The assignment should take you between 7 and 12 hours to complete, but it is worth the equivalent of two essays in terms of your final grade–and so, for example, you could change a C+ for the semester into a B+ if you do a good job here.
As an extra-credit assignment, the essay can not hurt semester grade. Even if your score on this assignment is lower than your average score for the semester, the extra points you potentially can win will only help you. In short, it’s worth doing this assignment and taking it seriously. (In contrast, since you can not receive extra semester points if you get less than a 70/100 on the assignment, there’s little point in doing it unless you have set aside enough time to do the essay well).
See end of the assignment for a chart of potential additional semester points (as well as the rubric I will use when I grade your essays).
E-mail me if you have questions.
Most Americans encounter social science research (if they encounter it all) through the media. And that truth means that much of whatever benefit social science might offer the public depends on how accurately journalists cover what can be nuanced and complex issues.
In this assignment, you will assess the relative accuracy of three news media accounts of a single piece of social science research.
To start the assignment read the following articles-all of which discuss the same piece of research–listed here in order of their length:
STEP 1: Review the City Journal article
The City Journal article above provides the most detailed coverage (but may not necessarily be the most accurate). You should, however, start your dive into this issue with #3 because this article guides you through the methodology of the original research in language that is more straightforward than in the original research.
Note, however, simply that you have a guide does not mean you have to believe everything that guide says! As you read the City Journal article be sure to compare what the author argues about the research with the text of the original research: http://www.pnas.org/content/114/25/6521.full.pdf?sid=c06aecc0-f3c9-495f-b0e3-2116de7c0b8b
Now, as you make your way through both the City Journal article and the original research you must decide how and why you think the author of the City Journal article is accurate (or not) in her critique of both the study and the media’s coverage of it. Your goal is not so much to get the “right answer” about the veracity of the City Journal article, but rather to interpret the evidence persuasively in support of your assessment of the article’s accuracy. In short, I do not care about which dance you dance–I care only about how well you dance the dance you have chosen. Your grade depends on how carefully and thoughtfully you marshal the evidence in support of your argument.
Keep in mind that when arguing for the veracity (or lack of it) in the City Journal article, simply repeating the journalist’s claims or those of the original research is NOT to be persuasive. Instead, you must explain how and why your assessment makes sense. And it is the clarity and thoughtfulness of that explanation that will determine most of your grade here.
Some other important things to think about as you settle upon your argument: (A) Do NOT focus on minor points of City Journal article’s author or ignore key ones. Instead, be sure your assessment grapples with her central claims; (B) Carefully weigh the merits of the various opposing arguments you read. You many not end up concluding any one author’s arguments are bullet-proof. But most of the claims made in the three sources are at least serious arguments and all are certainly plausible. Treat them as such before deciding whether you think they are accurate. (C) You might conclude that an author is right about some issue and wrong about others. Or you might decide that an author makes too much of a point that might be accurate but is ultimately minor.
STEP 2: Review the Other Sources
Once you have understood the arguments of both the City Journal article and those of the original research, move on to the other two sources ((Jet Magazine article ; New York Times article).
How even-handed are these two articles and how well do they present both the methodological issue of the original research and its conclusions? In short, do you think a reader would be better informed about these articles’ main issues after reading them? Or are the articles just full of misleading information that give the reader the wrong idea?
STEP 3: Craft your Argument
Be sure to organize your essay around a thesis statement that clearly and explicitly answers these questions:
How can the evidence be interpreted to demonstrate which of the three articles is the most accurate? How and why are the other two articles less accurate?
Because the City Journal article is the most detailed, much of your essay will obviously be taken up with an analysis of its claims–whether your analysis supports, critiques, or complicates the author’s arguments is up to you.
Making a CL/EV/WA structure outline for the essay before you write it will likely save your time in the long run, even if it is a bit of an upfront investment (and writing your outline will almost certainly improve the quality of your essay).
WRITING REQUIREMENTS AND TIPS
1. Length: 1000 – 1500 words (about four to six pages of 12-point, double-spaced font)
2. You will want to organize around your essay around a concise thesis statement that appears near the beginning of your paper. As we have discussed in class, introductions should not contain evidence but rather provide the necessary context for your reader to understand your argument, present a clear and concise expression of your argument, and (perhaps) provide a roadmap of the upcoming essay.
3. Be sure to underline your thesis statement (5 points off if you do not).
4. Be sure to have at least 15 direct quotations with at least two from each of the three sources and at least five from the original research. Your argument, of course, may well use many more direct quotations.
5. When using direct quotations from the reading, be sure to properly integrate your quotations using methods 3 or 4 from HW 3.
8. Be sure in those paragraphs where you make points from evidence to organize those paragraph in the familiar cl/ev/wa format and that you put a (CL) in front of your paragraph’s claim, an (EV) before the evidence, and a (WA) in front of the warrant. (5 pts off if you do not)
Keep in mind: (A) not all paragraphs should be in cl/ev/wa format–just those that make a point from evidence. Also keep in mind (B) that the cl/ev/wa format is for organizing individual paragraphs rather than for organizing whole papers. A strong paper will likely have a series of cl/ev/wa paragraphs as well as a number of paragraphs that are not in that format. Introductions, for example, rarely have evidence in them and so are not organized around cl/ev/wa.
9. No outside research is required or even permitted for this paper.
GRADING
I will grade your essay using this rubric: paper_rubric_2017
PAPER GRADE / ADDITIONAL SEMESTER POINTS
100 / 10
95 – 99 / 9
90 – 94 / 8
85 – 89 / 7
80 – 84 / 6
75 – 79 / 3
70 – 74 / 1
Below 69 you will receive no additional semester points.
