Evaluate Multiple Perspectives unit test
A test on this unit alone, marked as a percentage and a letter grade — for the test your class is actually sitting, rather than for May. Answer everything, then submit once: seeing the answer to question 3 before attempting question 4 makes the final percentage meaningless.
Why two lenses beat two sources
Weighing perspectives
Presenting a perspective fairly
Using a biased source well
Rebuttal that engages
Documenting perspectives you rejected
Overlooked stakeholders
Positionality
Perspective in the team project
When to concede
Cultural context and translation
Common lenses to name
Short answer 1. Define or explain: Avoiding the "both sides" conclusion
3 ptsShort answer 2. Define or explain: Bias vs point of view
3 ptsShort answer 3. Define or explain: Stakeholder analysis
3 ptsShort answer 4. Define or explain: Recognizing consensus and its limits
3 ptsFree response
15 ptsThis course has no free-response prompt tagged to this unit, so one from elsewhere in the course is used. It is still worth writing — the skill transfers.
END-OF-COURSE EXAM, PART A (30 minutes, 15 points). Read the passage, summarized below, then respond to prompts A1–A3. The passage is excerpted from Zara Abrams, "The Urgent Necessity for Paid Parental Leave," Monitor on Psychology (American Psychological Association), April 2022. Abrams argues that the United States urgently needs a national paid parental leave policy. Her case: despite broad public support and strong evidence of benefits, the US is one of only six countries with no paid parental leave; the unpaid leave guaranteed by the 1993 FMLA is unaffordable for many and excludes about 44% of workers. She marshals research showing paid leave improves maternal health (a 51% drop in rehospitalization risk; fewer depressive symptoms for mothers who can take more than two months), that disadvantaged families benefit most yet have least access (about 47% of White, 41% of Black, and 23% of Hispanic parents have paid leave), and that leave for fathers matters too — neuroscience studies (Israeli brain-imaging work on primary-caregiver fathers; a randomized trial of baby-carrier use) suggest caregiving itself, not gender, builds parental instincts, and a Swedish reform expanding fathers' leave improved mothers' health. She closes with evidence linking paid leave to lower infant mortality, higher vaccination, more breastfeeding, distinct infant EEG profiles suggesting more mature cognition, better toddler language skills, and fewer behavioral problems — concluding that resources and time after childbirth shape families' futures.
A1. Identify the author’s argument, main idea, or thesis. (3 points)
A2. Explain the author’s line of reasoning by identifying the claims used to build the argument and the connections between them. (6 points)
A3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the evidence the author uses to support the claims made in the argument. (6 points)