1

Essay 2: Multiple Source Essay

The multiple source essays give you a chance to integrate source material into a well-developed, clearly organized, thesis-driven argumentative essay. Multiple source essays are designed to assist you in the following areas: critical thinking, source selection and integration, argument development and organization, awareness of audience, and awareness of—and ideally, appreciation for—opposing views. Working with the readings from the obedience to authority unit, you will develop a multiple source essay that uses the criteria listed above and synthesizes source material. Synthesis is the act of taking different ideas, objects, writings and creating a new unified whole. You will be working with synthesis with the source material by combining passages and in more sophisticated ways, common themes, to highlight the textual melodies present in the readings.

Beginning Your Work: You have to choose three to five articles from the obedience unit from WARAC. You may include up to two additional outside sources on top of the three to five articles from the obedience unit if you so desire. You will also come up with a general proposal and topic for your paper.

You may choose from the following essays from the WARAC book:

• “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”

• “The Power of Situations”

• “The Perils of Obedience”

• “The Power Trip”

• “The Follower Problem”

• “Group Minds”

• “Opinions and Social Pressure”

• “Prisoner and Guard: The Stanford Experiment”

Clear, Arguable Thesis: The goal of this essay is to persuade a particular audience of the validity of your point of view regarding a debatable issue; in other words, the thesis must be argumentative. (An example of a non-argumentative thesis would be, “Several authors have discussed the topic of advertising.” A more appropriate, arguable – and wisely narrowed – thesis would be, “The advertising strategies used in beer commercials promote false ideals and promises, and therefore beer commercials should not be allowed to air on television.”) In short, a

2

clear argumentative thesis based on your understanding of your topic and your sources is required. You should avoid writing a narrative or summary of the various sources.

Audience Awareness: A major component of the GSW program and ultimately any type or genre of writing is learning how to write for a particular audience. You must choose an audience other than me. It might be an audience of your peers, other students, a letter to the editor, and letter to a magazine, professors or instructors in a particular field, editors of academic journals who might be interested in this particular piece and so on. No matter your audience, you must convince them why this particular article is valuable and important for them to read and consider.

Well-Organized Argument with Several Key Points of Support: Once you have chosen an issue, taken a position on that issue, and pinpointed your audience, you should identify reasons or points that will help support your position in the eyes of that audience. In preparing to write the MSE, you should look for similarities and relationships between sources so that each point can be supported by more than one source. While it is not necessary that all sources agree, the texts will need to overlap or share some common ground. Don’t fall into the trap of summarizing each source in a paragraph-by-paragraph approach, or of copying the structure found in one of their sources. Rather, you must synthesize your sources by showing the relationships between them – such as cause and effect, comparison and contrast, or argument and counterargument. By utilizing a synthesis strategy that allows sources to intertwine with one another, an argument will develop substance and authority.

Elements of MSE #1: Your essay should be a fully-developed piece of academic writing that is at least 4 to 5 pages long, with a clear argumentative thesis, introduction, several body paragraphs, a counterargument, refutation or concession of the counterargument, and conclusion.

Introduction: You will want to broadly discuss the topic of your MSE and also interject any necessary contextual information as well as your argumentative thesis in the introductory section of your paper.

Argumentative thesis: You will want to develop a clear, controlling thesis that makes an argument about your MSE essay. You might include a portion of the counterargument to help make your argumentative thesis more clearly argumentative. An example argumentative thesis might look like:

While the literature suggests that women have an increased equal footing with men, the literature also submits that equality among the sexes has not been obtained in cultures around the globe.

Balanced Development of Key Points: Using specific examples whenever appropriate is necessary to a successful MSE. You must support your claims with sources and should organize your essays logically, perhaps by grouping similar points or arguments or by comparing and contrasting evidence. Further, in order to provide reasoning, facts, and examples to develop an argument, you should try to strike an appropriate balance among direct quotes, paraphrases, and

3

your own ideas in your own words. You should justify all quotes used, as opposed to dropping them in at random. To achieve this, you will need to introduce and explain source material so that its relationship to the argument is clear and easy to follow. Ideally, your own words and ideas will constitute the greatest part of the essay, with sources lending examples, verifiable facts, and authoritative backup.

Counterargument and Rebuttal: At some point in the MSE, you must demonstrate that you understand and can respond to arguments against your position. You should be encouraged to bring up some of the most obvious objections to your own argument and respond by refuting these objections (supported by facts and reasoning) or by modifying your own argument or conceding the point. You should use sources both to illustrate the opposing viewpoint and to aid in the refutation of it.

References and Supporting Detail: You must assume that your readers do not or have not read the article that you evaluate in your essay. Therefore, you must make clear connections back to the article through summary, paraphrase, or direct quotation to support your claims about the criteria. How many times you reference the article is entirely up to you, just know that you need to make the connection clear.

