Paper #3 due April 28 at midnight (This is a Sunday)
Your last paper will focus on articles from week 9 and week 10
(There are not the exact titles but here are the five articles as listen on week 9 and 10: Cat story, loss of effective reading, and teacher shortage from week 9; and college as default, and student loan debt from week 10)
These are all essays dealing with the social issues of our time. I would like you to engage with the discussion being made in the essay. Please make sure you read the article carefully so that you can respond with maturity and thoughtfulness. In short, you are formalizing a response to the argument being made. In order to do this, you need to present the argument and find a place that is appropriate and productive for you to engage with the author’s ideas. You don’t need to tell me everything that the author says in the article. Focus on an idea that you want to either expand on or negate. (Remember, you are always singularly focused. In other words, deal with the main idea and one substantial criticism or extension of that idea.) It is important that you understand what the author is communicating so that you do not misconstrue his/her/their ideas, so please read your article a number of times before you decide how you’re going to respond.
Your response should take a singular focus, and each paragraph of your response should further your reasoning for your position in detail. In your two body paragraphs, I am looking for a concrete example of your position and an explanation of that that example. I do not want an essay full of empty generalizations. If you cannot illustrate your position with a concrete example and explain how that example substantiates your position, your paper will not be sufficient to receive an A or B.
Please make sure that your topic sentences are extensions of your thesis, and as you move into your paragraphs, you speak specifically with a specific example. Please be sure to explain all the questions that your reader might have. You cannot explain your example in one sentence by saying this shows that. You must tell me how it shows what you tell me it shows.
Feel free to agree with the author and expand on what the author says or disagree with the author and argue productively about what you disagree with and why. Please also know that it will be important for you to include the article in your discussion. You cannot respond to this article unless you provide the context for your reader. You should present the name of the article and the author and a summary of the article’s idea somewhere high in your text before you get to your thesis. As you respond, please know that you will need to use quotes from the text in order to provide context for your response. Your assignment is not to simply write an essay about the idea. Your assignment to speak specifically to the idea that the author has presented. In other words, you have to work with the author’s ideas.
I do not want a research paper. I want your idea using common sense and a knowledge of the current conversation which you have chosen to engage. Please make sure that you do not wander all over the place and tell me about this and that, which will probably be irrelevant to the scope of your discussion. Please remember that your discussion needs to be very very narrow in focus. You will support your idea with logical and relevant evidence. Your evidence can be common sense, or it can be based in common knowledge facts about your idea. In short, I would like you to narrow in on one specific angle and run with that.
Basic Directions
Two pages (Please do not exceed two pages)
your paper must have a title — your title cannot be the title of the article
Please give a citation for your article, much like I did for the Will and Grace article at the end. You can use EasyBib – (your ability to cite correctly is not part of your grade.)
Please use 12 font
Please use double space
Your name, date, and professor should be listed on the first page on the right hand side
Your title should be listed on the first page and centered
You will begin your narrative on the same page as your name and title. Please do not start halfway down the page.
Please do not create any extra spacing such as spacing between paragraphs, and, of course, please make sure you’ve indented your paragraphs.
No use first or second person and no personal intrusions please – this is not about you. It is about the issue.
This is not a research paper. I want your thoughts. Please no outside sources.
Please indent your paragraphs
Papers with no indentations that are one paragraph will be graded as an F
Papers that do not address one of the essays assigned will be a zero
Please follow directions. If you are unable to follow basic directions, you will not receive more than a 70 on this paper.
You will be graded on the following:
You have an appropriate introduction that leads to a clear thesis that makes a specific and justified claim about a specific argument
Your paragraphs all begin with a topic sentence that focuses the particular paragraph (please avoid personal intrusions)
You have proper grammar and sentence structure
Your discussion is an argument about the value of the argument being made in the article. If you give me a simple summary, this is a failure. If you go on an emotional or political rant, this is a failure.
You have been singularly focused in your reasoning; you are not talking about a million things. You have a single issue that you explain in depth.
You have used specific example(s) with explanations to support your opinion
You have used the text to generate your argument
You have spoken to the main issue discussed in the text
you have focused on what you see as the strength or the weakness of the article at hand
You are singularly focused
Please give yourself time to proof and edit so that you catch those mistakes and make sure you follow those basic directions.
