Difference Between a Report and a Position Paper

In grading the position papers, I have noticed that there is some confusion about the difference between a report and an argument or position paper. Using the death penalty in Florida as a topic, I will write a few paragraphs in the form of a report and then a few paragraphs in the form of a position paper to illustrate the difference.

Report

Although Texas leads the nation in the number of people executed, Florida leads the nation in the number of people sentenced to death (Smith 27). There are several reasons for this fact. The first reason is Florida’s requirement that juries be “death qualified,” meaning that every person sitting on a jury hearing a first-degree murder trial must be willing to vote for the death penalty in at least some circumstances. The result of this rule is that people opposing the death penalty are excluded from juries. Since women, minorities, and Catholics are more likely to oppose the death penalty, juries in Florida are often top-heavy with white, Protestant males.

Another factor leading to a greater number of people on Florida’s death row is the requirements for opposing the death penalty may lead to juries that are more prone to convict a defendant. Much research (Jones 42) shows that people who support the death penalty are more likely to convict defendants. Often, death penalty supporters are more concerned about letting a guilty person go free than they are about wrongly convicting an innocent person (Lee and Burke, 39).

Such jurors may be especially unconcerned about convicting the innocent if the defendant is a member of a minority group. One study of attitudes toward the death penalty (Davidowicz 159) has shown that strong proponents of the death penalty are far more likely to hold negative and even racist views of African Americans than are opponents of the death penalty.

Argument

While Texas executes more prisoners, Florida sentences more prisoners to death. The reasons for this high number of death sentences are complex but include the way in which juries are selected.  Another reason is the low requirements that must be met when imposing the death penalty. If Florida wants to continue using the death penalty, the state must reform the rules regulating the death penalty because they increase the chance of wrongful conviction, especially of minority defendants.[THIS IS THE THESIS. NOTE THAT THE REPORT DID NOT HAVE A THESIS.]

The first rule that needs to be reformed Is the one requiring juries hearing capital cases to be “death qualified.” This phrase means that all jurors serving on the jury must be willing to vote for the death penalty in at least some cases.  This rule has three effects that lessen the protection the justice system should afford to the defendants. First, research has found that such juries are more conviction prone (Smith 57). In other words, these juries are more likely to find a defendant guilty than are juries composed at least partially of people opposing the death penalty.  Such jurors are more concerned about letting the guilty go unpunished than they are about possibly convicting an innocent man (Lee 33).  Other research demonstrates that death penalty supporters are more likely to hold racist views of minorities than are death penalty opponents. Furthermore, since those opposing the death penalty are more likely to be members of minority groups, women, and Catholics, the death qualification requirement means that a defendant is less likely to have a jury representing a broad cross-section of the society that is deciding his fate.

The second requirement that needs to be altered is the limited time-frame for appeals. To hasten the application of the death penalty, Governor Rick Scott signed a bill providing only a shorter time for appeals and requiring that attorneys representing death row inmates keep the government informed of their activities on the prisoner’s behalf.  Limiting the time between trial and execution means that defendants will have less time to prove their innocence. This concern is not a hypothetical one: since 1973, twenty-four death row inmates have been exonerated and freed. A shorter time frame could increase the risk of executing an innocent person.  Requiring regular reports from inmates’ attorneys adds an extra burden on lawyers who may be either working pro-bono or for organizations that are woefully understaffed and underfunded (Burke 12). Since their legal activities are part of public record in any case, the reporting requirement seems more like an attempt at harassment than a genuine attempt to monitor legal processes.

                An examination of the research on the death penalty shows that Florida’s rules increase the chances of an inmate’s being sentenced to death. These rules increase both the chances of a defendant’s being convicted and the possibility of racial bias being a factor in the sentencing. As if those results were not bad enough, other rules hinder a defendant’s chances of overturning the sentence on appeal. In deciding whether or not to change Florida’s death penalty rules, it is important to remember the twenty-four men who were sentenced to death and later found innocent. Are we as a society really so eager to execute the guilty  that we are willing to risk executing the innocent as well?

Sample Self-Evaluation Essay

I want to provide students with a sample of an evaluation essay. Therefore, I have written an essay in which I evaluate my teaching. I hope this serves as a useful model for your own work.

