Topic: PTSD and Mental Health Decline is Correctional Employees
Budget: $30 – $250 USD
Prompt
Compose a 3-4 page paper addressing two articles discussing your topic, one on each side of a debate or argument surrounding your topic. The response paper is not an unstructured discussion of your feelings, but an organized mini-argument that builds your position in relation to the two sources that you read for this assignment. Like any good argument, it needs to be tightly organized and you need to explain your position by using clear examples from the readings.
A successful Response Paper will:
Explain the key terms, main arguments, and assumptions of each text.
Characterize each text’s arguments fairly and accurately.
Evaluate the evidence that each text presents: point out strengths and weaknesses, both internal to the text and in relation to the others. For example, if one text makes an argument based on an assumption that another text either confirms or refutes, then you can use the latter text to evaluate the plausibility of the claim made by the former.
Explain how the texts relate to and “speak” to one another. Synthesize them if you can, and if you cannot, explain what the barriers preventing such a synthesis are.
Consider both sides of issues at stake. If all the texts are on one side of an issue, consider the other side. If the texts fall on both sides of an issue, consider where agreements and disagreements lie and what each side’s strengths and weaknesses are.
Include your own voice by weighing arguments, evaluating evidence, and raising critical questions. If there seems to be something important that none of the authors addresses, point it out and state what you think its significance is. Try to be as specific as possible. Keep an eye out for authors’ omissions, and raise counterarguments when you detect authors’ arguments are weak.
Move beyond summary of the text. You are supposed to be reacting or responding to them, not simply repeating what they say. If there is no analysis involved, then you have not responded, only regurgitated.
Articles to use (Only two):
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/us-prisons-face-staff-shortages-officers-quit-amid-80899346#:~:text=US%20prisons%20face%20staff%20shortages%20as%20officers%20quit,Associated%20Press%20November%201%2C%202021%2C%203%3A15%20AM%202%3A04
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/08/18/michigan-corrections-addresses-state-crisis-employee-mental-health/2007420001/?fbclid=IwAR2NPg9EF5aBuQ-plObml7uL-NHIDK5lJHKReWv2JSDCkI4-tAHja52JCEo
https://www.corrections1.com/prison-staffing/articles/teachers-social-workers-covering-security-shifts-at-colo-prisons-amid-staffing-crisis-sqMUAj5xhrmurCz1/
Compose a 3-4 page paper addressing two articles discussing your topic, one on each side of a debate or argument surrounding your topic. The response paper is not an unstructured discussion of your feelings, but an organized mini-argument that builds your position in relation to the two sources that you read for this assignment. Like any good argument, it needs to be tightly organized and you need to explain your position by using clear examples from the readings.
A successful Response Paper will:
Explain the key terms, main arguments, and assumptions of each text.
Characterize each text’s arguments fairly and accurately.
Evaluate the evidence that each text presents: point out strengths and weaknesses, both internal to the text and in relation to the others. For example, if one text makes an argument based on an assumption that another text either confirms or refutes, then you can use the latter text to evaluate the plausibility of the claim made by the former.
Explain how the texts relate to and “speak” to one another. Synthesize them if you can, and if you cannot, explain what the barriers preventing such a synthesis are.
Consider both sides of issues at stake. If all the texts are on one side of an issue, consider the other side. If the texts fall on both sides of an issue, consider where agreements and disagreements lie and what each side’s strengths and weaknesses are.
Include your own voice by weighing arguments, evaluating evidence, and raising critical questions. If there seems to be something important that none of the authors addresses, point it out and state what you think its significance is. Try to be as specific as possible. Keep an eye out for authors’ omissions, and raise counterarguments when you detect authors’ arguments are weak.
Move beyond summary of the text. You are supposed to be reacting or responding to them, not simply repeating what they say. If there is no analysis involved, then you have not responded, only regurgitated.
Articles to use (Only two):
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/us-prisons-face-staff-shortages-officers-quit-amid-80899346#:~:text=US%20prisons%20face%20staff%20shortages%20as%20officers%20quit,Associated%20Press%20November%201%2C%202021%2C%203%3A15%20AM%202%3A04
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/08/18/michigan-corrections-addresses-state-crisis-employee-mental-health/2007420001/?fbclid=IwAR2NPg9EF5aBuQ-plObml7uL-NHIDK5lJHKReWv2JSDCkI4-tAHja52JCEo
https://www.corrections1.com/prison-staffing/articles/teachers-social-workers-covering-security-shifts-at-colo-prisons-amid-staffing-crisis-sqMUAj5xhrmurCz1/