Position Paper 5: How to write a position

Now it's time for you to come up with your positions/beliefs/stands/thesis statements.

-Position papers can be written for any field and discipline.

-In your case, you'll be working on your chosen literary text and will come up with a stand/a belief/a position/a thesis statement based on the text.

-The purpose of the position paper is to defend that stand/belief/position/TS)

When coming up with a stand for the position paper, think about your beliefs and the issue you’d like to defend


When you've carefully thought about a potential text to work on, you must also think of the potential beliefs that can be derived from that text. 

Coming up with a position is not easy, you have to think about it a lot and revise it a few times.
Some of you may change the text you are working when new thoughts surface through your reflections.

A Position Should Be:


Refutable- Don’t write something that is so obvious and already generally accepted as the truth

Controversial- a general statement can hardly be controversial

Short and concise- long winded statements cannot create impact

A play of words (if possible)


Here are some examples of positions:

The Zoo Story by Edward Albee
Position: Jerry’s death signifies the birth of his pride and dignity (play of words: death/birth)

Oedipus by Sophocles
Position: Oedipus blindness was fated and cannot be avoided

Si Tenggang’s Homecoming by Muhammad Haji Salleh
Position: An increase of knowledge and experience in foreign countries will not affect one’s identity

Sara and the Wedding by Karim Raslan
Position: Marriage completes a woman

The Journey by Catherine Lim
Position: Richard’s past poverty enriches his life (Play of words: Poverty enriches)

A Great Injustice by Heah Chwee Sian
Position: Society killed Ah Nya's baby

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
Position: The persona is writing to a man

Notice the definite and strong verbs used. 


These statements below CANNOT be considered a stand for position paper:

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Position:
Pygmalion tackles the issue of education that separate people according to their social status

Mending Wall by Robert Frost
Position:
Mending Wall focuses on the negative thought that create barriers among people

The Return by KS Maniam
Position:
The Return evolves around the colonial imperialism system of divide and rule to control the nature

The three unsuitable positions sounds like research paper titles!

They are long-winded and consist of weak verbs "tackles/focuses/evolves"

Once you have a position, consider the factors below again!

· Look at the given position
· Note the text used
· Make sure it is not a statement of fact that is generally agreed by society
· Make sure that it is not a general statement
· Look at the sentence structure, grammar
· Look at how the statement can be made refutable, short and concise

Is it too long?
Is it the grammar?
Is it the sentence structure?
Is it the meaning of the sentence?
Is it the content of the idea?

I hope this can get you started if you haven't already.

Please write to me at my hotmail and send me the position based on your chosen text. I must make sure that you have a strong position before you start writing your arguments. Also send me 2 or 3 points you will be using to defend the position you have taken.

Do this between today until 9th March 2012.

Position Paper 2 : What is a Position Paper?

• A position paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue.

• The goal of a position paper is to convince the audience that your opinion is valid and worth listening to.

• Ideas that you are considering need to be carefully examined in choosing a topic, developing your argument, and organizing your paper.

• It is very important to ensure that you are addressing all sides of the issue and presenting it in a manner that is easy for your audience to understand.

• Your job is to take one side of the argument and persuade your audience that you have well-founded knowledge of the topic being presented.

• It is important to support your argument with evidence to ensure the validity of your claims, as well as to address the counterclaims to show that you are well informed about both sides.

(note from me: position papers can be written for any field and discipline. In your case, you'll be working on your chosen literary text and will come up with a stand/a belief/a position/a thesis statement based on the text. The purpose of the position paper is to defend that stand/belief/position/TS)

Note: a stand/a belief/a position/a thesis statement - all refer to the same thing!

Issue Criteria

To take a side on a subject, you should first establish the arguability of a topic that interests you.

· Are you personally interested in advocating one of these positions?

· Is the issue narrow enough to be manageable?

(Eg. if you're working on the short story A Great Injustice by Heah Chwee Sian which deals with teenage preganancy your stand may sound something like "Ah Nya is not to be blamed for the abortion"- that is if you really believe that society is at fault for what happened to Ah Nya)


In considering the audience, ask yourself the following questions:

· Who is your audience?

· What do they believe?

· Where do they stand on the issue?

· How are their interests involved?

· What evidence is likely to be effective with them?

(talk to friends to gauge what the general beliefs are about your stand. No use having a stand that everybody agrees about. It's just like saying an orange is orange in colour. Everyone knows that)

In determining your viewpoint, ask yourself the following:


Is your topic interesting?

Do you have enough material to support your opinion? (Use textual evidences found in the text to back up your stand)

Organization

Your introduction should lead up to a thesis that organizes the rest of your paper. There are three advantages to leading with the thesis:

1. The audience knows where you stand.

2. The thesis is located in the two strongest places, first and last.

3. It is the most common form of academic argument used.


This is a general idea of what a position paper is. The next posting will be on the format. Don't start writiing yet. You have to understand more on how to start doing this.

