Criteria for Grading Final Writing Assignment
In grading your response, I will be attentive to the extent to which you have effectively applied the critical thinking skills learned from this class. For example, how well have you demonstrated an understanding of the critical thinking questions that you have learned this semester? Have you made clear the impact of your criticisms on the reasoning? (Note: this criterion is extremely important.) Have you avoided vague generalities in responding, and have you avoided committing reasoning errors of your own?
In addition, I will be attentive to the Coherence, Comprehensiveness, and Clarity of your work. Does the paper reflect ambitiousness of effort? Have you avoided long, rambling paragraphs? Have you avoided making repetitive trivial points? Have you avoided grammatical and spelling errors? Are your points sharp and clear and understandable without my having to carefully refer to the original document? Have you minimized the need for mind-reading on the part of the reader? Is the paper reader-friendly for your instructor?
I do NOT want a flowing essay with “extra” words. I am looking for straightforward answers to each of the questions that apply what you have learned in the class. Please COPY and PASTE the questions below into your paper, and then answer them, in the order in which I have presented them.
Paper Format
The paper does NOT need to follow formal MLA format as it is more of a writing assignment than a formal essay. However, it should be double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 font. Proofread your paper prior to turning it in. The more you plan ahead, the better.
Paper Length
Your paper should be 5-6 pages (a minimum of 2,000 words) in length. Please keep in mind that this is much shorter than the normal final essay I ask students to complete. So, please be sure to answer each question as thoroughly as you can by applying what you have learned from the textbook to make your points without any extra “fluff.”
Article to Read
Note: If you wish, you can download the article you need to read from here:
Final Writing Assignment Article PHIL 9 (PDFDownload in attachment) Final Writing Assignment Article PHIL 9 PDFOpen this document with ReadSpeaker docReader
Or, you can just read it below:
Excerpts from Study: “Nearly Half of Millennials Get an ‘F’ In Critical Thinking”
In what seems like an eternity ago, false information was occasionally shared via viral email. The success of these misinformation campaigns was dependent on each recipient forwarding the email to a new group of readers – in other words, failing to demonstrate critical thinking. At that time, a viral email containing fake news was problematic, but it only reached a limited audience.
However, social media has created a highly efficient way for false stories to reach millions in a hurry. Some fake news ends up trending on Twitter and Facebook. And millennials may play a critical role in this process, as both victims and unwitting accomplices.
According to a recent study by MindEdge, a Waltham, MA-based learning company founded in 1998 by Harvard and MIT educators, many millennials lack critical thinking skills.
When young adults between the ages of 19 and 30 (both current college students and recent grads) were given a test designed to test their ability to detect fake news:
Only 24 percent were able to correctly answer eight out of nine questions
44 percent could not correctly answer six out of nine questions
The inability to discern false information is problematic for more than one reason:
55 percent of millennials rely on social media for news
51 percent share social media content very or fairly often
36 percent have accidentally shared inaccurate information
These findings by MindEdge are consistent with a Stanford University survey that found middle school, high school, and college students were unable to distinguish between a news story, an ad, and an opinion piece, and college students actually fared worse than high school students.
In order to survive in what is now called The Information Age, it is vital for people to have critical thinking skills. Thus, it is more than mildly alarming that college students would be less likely than their younger peers to discern between true and fake news. And according to the MindEdge survey, 61 percent of the test respondents took critical thinking in college – although 13 percent aren’t sure if they took a critical thinking course or not while in college.
Is this a generational trend?
Research suggests that financial literacy may be a generational problem. Is the lack of critical thinking skills unique to millennials, or have young adults always lacked this ability? That question can’t be answered conclusively because there is no generational data that could be used for comparison, according to Frank Connolly, a senior editor at MindEdge, where he manages curriculum design and content creation for a variety of courses.
“But it doesn’t seem likely that millennials are afflicted by some strange critical-thinking deficit that distinguishes them from their older counterparts,” states Connolly. “Rather, what’s changed for millennials is the sheer amount of information – both false and legitimate – that they will encounter over the course of their careers and lifetimes.”
Whether this issue is generational or not, it’s vitally important for these young adults to learn how to analyze the material they receive. “The ability to distinguish between true information and misinformation is more vital for millennials precisely because they’ve got to deal with far more information than earlier generations ever did,” Connolly explains.
