Performance Task

Task: Create a formal, argumentative paper that answers the following:

Essential Question: 

Was Nationalism a positive force in shaping world events?

Guidelines:

- Select a region and research an example of nationalism. Provide an argument that argues whether or not nationalism was a positive force in that region. 

- Address at least one political, economic, and/or social effect of nationalism in that region. 

- Create a counter­claim by effectively refuting at least one claim of the opposition argument.

- Your paper should be at least 3 pages in length. Double-spaced, 12 point/Times New Roman font. Your paper must be in MLA format.

- You must cite at least 5 sources (primary and/or secondary) from the FLHS Library Site and/or Gale Database.

-The task is to write an argumentative essay that responds to the essential question by giving information that shows evidence that supports your argument(s) as well as counter-claims of opposing views. Be sure to refute those claims with a rebuttal.

Due: 12/20

Resources:

- Francis Lewis HS Library Site

- Easy Citation 

- MLA Format Outline 

Argumentative Essay Graphic Organizer

Essay Outline	Possible Structure
Introduction	"Hook" Introduce the Issue. State your position clearly. Transition to the essay body.
Body (these paragraphs can be places in any logical order within the essay)	Pro Reason 1 Supporting Evidence (Highlight evidence, give statistics)	Pro Reason 2 Supporting Evidence (Highlight evidence, give statistics)
	Pro Reason 3 (Your Most powerful Argument) Supporting Evidence (Highlight evidence, give statistics)	State the opposing position Supporting Evidence (Highlight evidence, give statistics) Explain why these might be true but....
Conclusion	Transition to conclusion Restate Your Position Summary of Reasons (Optional) Clincher (Conclude with your opinion or a  "call to action"

Sample Argumentative Essay

In the nineteenth century, Marxism was first introduced. Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto with his friend Friedrich Engels. Since then, many people supported his ideas. A classless society is defined as everyone is equal. There shall be no exploitation, no class, and should have equality and common prosperity. Marxism influenced many countries of the world and is accepted by many people as well. One country that was influenced by Marxism is China.

Neo-Marxism is a term applied to people of the twentieth century that continued Marx’s ideas. However, many of the original ideas were not accepted by the schools. They focus more on the state controlling properties. (Marshall and Scott, “Neo-Marxism”) Some schools for that are The Frankfurt School and the Budapest School. (McCarthy, “Neo-Marxism”) These schools are neo-Marxist philosophical schools formed in the 1960’s and they formed an important influence. They continued to carry out Marx’s ideas to the world, hoping to have a classless society. Many people believe in Marx’s ideas and that they will become true one day.

In the first chapter of the Communist Manifesto, the fist line is “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx, “Communist Manifesto”) The meaning of this is that the struggle of the history of existing societies would be the history of class struggles. In most of Marx’s lifetime, he tried to make classless societies possible, but it is not successful. Marxism had been introduced to the world for a few centuries, but it is usually not applied.

Many people disagreed with it Marxism and some others questioned it. Will there ever be a classless society? Even though Marxism has been spreading since a long time ago, it has not yet been accepted by everyone. The United States, for example, is not a classless society. There are differences between the poor, the middle class, and the rich. These different kinds of people live a different life. A classless society can not be established even if it is believed to be a good society to have. It is believed that it is impossible to have a classless society because there must be more than one class in order to have a successful society. There must be different classes in a society to satisfy everyone.

It was said that “Humans are competitive beings”; it’s human nature. Competition is deeply inserted into human’s minds, and can not be removed. Without classes, it is hurting humans because competition is a part of human nature. In life, people always want to take the best of everything, always want to do better than the others. Just as “sports, school, politics, business, economics”, etc. (“Humans are competitive beings…”) Humans compete for all sorts of things, and it could be used in a class-based society. People compete to get higher in class; it’s like a game.

