xxxxxThe smallest unit to assign a stance to is clause. In deciding a stance, you will need to divide a text into clauses to see how stances are at work in any text. Follow the steps below to start writing or analyzing your stance.
1. Break your sentence into clauses if you have coordinating conjunctions like AND, BUT, OR, SO, THAT.
[Example] 1. Soloway et al. argued that | software designers need to consider scaffolding for the tasks learners perform and for the
Tools and interfaces learners use.
[Example] 2. The reason for drawing on discussions of the Rushdie affair isthat | the two cases are very similar in most of the relevant respects
[Example] 3. In the psychological literature, several definitions of forgiveness have been proposed, | but there is growing consensus that | forgiveness may be defined by prosocial motivational changes towards a transgressor.
[Example] 4. Distrust refers to a suspicious or cynical attitude towards others |and I will argue that |it is inimical to democracy.
2. Break your sentence into clauses if you have subordinating conjunctions like ALTHOUGH, AFTER, WHEREAS, BEFORE, SINCE, WHEN, BECAUSE, UNTIL,IF, EVEN THOUGH, UNLESS, etc.
[Example] 1. Future goals will motivate achievement in multicultural classrooms,|if schools and families succeed in
fostering internal regulation along with positive perceptions of instrumentality.
[Example] 2. We even trust people more generally, people we have never met, |as we go about our daily lives.
[Example] 3. On the basis of these considerations, we defend the conclusionthat| the voting age should not be lowered to sixteen, | as some have demanded.
[Example] 4. The Commission recommends that|while the age of candidacy should be lowered from 21 to 18, | the voting age should stay at 18 (Electoral Commission, 2004).
[Example] 5. If the formation, cognitive maintenance, initiation, and completion of intentions actually are self-regulatory processes, | we could expect that| individual differences in self-regulation play an important role in these processes.
After
breaking into clauses, consider the following:
1. Decide and assign one of the four values to each clause or sentence (i.e. Non-argumentative, High-argumentative, Med-argumentative, and Tentative).
2. Calculate the total number of each stance you used in your writing.
3. Ask yourself why you use one value more than others.
4. Ask youself if you would like to sharpen your argument more or soften your argument more by changing some of the values you used.