In the fall and spring semesters of the 2016-2017 academic year, I taught English 101E, a class that covers the regular curriculum of Eng 101 but does so in two semesters instead of one. For me, the best part of teaching this class was the daily interaction with the students. I love teaching and many of my students were so thoughtful and diligent that it was a joy to teach them. However, this semester also presented many difficulties for me. Grading student papers taught me much about how effective or ineffective my teaching strategies were and I plan to learn from my mistakes and become a better teacher in the future.

My first difficulty this term was a technical one. I just could not get Blackboard to work for me. While I was able to post grades for students, other files disappeared after I posted them and I was unable to post new files. I solved this problem by writing a teaching blog. This strategy had several advantages: it provided a record of the day’s activities that students could review, it benefitted students who have learning disabilities that make it hard for them to take notes rapidly, and it helped students who were absent keep up with the course.  The major disadvantage of the blog was that I believe it may have indirectly promoted student absenteeism because students could get the material from the blog without coming to class.

Another problem I had as a teacher was finding just the right balance between lecturing and letting students write—and this is a writing course after all. Sometimes, I would arrive with fifty minutes of prepared material only to have a roomful of students look thoroughly miserable with having so much information crammed down their throats. In response, I leaned too far the other way and gave too many writing workshop days. Often, the result was that students surfed the net on the cell phones instead of doing work. Toward the end of the term, I finally hit in a balance of thirty minutes of teaching and twenty minutes of writing. This plan seemed to work most of the time.

I was not always consistent with the word of the day and grammar points and believe I should have offered these brief lessons during every class. I also wish I had had regular quizzes on Fridays as a way of encouraging regular attendance.

In addition to adjusting classroom procedures, I found I needed to adjust the balance of material taught. My biggest mistake was my failure to teach proper academic citation as thoroughly as I should have. I realized this failure when I graded papers and found so many students not citing their sources as at all. I had showed students how to use Purdue Owl for citations and thought I had done enough. I clearly had not. When I teach this class again, I will be sure to devote more time to this subject.

Another area that could be improved was classroom discussion. I found that, too often, a few students carried the discussion while others sat in silence. The reason for their silence was that I was asking about grammar points and vocabulary, and students were afraid to be wrong in front of the whole class. I need to devote more time to thinking about how to conduct class discussions in a way that engages all of the students.

One of my teaching strengths, I thought, was in trying to explain the difference between summary and analysis. I gave many demonstrations in class and put several examples on my teaching blog. Learning to analyze a text is difficult because it is not something students are asked to do very often. However, analysis is a requirement in college and no one can get through four years at a university without mastering this skill. The next time I teach this class, I will devote even more attention to this vital topic.

Another strength of my teaching was my emphasis on paragraph development. An online source provided valuable practice in developing topic sentences and writing paragraphs that were both unified and coherent. In the future, I will begin teaching this subject even earlier in the semester than I had before.I will also provide more in-class practice that involves either individual or group work to cement these lessons. 

Next fall, I will continue the blog. I will also devote more time to developing lecture questions that make everyone feel comfortable participating. In addition, it would be a good idea to devote more time to sentence structure and to give regular quizzes to encourage attendance.

Teachers not only teach their students, they learn from them. I have learned so much about which teaching techniques work and which do not work at all. The most important lessons for me this term involved balance and overcoming my tendency to either do  too much or too little.  If I apply this lesson to my future classes, my teaching will indeed become much better.

Directions for Self-Evaluation Essay Developed by Kelli Sellers

™First, you want to revisit your original documents

™Consider what you’ve learned this year and my feedback

™Review the assignment sheets for the projects you have chosen

™Review the Student Learning Outcomes outlined in your syllabus

™Make a revision plan to provide you with direction

™Revise your projects

™Consider visiting the Writing Center and/or office hours for additional feedback

™Then, write your self-evaluation essay

When writing your self-evaluation essay, consider the learning outcomes and ask which ones you have met:

™See that writing is a form of social interaction;

™Analyze rhetorical situations and make effective choices based on audience and context;

™Responsibly synthesize material from a variety of sources;

™Make claims and support them with appropriate evidence;

™Use writing to critically explore, explain, evaluate, and reflect on their experiences and on those of others;

™Understand and effectively use a range of genres/forms;

™Use conventions of expression appropriate to situation and audience;

™Effectively revise and provide substantive feedback to others on their writing;

™Articulate a revision strategy based on an understanding of their own writing processes;

™Recognize the importance of technology in research, writing, and other forms of social interaction.

