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Richard.Jewell.net |
CollegeWriting.info
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CollegeWriting.info |
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Sample Dialogic/Dialectic Arguments by Students |
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These are sample papers by students, unless specifically noted. They are examples of "A" level undergraduate writing or entry-level professional work. To get a better idea of how this type of paper is written, you will want to look at all the samples. Then compare the samples to each other and to what the "Basics" part of this chapter says.
The authors of all sample student papers in this Web site have given their permission in writing to have their work included in CollegeWriting.info. All such samples remain copyrighted by their original authors.
Unless otherwise noted, sample papers do not necessarily meet all requirements
an individual instructor or work supervisor may have. In addition, they are
single spaced, whereas a proper manuscript given to an instructor or
supervisor normally should be double spaced unless another format has been
requested.
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Sample 1: Rough/Basic Dialogic Paper |
Sample #1: A Short, Rough-Draft Dialectic/Dialogic Argument (not edited)
About this paper: This paper is a rough-draft weekly paper, not a developed graded paper. Please also read the two longer, fully developed samples below.
Amy
Geiger
Practice
Paper #4
University of Minnesota
© 2002-2004 by Amy Geiger
Three Opposing Viewpoints on Abortion
by
Amy Geiger
Abortion has been an issue of heated
debate in the United States for numerous years. Legislation has ruled it legal
to perform an abortion on any gestational age of an embryo or fetus. Some people
agree with the law and consider themselves pro-choice. Others are completely against abortion and
are pro-life. In addition to
these two groups is another group who support abortion in the first half of
pregnancy, but believe abortion should be banned for the second half.
Pro-Choice
Those who agree with the laws on
abortion are strong supporters of the woman's right to choose. Hence, they call themselves pro-choice
advocates. These persons are in support
of abortions no matter what the condition of the pregnancy. They believe in the woman's right to refuse
to carry an embryo or fetus in her body.
According to these people, a woman should be allowed to choose the best
option for herself and the fetus at any time during her pregnancy.
Pro-choice advocates do not consider abortions to be
murder. They view the embryo or fetus
as a human tissue that is dependent upon the mother's uterus to remain
alive. They believe that this tissue is
not viable outside the uterus and therefore is not independent human life.
This group of people also believes
that pregnant women have the right to refuse to use their bodies for the growth
of something they do not want. They see
unwanted pregnancies as invasions of a woman's body.
Pro-Life
Those against abortion believe that it
kills an unborn child. They consider
themselves to be pro-life advocates for America's unborn children. These persons suggest that the beginning of
human life is at the instant of fertilization.
They see abortion as morally and ethically wrong.
Pro-choice persons view abortion
as murder. They view an unborn child as
a human with rights to life. They argue
that taking a human life living outside the uterus is considered murder, so
killing an embryo or fetus, an unborn child, is also murder.
Pro-life advocates also argue that abortions are being used for
unsettling reasons. People are choosing
to have abortions when they discover that their unborn child is not
"perfect." The embryo or fetus
may be the wrong sex, or have some form of a birth defect. They also view abortions as an unacceptable
form of birth control. Many women are
not getting one abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy, but two, three, and
sometimes even more.
Late-Term Abortions
A third group of people involved in
the abortion debate are pro-choice for the first half of pregnancy, but
believe that late term abortions should be banned. Like pro-life supporters, this group believes that late
term abortions do not just remove tissue, but actually kill babies.
These people argue that fetuses can be
saved with today's technology at only 25 weeks gestation. They claim that neonates this age are able
to hear, smell, taste, breathe, and are capable of living as independent human
lives. Their physical characteristics
are human as well. These fetuses have arms, legs, eyes, mouths, and even
fingernails. They argue that babies born
at this age do have nervous systems that allow them to feel pain. They feel that late-term abortions are
cruel and unusual punishment of an unborn child. They conclude that an abortion on a fetus 25 weeks gestation or
older is unjust.
Conclusion
The long-standing debate over abortion will continue for infinity. There are complex issues related to abortion that make it a personal as well legal debate. The three views presented here: pro-choice, pro-life, and pro-life after 25 weeks' gestation, are just the tip of the iceberg on abortion.
