Content Description

1. Evaluation of Items

1. Choose one item from the following list that you understand well enough to evaluate. Develop several criteria of evaluation that you could defend to distinguish excellence from meritocracy in the area. Then choose an item you don’t know much about and explain the research you might perform to discover reasonable criteria of evaluation for it. Smart phones, NFL quarterbacks, fashion designers, Navajo rugs, UN secretary generals, contemporary painters, hip-hop bands, organic vegetables, athletic shoes, historic U.S. battlegrounds, breeds of dogs, former British prime ministers.

2. Find an obituary or eulogy of a famous person who died in the past 6 months. Analyze the types of claims the document makes about the accomplishments of the deceased. Explain what types of criteria of evaluation hold the article together. Also explain why the person should be respected or admired.

3. Find a topic of social responsibility that is of interest to today’s university students. Write up a plan of how you’d prepare a proposal to deal with the topic.

4. Find a hot issue proposal in the news today that you REALLY disagree with. It may be a political initiative, cultural innovation, technological advancement, or lifestyle change. Study the idea more deeply than you have to date then compose a proposal argument based on your deeper understanding of the proposal. You may take a stance either for or against the issue.