The Reflective Essay

™Has a Persuasive Focus

™Explains your writing projects and assignments this semester

–What you are most proud of, your challenges, what you learned

™Discusses your writing process and revision process:

–For this section, I would like you to focus on the revisions of the included essays

–Explains which documents you revised and why

–Details what changes you made (and why you made them)

–Notes how these changes reflect the goals of the course

™Addresses the student learning outcomes listed on your syllabus

™Evaluates your participation in class

™And explores your progress through the course this semester

™What composition project, section, paragraph, or even sentence are you most proud to have produced this year?  What do you think is your biggest strength as a writer as we complete this semester?  What factors—if any—contributed to this improvement?

™Given the feedback you’ve received on all or most of the projects and writing assignments for this course, what do you think your most significant challenges as a writer have been this semester?  Please cite specific examples that support your assessment.

™What assignment or series of activities turned out to be the most difficult for you?  Why? 

™What assignment or series of activities taught you the most?  What sorts of things did it teach you? 

More Questions

™Consider the projects you revised for the portfolio. Think in detail what you felt was lacking in these essays and what you were trying to accomplish in your revisions.

™Are you more, or less, confident about your abilities as a writer after completing these revisions?  Why?

™We have talked at length in this course about writing and thinking as recursive processes in this class. What exactly does this mean to you? What has writing and/or revising this project taught you about the relationships between writing and thinking? How might this affect the way you write in the future?

Even More Questions

™Identify three or four learning outcomes that you feel you successfully accomplished in this year.  Please provide specific examples of pieces of writing that you feel reflect your success with each. Use your revised essays to provide evidence for your claims.

™If you had to take this course over again, would you change anything about how you went about preparing for class each week?    How would you honestly rate your overall participation this semester? 

™How conscientious were you in completing your homework—specifically the readings and your journal entries?

And Finally

™What are some of the most important things you feel you’ve learned in this class?  What, in detail, do you feel as if you’ve gained over the year?

™In what ways do you feel this class has (or has not) prepared you for your future writing courses? 

™What grade do you honestly feel you have earned in this class?  Why?  What grade do you think you will receive?  Upon what criteria/expectations do you think I will base such an assessment?

™Given your participation, reading habits, journal, performance on projects, and your revisions, how would you honestly characterize your performance, learning, and writing in this class this semester?

The Introduction

™The reflection for your final portfolio makes an argument about your experiences, progress, and outcomes in this course.

™The introduction should include:

–An introduction to yourself and your project

–Your purpose for the portfolio

–Background information

–Main point/Thesis (You want to include the learning outcomes you want to address)

The Body

Should:

™Provide specific and thoughtful evidence from your projects to support your claims (quote yourself!).

™Discuss your revised projects in specific detail

™Describe how your work this semester illustrates that you have successfully met the student learning outcomes listed on your syllabus and discussed in class.

™Addresses the topics listed on the previous slide and on your portfolio assignment sheet

The Conclusion

™The conclusion should offer last thoughts and any other information you think I should consider as I read the portfolio.

™Some things to consider for the conclusion:

In terms of writing skills, where were you at the beginning of the fall semester? Where are you now? How will the skills you have learned help you in the future? In your coursework? What have you learned about yourself as a student and writer 

No Disneyfied Self-Evaluations

™Keep in mind that you are making an argument about your work and writing processes this semester

™Be honest! I’m asking you to reflect on your learning experiences. We all make mistakes as students and as writers. The important thing is to learn from them. We also grow and succeed. Don’t shy away from celebrating your successes or acknowledging your challenges. 

™Don’t place blame!

™And finally, keep your tone formal and academic

Summary

™Keep in mind that you are making an argument about your work and writing processes this semester

™Be honest! I’m asking you to reflect on your learning experiences. We all make mistakes as students and as writers. The important thing is to learn from them. We also grow and succeed. Don’t shy away from celebrating your successes or acknowledging your challenges. 

™Don’t place blame!

™And finally, keep your tone formal and academic

Questions

Information on Final Portfolio

™Makes an argument about your progress in the course:

–What you’ve learned

–How you’ve improved

–What grade you deserve based on your work in the course and how the works you included show you have met the specific learning outcomes

™Consists of:

–Your Reflective Essay

–Two strategically revised essays (one must be your position essay) 

Buzzfeed Page on Death Penalty

More on Thesis Statements

1. A thesis must have a what--a subject--and a why--telling the reader why the issue matters.

2. A thesis should come near the beginning of the paper.

3. A thesis should be arguable: it must be supported with evidence and reasonable people could disagree.

4. A thesis should be fairly specific.

Non-specific thesis: Campus rape is a big problem.