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Sample 2: Research
Using a Main Book
Sample #2: A Dialectic/Dialogic Research Paper Written Using One
Main Book and Additional Sources
About this paper: This paper is a fully-finished paper--a "Draft IV"--developed from the assigned reading of the book In the Land of Magic Soldiers by Daniel Bergner.
Eng. 1114-03
Draft 4-B
Inver Hills Community College
Spring
2006
© 2006 by
Jesse Belter
Humanitarian
Assistance and
Introduction
When a country fails to provide the basic needs of survival for its
people, the international community is faced with the issue of intervention.
However, there exists no clearly defined doctrine to guide governments or
humanitarian organizations in these matters.
Some people believe that the protection of sovereignty is more important
than the possible benefits of intervention, preferring that governments focus on
domestic concerns. Opposing this are
those who believe that humanitarian intervention is necessary to resolve many
conflicts and that the preservation of life trumps all else.
Still another mentality suggests that these two goals are not mutually
exclusive—that the members of the international community are capable of
controlling their own countries while still being able to intervene in some
countries. One good example of such
intervention is
Background
Some brief background information on the
conflict in
Sovereignty and Non-Intervention
With the preservation of sovereignty a
major issue to them, some people believe that the concept of non-intervention,
or staying out of another country’s affairs, is the proper course of action
for the world. According to Adam
Roberts in his article “Humanitarian Intervention Is Not Effective,” the
policy of non-intervention “provides a clear rule for limiting the uses of
force by states and for reducing the risks of war
between the armed forces of different states. . . .
It involves respect for different societies and their religions, economic
systems and political arrangements” (40).
Those who take this poistion believe that referring to a
military intervention as “humanitarian aid” skews the reality of what it
actually involves. As Roberts
explains, the whole notion of intervention exposes ethnocentric ideologies on
the part of the intervening country or organization (46).
An example of this ethnocentrism can be seen when Bergner says, “The
British felt they would save the people from themselves” (97).
To the British, the people of
Those who take this position may also feel
that when intervention does occur, the efforts are often poorly organized and
wasteful or are simply conducted out of a desire to look after the intervening
country’s interests in that region. The
world has seen many well-intentioned humanitarian efforts that have not gone as
planned, such as those in
Another group of people who oppose intervention on principle does so out
of a desire to see their own countries' conflicts and problems resolved before
those of the rest of the world. Bergner
tells the story of a Sierra Leonean amputee named Lamin who traveled to
Of course, this position does not support total inaction in all cases.
If there is an international crisis that might become a threat to their
own lands, then most would consider an intervention acceptable.
In addition, “conscience-shocking situations”—such as those
involving genocide and ethnic cleansing—might warrant action.
And although many people who take this position do not favor their
government’s resources being used to support other countries, most would have
fewer qualms about the private sector choosing to do so.
Moral and Ethical Requirement to Intervene
On the other side of this debate are those who feel it is unethical to
stand by and do nothing when there are known crimes of war and crimes against
humanity being committed anywhere in the world.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan poses this question in his Millennium
Report: “If humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault
on sovereignty, how should we respond to . . . gross and systematic violations
of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity” (48)?
This question brings to mind some of the horrors that history has seen,
including the Holocaust and genocide in
Those who support intervention on
humanitarian grounds would consider prevention to be the best possible outcome,
but they also believe that there are times when military intervention is needed
to halt an ongoing conflict. Annan
admits this in his report, stating that armed intervention should not be
discarded as a possible resolution to violent conflicts involving murder on a
large scale, but that it must remain as a last resort (48).
Jane Sharp, who directed the Defense and Security Program at the
Institute for Public Policy Research in London, writes in
“Moral Considerations Should Outweigh Political Arguments on
Intervention,” “There is no justification for passivity and indifference in
the face of systematic killing, torture, and rape of a people . . . ” (37).
To those that support this position, all of humanity is a collective
being, and the more stable the global community is, the more likely is the
stability of one's own country.
