11/12

English for Academic and

Professional Purposes
(EAPP)
Q2/Q4-Module 3
Position Paper
What I Need To Know
Most Essential Learning Competency (MELC):
Writes various kinds of position paper.
(CS_EN11/12A -EAPP-IIa d-5)
Objectives:
At the end of this module, you are expected to achieve to:
1. explain what a position paper is;
2. give the importance of position paper; and
3. write a position paper.

What I Know
PRE-TEST
Directions: Copy the graphic organizer below on a separate sheet of
paper, then write on the circles words or phrases that you think can be associated
with the word “Position Paper”.

POSITION
PAPER
_

LESSON 3 POSITION PAPER

What’s In
Let us recall your knowledge about the previous lesson and try
to link it to our new topic by answering the short drill below.

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 1 of 12

 Directions: Encircle the essential ideas that you have
learned in defending a stand on an issue from the previous lesson.
S E V I D E N C E O G G W Z E
C O M S E F G A S W H M E V N
L L H E B N E I O O N L K N T
A M O I S P T T I P U L F W E
I N L G D A H S H E N A R E L
P S P O I S I G N D D N F A C
F A E P W C C V G G E O N R A
O B S H A E A E N F T I A T G
R E A J V U L L S I I T S S H
D S H D B D F A G T R O E F A
P F U A Y F A E T S A M D A V
E A N N S E S M C E S E F S E
A R G U M E N T E D O G O H T

What’s New
This lesson on position paper will teach you how to prove your claims
and gather evidence to support them. Learning to write various kinds of position
papers is important in preparing for a more advanced writing activity. In order to
differentiate Persuasive writing from Argumentative writing answer the given
activity below.
Copy the table below in your notebook. Read the descriptions below and
identify whether it is a form of persuasion or argumentation. Put an X on the
appropriate box.

Source:https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/minilesson/distinguishing-argumentation-persuasion

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 2 of 12

What Is It

Definition and Purpose

Position paper is a typical kind of scholarly or academic paper. It is
composed of subsequent to finding out about and examining a specific issue. It is
written by an author in order to make an argument which must be based from proofs
or evidences. It is more complex version of a persuasive essay and it has a various
parts like other academic papers. A position paper can be likened to a debate, but
you are presenting your arguments in a written form. Presenting an argument
implies that you are favouring one side of the issue.
Position paper aims to present the stand of the author or a person on an
issue. It also incorporates supportive evidence that are based on facts. The
evidence is needed to establish and strengthen the claims or arguments of the
writer on the issue.
Parts of a Position Paper
Position paper consists of three parts such as the introduction, body, and
conclusion.

First part is the introduction. It consists the introduction of the issue,

explanation of the topic in order to provide the background information of the issue
and the assertion of the thesis statement.
Second part is the body. It includes the summary of the counterclaims, and
your arguments. Summary of the counterclaims refer to the counter arguments of
others who disagree with your claims or stand on an issue.
In this part, you must also provide supporting information and refute the
counterclaims by providing evidence. After it is the presentation of your arguments.
It is the part where you must assert your claims by giving educated and
informed opinions. These should be supported or proven by providing evidence
from various sources, preferably three.
The last part is the conclusion. It includes the restatement of the thesis
statement, arguments and the implications. You may include plan of action but do
not introduce new information.

The following are reminders in writing a Position paper:

1. Make sure that your position paper has a clear topic and issue that has
adequate findings and support.
2. Make sure that the issue you are writing about is real and has two distinctive
sides that you can take.
3. Make sure you can provide evidence and support to side and claims.
Examples:
Topic: ROTC
Issue: Inclusion of ROTC in SHS curriculum
Stand: In Favor
Claims:
1. It promotes culture of discipline and responsibility.
2.It provides opportunity to inculcate the values of patriotism,
nationalism, and character-building.
3.It provides training that will develop students’ leadership skills.

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 3 of 12

 Thesis Statement: ROTC should be part of the SHS curriculum because it
promotes culture of discipline and responsibility, provides opportunity to
inculcate the values of patriotism, nationalism and character-building, and
provides training that will develop students’ leadership skills.
As you can see in the example, an issue is derived from a topic.
Before you decide in writing your position paper, make sure you check if the
issue is real and timely. Then you proceed on analyzing if the issue has two
sides before you decide if you are in favor or against it. After which, you need
to provide at least three main reasons why you are in favor or not. Make sure
that you can supplement your reasons with facts and evidences in order to
strengthen your claims. Having a clear topic, issue, stand and three claims are
not enough unless you have your thesis statement. Hence, you have to make
sure that your thesis statement will include the topic, issue, stand and three
claims.

How should a position paper be outlined?

