A Stranger In Strange Land Analysis

The assignment I made for my students is to pair up against each other to persuade their classmates of their viewpoint on the chosen subject. This is a valuable and worthwhile assignment because it encourages students to write about something they are passionate about and to put in the effort to persuade the class to see their point. Most students are very passionate about something, whether it is something simple like sports and cars or something with a large impact at a national or global level, such as global warming and abortion. This assignment gives them the ability to choose any topic they like. Since most students do not care too much for school work this is an important aspect of the assignment; if it is boring or they are uninterested in the subject their interest level in their work will go down significantly. If this happens their work will not be nearly as good and they will put less time into the assignment. This is the exact principle we saw in A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum, by Lucille P. McCarthy, where Dave Garrison consistently performed better in classes he enjoyed and worse in classes he did not. By being less interested students most likely would not put in as much effort, they would be doing the …show more content…
Since almost everybody hates to lose, especially to one of their friends, they are going to try and win the debate. A bonus for the partner that is chosen as the victor is five percent extra credit on their paper. Another motive to do well on the assignment is that they have to present their argument in front of the class. Nobody wants to stand in front of a group and look like an idiot so they are going to make their argument strong and show everyone that they know what they are talking about and hopefully win five bonus points while they are at