Response essay
This essay will be submitted in two steps. The first submission is due in class on February 5.
It does not have to be submitted through SafeAssign. We will work on revising the graded first essays in class on February 12.
The second, revised version is due in class on February 26. This final version must be submitted through SafeAssign on
Blackboard. The final version of the essay will be graded only after the essay has
been submitted both in paper and through SafeAssign.
Choose one of the essays below. Write a four-page argumentative essay that both summarizes the essay you have chosen and
responds to it. Essays shorter than three full pages or longer than five pages will be returned unread and ungraded.
You must follow one of the following documentation styles: MLA, APA, or Chicago.
Your essay must use the Times New Roman font, 12-point in size. There must be one inch (2.5 cm) margins on all four
sides of the essay. The essay must have double-spaced lineation. The essay should not have a title page if one is not
required. (Do not include an abstract page.) The essay should be justified on the left margin only: no full justification.
Always include full URLs in lists of references and works cited (unless using standard academic databases).
You can consult the Purdue Online Writing Lab for information about using
MLA,
APA, and
Chicago formats.
Your essay is an argumentative essay with a summary component. Your summary of the essay must be substantial and accurate.
You must clearly identify the main point and the secondary points of the argument of the essay you have chosen. You should
identify the ways the various components of the argument fit together. You should identify the main ways the argument supports
its claims. Your summary cannot use more than two short direct quotations from the essay.
The response component needs to respond to the essay directly. Your thesis for the entire essay will represent the main aspect of your response.
You are not necessarily writing your own essay on a similar topic as the essay you have chosen, but instead you are interacting
with the essay. Is there something said in the essay with which you want to take issue? Ultimately, you are making clear
whether you agree or disagree with the argument of the essay (and its various components) and explaining why.
Here is one way of writing your essay. You can follow this, though you do not have to; you can use it as a general guideline.
- Your introductory paragraph clearly explains what your essay will talk about. It includes a thesis: what your essay will ultimately be arguing.
- The next two paragraphs are devoted to a summary of the essay you have chosen. The first of the paragraphs provides a overview of the essay, stating the essay’s main argument and touching on the main secondary arguments. The second paragraph of the summary will summarize in more detail one or two of the secondary arguments of the essay, especially those that your essay will then address.
- The next two or three paragraphs are devoted to your response to the essay. You will talk about the arguments you have outlined and explain your own attitude towards them (as they are expressed by the writer). You can agree and/or disagree. You can talk about elements of the essay’s arguments that are strong or weak. You can point to problems with the essay and even things the essay should have taken into account for a better argument. You can, in no more than one paragraph, outline your own stance on the topic raised by the essay.
- Your final paragraph is a conclusion. The conclusion does not just restate what your essay has already said: it should conclude something. This is a good place to reflect on what your essay has said and how strongly you were able to make your own points. This is also a good place to explain your own attitudes towards the topic of the essay to which you are responding. (Avoid too personal a tone in doing so.)
Here is the list of essays from which you must choose one. Note that they are all opinion editorial (op-ed) essays: they express opinions and are thus necessarily biassed.