Summary:

In a paper of  Two to five pages (minimum 650 words), create an argument that evaluates in a negative way essays, books, and/or web sites that advance ideas that most experts in the particular field believe to be false. In other words, you are making a fairly easy argument: what is the truth as most of the world knows it? E.g., There are people who, like Kyrie Irving and others lately somehow, will insist that the world is flat despite the fact that Twitter, as part of the Internet, is utterly dependent on GPS navigation satellites!

To complete the paper, you need at least one outside source. You must quote from this source directly, not just paraphrase/summarize it. Your goal is to show through a careful examination of causes and effects why these false ideas are clearly false despite being bandied about as true.

In short: Evaluate the claims being set out and show why they are fallacious. The idea in question should be utterly, absolutely, without question, ridiculous and false, not in any way up for debate. Perhaps comically so—there are people who believe that the Earth is hollow and that a whole race of beings live there; there are others who insist that the Apollo Moon landings were faked on a sound stage in Hollywood or that the Moon is made of green cheese. Other false ideas are more dangerous—there are many who believe that the Holocaust did not occur, that pseudoscience like “Intelligent Design” should be taught in science classes, or that AIDS was created in a laboratory to destroy groups of people deemed “unacceptable.” Your goal is to write a counter-argument that shows why these ideas are false. The more ridiculous the idea, the better—therefore, do not engage ideas that are being debated or that are not definitively settled—check with me first if you’re not sure about a potential topic.

Click ‘Submit Assignment’ and then select ‘File Upload’ and ‘Choose File’ to select a file from your computer to submit–you may do so twice. Please do not use ‘Google Drive’ or ‘Office 365.’

Sections of The Writer’s Reference to Engage:

C1, C2, C3: Planning, Drafting, and Reviewing/Revising/Editing

A1, A4: Reading and Writing Critically, Writing Arguments

MLA-1, MLA-2, MLA-3: Supporting a Thesis, Citing Sources/avoiding Plagiarism, Integrating Sources