Certainly, the ideas of Marxism are good; but there should and can not be a classless society because it will harm human beings. There must be many different classes. Just as a good player, if there weren’t many losers, the player will not become as great as he may seem now. Or as a pretty flower, if there weren’t the green leaves around it, it will just be a regular plant. The different classes should be supporting each other. Just like a game, winning, being in the high class, is to encourage people that are behind. Losing, being in the low class, is to remind people to work harder.

However, many people believed that the idea of a classless society will eventually happen. Even uneducated peasants, workers understand that everything in the universe are meant to be developed, and then continue the process, and lastly fade out. Everything animated will die; there is nothing that will live forever. Even turtles that are named to be live for a million years will die one day as well. Therefore, a classless society will have the same process as well. It well happen, then continue the process, and it will fade out one day. When more and more people disagree with this kind of society, it will start to decline and eventually fade.

Marxism influenced many countries in the world. One of the countries is Soviet Union, which is now Russia. It was an empire covering most of the world’s lands, including many people of different nationalities. It was the first country that adopted Marxism, in 1883. George Plekhanov, a Russian revolutionary, understood Marx’s philosophy as the tradition of dialectical materialism. This means that he accepted Engels’s position. Lenin also admitted publicly that he is a follower of Plekhanov’s philosophy. “George Valentinovich Plekhanov and Pavel Borisovich were the founders of the Russian Marxist movement” (Matgamna, “How Russian Marxism Began”)

Since the writings of Marx and Engels were translated into the Chinese language in the early twentieth century, Marxism influenced China and the lives of the Chinese people, especially in the twentieth century. Marxism influenced some important characters in Chinese history; for example, Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and many others as well. Sun Yat-sen was the representative of Chinese old

democratic revolutionaries. Sun Yat-sen once studied the teachings of Marx and the socialist ideology. China is now a communist country was mainly because of the relationship of Marxism. The Communist Manifesto made a big influence in Chinese history. The founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, once said that the Communist Manifesto taught him that class struggle was the most important problem of the history of people. (Mao, Classes and Class Struggle)

Marxism completely changed the Chinese traditional discourse system. The Chinese discourse system is now a series of concept based on Marxism as the core of the system, including the economic, political, cultural, and productive forces. These concepts were not applied before the May Fourth Movement. It was a movement that was started by students in order to protest about the old, traditional thoughts of the government. It was a peaceful movement at first, but it eventually turned out violent and was banned by the government because China would not allow anyone to say bad words about the government, since they are communist. (Chow, May Fourth Movement) Also, it changed the philosophy of the Chinese people’s way of thinking. After Marxism was introduced, the people of China understood many modern philosophies of knowledge. Also, many nationally holidays were affected by Marxism; for example the holidays for women, for children, for veterans, etc. These holidays were made in order to have equality between all kinds of people; women and men, children and adults, dead and alive. Everyone is equal under the ideas of Marxism.

Works Cited

"Before and After the May Fourth Movement." Before and After the May Fourth Movement | Asia for Educators | Columbia University. Columbia University, 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Chow, Tse-tung. "May Fourth Movement (1919)." May Fourth Movement (1919). Harvard University Press, 1960. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Dietzgen, Joseph. "Scientific Socialism." Marxists. Volksataat, 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

"Humans Are Competitive Beings ..." Editorial. Humans Are Competitive Beings ... Lab Times, June 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

Liu, Taite. "The East Is Still Red." : Mao Zedong's Thoughts on Class Struggle and Daoist Philosophy. N.p., 20 May 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Mao, Zedong. "Quotations from Mao Tse Tung — Chapter 2." Quotations from Mao Tse Tung — Chapter 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Marshall, Gordon, and John Scott. "Neo-Marxism." Markfoster. Oxford University Press, 28 Apr. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

Marx, Karl H., and Friedrich Engels. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1). N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

"Marxism in Asia - China." Net Industries. Net Industries and Its Licensors, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.

Matgamna, Sean. "How Russian Marxism Began." Workers' Liberty. Sean Matgamna, 03 Dec. 2003. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.

