Dunn, then answer the question
regarding the excerpt from Ibn Battuta.
In the
passage below from p. 294 of The Adventures of Ibn Battuta,
Dunn describes the relationship between Islam, the ruling elite,
and the larger population in the region of Mali in Africa visited
by Ibn Battuta:
Sudanese chiefs and
petty kings are known to have converted to Islam as early as the
tenth or eleventh centuries. Whatever purely religious feelings
may have motivated such men individually, conversion enhanced
their esteem among Muslim merchants, the economically most powerful
group in the land, and potentially tied them to a much wider commercial
and diplomatic world than they had known before.
Yet the military and
political success of the mansas (rulers) also depended
on their continuing allegiance and cooperation of the mass of
their subjects -- farming, fishing, and herding people who for
the most part adhered to ancient animistic beliefs and rituals,
not Islam. Unlike the sultans of Delhi [(see our textbook, pp.
19 - 21)], the mansas had not come to power as foreign
invaders, prepared to organize a state as formally Islamic as
they pleased. The legitimacy of their authority rested to a large
extent on satisfying traditional ...expectations in their public
conventions and ceremonies. Consequently, they were obliged to
walk a narrow line between their urban Muslim subjects, who wanted
them to behave up to the public standards of [cosmopolitan Cairo
or Damascus], and the vast majority of the tax- and tribute-paying
population, which took no notice of [the stricter legal dictates]
of [sharia] or proper procedure of Friday Prayer.
Keeping in mind the discussion
above by Dunn (a historian), read the passage below written by Ibn
Battuta himself more than six centuries ago and look for descriptive
words or phrases that give you clues about Ibn Battuta's opinions.Then,
use this excerpt to help you answer the question that follows the
passage.
Ibn Battuta writing on public ceremony in Mali:
[The
sultan] has a lofty pavilion, of which the door is inside his
house, where he sits for most of the time. . . . There came forth
from the gate of the palace about 300 slaves, some carrying in
their hands bows and others having in their hands short lances
and shields. . . Then two saddled and bridled horses are brought,
with two rams which, they say, are effective against the evil
eye. . . . Dugha, the interpreter, stands at the gate of the council-place
wearing fine garments of silk brocade and other materials, and
on his head a turban with fringes which they have a novel way
of winding. . . . The troops, governors, young men, slaves, the
Masufa, and others sit outside the council-place in a broad street
where there are trees...[They] are the humblest of people before
their king and the most submissive towards him. They swear by
his name, saying: “Mansâ Sulaymân kî.”
When he calls to one of them at his sessions in the pavilion which
we have mentioned the person called takes off his clothes and
puts on ragged clothes, and removes his turban and puts on a dirty
shâshiyya, and goes in holding up his garments and trousers
half-way up his leg, and advances with submissiveness and humility.
He then beats the ground vigorously with his two elbows. . . .
Inside the council-place beneath the arches a man is standing.
Anyone who wishes to address the sultan addresses Dugha and Dugha
addresses that man standing and that man standing addresses the
sultan. If one of them addresses the sultan and the latter [the
Sultan] replies, [the person before the Sultan] uncovers the clothes
from his back and sprinkles dust on his head and back, like one
washing himself with water. I used to marvel how their eyes did
not become blinded. . .This is good manners among them.
Question
for Exercise B:
| Useful
Hints |
| think
about what was sufficiently different, surprising, or remarkable
in Mali for Ibn Battuta that he felt compelled to describe it.
Look for words that suggest he finds what he is viewing as outside
his cultural experience. Remember that Ibn Battuta thought of
himself as having lived a proper Muslim life in his birth place
Morocco. Ibn Battuta's word choice will
also be useful in writing your warrant |
Write a paragraph that
responds to this question:
USING
ONLY THE EVIDENCE FROM IBN BATTUTA, how can the evidence
be interpreted to demonstrate that the rulers of Mali tempered
their Islamicism with local West African cultural practices?
(you should NOT
use evidence or information from any other source; limit your analysis
to what can be extrapolated
from Ibn Battuta's words -- everything you need is there, I promise)
Some writing instructions:
1) Your paragraph should
begin with your claim, followed by evidence
from Ibn Battuta in the form of direct
quotations, and end with a warrant that
explains how the evidence is relevant to your claim.
2) Your quotation(s)
from Ibn Battuta should be no more than 10 words and preferable
MUCH shorter -- if you are unsure how to omit unnecessary information
from a quotation, see here. (very
useful)
3) Be sure to explain to your reader
in your warrant why you think you know that a specific practice
is of local origin or not (see hint
in box to right).
4) Finally, you
must label your claim/evidence/warrant structure: put a (CL) before
your claim, a (EV) before your evidence, and a (WA) before your
warrant.
5) Be sure that
your warrant does NOT merely repeat
your claim. 75% of your score for Exercise
B will be based on the strength of your warrant.
6) If
you want to see an example from a student paper of a paragraph organized
around Cl/EV/WA, see here.
Below is one way
sample you might organize this paragraph. You are, however, obviously
free to organize your paragraph in any way that makes sense to you.
The "____" in the text indicates where you would supply
your own writing on that topic. Likewise, (cl),(ev),
(wa) are the tags identifying what follows
as the claim, evidence, or warrant for the paragraph. You will want
to include such tags in your own paragraph.
(cl)Ibn
Batuttuta found in Mali rulers who integrated local West African
cultural practices into their practice of Islam. (ev)For
example, Ibn Battuta wrote ___put evidence here__________________.
