Often, especially in academia (what you are in right now!), we are prompted to give our opinion on an issue before understanding how we formed that opinion.
Often, especially in academia (what you are in right now!), we are prompted to give our opinion on an issue before understanding how we formed that opinion. However, it is difficult to effectively participate in a discourse without first identifying and articulating the assumptions, beliefs, and values on which our perspective is based. This assignment draws on the skills and concepts addressed in this course to help you identify and articulate your worldview and participate in a range of argumentative conversations more successfully. This activity will not only strengthen your skills as a critical reader, writer, and thinker, but serve you in other courses as well as in your personal, professional, and civic life.
The purpose of this assignment is to:
articulate the values, beliefs, and assumptions of your worldview
identify how your values, beliefs, and/or assumptions are inherited, informed, and/or in flux
dialectically engage with an alternative viewpoint
evaluate yourself as a critical thinker
To achieve the objective(s), you will need to read/study:
2.1 Writing Arguments Chapter Two, “Argument as Inquiry”
2.2 College Student Intellectual Development
2.3 Nine Valuable Intellectual Traits
2.4 Diving Into Worldview
See the instructions and rubric for more details.
Outcomes and Objectives
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
Recognize and avoid problems in logic through a process of critical inquiry.
Locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from sources representing diverse perspectives in order to construct arguments.
OBJECTIVES
Skills
identify and articulate essential assumptions, values, and beliefs that make up your worldview
recognize and differentiate between informed, inherited, and in flux assumptions, values, and beliefs
distinguish factual statements from judgmental statements and knowledge from opinion
use critical inquiry to identify the central argument and assumptions, values, and beliefs in a culturally relevant text
locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from a source representing a diverse perspective in order to fully articulate your worldview
compose an essay in which you use style, diction, and tone appropriate to the academic community and the purpose of the specific writing task; proofread and edit an essay so that it exhibits no disruptive errors in English grammar, usage, or punctuation
Knowledge
argument as process and product
claims
genres of argument
purpose and audience
dialectical thinking
inherited and informed assumptions, beliefs, values
worldview
factual and judgmental statements
essay structure
writing process
MLA
Instructions
In your essay, respond to letters A-E, as detailed below. Please do not attempt to write the essay without having read and studied ALL of the material in this module, as you will be confused; I promise. This essay “challenges” your comprehension of the units.
To begin drafting this essay, I suggest you cut and paste a-e into a document; work on each one; and then eliminate the directions and craft your writing to bring the essay together as a cohesive whole, including a great title that reflects your unique approach to the assignment (not Essay #1 or My Worldview), engaging introduction, resonant conclusion and strong organizational strategies such as clear topic sentences and smooth transitions between ideas and paragraphs.
Your essay should address each of the following required components:
introduce the concept of worldview and how inherited, informed, and/or in flux assumptions, beliefs, and values make up a worldview (you can be creative: use definition, analogy, a famous person, TED Talk, song or poem, personal story, imaginative scenario, etc.);
briefly identify and summarize the essential assumptions, beliefs, and values of your original worldview (shoot for 3-5), their influences (if religion factors into your worldview, do not focus on it only, and please refrain from excessively quoting scripture; original critical thinking is required);
choose ONE of the major assumptions, beliefs, or values from “B” and expand on it, explaining (aka, narrating the story of) its existence, from origin until now in your life. (For example, I might choose my belief that animals are sentient beings and should be treated as such, reflecting back to when I was a child.) Include how it is inherited, informed, and/or in flux, and the ways in which it does and/or does not manifest in actions you take in your life. (I might discuss my value of animal rights or my vegetarianism.) If acting more on this belief in the future is something you hope to do, you may speculate on that as well;
engage with an opposing perspective. Relating to the major belief covered in “C,” do some online research and find ONE culturally relevant perspective (this should be an argumentative article, newspaper editorial, or even a blog) with which you disagree and do each of the following (for example, I might look for an article in favor of factory farming):
introduce (use the Academic Meaty Sentence template) and summarize the text;
respond dialectically to the source, including both believing and doubting points (Ramage 24);
discuss the ways in which your informed/inherited assumption/s, belief/s, and/or value/s affect your position;
articulate how this source contributes to your understanding of the issue, your belief, and your worldview. (TIP: the “Opposing Viewpoints” database in the Grossmont College library is a fantastic resource for this)
E. finally, reflect and evaluate yourself as a critical thinker based on what you have written in “d,” and in general, utilizing one or more of the Valuable Intellectual Traits to help illustrate your evaluation. Were you able to be dialectical with the alternative view? What are your future goals for your worldview?
Guidelines
Make sure to comprehensively respond to ALL parts of the task, letters A-E.
Use your unique voice to make this an essay only you could have written. Take risks; you get to revise your paper based on feedback and a grade you will receive from me. When you revise, you can only improve your grade, not bring it down. In other words, the highest grade will remain.
The essay should be a minimum of 5 pages in length, though there is no page limit. It is difficult to comprehensively cover all that is asked of you in fewer than 5 pages, but some students have written as many as 18! With that said, more pages do not automatically mean a higher grade, especially if the essay lacks control and focus.
Overall, your essay should be cohesive, with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and should not be an individual response to each letter. Do not write your essay in sections with subtitles.
Be sure to create focused paragraphs and use effective transitions between them.
Give your essay a unique title, not “My Worldview,” or worse, “Essay 1.”
Use MLA format and style, including a Works Cited page, as a minimum of one source is required. If you are rusty on MLA, please visit the MLA page which you can find a link to on our homepage. Do not include a cover page.
Proofread carefully so that sentence-level errors do not harm the readability of your essay. If you tend to make errors at the sentence level, plan to work with a tutor in the English Writing and Humanities Center, online or in person.
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