MLA: While we will cover MLA more in-depth later in the semester, I still expect you to use proper MLA conventions. If you need a refresher on formatting your paper, in-text citations, or works cited entries please refer to appropriate section in AWR.

Late essays without previous discussions with me to negotiate a new deadline or essays that are missing these components will not be accepted.

Final Reflection on Components Needed for this Essay:

• Your source material (about 3-5 from the obedience unit in WARAC).

• Metadiscourse: Using the thesis statement, topic sentences, and transitions to make connections to the thesis and what will be supporting detail in the paragraphs.

• Synthesis: You should work to achieve synthesis in each body paragraph.

• Evidence from the articles through summaries, paraphrases, direct quotes.

• An explanation about how all the elements fit together and ultimately prove your thesis.

4

Kim Bruce

GSW 1120

Nick Baca

25 June 2014

Obedience and Authority leading to Sin

How far are you willing to play though when you are not the guy reflecting the mirror?

What kind of person would you be? Seductive? or supportive? How could basically good people

do terrible things without knowing or conformation? This article sums it all up delicately. When

it comes to people having capability of power, dignity, respect, and authority, followers will

command what you say. It is how much power you are willing to pursue to someone without

them having a clue on what’s going on. It’s part of our natural instinct. We were trained from our

elders to obey older people with higher authority. However, when it comes to occupation

opportunity, football tryouts, and job promotions, power of authority figures is obtained to all the

features, Although not knowing you are harming individuals while on commands is the bigger

issue. How far are you willing to go, to get what you need to satisfy yourself or to make someone

else happy? It also reflects on how people have the capacity of evil, if the situation is powerful

enough people will obey.

Obedience and authority should not be overused because it can harm innocent individuals

physically and psychological without adequate authority leading to sin. According to Fromm,

(Fromm, page 622) an author from Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem stated

that “If mankind commits suicide it will be because people will obey those who command them

5

to push the deadly buttons; because they will obey the archaic passions of fear, hate, and greed;

because they will obey obsolete clichés of State sovereignty and national honor.” There was an

experiment conducted in the early seventies in Germany. Three adolescence boys in a play room

with an adult instructor leaving toy instructions for the kids to solve-out while the instructor was

out the room. After ten minutes of the kids solving a problem it became a rack, kids getting into

a physical altercation, but as soon the instructor came in, the instructor showed love, enthusiasm,

and encouragement to contribute the experiment. The kids worked harder, they performed with

ease they were happy. It conducted that obedience and authority style in social situations really

affects people. They tend to work harder when if the leaders tend to be in sight. However, when

people are led with no guidance or chaperone people will fall off and tend to kill one another.

The experiment was conducted to relate to the power of a German dictator Adolph Hitler, the

most evil man in history. He created a social political structure to take control of Germany, his

words of evil encouragement and wisdom transforming individuals to blindly obedient masses

which triggered delinquency hurting and killing people without them acknowledging the fact that

they were committing a sin among themselves.

Another reason why over using obedience and authority should not be tolerated is

because people with higher authority figures tend to over escalade their power-use to lower

workers. While lower workers are getting mistreated there seem to be nothing they can do about

it. Some have important situations that need to be dealt with such as, mortgage payments, house

utilities, and even Christmas presents for their loved ones, but saying no is a hard conflict to face.

Some people have to work overtime time hours to for fill their needs but having to be mistreated

as a slave should not be tolerated. An article on the web by Rocco Pendola, Mistreated Wal-Mart

Employees Speak Out also indicates the fact that workers are getting slaved by higher authority

6

figures that they were limited hours of work and working other positions that they are not

positioned for. “Every week for the last 5 years, and every day for the last 2-3 months, 1st and 2nd

shift employees at our store have been responsible for stocking freight from the previous day’s

trucks because we don’t have enough 3rd shift stockers to accomplish this. That means every

single day we have pallets on the floor in almost every general merchandise department, with

associates- who are supposed to be focused on other things like helping customers-stocking

shelves. With so much time dedicated to stocking, we have little time left to put away carts of

junk or clean aisles. If we try to do our real job duties instead, we get yelled at by management

for not dealing with the freight in the back room is so bad we literally can’t move back there,

which means if a customer wants something that’s back there, they aren’t getting it.”

Essentially, having less authority to not stand for your self is a disgrace shows weakens

and slavery. People need to disobey the rules for their freedom rights, to make changes in this

world people should not follow others, but follow their own route for freedom of rights for self-

respect, and also to be a leader such as Martin Luther King, and not to be blind for their actions.

According to Fromm, (Fromm, page623) he also indicated that “By obeying the inhuman laws of

the State, Antigone necessarily would disobey the former. All martyrs of religious faiths, of

freedom, and of science have had to disobey those who wanted to muzzle them in order to obey

their own consciences, the laws of humanity, and of reason. If a man can only obey and not

disobey, he is a slave; if he can only disobey and not obey, he is a rebel.”

