ESSAY #4 — What Is Required for a Person to Be a Full Human Being?

ESSAY #4 — What Is Required for a Person to Be a Full Human Being?

Arguing Ideas that Matter: Compare/Contrast an Idea in Two Non-Fiction Works

This paper is worth 25% of your final grade.

 

What This Paper Is About:

In 1933, Albert Einstein declared, “As long as I have any choice, I will stay only in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule.” That year, the same year that Adolf Hitler had become German Chancellor, Einstein surrendered his German passport after returning to his temporary home in Belgium, only to find that his cottage had been raided and that he had been put on an assassination target list. He promptly moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life. This essay invites you to think about Einstein’s declaration that he must live in a place where there is political liberty, toleration, and equality. The essay asks you to consider the following question that lies underneath Einstein’s decision to live in America: What is required for a person to be a full human being? For Einstein, being fully human required liberty in the political sphere, acceptance from other people, and equal treatment under the law. What do you think?

 

To answer this question, you will choose an option from the following pairings of non-fiction texts. Reading the two texts and thinking about Einstein’s statement and your answer to the general question about the basic conditions for being a full human being, you will develop an argumentative paper explaining your position in light of the two readings you have chosen. Consider how your two writers think about the main question imbedded in this assignment.

 

Choose One	Possible Idea/Theme	Read both texts, which are from Practical Argument, unless otherwise noted.
Option A	Philosophy of political leadership	Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” (755) and Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence” (770)
Option B	Understandings of human nature & their impact on political aims in America	Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence” (770) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” (775)
Option C	Women’s rights & roles in America	Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” (775) and Betty Friedan’s “The Importance of Work” (795)
Option D	The Black experience in America	Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (799) and James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is”? (813)
Option E	Understandings of language and its role in society	George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” (778) and James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” (813)
Option F	Your choice	Propose two substantial non-fiction texts with a similar core idea.

 

Basic Description of the Essay:

For this assignment, you will write a researched, 7-to-8-page essay making an argument about an idea that matters. This idea will come from comparing and contrasting two pieces of non-fiction literature about the same general idea or theme, which must be relevant to the general public. You will explore that idea and make an argument about where you situate yourself in the conversation about it using the two non-fiction essays and your research from others who have thought about it. Your research will include, in addition to the two non-fiction works, at least two scholarly sources plus three others from reputable sources. You will present your argument to the class at the end of the semester in a very short, graded presentation during class on either

 

Essay #4 Checklist & Grading Rubric:

1. Compares & contrasts two texts sharing a common idea or theme and focused on the main question;
2. Presents a coherent argument that persuades your reader(s) about an idea common to the two texts;
3. Provides a clear thesis that states the idea and your perspective and offers a road map for the entire essay;
4. Uses at least three (3) direct quotations, properly introduced and documented;
5. Incorporates at least two (2) paraphrases, summaries, or inclusions of data/statistics, properly documented;
6. Includes a Works Cited page with at least seven (7) separate sources properly cited and distributed as follows:
7. The two (2) paired articles, properly cited on your Works Cited page and quoted in your essay;
8. A minimum of two (2) scholarly source (from a peer reviewed journal article);
9. At least three (3) articles, films, speeches, or data sets from credible, verifiable, current sources;
10. Is written using organization that makes sense for the argument you are constructing;
11. Uses proper grammar, mechanics, spelling, and word choice, as required for college-level writing;
12. Uses MLA format and citation style; &
13. Is a minimum of seven (7) full pages long.