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Write a short 1,500 words (~2.5 pages single-spaced) maximum “synthesis & summary” of what you’ve learned in the course through our readings, your thoughts on these readings, or relevant personal experiences you may have had outside of class.
Your audience is a grandparent or friend, who has asked you what you’ve been learning in your favorite class this semester. Your audience is intelligent, willing to listen, but is not intellectually familiar with the concepts from our class and who would benefit from a summary presented in ordinary (i.e., non-technical) language.
Your objective:
After reading your document, your audience –
– should have a basic, yet clear and informed, understanding of the essential concepts from the course so far (where you are tasked with judging which concepts are essential).
– understand how the concepts relate to one another (thanks to sound analysis and exposition on your part).
– be able to remember and describe to someone else what you’ve learned in the course (because you have presented them with a simple, yet engaging, and compelling narrative that integrates the concepts you’ve chosen as essential into a coherent story).
What I’m looking for:
– I want to know what you’ve learned so far.
– Avoid mere recapitulation of the arguments in the readings.
– Take a risk — I will highly value a demonstration that you have thought deeply about the course concepts, their relations, integrating them into your own life, and have come to your own understanding … even if it is not yet 100% complete or perfect.
– If you do make an argument, you are expected to justify it logically or provide evidence for your claim.
– If you pose a question, attempt to answer it.
– ** You do not need to try to fit every single thing we’ve discussed into your summary. That’s not the point. The purpose is for you to think deeply about what we’ve been learning so far; to try to see how it all fits together; for you to try to communicate that; so that it challenges you to work with the material and exposes gaps in your understanding **
Formatting & Presentation:
Include a title page:
– With an original, ‘jazzy’ title that reflects the contents and narrative in the main body of the text (so, e.g., not “A Summary of Altruism”). Try your best. It’s good practice.
– Adhere to APA format – [“Student APA Paper format”](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html)
Body of the text:
– 12 pt font
– Times New Roman font
– Single-spaced
To the extent that you appeal to any sources, your document should include In-text citations and a reference page – again use APA format (see the website at the link above).
Grading:
Your submission will be evaluated based on:
– your achievement of the objective (in which I imagine what it would be like reading your summary as the audience member I described above)
– the accuracy of your claims
– originality/insightfulness in your synthesis
– clarity/coherence/overall strength of your writing
– the logical soundness of your conclusions
– a good and compelling title
– formatting (including your reference page, title page, font, spacing, word count)
Please read chapter 1 (The Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis) of Batson’s book (Altruism in Humans; attached) and the introduction, chapter 1 and chapter 3 of Ricard’s book (Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World; attached) prior to attempting this assignment.