I. Introduction
A. Presentation of the topic
B. Presentation of the background information
C. Presentation of the thesis statement
II. Body
A. Presentation of the Summary of the Counterclaims
B. Presentation of the Arguments
B1. First Argument
a. Evidence/Support
B2. Second Argument
b. Evidence/Support
B3. Third Argument
c. Evidence/Support
III. Conclusion
A. Restatement of the thesis statement, arguments, action plan
Why is writing a position paper relevant?
Writing a position paper will help you gain insight on the issue. It will also
improve your critical thinking ability since it requires research skills in gathering,
evaluating and analyzing information.
Choosing an Issue
1. The issue should be debatable. You cannot take any position if the
topic is not debatable.
2.The issue should be current and relevant.
3.The issue should be written in a question form and answerable by
yes or no.
4.The issue should be specific and manageable

Types of writing used for convincing:

1. Persuasion appeals to readers’ emotions to make them believe
something or take a specific action. It also uses logic and evidence.
Steps in Persuasive Writing
1. State your opinion and introduce your argument.
2. Give your reasons for your opinion.

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 4 of 12

 3. Illustrate with examples to support your opinion.
4. Restate your opinion and your suggested solution.
Example:
Parents’ love which is illustrated with their sacrifices is worth
recognition. They send their children to school even if they have not gone to
school themselves, even if their own wants are sacrificed just to fund students’
needs. You, dear students, must recognize this immeasurable love of your
parents by being good in your studies.
2. Argumentation relies on logic and evidence to build a case for
specific claim. Argumentation de-emphasizes appeals to emotion.
Steps in Argumentative Writing
1. Make a claim.
2. Support your claim with reasons/evidence.
3. Acknowledge the counterclaim.
4. Refute the counterclaim.
5. Conclude with strong statement.
Example:
Many students ignore the significance of doing well in their
studies. They often neglect their parents’ sacrifices by getting low grades or worst
yet getting failing marks. On the other hand, psychologists say performance in
school is influenced by many factors which include peers. However, to fair well in
school is not only about influence but also about being exposed to social realities
such as difficulties of getting decent job. Thus, funding students to school
becomes a big sacrifice among parents.

Persuasive versus Argumentative

This table below will help you differentiate Persuasive writing from
Argumentative writing.
CHARACTERISTICS PERSUASIVE ARGUMENTATIVE
Claim is based on factual
CLAIM Claim is based on opinion
evidence
Asks the audience to do Proves a point to the
PURPOSE
something. audience.
Based on character and Based on stabilized position
BASIS
emotion. and logic.

Guidelines in Writing a Position Paper

1. Begin the writing process with an in-depth research about the issue
at hand.
2.Be aware of the various positions about the issue and explain and
analyze them objectively.
3. Reflect on your position and identify its weaknesses.
4. Establish your credibility by citing reliable sources.
5. Present a unique way of approaching the issue.
6. Limit your position paper to two pages.
7. Analyze your target readers and align your arguments to their beliefs,
needs, interest, and motivations.
8. Summarize the other side’s counterarguments and refute them with
evidence.
9. Define unfamiliar terms at first mention.
10. Use an active voice as much possible.

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 5 of 12

 This will make your tone dynamic and firm.
11. Arrange your evidence logically using an inductive or deductive
approach.
12. Check your paper for fallacies and revise accordingly.
13. Use ethical, logical, and emotional appeals. Ethical appeals relate
to your credibility and competence as writer; logical appeal refers to the
rational approach in developing and argument; emotional appeals
pertain to feelings evoked during arguments. Make sure to check your
appeals to ensure that they are not fallacious.

Position Paper Example:

The Great Global Warming Swindle
S. Fred Singer
(1) Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has met its match: a devastating
documentary recently shown on British television, which has now been viewed
by millions of people on the Internet. Despite its flamboyant title, The Great Global
Warming Swindle is based on sound science and interviews with real climate
scientists, including me. An Inconvenient Truth, on the other hand, is mostly an
emotion presentation from a single politician.
(2) The scientific arguments presented in The Great Global Warming
Swindle can be stated quite briefly:
(3) There is no proof that the current warming is caused by the rise of
greenhouse gases from human activity. Ice core records from the past 650,000
years show that temperature increases have preceded-not resulted from-
increases in CO2 by hundreds of years, suggesting that the warming of the
oceans is an important source of the rise in atmospheric CO2. As the dominant
greenhouse gas, water vapor is far, far more important than CO2. Dire predictions
of future warming are based almost entirely on computer climate models, yet
these models do not accurately understand the role of water vapor – and, in any
case, water vapor is not within our control. Plus, computer models cannot account
for the observed cooling of much of the past century (1940-75), nor for the
observed patterns of warming – what we call the “fingerprints.” For example, the
Antarctic is cooling while models predict warming. And where the models call for
the middle atmosphere to warm faster than the surface, the observations show
the exact opposite.
(4) The best evidence supporting natural causes of temperature
fluctuations are the changes in cloudiness, which correspond strongly with regular
variations in solar activity. The current warming is likely part of a natural cycle of
climate warming and cooling that’s been traced back almost a million years. It
accounts for the Medieval Warm Period around 1100 A.D., when the Vikings
settled Greenland and grew crops, and the Little Ice Age, from about 1400 to 1840
A.D., which brought severe winters and cold summers to Europe, with failed
harvests, starvation, disease, and general misery. Attempts have been made to
claim the current warming is “unusual” using spurious analysis of tree rings and
other proxy data. Advocates have tried to deny the existence of these historic
climate swings and claim that the current warming is “unusual” using spurious
analysis of tree rings and other proxy data, resulting in the famous “hockey-stick”
temperature graph. The hockey-stick graph has now been thoroughly discredited.
(5) 2. If the cause of warming is mostly natural, then there is little we can
do about it. We cannot control the inconstant sun, the likely origin of most climate
variability. None of the schemes for greenhouse gas reduction currently bandied
about will do any good; they are all irrelevant, useless, and wildly expensive:
• Control of CO₂ emissions, whether by rationing or elaborate cap and-trade
schemes
• Uneconomic “alternative” energy, such as ethanol and the impractical

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 6 of 12

“hydrogen economy”
• Massive installations of wind turbines and solar collectors
• Proposed projects for the sequestration of CO₂ from smokestacks or even from
the atmosphere
(6) Ironically, even if CO2 were responsible for the observed warming
trend, all these schemes would be ineffective-unless we could persuade every
nation, including China, to cut fuel use by 80 percent!
Finally, no one can show that a warmer climate would produce negative
impacts overall. The much-feared rise in sea levels does not seem to depend on
short-term temperature changes, as the rate of sea-level increases has been
steady since the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. In fact, many economists argue
that the opposite is more likely-that warming produces a net benefit, that it
increases incomes and standards of living. Why do we assume that the present
climate is the optimum? Surely, the chance of this must be vanishingly small, and
the economic history of past climate warnings bear this out.
(8) But the main message of The Great Global Warming Swindle is much
broader. Why should we devote our scarce resources to what is essentially a non-
problem, and ignore the real problems the world faces: hunger, disease, denial of
human rights-not to mention the threats of terrorism and nuclear wars? And are
we really prepared to deal with natural disasters; pandemics that can wipe out
most of the human race, or even the impact of an asteroid, such as the one that
wiped out the dinosaurs? Yet politicians and the elites throughout much of the
world prefer to squander our limited resources to fashionable issues, rather than
concentrate on real problems. Just consider the scary predictions emanating from
supposedly responsible world figures: the chief scientist of Great Britain tells us
that unless we insulate our houses and use more efficient light bulbs, the Antarctic
will be the only habitable continent by 2100, with a few surviving breeding couples
propagating the human race. Seriously!

(9) I imagine that in the not-too-distant future all the hype will have died
down, particularly if the climate should decide to cool-as it did during much of the
past century; we should take note here that it has not warmed since 1998. Future
generations will look back on the current madness and wonder what it was all
about. They will have movies like An Inconvenient Truth and documentaries like
The Great Global Warming Swindle to remind them.

What’s More
You have already learned some concepts on how to defend a
stand on an issue by presenting reasonable arguments. Now, let us check how
far you have gone with our lesson.
Directions: Write T if the statement is true, and F if false.
_________ 1. Opinions are better than facts in supporting arguments.
_________ 2. The main goal of a position paper is to inform readers.
_________ 3. Your position should be restated in the concluding paragraph.
_________ 4. The content of a position should have only one paragraph.
_________ 5. The most important thing in writing your position paper is how many
sources you have that would support your argument.
_________ 6. The purpose of a position paper is to generate more issues.
_________ 7. A good position paper considers all possible views on the issue at
hand.
_________ 8. An issue is a crucial component of a position paper.
_________ 9. An issue is debatable if it cannot be answered by yes or no.
_________ 10. In the position paper, you should validate your position with
authoritative references or primary source quotations.

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 7 of 12

 What I Have Learned
Directions: Using the sentence outline format, supply the template with
correct information that will prove what you have learned so far from this module.
Write your answers in a separate sheet of paper.
I. Position Paper
A. Definition
B. Purpose
II. Parts of a Position Paper
A. ____________________
1. It consists/includes
B. ____________________
1. It consists/includes
C. _____________________
1. It consists/includes
III. Reminders in writing a Position paper
1.