McCarthy, Pat. "Neo-Marxism." Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Ed. James H. Birx. Vol. 4. Thousand Oaks: California, n.d. 1546. Markfoster. Pat McCarthy, 2006. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

"Winning Isn't the Most Important Thing." Winning Isn T the Most Important Thing. Studymode, Oct. 1999. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

Rubric

	Statement of Purpose/Focus and Organization		Development: Language and Elaboration of Evidence		Conventions
	Statement of Purpose/Focus	Organization	Elaboration of Evidence	Language and Vocabulary
4	The response is fully sustained and consistently and purposefully focused:  • claim is clearly stated, focused and strongly maintained • alternate or opposing claims are clearly addressed* • claim is introduced and communicated clearly within the context	The response has a clear and effective organizational structure creating unity and completeness: • effective, consistent use of a variety of transitional strategies • logical progression of ideas from beginning to end • effective introduction and conclusion for audience and purpose • strong connections among ideas, with some syntactic variety	The response provides thorough and convincing support/evidence for the writer’s claim that includes the effective use of sources, facts, and details. The response achieves substantial depth that is specific and relevant:  • use of evidence from sources is smoothly integrated, comprehensive, relevant, and concrete • effective use of a variety of elaborative techniques	The response clearly and effectively expresses ideas, using precise language: • use of academic and domain-specific vocabulary is clearly appropriate for the audience and purpose	The response demonstrates a strong command of conventions:  • few, if any, errors  are present in usage and sentence formation • effective and consistent use of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
3	The response is adequately sustained and generally focused:  • claim is clear and for the most part maintained, though some loosely related material may be present • context provided for the claim is adequate	The response has an evident organizational structure and a sense of completeness, though there may be minor flaws and some ideas may be loosely connected: • adequate use of transitional strategies with some variety • adequate progression of ideas from beginning to end  • adequate introduction and conclusion • adequate, if slightly inconsistent, connection among ideas	The response provides adequate support or evidence for writer’s claim that includes the use of sources, facts, and details. The response achieves some depth and specificity but is predominantly general: • some evidence from sources is integrated, though citations may be general or imprecise  • adequate use of some elaborative techniques	The response adequately expresses ideas, employing a mix of precise with more general language  • use of domain-specific vocabulary is generally appropriate for the audience and purpose	The response demonstrates an adequate command of conventions:  • some errors in usage and sentence formation may be present, but no systematic pattern of errors is displayed • adequate use of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
2	The response is somewhat sustained and  may have a minor drift in focus: • may be clearly focused on the claim but is insufficiently sustained • claim on the issue may be somewhat unclear and unfocused	The response has an inconsistent organizational structure, and flaws are evident: • inconsistent use of basic transitional strategies with little variety • uneven progression of ideas from beginning to end  • conclusion and introduction, if present, are weak • weak connection among ideas	The response provides uneven, cursory support/evidence for the writer’s claim that includes partial or uneven use of sources, facts, and details, and achieves little depth: • evidence from sources is weakly integrated, and citations, if present, are uneven • weak or uneven use of elaborative techniques	The response expresses ideas unevenly, using simplistic language: • use of domain-specific vocabulary may at times be inappropriate for the audience and purpose	The response demonstrates a partial command of conventions: • frequent errors in usage may obscure meaning  • inconsistent use of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
1	The response may be related to the purpose but may offer little relevant detail:  • may be very brief • may have a major drift • claim may be confusing or ambiguous	The response has little or no discernible organizational structure: • few or no transitional strategies are evident • frequent extraneous ideas may intrude	The response provides minimal support or evidence for the writer’s claim that includes little or no use of sources, facts, and details: • use of evidence from sources is minimal, absent, in error, or irrelevant	The response expression of ideas is vague, lacks clarity, or is confusing:  • uses limited language or domain-specific vocabulary • may have little sense of audience and purpose	The response demonstrates a lack of command of conventions: • errors are frequent and severe and meaning is often obscure
0	A response gets no credit if it provides no evidence of the ability to [fill in with key language from the intended target].