Specific Thesis: University administrators are failing to institute policies to curb this serious problem.

Non-specific thesis: The death penalty in Florida is badly managed.

Specific thesis: Laws and procedures governing the use of the death penalty in Florida increase the likelihood of an innocent person being executed.


Note that in the thesis about the death penalty, this argument can be supported with evidence, it is fairly specific, and reasonable people can disagree with it. No doubt the Florida governor would claim that the death penalty in the state is fair and procedurally sound.

Note that the non-specific version uses the bland and vague word is. The improved version uses the more descriptive verb increase.

Questions for Use in Reflection Essay

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cclp50bx0hlfg4o/Reflection%20Essay%20-%20Writing%20with%20a%20Purpose.doc?dl=0

Grammar Point for 4.17.17

Most verbs are modified by adverbs:

She played the flute badly. The teacher talked loudly. The tenor sings well.

However, there is a special class of verbs called linking verbs that are followed by adjectives. Linking verbs include all forms of the verb to be as well as verbs like seems, looks, feels, and smells. Most linking verbs that are not forms of to be indicate states of being and are followed by adjectives.

Examples:

1. She is beautiful.
2. She sews beautifully.

Is is a linking verb and takes the adjective. Sews is an action verb and is modified by an adverb.

2. The dog smells bad.  Smell describes a state of being and takes an adjective.

3. For the same reasons, we would say "I feel bad," not "I feel badly."
To say that someone feels badly is to say that they do not have a good sense of touch.

4. The word well is tricky because it may mean either that someone does something skillfully or it may mean that one is healthy.

Thus, in the sentence "The opera star sings well," well  is an adverb that describes the quality of the singing.

However, in "I feel well," well means healthy and is an adjective.

Because am is a linking verb, it is quite acceptable to say "I am good." If you say, " am well," you should be talking about your health.

Effective Transitions

Transitions between paragraphs help the reader see the logical flow of ideas and how those ideas are connected. Writing effective transitions, however, can be challenging.

Read the following paragraph that appeared in an earlier post and possible sample transitions.

Another problem for minority defendants is that strong proponents of the death penalty are one-third more likely to harbor negative attitudes toward African-Americans (Young). Perhaps an even more alarming fact is that death qualified juries are more likely to convict than are juries that do not exclude death penalty opponents. Faced with a racially biased and conviction-prone jury, minority defendants are in the position of having to prove their innocence rather than having the state prove their guilt.

Possible transitions into new paragraphs.

• This racial bias, which persists even after the rewriting of laws following the 1973 Supreme Court decision, offers perhaps the best argument against the death penalty.

• Those who point to racial bias as a reason for opposing the death penalty lose sight of the devastation wreaked on families of murder victims and the threat that an escaped murderer, desperate and afraid of being recaptured, poses to all of society.

• Racial bias is not the only reason to oppose the death penalty; the very real possibility of executing an innocent person is an even greater reason. The two reasons are not contradictory--in fact, they work together. Of the twenty-four men sentenced to death in Florida and later exonerated, twenty were African-American. Thus, approximately 80% of the wrongly convicted were African-American--when only 20% of Florida citizens are African-American. [Note: I made these numbers up.]

• Proponents of the death penalty must come to terms with the very real fact of racial bias in our justice system and work to avoid it. Perhaps special review panels can be established for the sole purpose of monitoring racial inequities.

NOTE: All of these transitions refer back to the material contained in the last paragraph and then link it to the material in the new paragraph.

Other ways to write transitions:

• Sometimes, logical ordering is the only transition you need. If the next step in an argument is obvious, you may simply present the new paragraph.
• If you are writing about different types of things--like popular music, for example--it is permissible to simply write about a new type in each paragraph.

Example: As someone whose childhood was spent in the 60s and 70s, I prefer classic rock. I especially like the protest music that came out of the era because of its seriousness of purpose and concern for larger themes.

Disco, on the other hand, seems vapid to me. I dislike the mindless repetition of lines and the simplistic messages.

I am simply in the wrong demographic for rap and have never developed a taste for it. This failure to even listen to even a single rap song is sheer laziness on my part and an unwillingness to make a serious effort to understand something outside of my comfort zone. This is my loss: I have read that the Notorious BIG recorded songs that contain sophisticated word play and subtle ideas.

• Use obvious transition words like while, however, and thus sparingly.
• While it occasionally is acceptable to use transitions like secondly and thirdly, this usage is awkward and should be avoided as much as possible.

