EAP-11_12_UNIT-9_LESSON-2_Making-a-Stand-on-an-Issue PDF

Unit 9: The Position Paper Lesson 2 Making a Stand on an Issue English for Academic and Professional Purposes Senior High School Applied - Academic When writing position papers, you must back up your carefully chosen side with credible sources. How can you take a stand? How should you defend your...

Unit 9: The Position Paper Lesson 2 Making a Stand on an Issue English for Academic and Professional Purposes Senior High School Applied - Academic When writing position papers, you must back up your carefully chosen side with credible sources. How can you take a stand? How should you defend your position? ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 2  Choose and defend a stand on Learning Objective an issue. s Use credible and factual At the end of the lesson, you evidence to support your should be able to do the following: arguments. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 3  1. How can we choose and develop a stand for our Essential position paper? Questions 2. What kinds of sources are helpful to us in our research? ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 4  Choosing an Issue and a Position You must first ensure that the topic you choose is something that can be argued. The issue you choose should be arguable enough that sides are formed to debate about it. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 5 Choosing an Issue and a Position You can ask the following questions to check if you have a good topic: ○ Is it a real issue, with genuine controversy and uncertainty? ○ Can you identify at least two distinctive positions? ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 6 Choosing an Issue and a Position You can ask the following questions to check if you have a good topic: ○ Are you personally interested in advocating one of these positions? ○ Is the scope of the issue narrow enough to be manageable? ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 7 Choosing an Issue and a Position It is usually still up to you to develop the stands regarding an issue. Make sure you understand the issue well enough to know which sides to flesh out. Misunderstandings could cause holes in your research and reasoning. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 8 Choosing an Issue and a Position Example 1 Using renewable sources of energy vs. using nonrenewable sources of energy are sides that are too vague, as many kinds of energy fall under them. For stronger arguments on both sides, use more specific sources of energy, like using solar energy vs. using gasoline. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 9 Tips If you have the freedom to do so, you must do some preliminary research before settling on a topic. There are many issues where one side already has too many irrefutable facts backing it for the other side to have a compelling argument against it. 10 Choosing an Issue and a Position One strategy is to first do research on the issue as a whole and list down the pros and cons of both sides. Once you see the pros and cons of the two sides listed side by side, you’ll be able to confidently choose a side to defend. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 11 Choosing an Issue and a Position Example 2 The table in the next slide is an example of how you can list down the pros and cons of the two sides of a topic so that you can be aided in choosing which side you want to support in your position paper. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 12 Choosing an Issue and a Position No Homework Policy Homework is given Homework is not given Pros Cons Pros Cons Homework helps Students spend less Students have more Students do not students master the time with their time for family. practice lessons at lessons faster. family. home. Students have time Learning continues Students continue to rest at home. Learning stops once at home. to work even at outside of school. home. Students can use Lessons progress their time for their More time is alloted faster. Students do not hobbies. for seatworks. have time for their hobbies. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 13 Remember Part of the body of your position paper can be dedicated to refuting the counterarguments of the opposite side. With your list of pros and cons, you can address possible counterpoints to the side you have chosen. 14 Choosing an Issue and a Position The topic you have and the sides you have defined for that issue should be narrow or specific enough to be manageable. Broad topics have too many ideas and evidence to consider. Too specific and evidence will be hard to find. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 15 Choosing an Issue and a Position Example 3 Your issue could be the general cleanliness of your school’s campus. It is still a good topic, but the side or sides you define run the risk of being too broad. For example, if the side you choose to defend is “cleaning up the whole campus” then there are too many aspects to that side, and you will not be able to support all of them. Propose a more specific plan, like a “clean before you go” system in the school cafeteria so that your position paper can be more focused and specific. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 16 Choosing an Issue and a Position Sample 1 There must be an effort to make sure that the whole campus is clean. More trash cans should be placed all around the campus; students should be encouraged to bring their own containers for their food; and a system where students clean their own classrooms should be implemented. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 17 Choosing an Issue and a Position There are too many projects proposed because of the broad main idea. Trying to explain all of these in your position paper would make it too broad and scattered. Your position will be open to attack from many different angles. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 18 Choosing an Issue and a Position Sample 2 The cafeteria is an important part of any school campus that must be kept sanitary at all times. In order to keep the school cafeteria clean and orderly, a “clean before you go” system can be implemented in order to set rules for students to clean up after themselves whenever they eat at the cafeteria. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 19 Choosing an Issue and a Position This has been implemented in other schools before, and it has often been successful in reducing the amount of trash in their campuses. For example, a study conducted in Premium Science High School after they implemented this same system showed that the number of trash and waste that could be found in their cafeteria tables and floor was reduced by half (Tomas, ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 20 Choosing an Issue and a Position A more specific position is proposed, specifically a “clean before you go” system that can be implemented in campus cafeterias. It is easier to defend this position as it is very specific and focused. There are fewer ways to attack it in a discussion or debate, as long as you have the proper sources to defend it with. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 21 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand It’s best to do further research on your topic and side. It is important to conduct additional research in order to fully develop your stands and arguments for your position paper. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 22 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand Many kinds of sources can be used to find evidence for your position paper. In the next slide is a table of the sources you can find, what information can be found in them, and how you can find these sources. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 23 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand Type of Information Type of Source How to find these sources introductory information and directories, encyclopedias, library, online websites overviews handbooks in-depth studies books, government reports library, government websites scholarly articles academic journals library, online article indexes current issues newspapers, magazines library, online websites statistics government agencies and library, journal articles, associations government websites, online websites position papers and analyses institute or academic reports library, school websites, institute websites ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 24 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand You are not required to use every type of information in your position paper. These are just the options available to you. Choose the ones that are most relevant to your issue and side. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 25 Remember A position paper, much like most other academic papers, requires you to provide in-text citations whenever you use information from your research and to add a bibliography at the end of your paper. Correctly following the rules on citing sources adds credibility to your arguments. 26 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand Ask yourself the following questions in order to guide your planning and research: Is your take on the stand interesting and original? Readers tend to be more compelled to read an argument that they have not yet heard before. On the other hand, they are more likely to ignore arguments they have encountered a hundred ENGAG times EXPLAI EXPLO before. EXTEN EVALUA 27 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand Can your stand assert something specific, prove it, and if applicable, suggest a plan of action? Defending your side must be concrete and plausible and you must be able to suggest a plan of action in your conclusion, if it is applicable. Analyze the information you have gathered to confirm if you can build a proper case for your stand. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 28 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand Do you have enough material or proof to support your opinion? One or two good sources usually are not enough to prove your side is the superior one in the issue. A good position paper can make use of many sources to defend their points and refute counterpoints. If you are having difficulty finding credible sources that support your side, you should consider revising your stand. A lack of sources could mean that your side is still weak, as not many people have studied or supported it in the past. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 29 Analyzing an Issue and Developing a Stand Who is my audience? How do they think? While it is impossible to become a mind reader and predict how your readers might react to your position paper, it is best to try and get an idea of what kind of people would be interested in your issue or side. Based on what you have researched, what kind of people would also be more willing to take the same side as yours? On the other hand, what kind of people would need extra convincing? ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 30 Tips Because of the amount of research required to write a good position paper, it can take some time to accomplish. It is best to start early and pace yourself well when conducting research. 31 1. Return to the side you talked about in this lesson’s Explore section. 2. Can you come up with counterpoints that could refute the arguments that were originally compelling to you? 3. Write down your counterarguments. ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 32  Questions 1. How can we tell if a side is too broad to defend? 2. What type of information can we find in newspapers or magazines? ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 33 Question Why do you think are people more inclined to listen to new arguments rather than a reinforcement of an old one? ENGAG EXPLO EXPLAI EXTEN EVALUA 34  Wrap Up An issue for a position paper should be controversial, uncertain, and have at least two distinct sides. List down the pros and cons of the issue to determine which side to choose. 35  Wrap Up Make sure that your stand is original, specific, and backed up by many reliable sources. 36  Bibliography Guidelines for Position Papers & Issue Briefs. Young Adult Library Services Association. Accessed May 12, 2020. http://www.ala.org/yalsa/aboutyalsa/yalsahandbook/whitepapers. A Handy Guide to How to Write a Position Paper. A Research Guide for Students. Accessed May 12, 2020. https://www.aresearchguide.com/write-a-position-paper.html. Position Paper. Bowie State University. Accessed May 12, 2020. https://bowiestate.libguides.com/c.php?g=442189&p=3014828#s-lg- box-9271899. Position Paper - Myers. Colorado State University. Accessed May 12, 2020. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/co301aman/pop8a1.cfm. Writing a Position Paper. Simon Fraser University. Accessed May 12, 2020. https://www.sfu.ca/cmns/130d1/WritingaPositionPaper.htm. 37