2.
3.
What I Can Do
Directions: Read this sample position paper and identify the stand/
reasons of the writer. Use the reading guide provided to facilitate better
understanding of the paper. Use the template below and write your answers on
a separate sheet of paper.
Should Homework Be Mandatory?
I can almost see many students nodding along with me as I ask this
question. Younger generations overloaded with home tasks and numerous
assignments have already raised this issue many times.
Yet, homework remains mandatory. Is it fair or should it be cancelled?
I believe that homework should not be viewed as a mandatory part of
education for several reasons.
First, children spend seven hours every single work day at school. That is
a huge chunk of life, and with homework added on top of these hours, a child is left
with no time to live his life to the fullest, socialize, or grow in other areas.
Second, sitting at your desk solving problems does no good to your health.
Kids need time to get outside and have some fun, join a football league, or ride
their bikes with friends around the block. Otherwise, children will be very smart but
surprisingly weak physically.
Another argument against this position is that homework is not always the
best way to obtain knowledge quality-wise. Students tend to ask their parents or
siblings for help whenever facing difficulties. Busy parents not always willing to
spend extra time explaining school material to their little one solve the problems
themselves aiming to have more time for family, not lessons. As a result, the child
will have the homework done. But that’s really not his work. So, the whole idea of
dedicating time to self-education is lost here.

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 8 of 12

 Finally, knowing that after classes you would still have to work at home
makes a kid less concentrated at school. This results in short attention spans and
difficulty to concentrate on something for too long.
All in all, homework should rather be an option. Students understanding
that they are left behind at some subjects will take their time to go over the material
at home. However, in other cases, they should have time after school for other
activities.

Accessed from: (https://chiefessays.net/position-essay-examples-to-help-

you-grasp-the-idea/)

1. Position Paper’s Topic/ Issue:

___________________________________________________________

2. Evidences/ Reasons:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

3. Call for action/ Solution:

___________________________________________________________

Assessment
Post Test
Directions: Given the topic below, expound your stand and give
reasons using the supporting evidence you have researched and provided.
Then, develop these facts into a coherent position paper following the given
outline. Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Topic/Issue: Is online learning effective or not?

__________________________________
Title

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 9 of 12

Rubrics:

Additional Activities
Directions: Research one example of a position paper that is related
to your track or strand. Print then read the article, give your reaction on it by
answering the following questions given. Copy and answer the questions in a
separate sheet of paper.

1. Write at least three arguments of the writer about the topic/issue.

2. Each of the arguments/claims, answer if you agree or disagree, explain
your answers.
3. If you disagree with the writers’ claims, write also your counterclaims about
the arguments.

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 10 of 12

 References
Laurel, M.C., Luceno, A.F., & Bumantay-Cruz, R.T. (2016). English for Academic
and Professional Purposes, Reader. Department of Education

Laurel, M.C., Luceno, A.F., &Bumantay-Cruz, R.T. (2016). English for Academic
and Professional Purposes, Teacher’s Guide. Department of Education

Valdez, P.N. M. (2016). English for the Globalized Classroom Series. English for
Academic and Professional Purposes. Quezon City: The Phoenix Publishing House
Inc.
Otero, Rowel Ll. (2016), English for Academic and Professional Purposes
Worktext
Department of Education (December 2013). K to 12 Senior High School Applied

Track Subject-English for Academic and Professional Purposes. Curriculum Guide

DepEd Learner’s Materials in English for Academic and Professional Purposes

DepEd Teaching Guide in English for Academic and Professional Purposes

DepEd Curriculum Guide in English for Academic and Professional Purposes

Online Sources:
https://eng.ucmerced.edu/people/awesterling/SPR2014.ESS141/Assignments/ru
bric2.pdf

https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=1945

Google. “Writing a Position Paper”. Accessed June 17, 2020

https://mcckc.edu/tutoring/docs/br/english/Writing_a_Position_Paper.pdf

Google. “Writing a Position Paper” Accessed June 17, 2020

https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~rmartin/teaching/fall17/Writing_a_Position_Paper.pdf

Writing Center https://content.bridgepointeducation.com/curriculum/file/ec1a76e3-

4965- 4f8d-a845-06501f4317b3/1/Argumentative%20Paper%20Sample.pdf

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 11 of 12

 Answer Key
WHAT I KNOW: WHAT’S MORE: WHAT I HAVE
Answers may vary. 1. F LEARNED
2. F Answers may vary.
3.T
4. F
WHAT’S IN 5. T
6.F
7. T WHAT I CAN DO:
8. T Answers may vary.
9.T
10. T

ASSESSMENT
Answers may vary.

ADDITIONAL
ACTIVITIES
WHAT’S NEW:
1. P Answers may vary.
2. A
3. P/A
4. P/A
5. P
6. A
7. P
8. P
9.A

EAPP Module 3 – Quarter II/IV, Page 12 of 12