How does creating balance in your life create space for the things you love? How does your acknowledgment of the sacred in your life point you towards what you love point you to ‘what really matters?’
This week’s writing is your final manifesto—What Really Matters. You will follow the guidelines provided below as you write your own 5-6 page manifesto.
This manifesto is completely personal and answers the question:
What do I love and how will I let that shape what I do?
We are all the authors of our own stories to some extent. So how do you want to live—how do you want to be as a compassionate and conscious citizen of the world? You will take all that you have learned in the class and reflect on your own life—now and projected into the future—as a source of knowledge for thinking about what really matters.
You will notice there is no background section as that will be woven into each part if and as necessary, in total, this assignment should be 5-6 pages (double spaced). While the manifesto must include all the elements listed above in some way, please feel free to otherwise reimagine the format.
- Preamble: You will begin this assignment by explaining why it is important for you to have a manifesto about what really matters (to you). Why should this be addressed?
- What Really Matters: As you construct your personal manifesto, you can think of many questions related to “What do I love and how will I let that shape what I do?,” that you turn into at least 5 normative statements, including:
o What do you love? What brings you joy?
o How did you come to know what you love (context/experience/reflect/act/evaluate)?
o How do your known gifts/talents help shape what you do?
o How discernment impact what you love…how it is integrated into your life help you to know your vocation?
o How understanding a call to serve impact what you love…how is your call to service integrated into your life?
o How does creating balance in your life create space for the things you love?
- How does your acknowledgment of the sacred in your life point you towards what you love point you to ‘what really matters?’
I am a paramedic who love to help people, travel to around the world and adventure many things in life, I am athlete, am just giving you info about my self so you can use it.
– To “make your case,” EACH of your 5 (or more) normative statements will be accompanied by a 150-200 word explanation that (a) explains the principle, and (b) why you adopted it/why it is important to you…each explanation should reference at least one source as support (and class sources count).
– [Across the manifesto, as you are articulating your support for normative statements please includes at least 4 different sources that you read in class.]
- Declaration of Action:This is a concluding declaration that synthesizes the normative statements (and their explanations) in order to lay out a coherent vision statement on ‘what really matters’ with a call to action: What will you do as a result of your manifesto? What will you NOT do as a result of it? Make a declaration that reflects what you stand for. Within this Declaration of Action, please make sure this question is answered as it pertains to a Magis Core objective:
o What does the world need from you? What is your vision of “justice, of serving the common good, and of working as an agent of social justice as a community leader, global citizen and professional within your chosen disciplinary or career field?”
- References:All works cited and consulted. Please utilize APA 6th edition.
For more information about writing a manifesto, please refer here.
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Writing a Manifesto
Manifesto—from the Latin manifestus meaning clear, “evident”—is defined bydictionary.com as a “public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature.” A Manifesto is a public declaration of ideals, goals or vision that is intended to manifest something, that is to make something happen or come into being: a call to action…a newsociety…a new way of seeing. Manifestos can be political, philosophical, or artistic; they lay out what is important to a person or a group and publically “draw a line in the sand” as to what they believe in and what they will do (and not do). As you think about your manifesto essays, they will differ in length, but this is a piece of persuasive writing, one that presents an argument with supporting statements and claims, some of which will be supported by research. You should write with passion and attempt to inspire as you declare a collective vision or set of ideals—and call for some action to be taken on (a) “Confronting Cultures of Injustice,” and (b) “What Really Matters”.
A Manifesto often contains certain parts; while they are described differently in different sources, these four parts summarize the content of most:
- Preamble: An introductory and explanatory statement … that explains the document’s purpose and underlying philosophy”…this establishes what your issue(s) is, why it is important to you and why it needs to be addressed
- Background: Background or history needed for readers to understand your perspective…this may weave in outside research
- Discussion of Normative Statements: A set of points that articulate your claims or goals or defining principles… these statements “affirm how things shouldor ought to be, how to value them, which things are good or bad, which actions are right or wrong” and the discussion of them considers the possible, or likely, social outcomes and impacts of broad adoption (perhaps through an example or illustration)
– This is where you make your case—you should not worry about antagonizing people. Simply say why you believe what you believe…and some people will agree, and some will not. Take that stance that what you believe is really the only approach and work from there.
– In “making a case,” the normative statements are often accompanied by an explanation that (a) explains the principle, (b) why you adopted it/why it is important to you, and (c) what the implications may be for others (society) adopting it.
- Declaration: A concluding declaration that synthesizes the normative statements (and their explanations) in order to lay out a coherent vision statement with a call to action: What should people (or what will you) do as a result of the manifesto? What should people (or what will you) NOT do as a result of it? Make a declaration that reflects what you stand for.
To help you find examples, the website “1000 manifestos” (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. is just that…a project designed to gather 1000 manifestos, some that are famous (e.g., The Communist Manifesto) and some that were created specifically for the project. Below are the principles for writing manifestos from The Manifesto Project’s founder Geoff McDonald in his document The Manifesto Manifesto:
- Manifestos are primal
- Manifestos terminate the past
- Manifestos create new worlds
- Manifestos trigger communities
- Manifestos define us
- Manifestos antagonize others
- Manifestos inspire being
- Manifestos provoke action
- Manifestos command presence