help with assgn due in 10 hours

5.6: Instructions—Rough Draft: Writing Project #2—Writing to Listen

Overview

For this assignment you will make progress toward your upcoming major writing assignment. Please note that the rough draft requires you to meet  fewer criteria than the final draft does. Before submitting the final draft, make sure you are making the appropriate expansions and revisions. Your final draft should also consider feedback from the Grading Team.

Instructions

1. Please submit a rough draft of your Writing to Listen project in preparation for the revision process. Your rough draft must meet the criteria listed below. Note that your final draft requires more than what is listed below; this rough draft only asks you to make progress toward the final draft.

· Include 5+ slides (not including Title or Works Cited slides).

· Define the topic for your audience.

· Explain why this topic is relevant to you and your audience.

· Inform your audience about three stances or viewpoints toward the topic and give them each a name (e.g. "Climate Change Economists," "Environmental Scientists," "Factory Farming Advocates"). 

· Provide (for each perspective) one or more scholarly textual examples that showcase the stance or viewpoint, using accurate in-text citations. All sources must be scholarly, academic, and verifiable.

· Include a minimum of three scholarly citations and a maximum of six scholarly citations for the project.

· Outline where the agreements and disagreements between perspectives lie: note at least one point that two or more perspectives agree on and at least one point that two or more perspectives disagree on.

· Propose an action that brings all of the perspectives together, the goal being to imagine solutions that benefit as many people as possible. The action may be a modest one! Your goal is not to make all perspectives agree entirely with each other on the topic, but to agree upon one modest step that would be palatable to all. (Your proposal may be a rough one in this rough draft!)

2. Submit your rough draft by uploading your slides. We will not accept link submissions—only file uploads.

· If you created your slides using Google Slides, convert them into a file by clicking File → Download ( not "Print to PDF"), then selecting Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx).

This infographic

can be a starting point for your presentation.

Also, here are some examples of this writing project. Note in particular how the writers' sources are cited. While none of these projects is perfect, they are good examples of what you should be aiming for.

· Example #1

(Cape Town Baboon Management)

· Example #2

(The Negative Effects of Smartphones and Social Media on Teens)

· Example #3

(Why Do People Deny Others' Rights?)

· Example #4

(Social Media and Mental Health in Teens)

Note: Your final draft will, of course, have more extensive expectations.

✴️ Drafting Tips ✴️

· Review the video Drafting Techniques from Module 3.

· Work with your plan in front of you. Do not try to draft from memory.

· Try to draft in an environment free of distractions, or minimize those distractions through things like wearing headphones or ear plugs.

· Save your work often!

· Proofread your completed first draft carefully. We highly recommend doing what pros do: Read it out loud to catch awkward sentences, missing words, etc.

· Ask a friend or family member to read your rough draft and give their feedback.

Criteria for Evaluation

Your submission will be evaluated based on how closely it meets the following expectations:

· It includes 5+ slides (not including Title or Works Cited slides).

· It defines the topic for your audience.

· It explains why this topic is relevant to you and your audience.

· It informs your audience about three stances or viewpoints toward the topic and gives them each a name (e.g. "Climate Change Economists," "Environmental Scientists," "Factory Farming Advocates"). 

· It provides (for each perspective) one or more scholarly textual examples that showcase the stance or viewpoint, using accurate in-text citations. All sources are scholarly, academic, and verifiable.

· It notes at least one point that two or more perspectives agree on and at least one point that two or more perspectives disagree on.

· It proposes an action that brings all of the perspectives together.

· Reminder: All sources must be scholarly and verifiable upon submission. Review Using Sources Responsibly for complete information.

A quick note on the format of your rough draft: You should  submit a working draft of your presentation, which should be a PowerPoint file or set of Google Slides.  In other words, you are submitting a document that contains slides that employ visual design, incorporate images and/or videos into your ideas, as well as your written text.

Note: You must include both a Works Cited/Reference page AND in-text citations or your submission will not be eligible for grading and will be scored as zero.

Note: When submitting assignments that include images, always double check your submission after upload to ensure layouts are as intended and no photos have shifted.

Be sure to submit your work correctly by uploading a .doc, .docx, or PDF file. Submissions that cannot be accessed will not be graded.

Here is the detailed rubric by which your work will be evaluated.