“Prisoner and guard: The Stanford Experiment” College experiment also relates to the

power of Adolph Hitler of punishment without the intentions of getting innocent people abused,

raped or killed. Similar to the affect that Doctor Zimbardo himself was blind throughout the

procedure playing the role of a Gordon (Hitler). A Zimbardo intention was to see how innocent

7

prisoners were willing to go with giving authority. Prisoners showed no mercy on giving up the

volunteered experiment they kept preceding till it was over. The procedure got so intense that all

the people such as the guards and prisoners were going so far out their comfort zone doing things

they never see them doing.

Nevertheless, one of the many reasons why many believe that obedience and authority is

a good figure to use among people is because it makes them feel superior with high self-esteem

to do anything they please. Playing a role as a king or a boss or thinking their god having to

mistreat people is a good feeling of their self. And also not having a proper use of authority,

coworkers might take advantage of them. Some people need strong authority figures to have

respect of them so people can take their actions serious and not take advantage. To make

business grow comes with strong authority figures. High authorities are control over anything for

a business to succeed. Employees can get unemployed for not following the authority

instructions to simply find replacement for their position.

In conclusion, high authority figures should not take advantage of power among people.

God created people to be loved and cared for. Obedience is the key for success but over using

power against innocent people is committing a sin. Having happy employees or innocent people

can make life fortunate for everyone it can make a business grow. A whole person does the job,

not just half. When you see your employees as whole people, they feel appreciated and

supported. They're filled with more potential motivation to excel rather than just doing the basics

of what's expected. Personal experiences lend perspective that encourages extraordinary

contribution.

8

Works Cited

Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen, Ed.wrting and learning across the curriculum.

New Jersey: Pearson, 2013. Print.

Experiment, Stafford. “Prisoner and Guard: The Stanford Experiment” 660-61.

From, Erich. “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem.” Behrens 621-29.

Milgram, Stanley. “The perils of Obedience” Behrens 630-43.

Pendola, Rocco. “Mistreated Wal-Mart Employees Speak Out” http:www.thestreet.com/story.

The Street, 18 March, 2014. Web.

9

Kim Bruce

GSW 1120

Nick Baca

25 June 2014

High Power Authority leading to Sin

In today’s society obedience is the biggest obstacle for success for employment. There

are people that hate to fire their employees but there are circumstances that need to be made from

higher authority such as executives. There are employees that follow every single thing you

command and there are people that are less likely to obey what you command. Obedience is just

too simple. In a highly complex situation, anything too simple does not work. And it is a

misservice to sit back and wait to be told what to do. There is something about moral courage,

about standing up for what is right. People are not dogs they are human beings. How could

basically good people do terrible things without knowing or conformation? “The perils of

Obedience” article sums it all up delicately. When it comes to people having capability of power,

dignity, respect, and authority, followers will command what you say. It is how much power you

are willing to pursue to someone without them having a clue on what’s going on. It’s part of our

natural instinct. We were trained from our elders to obey older people with higher authority.

However, when it comes to occupation opportunity, football tryouts, and job promotions, power

of authority figures is obtained to all the features, Although not knowing you are harming

10

individuals while on commands is the bigger issue. Employees need reliable and well kind

authority figures that will treat employees in a positive direction. Everybody is supposed to be

treated kindly for quality business.

Authority should not be tolerated for punishment because it can harm innocent

individuals physically and psychological without adequate authority leading to sin. According to

Fromm, (Fromm, 622) an author from “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”

stated that “If mankind commits suicide it will be because people will obey those who command

them to push the deadly buttons; because they will obey the archaic passions of fear, hate, and

greed; because they will obey obsolete clichés of State sovereignty and national honor.” There

was an experiment conducted in the early seventies in Germany. Three adolescence boys in a

play room with an adult instructor leaving toy instructions for the kids to solve-out while the

instructor was out the room. After ten minutes of the kids solving a problem it became a rack,

kids getting into a physical altercation, but as soon the instructor came in, the instructor showed

love, enthusiasm, and encouragement to contribute the experiment. The kids worked harder, they

performed with ease they were happy. It conducted that obedience and authority style in social

situations really affects people. They tend to work harder when if the leaders tend to be in sight.

However, when people are led with no guidance or chaperone people will fall off and tend to kill

one another. The experiment was conducted to relate to the power of a German dictator Adolph

Hitler, the most evil man in history. He created a social political structure to take control of

Germany, his words of evil encouragement and wisdom transforming individuals to blindly

obedient masses which triggered delinquency hurting and killing people without them

acknowledging the fact that they were committing a sin among themselves. Essentially, high

11

authority can be obtained but it comes with praise reward people need to be cared for and show

that you care.