Procedures for Peer Reviewing

To be a good peer reviewer, you should ask yourself the right questions about the paper you are reviewing.

Sample questions to ask:

1. Is there a clear thesis statement? What is it?

2. Does each paragraph work to support the main argument of the essay?
      a. Does the paragraph offer either facts or analysis?
      b. Are there any paragraphs that feel like "filler?"
      c. Does each paragraph have a clear topic sentence? Do the paragraphs have unity and coherence.
      d. Do any paragraphs feel like "filler?"
      e. Are the paragraphs in the best order?

3. Which paragraphs do you like the most? Which do you like the least?

4. Is the introduction effective? Why or why not?

5. Is the conclusion effective? If not, how could it be improved?

6. Are transitions effective?

Please be tactful in your criticisms. Avoid saying things like "You have written a bad paragraph." Instead say "The meaning of this paragraph isn't clear to me. Maybe the paragraph could be clearer if the topic sentence was more specific.

Note that in using the recommended sentences, you have criticized the paper and not the writer. T

How to Escape a Sinking Car

This video has nothing to do with English, but it offers important safety advice since Mississippi is prone to flash floods. Please watch this video. I want to attend your graduations, not your funerals. 

How to Escape a Sinking Car

Subject-verb Agreement Across Prepositional Phrases by Ben Mudrak, PhD

Subject-verb agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement Across Prepositional Phrases

SUMMARY

When other clauses intervene between the subject and the verb, errors in subject-verb agreement become more common. Here’s how to avoid them.

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In English, the verb in a sentence must agree with the subject, specifically in terms of number. That is, singular subjects require singular verb forms (e.g., the cat walks), and plural subjects require plural verb forms (e.g., the cats walk). In most cases, writers can easily choose the correct verb form for a subject. However, when other clauses intervene between the subject and the verb, errors in subject-verb agreement become more common. Errors sometimes occur because word processing software does not correctly identify the subject and suggests an incorrect verb form, so be alert as you write any important documents!

In every sentence, it is important to identify the true subject and ensure that the verb agrees in number with that element and not another noun in the sentence. Here are some examples of sentences in which an intervening clause creates some confusion about the proper verb form. In each case, the true subject of the sentence is separated from the verb by a prepositional phrase.

1. The analysis of the results reveals a significant difference between the groups. - The singular subject ‘analysis’ requires a singular verb form, ‘reveals.’ - Do NOT write: The analysis of the results reveal a significant difference between the groups.

2. The material that was applied to the blades of wind turbines ages rapidly in tests. - Again, the subject is singular, so the verb must agree with ‘material’ and not ‘turbines.’ - Do NOT write: The material applied to the blades of wind turbines age rapidly in tests.

3. Each of the samples was treated with the same dose of antibiotics. - Remember that ‘each’ is a singular subject, and “of the samples” is simply another prepositional phrase. - Do NOT write: Each of the samples were treated with the same dose of antibiotics (It would be correct to state “All of the samples were treated with the same dose of antibiotics”; ‘All’ is a plural subject in this case.)

4. The participants who enter the study receive questionnaires. - In this example, the plural subject ‘participants’ requires a plural verb form. - Do NOT write: The participants who enter the study receives questionnaires.

Compound subjects can also create tricky situations. Two nouns or pronouns joined by ‘and’ create a plural subject and require a plural verb (e.g., “He and I are traveling to Europe” or “The mitochondria and nuclei glow green in this cell line”). However, the subject of a sentence is unaffected when followed by with, together with, along with, as well as, or in addition to. In such cases, the nature of the subject itself determines the form of the verb, not whatever follows the additional term.

The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses significantly increases with practice. - The phrase ‘as well as’ introduces a clause that does not affect the singular nature of the subject (‘percentage’). - Do NOT write: The percentage of correct responses as well as the speed of the responses significantly increase with practice.

We hope that this post will be helpful the next time you are deciding whether to use a singular or plural verb. If you have questions about a specific example, contact us at AskAnExpert@aje.com. Best of luck with your research and publication!

Word of the Day 4.12.17

exonerate

[ig-zon-uh-reyt] 

 

• Synonyms
• Examples
• Word Origin

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object), exonerated, exonerating.

1.

to clear, as of an accusation; free from guilt or blame; exculpate:

He was exonerated from the accusation of cheating.

2.

to relieve, as from an obligation, duty, or task.