Overview
What: a 600 word minimum paper (about two pages) responding to an article from They Say I Say, worth 100 points (10% of your overall course grade)
When: draft: Friday, June 20 by 11:59 pm
final: Friday, June 27 by 11:59 pm
Why: to practice responding to arguments as a tool for evaluating source material (useful on its own, as a stage in the research process)
How: follow these steps –
- Choose an article from They Say I Say that we have read for/discussed in class (meaning that the Graff, Rose, Pollan, Zinczenko, Alexander, Vance, Slaughter, and Dorment articles are all options)
- Read through the article closely, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and determining the article’s purpose and intended audience (the bio paragraph on the first page is a good place to look for this)
- Select the criteria for your evaluation (anywhere from 1-3 criteria is fine for a paper of this length); this is the basis you’ll be using to judge the success/failure of the article
- Draft an essay in standard form, which means you’ll include:
- an effective introduction that does the following: introduces the author’s name and the title of the text that you will be critiquing; offers a brief but accurate summary of the text; and briefly identifies the texts’ purpose
- body paragraphs that perform an evaluation of the text based upon several clearly defined and appropriate criteria
- an effective conclusion that wraps up the argument and provides a final verdict on the article
- MLA style formatting
- Work Cited page
- Potential criteria may include: bias of author, believability/validity of statistics/facts, logical organization of argument, achievement of article’s purpose, quality of research, strategies for communicating with intended audience
That’s it! I’ll be happy to answer any questions and/or look at drafts in advance of the due date. I can also talk more specifically about essay format if needed.