The Language of Conflict Resolution: Dignity, Apology, De-escalation.

PURPOSE Strong written and communication skills can truly make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful relationship, whether that be your relationship with your family, friends, colleagues, supervisors, or debt collectors. You are in this class to develop such skills. I think the best way to develop your writing skills is to do some writing, specifically writing that you may not be used to doing (at least not formally) but will be asked to perform multiple times during your academic and professional career: persuasion. This assignment is meant to introduce you to the basics of college writing, both the process and the product. You will learn how to shape and present an idea for your reader to consider--and, hopefully, act upon--in the form of a college-level essay. TASK You will write a concise and compelling academic argument on ONE ACTION that you would like to persuade as many members of our class as possible to undertake. This action must be directly related to and supported by your selected theme essays (what is a theme essay?). The action must also be something that your peers can do in the immediate future. Not in one year, not in 5 years. Let’s aim for an action that your peers can complete within 3-6 months. Step 1: Organize Your Thoughts (Brainstorming) What you know: To begin, you will want to think about what you’ve learned from reading each of your theme essays. Take inventory of what you now know. You may also want to consider the ways in which the information in the theme essays confirmed your previous knowledge and experience. What your peers need to know: It might also be a good idea to make some reasonable assumptions about what your audience (ie. your peers) will likely not know about your topic that you will need to share with them. Remember that college writers are not just writing for themselves; they are writing for an audience. In our case, it is highly likely that your peers have not read the same essays you have. It will be your job to synthesize the information from the theme essays into a cohesive presentation to your peers about the subject you chose. What you want your peers to do with what they now know: The holy grail of offering arguments is not to simply convince an audience to consider what you have to say. You want them to act on that new knowledge. This action will form the basis of your thesis statement. Step 2: Developing a Thesis Statement Using your actionable idea, write a thesis statement that anchors your action claim. Remember to include a topic, a viewpoint, and a reasoning. Topic + Viewpoint + Reasoning Example: College students should attend city council meetings because they will have a better idea about how a local government operates, they will learn about the people in power who are making decisions on their behalf, they will be more likely to vote in local elections, and they will become more motivated to learn more about their state representatives. Step 3: Identify all of your sub claims and look for evidence to support the sub claims When brainstorming my actionable ideas (see left column in table above), I identified at least 4 sub claims that I already paired with evidence: Known #1: When deciding who to vote for, students do not educate themselves beyond social media (Theme Essay #1) Known #2: The algorithms of social media rarely focus on local elections (Theme Essay #1) Known #3: Voter turnout for local elections is typically less than 25% of the population (Theme Essay #3) Known #4: local, state, and federal politicians may not actually represent the beliefs of the constituents because the constituents do not know what they voted for (Theme Essay #4) My thesis statement has at least 4 reasons (ie. more sub claims) Attending a city council meeting gives students a better idea about how a local government operates Attending city council meetings provides an opportunity for students to learn about the people in power who are making decisions on their behalf Students who attend city council meetings will be more likely to vote in local elections Students who attend city council meetings will be more motivated to learn more about their state representatives Now I have at least 8 sub claims for which I will want to prepare claim/support/analysis paragraphs. You will want to keep in mind that you may only use 4 sources as evidence in this essay. Three of those sources must come from the them essays you chose. The fourth source can be a source of your choosing but it must pass the C.R.A.P test.Links to an external site. Step 3: Anticipate counter arguments and prepare refutations for each You will want to list reasons that your peers might have for not implementing your action. For the example above, I will want to consider at least three reasonable counter arguments: Students may not have time to attend Students may not feel like they belong at city council meetings Students do not think that local issues directly affect them For each of these counter arguments, I will want to plan a refutation that acknowledges the concern, but re-affirms my thesis statement. Step 4: Prepare an outline Introduction Warms up the audience establishes goodwill and rapport with the readers announces the general theme of the argument Narration summarizes relevant background material provides any information the audience needs to know about the environment and circumstances that produce the argument set up the stakes-what’s at risk By the end of this section, the readers should understand what’s at stake in this argument—the issues and alternatives the community faces—so that they can evaluate claims fairly. If a reader does not understand the context, they will probably not understand the argument itself. Offers the thesis of the argument Confirmation Lays out in a logical order the claims that support the thesis, providing evidence for each claim Logical order Hierarchy Most obvious to most subtle OR Most subtle to most obvious Most important to least important OR least important to most important Most controversial to least controversial OR least controversial to most controversial Strongest to weakest OR weakest to strongest Refutation and Concession looks at opposing viewpoints to the writer’s claims anticipating objections from the audience allowing as much of the opposing viewpoints as possible without weakening the thesis Summation provides a strong conclusion amplifies the force of the argument Shows the readers that this solution (one action) is the best at meeting the circumstances. does not reflect or repeat the introduction. The conclusion is the last bit of information a reader receives, and it will be the first thing he/she remembers when she thinks about your work. Please keep in mind that though there are 5 parts of an argument, there are more than 5 paragraphs. Step 5-Draft, Get Feedback, Revise, Get More Feedback, Revise Step 6 Make final edits and submit. CRITERIA To receive a “Complete,” the Updraft must have: The instructor as an editor on the document. a screenshot of two AI detection results An introduction, thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion Working transitions between ideas 3rd person POV only (unless including a personal anecdote) Support from at least three of your chosen theme essays Includes a maximum of four sources +/- 750-1000 words (approx. 3-4 pages) Be carefully proofread Have minimal distracting grammar issues: no more than two instances of two errors Properly formatting according to MLA guidelines Times New Roman Double spaced Size 12 font Header, heading Appropriate title In-text citations Works Cited page