AP Seminar

 1. a. Abortion is a medical practice that has been debated over for years. The depressing practice contains a procedure where a fetus is broken apart and pulled out of a woman's uterus in order to terminate her pregnancy. The woman is injected with a numbing agent and then the fetus may either be broken apart and pulled out of the woman in small pieces, or suctioned out with a vacuum and then disposed of. One of the main points against abortion is that it goes against the Bible's commandments. In the Bible, one of the Ten Commandments state that "Thou shall not murder." A fetus is a living thing, it is made out of living cells as soon as the sperm cell enters the egg cell. Therefore its life begins at conception. By breaking apart the baby or suctioning it out of the mother, it is killed, causing for abortion to go against this commandment.  b. Abortion is a medical practice that has been debated over for years. The practice may be used in order to save a woman's...

  A. Our experiments suggest that there are dangerous levels of chemical X in the Ohio groundwater When it comes to levels of chemical X in Ohio groundwater, some scientists say that the chemical is not prominent enough to be dangerous, However, Our experiments suggest that there are dangerous levels of chemical X in the Ohio groundwater. B. Material forces drive history Many people assume that history has no reasoning for happening, it just happens due to human nature, but I feel that material forces drive history. C. Proponents of Freudian psychology question standard notions of "rationality" It is commonly thought that Freudian psychology is a very successful method of psychology that helps patients with mental health issues to talk about their problems, but proponents of Freudian psychology question standard notions of "rationality." D. Male students often dominate class discussions Some educators are convinced that male and female students work well together in...

  ACE Argument Analysis Template (Argument, Claims, Evidence) Title and Author: (Full MLA Citation): Hughes, Teresa A. "The Advantages of Single-Sex Education" The Advantages of Single-Sex Education, vol. 23, no. 2, 2006-2007, Prairie View A&M University, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED492000.pdf A : Does the author have an argument? If yes, what is the main idea? Yes, the author's argument is that due to the many benefits of single-sex schooling for students, every public school should have options for same sex classes along with co-ed classes. C : What claims/reasons does the author give to support his or her main idea? The first claim given by the author is that, in single-sex schools, students perform better, have better attitudes, and have higher attendance rates. The second claim is that, disadvantaged and minority students have been proven to perform better in single-sex classrooms, but many can't afford single-sex private schools. The final claim gi...

  ACE Argument Analysis Template (Argument, Claims, Evidence) Title and Author: (Full MLA Citation): Halpern, Diane F, et-al. “EDUCATION The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Schooling.”   The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Schooling , Www.sciencemag.org, 23 Sept. 2011,  feminist.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pseudoscienceofsinglesexschooling.pdf.   A: Does the author have an argument? If yes, what is the main idea? Yes, the author's argument is that segregating students by their sex doesn't have any more benefits than co-ed schooling, rather it has more flaws. C: What claims/reasons does the author give to support his or her main idea? The author's first claim is that there is no strong evidence that shows that same-sex schools are more academically advanced than co-ed schools due to the same-sex aspect; rather it is due to a variety of other factors such as a carefully selected student body.The author's next claim is that neuroscientists have found no evidence from the bra...

 Exercise 1: In the introduction of the book, "They Say/I Say," the authors Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein offer templates for students looking to learn how to write better argumentative essays and just how to write better in general. The authors feel that the templates help writers step by step, allowing them to create a compelling argument. The authors state, "writers commonly use a version of it...to form the overarching blueprint that structures what they write over the entire length of their text" (Graff, Birkenstein, 10). This blueprint allows for authors to have a base of a strong argument so they can add on to it and make it a compelling and interesting read. However, many students have expressed concerns about the templates. Such as, they fear it will take away the originality and creativity in their writing. The authors feel that the concerns brought to them by students that their writing will be unoriginal, not creative, or boring need not be worried ...

 In class today we continued speaking about what an argument actually is. There are two main components to an argument. The main idea and the reasons/claims. The main idea of an argument is the truth or conclusion of the argument that the author is attempting to convey to the audience. For example, a main idea could be, "The Marvel movies are the best movies ever." The other main component of a proper argument is the reason/claims. These are the factors that support the main idea and help to convey the author's point of view and why it is their point of view. An example of a claim could be "The Marvel movies all together are the highest grossing films of all time." This claim helps to support the main idea because it shows the audience that the Marvel movies must be good since they have made so much money for the company. To conduct a formal argument, the ACE approach might be used. This is an approach by which the author begins with A, an argument. The author n...

In class today we focused on the basics of arguments such as, what an argument is and the different types of arguments. A general argument is a "series of statements intended to determine the degree of truth of another statement, the conclusion." In other words, an argument is not only trying to prove a point to someone, but trying the prove the truth of a statement to others, or even yourself. One specific type of an argument is an academic argument. These arguments have supports such as claims, reasons, and evidence which help to prove the truth because facts are being used to convey the point. Academic arguments also use counterarguments in order to respond to other arguments and debunk them or use them to their advantage. Academic arguments force us to look into facts and perspectives of others in order to convey the truth. Arguments can also be deductive or inductive. A deductive argument is an argument in which the premises determine the conclusion. If a person believes...

 The QUEST acronym is very important in the AP capstone program. The steps in the acronym allow us to expand our brains and discover new information in order to create a compelling, non biased argument on a topic. The QUEST acronym stands for: Q: Question and Explore; This first step calls for us to look deeper into our current knowledge and come up with questions that could help us to learn more about the topic we are already familiar with. This step also calls us to question our previous research and see if there are any questions we can ask. Some questions could be, how are different people affected by the topic? Could different people have an experience not mentioned before? Etc. U: Understand and Analyze; This step tells us to read an argument on the topic and use it to comprehend the author's ideas in order to learn more about information related to the topic from a different perspective and source. This step allows us to begin looking into different views of the argument so ...