Purpose:
Academic writing is a conversation. Texts are written in response to other texts, and to shared
issues. As we shall see, Hanna Rosin wasn’t writing in a vacuum, but responding to other
authors, who in turn replied to her. In particular, 2010–12 saw a spirited back and forth between
Rosin and the author Kay S. Hymowitz, who has her own views on “the end of men.”
How do we know whose arguments to believe? As academics, it’s crucial that we be able
to analyze the claims that texts are making, and to see how they relate to one another. Mastering
these skills is an important step toward being able to enter into that conversation, and make your
own claims regarding the issues under discussion.
Your Task:
Your assignment is to read Kay Hymowitz’s claims alongside Hanna Rosin’s, then analyze those
claims. You will then use those analyses to put Rosin and Hymowitz’s texts in conversation with
one another (synthesis). Your job, in other words, is to relate these texts to one another.
In doing this, you will make your own claim about this debate. Your claim, or thesis,
should be directly relevant to the conversation at hand. You can, for instance, claim that one of
the writers is more correct than the others. Or you can claim they are all incorrect—they are all
missing some essential point. Or you can claim that one or more is only partially correct. It is
essential, however, that your claim be rooted in an objective analysis of your chosen sources. (In
other words, synthesis results in a new claim—the one you want to make—which is not found in
the source texts you’re using, but which is based on those texts.)
I will model this assignment for you with a WP2 I wrote in response to Hymowitz, Rosin,
and another author, Gary Cross, who participated in this debate.
Your audience for this work is the same as in WP1: college-level students who have not
read the texts in question.
Resources:
The following texts will be made available at Blackboard:
Double X Gabfest: “The Little Prince Edition” (Slate, 17 March 2011)
Kay S. Hymowitz: “Where Have the Good Men Gone?” (WSJ, 19 Feb 2011)
Kay S. Hymowitz: The End of Men? (National Review, 3 October 2012)
Hanna Rosin: The End of Men, “Introduction” (pp. 1–16)
Hanna Rosin: The End of Men, Chapter 2: “The Seesaw Marriage” (pp. 47–77)
Hanna Rosin: The End of Men, Chapter 3: “The New American Matriarchy” (pp. 79–112)
Adam’s sample WP2 (including drafts) + relevant lectures
Length:
4–5 pages Relevant Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):
1. Read texts in a variety of disciplines and genres, using critical reading strategies.
2. Defend a position in relation to the range of ideas surrounding a topic.
3. Demonstrate knowledge of writing as a process, including consideration of peer and
instructor feedback, from initial draft to final revision.
4. Demonstrate sentence-level correctness.
Evaluation Criteria:
Is the overall topic of conversation correctly established?
Has the author chosen the correct number of sources?
Has the author correctly analyzed those sources? Is the analysis objective/accurate/concise?
Has the author correctly synthesized those sources?
Does the author have an original thesis based on the analysis/synthesis?
Is the writing project concise/coherent/properly presented? Does it adhere to proper
spelling/grammar? Is it the right length?
This is the prompt for the entire essay above ^^^^^^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xu90LCed9M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idhjFjn3_Vc
Obviously you dont have to watch these entire videos, but these may help with writing the essay
