P1. Dough, green, Benjamins, moola, and now Fei: in the story of the Island of Yap, although at first sounding obscure, tells the story of a civilization that uses large stone as their currency. Many observations and questions have been posed on this weird island and their form of currency, but upon further examination, it is much similar, if not completely the same as a Euro, dollar, pound, or franc.
P1. S1. Each country has its own form of currency, that is given value by the government, and we as a society accept its constantly changing value. S2. The Yap form of currency is extremely similar to any form of currency used in the many countries throughout the world. S3. The stone money allows the Yap to buy anything they need to survive, just as we use money to go to the grocery store. S4. Much attention has been given to the island because of their strange custom, however the same attention should be brought upon us for using paper and metals as ours. S5. Both the dollar and limestone bring value to the one who owns it, with the dollar backed by commodity, and the limestone having a more abstract value. S6. The dollar and Fei, paper and stone, while two different forms of currency, are arbitrary items that are given a significant amount of value that we accept.
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
You’ve touched on the first elemental idea, that the fei are just a currency like any other modern means of exchange, with only symbolic value, Taylor. Before you finalize your post, be sure to categorize it correctly.
Can I have feedback on my writing, please?
Feedback provided, —DSH
Hey, Taylor. I’m not sure you know that my technique is to provide feedback on your essay while I’m reading it, not after, to give you the benefit of a careful reading from an engaged reader while your argument plays out.
P1. First I have to ask how carefully you re-read your posts before asking for feedback. Your first sentence makes a fatal syntax error that should never have made it past your own internal editor. Read it again and you’ll see, I hope, it’s not a sentence.
Also: large stone or large stones?
The point of your first sentence, I presume, is to identify the fei as a kind of currency we haven’t heard about. It does that nicely, and perhaps intrigues readers to read further about big stone coins. Your second sentence tap dances for awhile about pondering weirdness, then gets to its point, that the fei is no weirder than our own money.
For my money (see what I did there?), the better first sentence would combine the two. You can still welcome readers to consider the weirdness with you: After comparing the huge stone disks the Yap use for money on their Micronesian island to our own sophisticated digital transfers of virtual currency, I have decided our money is weirder. See what I mean?
P2. S1. Boy, that’s a nice first sentence, Taylor. It combines several essential claims with beautiful logic, at the same time reminding us how odd money is and providing the background you’ll need to make further claims (I hope, not having read any farther yet).
S2. Your second sentence is wordy beyond description. What you mean is (since you’ve already named the fei): Fei are no different. Four words does it.
S3. Your third sentence is unnecessary.
S4. Your fourth sentence is unnecessary.
S5. Your fifth sentence makes a remarkable and very important additional claim that, I think, is incorrect. If you mean the dollar is founded on something (gold, perhaps?) of intrinsic value, and that the fei is not, you’re wrong. Just as you correctly claimed at the top of the paragraph, modern currencies are “given value by the government” and nothing else. The dollar and the fei are equally abstract. (But the fei, at least, are usually physical objects. The dollar is less and less tangible.)
S6. Your sixth sentence essentially repeats what has been your primary (almost your only) set of claims. Except that it compares paper to stone, it’s a repeat of S1.
This critique will most likely come as a big surprise, Taylor. Everything you say in your essay is perfectly reasonable and would earn praise in most classes. Here I’m hoping for more. I want every sentence to contribute an essential claim to an argument that builds a case, anticipates and refutes objections, and draws a conclusion. Yours starts with conclusions and then spins in place. Don’t despair. You clearly have skills. I trust you can adapt if you accept the premise.