# What is the 'central position'? (or, what does my professor mean by this?)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-central-position-or-what-does-my-professor-mean-by-this/155473>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 16, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-central-position-or-what-does-my-professor-mean-by-this/155473 "2003-02-16T18:40:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-central-position-or-what-does-my-professor-mean-by-this/155473/1 "2003-02-16T18:40:03Z")

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I am working on a paper that’s due Tuesday. I’m pretty sure that I have what I need to finish writing the paper, but I just looked back at the assignment and I’m not sure that I’ve done what I’m supposed to do. I’m leaving out the actual questions (though if it’s helpful, I’ll pop them into the thread…I don’t want this to be perceived as asking people to do my homework for me).

> [@](#):
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> I want you to **identify the central position on both sides of these questions** , and then address the last two questions of the assignment

Bolding mine.

What does it mean? Am I supposed to analyze both sides for those issues that are central to their stance? That’s close to what I’ve done - I’d just need to tweak things a bit, but am I completely misunderstanding the idea?

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**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-central-position-or-what-does-my-professor-mean-by-this/155473/2 "2003-02-16T18:57:10Z")

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I would guess that he’s asking you to, as I think you’ve done, identify the kernel of each side’s position that is the obstacle to their agreement.

The only other way I might be able to read that, and I can’t, is that it might be asking for the middle ground perspective. But, no, I can’t read it that way.