In: Psychology
what are four ways on how the declaration of independence fail the academic essay form
Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.
(Answer) Firstly, it is essential to point out that the ‘Declaration of Independence’ is a declaration of predefined codes and national ethics that each citizen is entitled to follow, practice and bestow upon a fellow citizen and oneself. An essay, on the other hand, is a piece where each paragraph in succession might talk about an idea from the stage of an introduction, body and conclusion. In an essay, the idea is being expounded by proving or logically explaining it.
The academic essay writing form suggests that each paragraph should be in succession with the other. For instance, the first paragraph would introduce the topic, the middle talks about personal views, research and the subject, while the third paragraph would conclude it. In the ‘Declaration of Independence’, the paragraphs don’t necessarily build up towards a conclusion; they just are what they are.
Academic essay form dictates that each paragraph should be like a topic in itself. This would mean that the paragraph breaks would be dictated by the point being elucidated in that paragraph. The paragraphs in the declaration are full of information and no particular subject is being touched on in each paragraph.
“How?” is an important question that the body of an academic essay might have to answer. How is this point proven? How does one arrive at this conclusion? Etc. The declaration is a declaration or a statement and hence does not need to answer the “How?” but rather the “What?” or what is being declared.
A typical academic essay might have what is called an “opener” or an “abstract.” In this paragraph, the entire gist of the essay is explained, the research or experiments are touched on and the result is hinted at. There is no such opener for the ‘Declaration of Independence’. Every paragraph is clearly talking about the rights of the citizens, freedom and independence that a democracy bestows etc. It is more like the entire document is an opener and the state of the nation would be the body and the future of the nation would be a conclusion.