- 16 Mar, 2021
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CRITIQUE Essay
Imagine that you are the head of a school board and are in charge of approving the curriculum.
The grade school teachers in Georgia want to take mandatory field trips for all children to the
Georgia Guidestones, located at the crossroads of Hartwell Highway and Red Hill Road in
Hartwell Georgia. But more than that, they want to teach the Guidestones as the absolute,
objective truth on how humanity should proceed into the future. You actually never heard of the
guidestones and most of the parents in the district have not heard of the Guidestones. As you
read the guidelines, you start to question the applicability of them, their logic, their meaning.
Should the Georgia guidelines be taught as a peculiar mystery of local Georgian history or
should they have wider application and use as a type of worldview and even law with their
instruction starting at the earliest grades.
Your assignment is to write a letter to the parents in the form of an academic critique. You need
to organize your work in this way:
1. Introduction (explain and describe the Georgia guidelines, where they came from,
who wrote them, who made the structure etc.) Do not use word for word from
internet.
2. Include thesis modeled after thesis in lecture. Your thesis will state exactly how you
want the Georgia Guidestones to be used in the curriculum and why.
3. Summarize the information of the guidestones.
4. Analyze and critique (Focus on judging the ideas….to what extent do you agree,
disagree and why etc. Use logic!). Use examples from history, literature, news,
studies in your critique.
5. Conclude by making a clear statement on how to use the guidestones in grade school
education and why. (Sort of an expanded version of the thesis).
You must incorporate into your style at least two examples of the following:
• parallel structure (doublets and triplets),
• correct use of passive voice,
• conciseness,
• appositives,
• anadiplosis,
• antithesis.
Label the use like this: “The Georgia Guidestones, granite structures etched with societal
guidelines, are cryptic at best, and misleading at worst (appositive #1).
If labeling the style is confusing, no worries. Come to class and I will explain and show more
samples.