Writing to Listen Rough Draft Rubric
Criteria	Ratings (50 points total)
Length Includes 5+ slides (not including Title or Works Cited slides).	Meets Expectations 10 points Includes 5+ slides	Approaches Expectations 5 points Includes 2-4 slides	Does Not Meet Expectations 0 points Includes 0-2 slides
Presenting the Topic Defines the topic and explains why it is relevant to you and your audience.	Meets Expectations 10 points Defines topic AND explains relevance.	Approaches Expectations 5 points Defines topic OR explains relevance.	Does Not Meet Expectations 0 points NEITHER defines topic NOR explains relevance.
Presenting Perspectives Identifies 3+ perspectives associated with the topic and gives them each a name; incorporates 3+ textual examples from scholarly sources (one for each perspective).	Meets Expectations 10 points Identifies 3+ perspectives; includes 3+ textual examples from scholarly sources with in-text citations.	Approaches Expectations 5 points Identifies 3+ perspectives OR incorporates 3+ textual examples from scholarly sources with in-text citations.	Does Not Meet Expectations 0 points NEITHER identifies 3+ competing perspectives NOR includes 3+ textual examples from scholarly sources with in-text citations OR lacks a Works Cited/References page.
Comparing Perspectives Identifies key points of agreement (1+) and disagreement (1+) between the three competing perspectives and identifies areas of consensus.	Meets Expectations 10 points Identifies 1+ point of agreement and 1+ point of disagreement.	Approaches Expectations 5 points Identifies 1+ point of agreement OR 1+ point of disagreement.	Does Not Meet Expectations 0 points Identifies no points of agreement or disagreement.
Proposal Includes a proposal (may be rough) that brings the perspectives together more effectively, the goal being to imagine solutions that benefit as many people as possible.	Meets Expectations 10 points Includes a proposal.	Does Not Meet Expectations 0 points Does not include a proposal.

5.4: Writing to Listen Project Guidance

How to Think About Writing to Listen

The purpose of the Writing to Listen project is to describe and negotiate different perspectives that address a common topic or social issue. Naturally, you will want to study a topic or social issue that matters to you. As you do so, you may encounter articles or essays that advance arguments you do not agree with. How do you handle this situation when it occurs and increase the probability of your success in this assignment? 

1. Focus on description first. Argument descriptions involve explaining the claims that a writer makes, the sources of evidence that they use to make those claims, and the conclusions that they draw from such evidence. You may also document specific word choices that the author uses to make their claim persuasive to a particular audience, given the situation. At this point in the assignment, you are not evaluating or even engaging the argument. You are simply describing how the argument works with the goal of understanding the topic or social issue from the perspective of the author. 

2. Avoid judgmental language.  When students skip or skimp on the description of an argument, they tend to use judgmental language as they engage the article or essay. Consider, for example, the following example from one of our former learners:

"This draft contains language that is implicitly biased; it presupposes that one perspective is the best view early on."

This example does not meet the criteria for the assignment for two reasons. First, it does not actually explain what the author's argument is because it judges the argument as "implicitly flawed." Second, although it can be helpful to identify core assumptions or presuppositions that drive the author's argument, this student's argument does not tell us anything meaningful about the essay because it is focused on judging the perspective as limited (e.g., "it presupposes that one perspective is the best view early on"). A better way to write this sentence might be:

"This essay argues for school policies that allow students to choose the books that they would like to read. To make this argument persuasive to its audience (e.g., readers that might be inclined to agree with their perspective), it uses forceful language such as (x, y, or z). As the author makes the argument for reading choice, they do not cite other perspectives that might offer a counterargument. The author concludes (x, y, or z)."

Notice how this revised example describes the argument by documenting the argumentative decisions that the author made. Notice, too, how this example both draws on examples from the essay to support the description and includes considerations of counterarguments, situation, evidence, language choice, and conclusion. What it does not do is judge the article for advancing the argument in a particular manner.

3. Switch topics if the argument description becomes too difficult. Writing about topics that you care about is an important step in your learning process. But sometimes you can become so impassioned about a topic that you have a hard time negotiating it fairly. If that's the case, try writing about a different topic where you can describe arguments that you disagree with without judging them. Remember, the goal of the assignment is to understand a topic or social issue from a number of different angles. To fulfill this goal, you will need to learn how to disagree with other writers without dismissing the value of their contribution to the conversation. 

Final Thoughts

We designed this assignment because at some point in the near future, you will find yourself in a workplace environment with people who say or think things that you don't agree with. To maintain a healthy workplace, you need to find ways to disagree with colleagues in a manner that helps and supports them, rather than tears them down or isolates them. Learning to be a good colleague means listening to their argument, understanding what they are arguing, reflecting on why they believe their perspective is reasonable, repeating back to them what you hear, and working together to find a win-win outcome. This assignment should help you develop such skills if you follow its parameters and the advice above.

Good luck!

 

💡 Click the  Next button (below) to continue to the next page. Click on  Modules (left) to access all course content.