Lesson 14 Prompt: Research Paper Reflection

The prompt for Lesson 15 is : write about what you wish you had done differently while you worked on your paper.

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If I had an opportunity to write this paper again I would integrate more sources. I feel like citing eight sources for the paper doesn't cover the vast amount of knowledge I acquired in order to write it in the first place. I read countless articles, talked to my peers, talked to coaches and teachers and friends, and poured over newspapers in order to gain enough knowledge on the International Criminal Court, yet that is not reflected in my work because the information I received was general, and considered common knowledge in the world of international judicial practice (thus there is no need for citation, according to Hacker).

Also, I would liked to have consulted more print sources. Aside from brief articles from The Economist, it was challenging to find up-to-date print sources on the international Criminal Court. Without signing up for an expensive international politics magazine, finding sources was challenging.

All in all, however, I am very pleased with the paper I wrote for this class. It was a wonderful journey in writing and reflects my learned abilities. 

-Ace 

Lesson 7 Prompts: Essay Analysis

...Been a while...

This post is going to cover all the lesson 7 prompts, as they are easiest grouped together. Prompts will be:

Who is the audience for your essay? What is the thesis of essay?

Can the audience be swayed by your claim and reasons? Why or why not?

What value do your sources have to your audience?

Read another student's blog. Indicate whose you read. Did you make any comments on that blog?

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Who is the audience for your essay? What is the thesis of essay?

My thesis for this essay is: until large-scale tests are revised to include such factors as nervousness and educational background, alternative measures like recommendations, resumes, and interviews should be examined just as thoroughly, if not more so than test results.

My audience for this essay is made up of people who are either neutral or slightly in support of standardized testing. Thus they are slightly resistant to the ideas I am proposing in my essay. To facilitate both my audience and make my argument as effective as possible I chose to formate my essay in classical argument form.

Can the audience be swayed by your claim and reasons? Why or why not?

I believe that I could persuade an audience to at least see the reason in my arguments. If I can not persuade them to agree with what I am saying, I am confident the essay will lessen their hostility towards the thesis. They will be at least slightly swayed towards my point of view because the essay provides factual information, and what isn't taken from a source is defined with clear logic. My thesis does not propose to eliminate standardized test scores from the selection process of students, it merely states that alternatives should be valued just as much. For any supporter of test scores I am not advocating to do away with scores, so my thesis presents the issue from a very mild and neutral standpoint.  

What value do your sources have to your audience?

Three of four of the sources I name in my essay are individuals who have put time and effort into researching the issue of standardized testing's effects on students. One is an author who has written many books on the subject and has done lots of research both against and in support of testing, and another is an individual who presents valid arguments for both sides of the debate on his website. The last is a man who, like my first source, has written several books on education and testing. He writes from a philosophical and moralistic viewpoint, and his information is to the point and understandable to all readers.

My third source is probably one that a hostile audience will not appreciate, because it is called the Nation Center for Fair Testing. While they are biased against standardized testing because of it's possible unfairness, I selected comments and evidence from the articles that seemed the most factual and researched.

Read another student's blog. Indicate whose you read. Did you make any comments on that blog?

I read a student named Kathy's blog. I enjoyed reading it, and was very inspired by her progress and thorough comments. I could easily see that she was trying to learn as much from the class as she possibly could. It was great to read a blog that really outlined the course. Starting from the first post through the last I got a third-person perspective on the class. It was especially nice to be able to read the comments from lessons I have not completed yet. A resource for sure! I did not, however, comment on the blog.

-Ace

Evaluation of Evidence

In the next blog entries I will be addressing five additional prompts. The prompt I address in this entry is:

Write an evaluation of the supporting evidence you found for your claim.

I used two articles on why a person should debate as sources in my essay. Both sources were persuasive articles written by debate societies (the Amos J. Peaslee Debate Society, and the Erasmus Debating Society), trying to convince non-debaters to begin debate. 

Both articles are persuasive articles, and only offer one perspective on debate: the good side. Both articles focused mainly on the three skills that I included in my essay: public speaking skills, research skills, and reasoning skills. There evidence was not based off of studies, but I determined it to be factual because they were writing with their experiences as support. Because both are a debate society, it is implied that they belong to, or are in charge of, a large group of debate programs, or debaters. It would be reasonable to assume they are backing up their claims with their experiences dealing with debaters over periods of time. 

The articles' audience is most likely aimed at future debate students who are checking out the society's program to decide whether they want to join or not. I see no reason why another person would read the article, with exception to students like me who are using it a source. Both articles are aimed specifically at those who may wish to debate within their society or team.

The article by the Erasmus Debating Society was slightly more formal in style than the Amos J. Peaslee Debate Society's article was, which leads me to think that the Amos J. Peaslee Debate Society is directing their instruction towards general college students, while the Erasmus Debating Society may be direction instruction towards students more serious about debate—communications majors, political science majors, etc. This holds up because The AJPDS is the debate society for Swarthmore college, where any student can join the team.

I had found good sources with statistics of improvement (such as grades, literacy, and graduation levels) for debaters or schools that offered debate, but they did not apply to my essay well enough to actually include them.

-Ace