Thank you.

Position Paper 3 : Format

Below is a generic sample outline for a position paper:


I. Introduction

___A. Introduce the topic

___B. Provide background on the topic

___C. Assert the thesis (your view of the issue)


II. Counter Argument

___A. Summarize the counterclaims

___B. Provide supporting information for counterclaims (the general belief of the public that is against your stand. only have this if you find it necessary to strengthen your argument)___C. Refute the counterclaims

___D. Give evidence for argument


III. Your Argument

___A. Assert point #1 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support


___B. Assert point #2 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support


___C. Assert point #3 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support


IV. Conclusion

___A. Restate your argument



Courtesy of UHWO Writing Center

(c)1998

Note: This is a rough outline that should guide you nicely in writing your PP.

Position Paper 4 : Writing a Position Paper

For the written product:

· Follow the given format closely

· Introduction must touch on the issues dealt with in general i.e. loneliness. The last line of the intro should state your stand

“…and therefore it is my belief that…(state your stand)”
This is just an example. Cohesion of the move from one paragraph to another must be observed. Always tell the readers what you are going to do next.

· Some of you may need/want to write a paragraph on counter argument and popular beliefs to strengthen your argument.

· Your supporting points should always be introduced at the start of the paragraphs. Use cohesion markers “Firstly, secondly, next, My first supporting point is, Now I will move to my next point…”. Use evidences from the text by quoting them. You may use outside references which are related.

· Your closing paragraph should briefly summarise what you have argued. Restate your stand before ending the essay.

· You will not be penalized for writing more than a thousand words. But you will be penalized if you torture me with unedited, poor quality writing.

Try understanding the notes. Watching the Face2face recording might also be useful.

Will be back with more on how to come up with a good position/belief/thesis statement/stand for your argument.

Position Paper 1

Now we will move on to the next major requirement of the course which is the

POSITION PAPER

This exercise will require you to be critical and the nature of the paper is argumentative.

1000 words (not less)

Choose ONE text from those listed below:

1. Mariah by Che Husna Azhari

http://www.maele.net/english/angie/Mariah.htm

2. The Landlady by Roald Dahl

http://www.nexuslearning.net/books/holt-eol2/collection%203/landlady.htm

3. Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lamb.html

4. Any short stories from the new and old cycle of the secondary school literature component.

CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME IF I HAD FORGOTTEN ANY OTHER TEXTS MENTIONED DURING THE F2F?

I have made your life very easy by giving you the links to the texts. I have also decided to only work on short stories this time instead of telling you to work on any genre of literary works that you like. I know and love all these stories well so I'll be more strict this time around.

I need you all to choose a text and read it thoroughly. Just do that first.

The next posting will be on how to come up with a POSITION.

We will do it step by step because this can be quite a challenging thing to do but it is most rewarding once done correctly.

Thank you.



Blog updates

So far these are the people who have sent in their blog addresses to my hotmail email. Thank you.


1. Thayamal
www.thaya-uniputra.blogspot.com/


2. Kumaran
http://projectstar3234.blogspot.com/


3. Gan Siaw Fui
http://www.j38855gan.blogspot.com/


4. Nurida
http://nuridaj34070edu3234.blogspot.com/


5. Chua Wei Thing
http://chuaweithingj38851.blogspot.com/


6. Mogana
http://moganaj38844.blogspot.com/


7. Kwan Wei Kuen

http://kwkktl-kwkktl.blogspot.com/

8. Tan Kai Lynn

http://tankailynnj38861.blogspot.com/ 

9. Barisha

http://barishapjjJ38838.blogspot.com

10. Nur Hafiza

http://finallyfizzy.blogspot.com/

11. Sia Nga Yea

http://siangayeaj38864.blogspot.com/ 

12. Yong Mei Shia

http://seadolphinmay3234.blogspot.com/

 Issues:

Two people wrote to me saying that the blog has been removed. 

Please type the right address http://pjjedu3234.blogspot.com

Please ask your friends to quickly email me their blog addresses to my hotmail. 

You can start writing already.

Thank you.

Online Journal 2

Here are some of the blog links that i managed to find from my email archives. I have deleted all that i have bookmarked once i finished grading. The examples below may not be the best of examples (i couldn't anymore find the links to some good ones) but one person below did get full marks for effort. You should be able to guess which one. Most are alright. Understand my instructions carefully and you'll see why i consider some of the blogs not satisfactory. Good luck.

http://thelightofliterature.blogspot.com/
http://sarathaliterature3234.blogspot.com/
http://jayabalanliterature3234.blogspot.com/
http://www.funnyliterature.blogspot.com/
http://mysense-literature.blogspot.com/ 
http://englit4life.blogspot.com/
http://literaturespot.blogspot.com/

Very important! Please have your name somewhere I can see in the blog. Be creative by all means but don't forget to put your name somewhere so it will be easier for me to grade you.