There can be some profits gained from intervening in another country’s
conflict. Bergner appears to believe
that
The people of
Responsibility to Protect
A third position suggests that in a truly cooperative world, instead of
the competitive environment that currently exists, the nations of the world
could work together to suppress brutal leaders and resolve violent conflict,
both internal and external. In this
point of view, concerns of domestic stability and the desire to stabilize the
rest of the world are not mutually exclusive ideas.
According to Gareth Evans and Mohamed Sahnoun in “The Responsibility to
Protect,” the argument needs to be redefined in new terms: rather than
focusing on the “right to intervene,” the discussion should be about the
“responsibility to protect” (2). They
add that “although this responsibility is owed by all sovereign states to
their own citizens in the first instance, it must be picked up by the
international community if that first-tier responsibility is abdicated . . . ”
(2). By changing their mentality to
the “responsibility to protect,” say Evans and Sahnoun, people would focus
on groups who are suffering rather than on people who may be considering
intervention (2). Ultimately, the
goal of any intervention should be the betterment of the lives of the civilian
populations of a particular area.
This mentality emphasizes that the people of the world need to be shown
that they all belong to the same global society.
This does not mean that they need to turn their backs on national pride
and devalue their own culture, but rather all countries need to learn to value
the cultures of their neighbors. In
his training of the soldiers of Sierra Leone, Captain Rosenfeld of the British
forces felt, for example, that it was his duty to create soldiers “who feel
themselves different from the rebels, who feel a desire to serve society”
(Bergner 103). It is through this
desire that peace can be brought to war-torn lands—a desire to uplift one’s
own country from within. If the
citizens of a country are unable to achieve this on their own, then it is the
responsibility of the international community to assist them.
In this viewpoint, the United Nations should be at the forefront of the
question as to who should provide this international assistance.
With its global representation and impartiality, the U.N. can continue to
fill the role of global watchdog. This
does not mean that the rest of the world's countries can sit by as the U.N.
looks after the world for them: the U.N. is only as effective as the support it
receives from the global community. In
this viewpoint, the superpowers of the world bear greater responsibility to
protect than do other countries.
There
is a moral imperative that is all the deeper with our superpower status.
How can
People who take this position believe that by working together within the
context of the United Nations, the global community can be strengthened in its
resolve to see an end to tragic situations involving crimes against humanity.
On the one hand, though
Conclusion
The issues of international responsibility and humanitarian intervention
are multi-faceted, with many people presenting a variety of valid opinions.
These issues may not be as simple as the three main arguments presented
above, but the arguments do provide a well-rounded overview of the issue as a
starting point for further debate. None
of these three is, perhaps, completely right or wrong: as in life, there are
positives and negatives in all options. The
third argument, a compromise position, would seem to be the most idealized,
while the other two are more pragmatic. It
seems obvious that
Works Cited
Annan,
Kofi A. “’We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st
Century.” Millennium Report to the United Nations. 2000. Accessed
Bergner,
Daniel. In the
Evans,
Gareth and Mohamed Sahnoun. “The Responsibility to Protect.”
Foreign
Affairs
v81 i6 (2002). Accessed
Lake, Anthony.
6
Nightmares: Real Threats in a Dangerous World and How
Roberts, Adam. “Humanitarian Intervention Is Not Effective.”
Interventionism.
Paul Winters.
Current Controversies.
Sharp, Jane. “Moral Considerations Should Outweigh Political Arguments
On Intervention.” Interventionism. Paul Winters. Current Controversies.
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Sample 3: Research
Using a Main Subject
Sample #3: A Dialectic/Dialogic Research Paper Written Using a Subject of the Student's Own Choosing
About this paper: This paper is a fully-finished paper--a "Draft IV"--developed from a subject chosen by the student. It won the University of Minnesota 2000-2001 Wilson Library Award for Best Student Essay Using Library Research in the University of Minnesota CLA Composition Program.
