Fluent Essays

Touchstones are projects that illustrate your comprehension of the course material, help you refine skills, and demonstrate application of knowledge. You can work on a Touchstone anytime, but you cant submit it until you have completed the unit’s Challenges. Once youve submitted a Touchstone, it will be graded and counted toward your final course score. Touchstone 3.1: Construct a Rogerian Argument ASSIGNMENT: As you learned in this unit, a Rogerian argument is one that presents two sides of a debate and argues for a solution that will satisfy both sides. Given two articles presenting opposing sides of an issue (mandatory uniforms in schools), construct your own 2-3 page Rogerian argument essay in which you attempt to arrive at a workable solution or middle ground. In order to foster learning and growth, all essays you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any recycled work will be sent back with a 0, and you will be given one attempt to redo the Touchstone. Article 1: School Dress Codes and Uniform Policies Article 2: Dressing Diversity: Politics of Difference and the Case of School Uniforms Sample Touchstone A. Assignment Guidelines DIRECTIONS: Refer to the list below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines. 1. Summary of Positions ❒ Have you briefly introduced the author and publication context (year, journal, etc.) of Article 1? ❒ Have you included a summary of the stance presented in Article 1? ❒ Have you briefly introduced the author and publication context (year, journal, etc.) of Article 2? ❒ Have you included a summary of the stance presented Article 2? 2. Thesis/Claim ❒ Does you claim address both sides of the issue, including specific points raised in the articles? ❒ Does your claim present a clear, workable solution that could be viewed as a middle ground between the two sides? 3. Analysis ❒ Have you backed up your claim using facts from both sides of the argument? ❒ When using direct quotations, have you supplemented them with your own explanation of their relevance? 4. Reflection ❒ Have you answered all reflection questions thoughtfully and included insights, observations, and/or examples in all responses? ❒ Are your answers included on a separate page below the main assignment? B. Reflection DIRECTIONS: Below your assignment, include answers to all of the following reflection questions. How does the Rogerian model of argument help you better understand the topic that’s being discussed? Why is it a good practice to acknowledge both sides of the argument? (3-4 sentences) Will you use the Rogerian Approach in your own argumentative essay? Why or why not? (2-3 sentences) C. Rubric Advanced (90-100\%)Proficient (80-89\%)Acceptable (70-79\%)Needs Improvement (50-69\%)Non-Performance (0-49\%) Summary of Positions Introduce the two sources and summarize each side of the argument.Effectively introduces both authors and provides a complete and concise summary of both positions presented in the articles.Introduces both authors and provides a concise summary of both positions presented in the articles.Provides a brief overview of the authors and positions, but key details of the positions may be missing.Introduces both authors, but does not provide a complete summary of positions presented in the articles.Does not introduce both authors and/or does not provide a summary of each position presented in the articles. Thesis/Claim Present a thesis that advocates for a solution to satisfy both sides of the argument.Provides a thesis that clearly and effectively advocates for a solution to satisfy both sides of the argument.Provides a thesis that clearly advocates for a solution to satisfy both sides of the argument.Provides a clear thesis; however, it does not suggest a solution to satisfy both sides of the argument.Provides a thesis, but it is unclear and/or does not advocate for a solution to satisfy both sides of the argument.No clear thesis has been presented. Organization Exhibit competent organization and writing techniques.Includes all of the required components of a Rogerian argument paper, including an engaging introduction with source summaries and a claim, body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a conclusion with a concluding statement.Includes all of the required components of a Rogerian argument paper, including an introduction with source summaries and a claim, body paragraphs with topic sentences, and a conclusion with a concluding statement.Includes nearly all of the required components of a Rogerian argument paper; however, one component is missing.Includes most of the required components of a Rogerian argument paper, but is lacking two components. Sequences ideas and paragraphs such that the connections between ideas (within and between paragraphs) are sometimes unclear and the reader may have difficulty following the progression of the argument.Lacks several or all of the components of a Rogerian argument paper. Sequences ideas and paragraphs such that the connections between ideas (within and between paragraphs) are often unclear and the reader has difficulty following the progression of the argument. Style Establish a consistent, informative tone and make thoughtful stylistic choices.Demonstrates thoughtful and effective word choices, avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a wide variety of sentence structures.Demonstrates effective word choices, primarily avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a variety of sentence structures.Demonstrates generally effective style choices, but may include occasional redundancies, imprecise language, poor word choice, and/or repetitive sentence structures.Frequently includes poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures.Consistently demonstrates poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures. Conventions Follow conventions for standard English.There are only a few, if any, negligible errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are occasional minor errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are some significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are frequent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are consistent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage. Reflection Reflect on progression and development throughout the course.Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; consistently includes insights, observations, and/or examples in all responses, following or exceeding response length guidelines.Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; includes multiple insights, observations, and/or examples, following response length guidelines.Primarily demonstrates thoughtful reflection, but some responses are lacking in detail or insight; primarily follows response length guidelines.Shows limited reflection; the majority of responses are lacking in detail or insight, with some questions left unanswered or falling short of response length guidelines.No reflection responses are present. D. Requirements The following requirements must be met for your submission to be graded: Composition must be 2-3 pages (approximately 500-750 words). Double-space the composition and use one-inch margins. Use a readable 12-point font. All writing must be appropriate for an academic context. Composition must be original and written for this assignment. Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited. Submission must include your name, the name of the course, the date, and the title of your composition. Include all of the assignment components in a single file. Acceptable file formats include .doc and .docx. E. Additional Resources The following resources will be helpful to you as you work on this assignment: Purdue Online Writing Labs APA Formatting and Style Guide This site includes a comprehensive overview of APA style, as well as individual pages with guidelines for specific citation types. Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style This page on the official APA website addresses common questions related to APA formatting. The References, Punctuation, and Grammar and Writing Style sections will be the most useful to your work in this course. APA Style: Quick Answers—References This page on the official APA Style website provides numerous examples of reference list formatting for various source types.© 2015 Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society DRESSING DIVERSITY: POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE AND THE CASE OF SCHOOL UNIFORMS Samantha Deane Loyola University Chicago In The New York Times parenting blog, Motherlode, Debra Monroe writes about “the dynamic that makes public school democratic—a place to confront the humanity of others,” because she is concerned with what schooling teaches children about diversity and difference.1 This paper begins with a similar assumption and concern; I too think schools ought to be places where children learn to confront the humanity and difference of others, and I am concerned with how children are taught to do so. Through an analysis of school uniform policies and theories of social justice, I argue not that children consciously experience school uniforms as uniforming, but that school uniforms and their foregoing policies assume that confronting strangers—an imperative of living in a democratic polity—is something that requires seeing sameness instead of recognizing difference. Imbuing schooling with a directive that says schools ought to be places where children learn to confront the humanity of others requires that we ask questions about how educational policies teach children to deal with human difference. Broadly speaking, uniform policies undergird the assumption that a child’s capacity to confront difference is unimportant.2 To consider the ways in which school uniform policies unjustly teach children to disregard difference so that they can reasonably participate in public and school life, this paper engages in a rich conversation about social justice. Fundamentally, social justice is about recognizing grave injustices between individual persons and groups of people living in, or being prevented from living in, the world. The works of John Rawls, Iris Marion Young, and Nancy Fraser represent three common theoretical constructs for dealing with social justice. Rawls comes from a social contract position and constructs a floating theory of justice based on a Kantian self that ultimately addresses injustices by way of redistribution.3 Young aligns herself with critical theory, founds her critique in the messiness of the “real world,” and tackles injustice by 1 Debra Monroe, “When Elite Parents Dominate Volunteers, Children Lose.” Motherlode (blog), New York Times (January 19, 2014), http://nyti.ms/19EIwRF. 2 I am purposefully not differentiating between public and private schooling, because all schooling situated in a democratic context ought to teach children to confront the humanity of others. Moreover, children are a part of the larger “public” in a Deweyan sense. 3 John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, ed. Erin Kelly (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001). Deane – Dressing Diversity 112 advocating for a politics of difference.4 All the while, Fraser works out a bivalent coSophia Pathways for College Credit – English Composition II SAMPLE TOUCHSTONE AND SCORING Nyeri Robison Sophia Pathways English Composition II December 13, 2019 Eat More Greens!: Why Everyone Should Adopt More of a Plant-based Diet For many people around the globe, meat is the highlight of the dinner plate. From gyros to hamburgers, chicken shawarma to veal pie, people love their meat-based diets, and for good reasons, too. It tastes good, it is versatile in many dishes, and it provides complete amino acids, the building blocks of protein. However, there are also many people who choose to omit meat from their diet completely and choose a plant-based diet instead. Vegetarians, for example, do not eat meat, and vegans do not eat any animal products. People have a variety of reasons for avoiding meat: religious, moral, or health-related. However, there are other reasons in recent decades that have led more people to see the value of a meat-free, plant-based diet. As the effects of climate change and the threats of overpopulation loom, more and more people are considering vegetarianism as a simple, positive way to help reduce their carbon footprints and to encourage stores, restaurants, and food suppliers to do the same. Although meat has been a longstanding and important part of many balanced diets, cultures, and food industries around the world, I want Comment [1]: Great summary of the pro-meat argument. It gives many reasons why people like it and find it an important part of their daily lives. Comment [2]: This is another great summary of the reasons why people do not eat meat. It gives a good list of different reasons why a person wouldn’t want meat as part of their diet. Sophia Pathways for College Credit – English Composition II SAMPLE TOUCHSTONE AND SCORING to argue that everyone practices an informed and balanced diet of less meat and more greens for the good not only of their health but for the well-being of the entire planet. Everyone on both sides seem to agree that meat should not lightly be cut out of the human diet or the economy. For example, everyone knows protein is an important part of human health. Meat has historically played an important role both as a major source of complete proteins (Bailey, 2018, para. 1). There are many amino acids that the body cannot produce on its own, and meat provides all of them in readily available forms in a way that many other food groups cannot, especially since the vegetarian diet requires a fair amount of knowledge and planning to ensure one gets all nutritional needs met (para. 2). Additionally, meat is the reason underlying many jobs, from farmers and ranchers to meat packers, butchers, and chefs (Abbot, 2018, para. 5). What would happen to those jobs if people suddenly stopped eating meat? Finally, one does not need to do careful research to know that meat can be delicious, and almost everyone around the worl