This essay “challenges” your comprehension of the units. In your essay, do each of the following: A. introduce the concept of worldview and the ways in which inherited, informed, and/or in flux assumptions, beliefs, and values make up a worldview (you can be creative: use definition, analogy, a famous person, a TED Talk, a song or poem, a personal story, an imaginative scenario, etc.); B. briefly identify and summarize the essential assumptions, beliefs, and values of your worldview (shoot for 3-5), their influences (if religion factors into your worldview, do not focus on it only, and please refrain from excessively quoting scripture; original critical thinking is required); C. choose ONE of the major assumptions, beliefs, or values from “b” and expand on it, explaining (aka, narrating the story of) its existence, from origin until now. (For example, I might choose my belief that animals are sentient beings and should be treated as such, reflecting back to when I was a child.) Include how it is inherited, informed, and/or in flux, and the ways in which it does and/or does not manifest in actions you take in your life. (I might discuss my support of animal rights or my vegetarianism.) If acting more on this belief in the future is something you hope to do, you may speculate on that as well; D. relating to the major belief covered in “c,” do some online research and find ONE culturally relevant perspective (this should be an argumentative article, newspaper editorial, or even a blog with which you disagree and do each of the following (for example, I might look for an article in favor of factory farming): introduce and summarize the text (be sure to identify its claim) and include why you selected it; explain your response to the source, including both believing and doubting points (Ramage 24); discuss the ways in which your informed/inherited assumption/s, belief/s, and/or value/s affect your position; articulate how this source contributes to understanding the issue, your belief, and your worldview. (TIP: E. finally, reflect and evaluate yourself as a critical thinker in general and based on what you have written in “d,” utilizing one or more of the Valuable Intellectual Traits to help illustrate your evaluation. Were you able to be dialectical with the alternative view? Guidelines: Make sure to comprehensively respond to ALL parts of the task, letters a-e. Use your unique voice to make this an essay only you could have written. Take risks; you get to revise it based on feedback and a grade you will receive from me. When you revise, you can only improve your grade, not bring it down. In other words, the highest grade will remain. The essay should be a minimum of 5 pages in length, though there is no page limit. It is difficult to comprehensively cover all that is asked of you in fewer than 5 pages, but some students have written as many as 18! With that said, more pages do not automatically mean a higher grade, especially if the essay lacks control and focus. Overall, your essay should be cohesive, with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and should not be an individual response to each letter. Do not write your essay in sections with subtitles. Be sure to create focused paragraphs and use effective transisions between them. If you like, you can print out this handout and keep it by your keyboard. Believe it or not, it’s what I do when I write. Give your essay a unique title, not “My Worldview,” or worse, “Essay 1.” Use MLA format and style, including a Works Cited page, as a minimum of one source is required. If you are rusty on MLA, please visit the MLA page which you can find a link to on our homepage. Do not include a cover page. Proofread carefully so that sentence-level errors do not harm the readability of your essay Please provide quoted evidence in the essay My worldview topics: – Global Citizenship and Responsibility – The Impact of Childhood Experiences in a Crisis of war – Social Media and Digital Life – Unjust treatment of animals, animals have emotions too (If you wanna change it up feel free, if these don’t sound like good topics)
