Directions: The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate your familiarity with and understanding of required course materials. Specifically, this essay focuses on Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Your response should be 3-4 pages in length (1000 – 1300 words) and use the MLA Style Manual for proper document formatting and citation technique. The rubrics for this assignment are posted in iTunes U and LiveText. 125 points

A position essay asserts and supports a clear argument, in this case with respect to the following prompt. That is, the essay needs to have a clear thesis statement – an arguable position – and not simply provide a descriptive statement of the topic. In addition, you should include ample examples from the Kidder book to exemplify your comments.

Sample Thesis Statements:

1. Elm trees are more likely to be cut down than maple trees because they don’t provide as much shade.
2. Mickey and Minnie Mouse are more popular than Donald and Daisy Duck.
3. Traffic accidents in Florida occur more frequently because of texting rather than because of the average age of drivers.

Reminder: Your assignment automatically will be submitted to Turnitin when you submit it in LiveText. Therefore, I highly recommend that you submit it a day or two early to help you determine if all material has been properly cited. This will provide enough time for you to correct any citation errors that may occur. If you need help understanding the Turnitin report, please contact me in a timely manner.

Also, you are encouraged to work with an English faculty member on early drafts of this assignment. Be aware, however, that this is not an excuse for a late submission. You need to make good time management decisions.

Prompt

Mountains Beyond Mountains vividly presents the work of Paul Farmer in various contexts centering on marginalization, justice and civic engagement. First, is there a primary/dominant form of marginalization that Paul Farmer encounters or are the people in Haiti, Peru and the Russian Federation marginalized in more than one way? Second, how is civic engagement used/undertaken by Paul Farmer? Also, how do the members of the various communities also undertake civic engagement on their own behalf? Finally, what do you think can/should be done by both those ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the communities portrayed in Mountains Beyond Mountains?

Look online for summaries of the chapters