The Open Hand: Arguing as an Art of Peace

Appendix 2: Three Student Papers

DOI: 10.7330_9780874219203.c007 Appendix 2 Thr ee Student Paper s You can be a Master even if every shot does not hit. Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery In this appendix, I include the three assignments and, for each of them, an example of a complete student paper, accompanied by a brief commentary . I chose good shots, examples of strong student writing. I edited these papers lightly, correcting some errors and infelicities, but in every important respect they are the students’ original work. I include these examples because they illustrate some of the best deliberative, conciliatory , and integrative arguments my first-year students produced. In the main chapters of the book, I include excerpts from student writing to illustrate various tactics, but those short excerpts fail to provide a view of the whole compositions from which they are drawn. I hope these examples and commentaries give readers a better sense of the three projects and the papers that they generated. Exampl e o f a D eli ber ati ve Arg um ent Assignment for the Deliberative Argument Paper: Your assignment is to write a paper about a controversial issue. But rather than asserting a view or refuting the opposition, you should argue in a way that reframes the issue as a deliberative discussion of a problem and its solutions, rather than a two-sided debate. Comments on “A Cure for Alzheimer’s?” To write a deliberative argument, students explored reframing, a tactic designed to redirect attention—away from a debate about intensely disputed points and toward a discussion of problems, options, and creative solutions. The idea wasn’t to avoid all points of disagreement but to embed them in a broader discussion so there could be careful consideration before decision. 150   Barry M. Kroll The writer of the following paper was interested in the controversy over the use of stem cells in medical research, a hot-button issue. To reframe this debate, she decided to direct attention to a larger problematic situation: the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, an incurable condition that afflicts many elderly people in our society. She chose this disease in part because she believed many of her readers would be concerned about it and also because of the evidence that stem-cell research may hold the key to effective treatment. In the opening paragraphs, the writer puts Alzheimer’s disease in the foreground, establishing it as a serious illness without a cure. These paragraphs draw in (or connect with) readers who have an interest in the disease, explaining the current options for dealing with Alzheimer’s (medicating and managing) and directing their attention to a “third option,” one that involves stem cell research. The writer notes the potential of this research but also acknowledges obstacles, chief of which are moral objections to obtaining stem cells from human embryos. At this point, the writer blends with concerns about “legal and ethical issues,” attempting to understand them rather than refuting their legitimacy. She uses the open hand of contact and control, rather than the closed fist of refutation and counter argument. The writer makes another reframing move in paragraph six (“The political turmoil . . . ”) when she rejects the two-sided framework that has dominated public discussion of the issue, noting that both moral issues and medical solutions need to be considered. At this point, the writer introduces a new possibility, private funding, and while it isn’t sufficient to address the need, the idea nonetheless moves the discussion toward creative thinking and fresh alternatives. This sets the stage for the writer ’s final appeal. Accepting the legitimacy of ethical concerns, she adopts a moral point of view by asking why it is right to discard invalid embryos from fertilization clinics when they could be used for good purposes. Thus she reframes the question: Which is more ethical, to waste embryos that could be used in promising medical research or to use them to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s? The writer asserts her position in the final paragraph, arguing for a policy that permits use of certain kinds of stem cells in the search for cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. A Cure for Alzheimer’s? An estimated 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, found mainly in the older generations ages 65 and up. One in ten people over the age of 65 are diagnosed with it, and an astounding 50% of Three Student Papers    151 Americans over the age...