EngC 3027-05
University of Minnesota
Graded Paper #2, Dialogic
© 2002-2004 by
Kelly Casperson
Discussions of Childhood Obesity
Introduction
Obesity is on the rise in America. News articles and scientific reports
unanimously agree that America is becoming the most overweight country in the
world, and other developing countries are not far behind. In addition, these
countries' children are now becoming as overweight as their parents and other
adults. Unlike these adults, children seldom have the knowledge and control over
their lifestyle to contribute to either health or obesity. Prominent researchers
in the field exemplify the need for quick action. They state, "The effects
of childhood obesity on morbidity and mortality indicate that effective
prevention and therapy for childhood obesity are likely to have a significant
impact on adult disease" (Gortmaker 100). This paper discusses different
arguments in the research to decrease the percentage of overweight children.
Modifications in diet, increased cardiovascular health, and behavior
modification programs are the three competing fields, each differing in their
actions and reasons for effectiveness.
Background
Before discussing the ways to control childhood obesity, it is necessary to look
at what the problem is and how prevalent it has become. The accepted clinical
diagnosis for being overweight is a triceps skinfold measurement to estimate a
person's body mass index (BMI). Although somewhat arbitrary, if this BMI is 85%
or more above the average, a person is considered overweight (Harlan 1).
According to the Center for Disease Control, "The percentage of young people who
are overweight has almost doubled in the past 20 years" (United States). In order to understand what these statistics
mean, it is imperative to look at the effects of being overweight as a child.
Obese children are at risk presently and in the future as overweight adults.
Being overweight can have both psychological and physical ramifications. Obesity
is linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, total
mortality and certain cancers in adulthood (Harlan 2). Research published in the
New England Journal of Medicine states that "obesity present in young women
was associated with an adverse impact associated with an adverse impact on
household income, education, and rates of marriage, poverty, and college
completion" (Gortmaker 1008). Reducing the incidence of obesity will
benefit these parts of society as well.
Furthermore, according to research by
Price, "Overweight children are especially
vulnerable to stigmatization because of the importance given to physical skills
and appearance during the developmental years" (95). Additional
research has looked at children's views toward other children who show a
disability. Results showed that "depictions of obese children were
consistently rated less positively than most of the other depictions of
children, including children in wheelchairs, on crutches, with limbs missing,
and with facial deformity" (95). With research showing these serious
effects, ways to effectively reduce and prevent childhood adiposity (body fat)
must be offered. Changes in diet, exercise, and the implementation of social
programs are three presented here.
Effect of Diet
The first argument states that diet is the problem and should be addressed to
control obesity. Today a child's diet is not as healthy as it was before the
increased popularity of fast food and pre-packaged meals. In addition, many
children and adults do not know what constitutes a healthy diet. Only a small
percentage of children get the adequate number of servings of fruit per day. This fact is exemplified by the story of a nutritionist at a local
grocery store that prides itself in its extensive produce section. She was left
speechless when the woman at the checkout counter had to ask her what was in her
bag; it was green lettuce. After that, the woman was not surprised when the
cashier also did not know what the eggplant was. The cashier verbally wondered
what possibly could be the use of something as ugly as that. Market appeal and
convenience have changed what people view as acceptable food for consumption to
the extreme of not recognizing fresh produce.
Most food marketed on television is disproportionately high in calories and fat
content. A diet high in these types of food increases a child's risk of obesity
because it has been proven that higher levels of energy intake can lead to
greater percentage of fat in a person. In addition, a high fat diet induces
obesity, so reduction of this factor is beneficial to the individual. In a
national survey asking pediatricians their recommendations for weight loss, 84%
answered that decreasing caloric consumption was the most important program
(Price 95). In addition, Davis says that "a reduction in daily energy intake is fundamental
to initiate weight loss in any individual" (299). Research has found
a positive correlation between total energy intake and fatness in a group of
three-to seven-year-old children. These same researchers further stated in their
published data that "total energy intake accounted for a significant
proportion of the variance in skin-fold fat increases over a 3-year period"
(Gutin 116). Decreasing daily intake of as little as fifty calories a day leads
to more than two kilograms of fat loss a year.