We can conclude that such rituals were of local Malian rather than
Islamic origin because____put warrant here_______________.
|
CHECK YOUR OWN WORK
BEFORE FRITZ GRADES IT:
Ask yourself if your warrant explains HOW and WHY your evidence
demonstrates your claim |
Exercise
C:
|
Note:
if you don't identify your claim/evidence/warrant, you risk
losing points for this activity |
Background:
On February 27, 1353, Ibn
Battuta left the court of Mansâ Sulaymân described above
and headed to the African city of Timbuktu (not yet the famous site
of learning revealed in these ancient
manuscripts). There, he boarded a canoe with his small camel,
and traveled the famous African river, the Niger, to Goa, where
the local commander presented him with a young slave boy as a gift.
From Goa, he traveled to the oasis town of Takadda by land (see
map).
Read the passage below by Ibn Battuta from his accounts and answer
the question that follows.
The
people of Takadda carry on no business but trading. Every year they
travel to Egypt and bring from there everything there is in the
country by way of fine cloths and other things. For its people ease
of life and ample condition are supreme; they vie [vie: verb, meaning
to compete] with one another in the number of male and female slaves
they own—as likewise do the people of Mali and Iwalatan. They
do not sell educated women-slaves, except very rarely and at a great
price.
…There
is a copper mine outside Takadda. The people dig for it in the
earth, bring it to the town, and smelt it in their houses. This
[difficult work] is done by their male and female slaves. When
they have smelted it into red copper, they make it into rods about
the length of a span and a half: some are of fine gauge and some
thick. The thick are sold at the rate of four hundred rods for
a mithqal [A unit of weight, equivalent to a little over
3 1/2 grams, used in reference to quantities of gold or silver
for various purposes] of gold, the fine for six or seven hundred
to the mithqal it is their means of exchange. They buy
meat and firewood with the fine rods: they buy male and female
slaves, millet, ghee, and wheat with the thick. Copper is carried
from there to the city of Kubar (Gobir) in the land of the unbelievers,
to Zaghay and to the country of Barnu (Bornu) which is at a distance
of forty days from Takadda. Its people are Muslim; they have a
king whose name is Idris, who does not appear before the people
nor speak to them except from behind a curtain. From this country
are brought beautiful slave women and eunuchs and heavy fabrics.
Question
for Exercise C:
| Useful
Hints !
|
(A)
By social prestige value, I mean here the ways
in which holding enslaved persons was thought to bring prestige
to their owners, in the same way that some people now believe
owning an expensive car or expensive jewelry brings social status
or prestige
(B) by economic
function, I mean the role slaves played in the production
of goods that could be sold on the market |
Write a paragraph that
responds to this question:
How
can the evidence from Ibn Battuta above be interpreted to demonstrate
the economic function as well as
the social prestige value of slaves within many West African
societies at this time?
Some writing instructions:
1) Your paragraph should
begin with your claim, followed by evidence
from Ibn Battuta in the form of direct
quotations, and end with a warrant that
explains how the evidence is relevant to your claim.
2) Your quotation(s)
from Ibn Battuta should be no more than 10
words and preferable MUCH shorter -- if you are unsure how
to omit unnecessary information from a quotation, see
here. (very useful)
3) Finally, you
must label your claim/evidence/warrant structure: put a (CL) before
your claim, a (EV) before your evidence, and a (WA) before your
warrant.
4) Be sure that your warrant does NOT
merely
repeat your claim.
75% of your score for Exercise C will be based
on the strength of your warrant.
If you
want to see an example from a student paper of a paragraph organized
around Cl/EV/WA, see here.
|
Note:
if you don't identify your claim/evidence/warrant, you risk
losing points for this activity |
Below
is one way sample you might organize this paragraph. You are, however,
obviously free to organize your paragraph in any way that makes
sense to you.
The ____ in the text indicates where you would supply your own writing
on that topic. Likewise, (cl),(ev),
(wa) are the tags identifying what follows
as the claim, evidence, or warrant for the paragraph. You will want
to include such tags in your own paragraph.
(cl)
From Ibn Battuta's wriing we can conclude that slaves not only
served
an economic function by ______(put slaves'
economic function
here)____, but also served a social function by ____(put
slaves' social
prestige value here)_____. Ibn Battuta presented evidence
as to the
economic role of slaves when he noted that in Takadda (ev)
______(put quotation "A" here)___. In
recording the role of
slaves,(wa) _____(put
warrant for quotation "A" here )____ (ev)
But
slaves also served a social function. Ibn Battuta observed
the social prestige ownership of slaves brought their masters
when
he observed, ___(put
quotation "B" here)___.
(wa)____(put warrant
for quotation
"B" here)______.
|
CHECK YOUR OWN WORK
BEFORE FRITZ GRADES IT:
Ask yourself if your warrant explains HOW and WHY your evidence
demonstrates your claim |
Postscript: According to his travel narrative, on September 11th,
1353 (almost exactly 651 years ago andnearly
a century before the first European voyage to the West African coast)
Ibn Battuta left Takadda in the company of a large camel caravan
transporting 600 enslaved African women for what is now the African
country of Morocco. Those slaves probably originated in the savanna
lands south of Takadda. This region lacked the copper of Takadda
and so the inhabitants traded extensively in enslaved persons to
acquire the goods they desired. Once in Sijilmasa or Fez, the enslaved
women would likely be sold into service as either domestic or sexual
slaves (Islamic law permits men to own sexual slaves -- sometimes
mistakenly referred to in in the West as "concubines"
-- in any number; however, this practice is exceedingly rare now
and generally outlawed in Muslim countries) for the urban elite
in those African cities.
"END
OF ASSIGNMENT"
|