However, mistreating innocent individuals with authority should not be tolerated is

because people with higher authority figures tend to over escalade their power-use to lower

workers. While lower workers are getting mistreated there seem to be nothing they can do about

it. Some have important situations that need to be dealt with such as, mortgage payments, house

utilities, and even Christmas presents for their loved ones, but saying no is a hard conflict to face.

Some people have to work overtime time hours to for fill their needs but having to be mistreated

as a slave should not be tolerated. Cutting hours of people’s jobs really affects them that are

effect of mistreatment for no reason. People have bills to pay. An article on the web by Rocco

Pendola, “Mistreated Wal-Mart Employees Speak Out” also indicates the fact that workers are

getting slaved by higher authority figures that they were limited hours of work and working other

positions that they are not positioned for. People should work their stations as it is and hire more

people or function the business for better service employees should not be treated that way.

“Every week for the last 5 years, and every day for the last 2-3 months, 1st and 2nd shift

employees at our store have been responsible for stocking freight from the previous day’s trucks

because we don’t have enough 3rd shift stockers to accomplish this.. With so much time

dedicated to stocking, we have little time left to put away carts of junk or clean aisles. If we try

to do our real job duties instead, we get yelled at by management for not dealing with the freight

in the back room is so bad we literally can’t move back there.” High authority figures should get

the knowledge that the employees are not robots. If there are short of people you can have every

one work on a particular station but not working like slaves. Or giving them positive feedback of

encouragement can benefit them instead of mistreatment.

12

On the other hand, having less authority to not stand for your selves as an employee is a

disgrace shows weakens and slavery. People need to disobey the rules for their freedom rights, to

make changes in this world people should not follow others, but follow their own route for

freedom of rights for self-respect, and also to be a leader such as Martin Luther King, one of the

greatest leaders from the south. Martin Luther King protested that race should not be tolerated

for us to be slaves we have to stand up for ourselves there needs to be changes, and not to be

blind for our actions referring as any job position, be free to stand for your rights, this relates for

jobs or any job duties, we should not be ashamed and to keep proceeding for the position we are

in. According to Fromm, similar to Martin Luther king, (Fromm, 623) he also indicated that “By

obeying the inhuman laws of the State, Antigone necessarily would disobey the former”.

Obeying people is not recommended at all times to keep a job you are a human being. You can’t

just fire someone cause of disobeying a rule.

“Prisoner and guard: The Stanford Experiment” College experiment also relates to the

power of Adolph Hitler of punishment without the intentions of getting innocent people abused,

raped or killed. Similar to the affect that Doctor Zimbardo himself was blind throughout the

procedure playing the role of a Gordon (Hitler). A Zimbardo intention was to see how innocent

prisoners were willing to go with giving authority. Prisoners showed no mercy on giving up the

volunteered experiment they kept preceding till it was over. The procedure got so intense that all

the people such as the guards and prisoners were going so far out their comfort zone doing things

they never see them doing. The prisoners were strictly commanded to kiss each other. They were

commanded to repeat what the guards said to do and they followed every step what the guards

said to do, some were punish persistently to do pushups for no reason. This experiment is another

reason why high power of authority should be prohibited. So much authority among somebody

13

can get them sick, depressed, and may have some health condition determining how far the

experiment proceeded.

One of the many reasons why many believe that high power of authority is a good figure

to use among people is because it makes them feel superior with high self-esteem to do anything

they please. And also not having a proper use of authority, coworkers might take advantage of

them. Some people need strong authority figures to have respect of them so people can take their

actions serious and not take advantage. To make business grow comes with strong authority

figures. High authorities are control over anything for a business to succeed. Employees can get

unemployed for not following the authority instructions to simply find replacement for their

position.

In conclusion, high authority such as “bosses” figures should not take advantage of power

among people. God created people to be loved and cared for. High authority is the key for

success but over using power against innocent people is committing a sin. Having happy

employees or innocent people can make life fortunate for everyone it can make a business grow.

People should stand up for their selves rather it’s good or bad. We all have rights. Mistreating

employees should be prohibited. People should treat workers with respect and kindness. whole

person does the job, not just half. When you see your employees as whole people, they feel

appreciated and supported. They're filled with more potential motivation to excel rather than just

doing the basics of what's expected. Personal experiences lend perspective that encourages

extraordinary contribution.

14

Works Cited

Behrens, Laurence, and Leonard J. Rosen, Ed.wrting and learning across the curriculum.

New Jersey: Pearson, 2013. Print.

Experiment, Stafford. “Prisoner and Guard: The Stanford Experiment” 660-61.

From, Erich. “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem.” Behrens 621-29.

Milgram, Stanley. “The perils of Obedience” Behrens 630-43.

Pendola, Rocco. “Mistreated Wal-Mart Employees Speak Out” http:www.thestreet.com/story.

The Street, 18 March, 2014. Web.