Additional proof is the finding that weight loss is increased when a diet is
implemented that has a lower percentage of fat. Peter Davis states in "Obesity In
Children," "One of the mechanisms proposed to explain this phenomenon is that a high fat
diet leads to the deposition of body fat due to the efficiency of the conversion
of dietary fat into stored triglycerides. The metabolic cost of such a
conversion is in the order of 3% of energy intake whereas the cost of storing
dietary carbohydrate as body fat requires the expenditure of 23% of the ingested
energy" (301).
In addition, researchers found that a child's amount of ingested fat may be
associated with their level of obesity, even when its total energy intake is
not. Gutin writes, "A high-fat diet leads to greater fatness, even at a lower energy intake than a
low-fat diet, perhaps due to the lower thermic effect of food for fats as
compared to carbohydrates and protein. Young children (mean 4.4 years) who were
at high risk for obesity because of their parental weight status were found to
ingest a diet higher in fat and lower in carbohydrate than a group at low risk
for obesity. No difference between the groups in total energy intake was
observed, and the high-risk group gained more weight over a one-year period"
(117). All of these researchers, regardless of the type of diet change, report that a
change in diet toward lower percentage of fat and decreased total caloric intake
is the effective means to reduce a person's percentage of body fat.
Effect of Exercise
Others argue that lack of sufficient exercise is the problem in childhood
obesity, and increasing energy expenditure is the most effective treatment
method in need of addressing. Proponents believe the problem lies in society's
shift towards a more sedentary way of life. Major Mary Christine Clark and
Stephanie L. Ferguson in their article "The Physical Activity and Fitness
of our Nation's Children" claim, "There has been a 50% drop of
required physical activity in high school physical education programs for 1991
through 1997. Only one state in the U.S., Illinois, currently requires daily
physical education from kindergarten through the 12th grade" (250).
Increasing daily energy expenditure will ensure healthier children and promote a
decrease in obesity throughout the nation.
Proponents of this side claim that exercise is more effective than diet changes
because these habits are more long term. Active children are much more likely to
be active as adults. This factor, more than diet alone, provides the backbone
for a healthy body. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion is aware of the positive health benefits that incorporation of
exercise in one's life offers, and this is not just limited to losing weight.
The Center states that "adults who are less active are at greater risk of
dying of heart disease and developing diabetes, colon cancer, and high blood
pressure" (Kramer). Starting a life full of activity early on
increases the chance of continuing this habit into adulthood.
This active lifestyle can be promoted in several ways. The Center for Disease
Control claims, "Young people can build healthy bodies and establish
healthy lifestyles by including physical activity in their daily lives" (United
States). The CDC has established essential guidelines when starting up a
routine of daily exercise:
Further, researchers at the Georgia Prevention Institute Medical College of
Georgia has outlined some principles for the most optimal exercise activities
for children. They state, "In order to use up a lot of energy, the focus should be on aerobic exercise such
as walking, running, cycling, dancing, and sports that involve moving the whole
body for extended periods of time. Activities involving both arms and legs allow
the strain to be spread over a larger muscle mass, with the result that more
energy can be used with less cardiovascular and subjective strain" (Gutin 117).
These techniques have been used effectively in classrooms and clinics around the
nation. The physiology behind these claims is that an increase in activity also
increases the resting metabolic rate of the individual, causing an increase in
fat burning capability. Davis states, "Exercise is known to increase the Fat-Free Mass (FFM) component of body
weight. Resting metabolic rate is dependent primarily upon the FFM of the
individual, with the fat man being much less metabolically active. An
increase in FFM will therefore increase resting metabolic rate and hence
total energy expenditure. This increase will contribute to a negative energy
balance and the subsequent loss of body fat" (301).
These are only a small sample of the published studies that insist on physical
activity as the primary component in weight management and implementation of a
healthy lifestyle.
Integrative Programs
Others argue that a change in diet or activity is not enough because diet and
exercise alone only accomplishes short-term weight loss. Instead, they believe a
new holistic outlook must be taken to encompass the diverse population of
overweight children. This includes providing culturally sensitive resources that
provide children with the motivation they need to be healthy and make more
active choices about their bodies. Proponents believe that changes in the
classroom and home life need to occur to prevent unhealthy children and promote
healthy living.
