Imagine that you are a journalist and your task is to uncover a case where reasoning severely malfunctions. For this essay, you are to research some thing that actually happened (e.g., in history, in current society, in the digital sphere, wherever); and then you are to take us through the story of how reasoning malfunctioned. Get as detailed as possible with the story and, most importantly, show me your original analysis. I want to see how you uncover bad reasoning. Your essay should be structured as follows:
1) Have an introduction where you tell me: a) what case study you’ll be discussing; b) what your thesis is (the thesis should tell us exactly WHAT is malfunctioning in the reasoning); c) the outline of your discussion (e.g., what you will be discussing first, second, and third and so one).
2) Body paragraphs where your point is analysis. Each paragraph should provide a puzzle piece to the story that you are telling. Make it original. Apply the concepts that you are learning. Get really detailed in telling us how the reasoning malfunctions.
3) A conclusion. Tell us what you have done in your discussion and also why this case study is important.
4) Citations. Any time you are using someones quotes and also ideas, you must cite. Did you know that even if you use part of an old paper for another class and you don’t cite yourself, that’s plagiarism? I know! That’s wild. Now that you know, cite EVERYTHING that is not your own original idea because turn it in will flag it. I do not care if it’s APA, MLA, or Chicago, just cite consistently. For a reference on MLA and APA citations go to: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/Links to an external site.
5) Do NOT use someone’s analysis. I repeat, this must be your original analysis. One concern is that if you are using someone else’s analysis it will be flagged by the turnitin software and that’s plagiarism. So, don’t use some journalist’s article. Do not look for someone to organize the information for you. Rather, start searching around for an interesting topic and then find a rich source of information that you can analyze yourself. Now, here’s the thing, I’m a realist: you may have to rely on other journalist’s stories in order to get to the direct source. For example, suppose that you google, failures in reasoning and you get a Vox article about McArthur Wheeler and the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Good. Now use that article to get to the direct source of the information; and rely on your own analysis of that information. Please use confirmation and disconformation reasoning as the example and how those who participated in the insurrection reasoning malfunctioned.
