The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

135 “Monkey Business” by Kaleen Carter Instructor’s Notes Writing an expository essay on a controversial topic can be difficult because the genre requires complete neutrality and a commitment to unbiased reporting. What are some strategies Kaleen Carter uses in this essay to effectively achieve this goal. What is the scope of her topic? How do you know? Is it important for an author to articulate the scope of his or her topic? Why or why not? Writers’ Biography Kaleen Carter is a second-year AYA Life Science Education major from Colorado. She loves sharing her knowledge and helping others when she can. She enjoys being around people and spends most of her time with others. This summer, she is marrying an officer in the United States Air Force and moving to Oklahoma where she will continue her education. Monkey Business The alarm going off early in the morning, the coffee, the commute to work, and the job were familiar to John Scopes as he started his next year of teaching biology. Though many parts of his schedule remained unchanged, Scopes altered his curriculum in a way his school opposed. Scopes chose to teach the theory of evolution to his high school classroom, violating the school’s rules. This decision landed him in court in what would become known as the Scopes “Monkey Trial.” Though this trial did not come to a clear cut verdict on evolution’s place in education, the case immensely impacted the science classroom throughout the United States, bringing the quiet disagreements on the origin of the earth, circulating the education realm since Darwin’s publication of Origin of the Species in 1859, into a loud public debate that has found its way into courtrooms (Armenta & Lane, 2010, p. 76-77). Both evolution and intelligent design advocates present reasons on why their viewpoint should be taught. Evolutionists