In addition, they believe that diet, exercise, and other behavioral management
techniques need to be implemented together in a person’s lifestyle to maintain
a healthy weight and body tone. According to Davis, "studies that compared
an exercise regimen alone with a control group failed to find a significant
effect of the exercise program on change in weight. It has been suggested that
poor adherence to the exercise plan might have contributed to the poor results
in these studies" (302). Guidelines published in Childhood Obesity: a
Biobehavioral Perspective outline a policy that sums up current knowledge of
what effectively constitutes an integrative program to reduce childhood obesity
(see "Table 1"; Krasnegor 154).
Table 1
1. Interventions should include components directed both at food intake and at energy expenditure.
2. The dietary component of interventions should provide for parental involvement and for behavior modification and environmental modification.
3. The energy expenditure component should emphasize continuous, vigorous exercise rather than short-burst competitive activities characteristic of many physical education programs in schools. For overweight children, changes in lifestyle exercise should be used to increase energy expenditures and self-management skills.
4. For both diet and exercise components of school-based obesity control programs, self-monitoring appears to be an important skill to be developed in the child, probably for reasons of reinforcement and feedback in the learning process.
5. Involvement of peers in the education of individual children and adolescents appears to be helpful in building a supportive social climate and norm for the dietary or exercise behavior.
Additional research at the New England Medical Center in Massachusetts has
listed two behavioral focal points to combat obesity in integrative
programs. The first is examining behaviors that are the center of behavioral
modification therapy. According to researchers, "These include the frequency and types of food consumed, the circumstances
surrounding eating, and individual behaviors such as eating speed. The
second approach will require a sophisticated analysis of family behavior
that focuses on both the explicit and implicitly messaged regarding fatness,
food consumption, and activity" (Dietz 51).
They admit that their research is rudimentary, but it has already provided some
useful therapeutic framework to research the changes needed to effectively
regulate healthy weight loss.
Conclusion
It is apparent that there is a national health crisis stemming from overweight
individuals, including children. Many varying schools of thought and research
try to reverse the effects of poor lifestyle and the influence this has on
obesity. One positive outlook is that of Peter Davis. He states, "A major
advantage to those who aim to treat childhood obesity is that children are able,
in some cases, to ‘grow into their weight’" (300). Nevertheless,
casually assuming this view or ignoring the problem can lead to severe health
problems in the future. The health of future generations depends on
understanding this growing obesity problem and recognizing all three options
discussed here as ways to promote healthy lifestyles in children and reduce
obesity.
Works Cited
Clark, Major Mary Christine and
Stephanie L. Ferguson. "The Physical Activity and Fitness of Our Nation’s
Children." Journal of Pediatric Nursing. 15(4) (2000): 250-252.
Davis, Peter S. W. "Obesity
in Children." Clinical Obesity. Peter G. Kopelman and Michael J.
Stoch.
Dietz, William H. Jr.
"Childhood Obesity." Annals of the
Gortmaker, S. L., Must A., Perrin
J.M., Sobol A.M., Dietz W.H. "Social and Economic Consequences of
Overweight in Adolescence and Young Adulthood."
Gutin, Bernard and Tina M. Manos.
"Physical Activity in the Prevention of Childhood Obesity." Annals
of the
Harlan, William R. "Epidemiology
of Childhood Obesity." Annals of the
Kramer, Laura. "Slimkids:
Healthy Weight Control Program for Children and Teens." Web.
Krasnegor, N. A., G. D. Grave and
N. Kretchmer. Childhood Obesity: A Biobehavioral Perspective.
Price, James H., Sharon M. Desmond, Elizabeth S. Ruppert, and Cathleen M. Stelzer. "Pediatrician’s Perceptions and Practices Regarding Childhood Obesity." American Journal of Preventative Medicine. 5(2) (1989): 95-103.
United States Department of Health
and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Online Division.
Additional Sources
Allison, David B. and F. Xavier
Pi-Sunyer. Obesity Treatment: Establishing Goals, Improving Outcomes, and
Reviewing the Research Agenda.
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Contents and Page Design © 2002-2004 by Richard Jewell. Nonprofit copying for education is allowed. Images
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