“We’re living in the information age and, like it or not, the ability to make sense of information – to understand it, to use it, and to distinguish the good from the bad – is the key to getting ahead in today’s economy.”
Fortunately, most millennials understand their need to develop this trait, since 64 percent admit it’s very important to their career success. “Forty years ago, you didn’t need advanced critical thinking skills to earn a good living on an assembly line,” Connolly says. “But in today’s knowledge-based economy, critical thinking skills are at a premium: according to a survey of chief human resources and strategy officers by the World Economic Forum, by 2020, complex problem- solving and critical thinking will be the top two skills workers need.”
Luckily, students can take a more proactive role in the development of these skills. Connolly says some of his tips are just common sense:
Be skeptical.
Ask more questions.
Double-check sources.
Don’t take information at face value.
In addition, Connolly suggests that there are many free online courses available to the public to help improve critical thinking skills.
Perhaps we could all benefit from improving our thinking.
______________________________________________
Author: Terri Williams
Sources:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-study-nearly-half-of-millennials-struggle-with-news-literacy-and-critical-thinking-300454996.htmlLinks to an external site.
Links to an external site.https://www.mindedge.com/resources/critical-thinking-survey-2019/Links to an external site.
Assignment
After reading the article above, copy and paste the following questions into your paper. Then, based on the article, answer each question as it is listed below. Please note that some questions (#1 and #2) will require straightforward, formal “argument-like” structure as is discussed in Chapters 2 and 3 of the textbook and which you created for your midterm formal argument — not paragraphs. All of the remaining questions can be answered in paragraph form. Please note that ALL answers should be in your words unless you are using a quote to substantiate an analysis of some kind. Make sure to note how many points I have allotted to each question so that you know where to focus your efforts! 🙂
1. What are the issue and conclusion? (5 pts)
Remember — an issue is always a question, and the answer to that question is the author’s thesis/conclusion for her article.
Remember — this has a formal setup like a formal argument.
Remember — Both of these are one sentence, no more than that!
2. What are the reasons (premises)? (5 pts)
Remember — this is a formal argument setup.
3. Do you believe this is an inductive or a deductive argument? (5 pts)
Describe the argument’s quality of inference, , i.e., valid/invalid, sound/unsound, cogent/uncogent, weak/strong.
Explain your logic.
4. What subconscious mental habits (speedbumps from Chap. 13) might the author be using that could be interfering with their argument? (5pts)
Provide at least two examples.
Explain your logic.
5. What fallacies (from the class textbook) exist in the reasoning of the article? (5 pts)
Explain your logic.
Name the fallacies.
Provide at least three examples.
6. What rival causes are there? Limit your response to two specific examples. (5 pts)
Explain your logic.
(Yes, they exist!)
7. How good is the evidence? Are any of the statistics deceptive? (10 pts — double the points of the other questions!)
Explain your logic with specific applications from Chapters 7, 8, and 10 of the textbook and from what you learned from our Canvas pages regarding evidence.
This should be a longer, more in-depth response than the previous questions.
8. Overall, how would you describe the quality of critical thinking demonstrated in this article? Why? (10 pts — double the points of the other questions! )
Explain your logic with specific applications from the textbook.
This should be a longer, more in-depth response than the previous questions.
___________________________________
Grading Rubric: You will see a rubric at the bottom of this assignment. Please read it BEFORE YOU BEGIN as it shows how many points I am allocating to each questions. The length of your responses should correlate with the number of points the question you are answering is allotted.
Question 1
What are the issue and conclusion?
Question 2
What are the reasons?
Question 3
Do you believe this is an inductive or a deductive argument? Explain your logic.
Question 4
What subconscious mental habits might the author be using that could be interfering with their argument? Explain your logic.
Question 5
Are there any fallacies in the reasoning? If so, what are they? Explain your logic.
Question 6
Are there any rival causes? If so, what are they? Explain your logic.
Question 7
How good is the evidence? Are any of the statistics deceptive? Explain your logic.
Question 8
Overall, how would you describe the quality of critical thinking demonstrated in this article? Why? Explain your logic
