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Concept Paper

Concept Paper. A few ideas from your text. Choosing a Topic. Advice from the text: Modify and classify your term Identify a term that people must define in order to present arguments, make decisions or solve problems

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Concept Paper

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  1. Concept Paper A few ideas from your text

  2. Choosing a Topic • Advice from the text: • Modify and classify your term • Identify a term that people must define in order to present arguments, make decisions or solve problems • Examples: the kind of democracy that works in a country with a history of despotism, the kind of love that a parent might have for an adult child, the best television set to buy for your living room, a good tree to plant in a small yard

  3. Choosing a Topic -- Redux • Look for concepts that have broad implications in people’s lives, concepts that are central to how people see themselves and their future. • Examples: creative expression, enlightened free choice, authentic person, critical thinker, socially responsible, fulfillment, achieving potential . . . .

  4. More on Generating Topics • Sometimes you want to write about something less serious, so you might think about things you do that are central to your life, but that are more lighthearted. • For example, television comedies, parties, thriller movies, sports you like to watch or play. • Or, what is a satisfying relationship? What does it mean to be a good athlete? A good student?

  5. Maps for building an essay • Look at the essay on religion, paragraph #9. Design your essay around the difference between the descriptive and evaluative definitions of your term. Think of terms like poverty, love, democracy, globalization. • Follow this outline: • Identify necessary properties • Classify by describing what category your concept belongs to • Develop a couple of examples • Differentiate it from other similar terms

  6. More possibilities for organizing • Check out the guidelines on p. 290 of your text. Make sure you address each of these guidelines in your essay. • Organize by comparing two very similar terms: affection and love, depression and despair, dating and being in a relationship • Organize by telling a story like Norman, Erdrich, Cohen, Kincaid and Travis do. • Organize by setting up an older definition or classification against a newer one: 1950’s teen vs. 2000 teen, racism in the 60’s vs. racism in 2000, baseball in the 1920’s vs. baseball today.

  7. For now: • Make a list of two or three concepts you might be interested in writing about. • Write about why each of these terms needs to be defined or redefined. What makes your task significant? • Make a concept map: Properties, Sign, Referents. • Free write for at least 5 minutes about why the concept is important in your life, why it needs to be defined, and what information needs to be in your definition.

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