Long essay
This essay is due in class on March 20. It must be submitted in paper and through SafeAssign (on Blackboard).
You are expected to bring to class a complete draft of your essay on March 13.
Write a short, argumentative essay of four pages. Essays shorter than three full pages or longer than five pages
will be returned unread and ungraded.
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 must include a separate
page for a Works Cited list (which is not included in the page count). The essay should not have a title page.
The essay should be justified on the left margin only: no full justification.
Your essay must follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) bibliographic, citation, and presentation guidelines.
You can consult the Purdue Online Writing Lab for
information about using MLA format. See especially the example essay
and the sample Works Cited page they have on their site.
Choose one of the essays listed below. Write an argumentative essay that responds to the essay you have chosen. You must summarize the essay
and respond to its argument. In your response, you can agree and disagree with the author’s argument. Your thesis will clearly indicate what you
agree and/or disagree with and why. The main part of your essay will be to support your reasons for your agreement and/or disagreement. In your
response, focus your attention on what the essay is saying about its topic, rather than the topic in general.
Your essay must include:
- one paragraph that summarizes the essay and its argument, including important sub-arguments: this paragraph cannot contain any quotations from the essay
- one paragraph that identifies the main way(s) the author supports his/her argument: this can include an examination of ethos, logos, and pathos
- at least one paragraph that disagrees with part of the author’s argument
- a concluding paragraph where you include your own opinion about the topic addressed by the author
Please note the following:
- The essays from which you choose are opinion or personal essays: they express one person’s opinions and are thus necessarily biassed.
- You are not being asked to “critique” the essay: interact with the arguments, rather than criticise the style.
- You are responding to the author’s arguments, not to the topic addressed by the author (except in your final paragraph).
- While your response will necessarily be coming from your own perspective, you are being asked to keep personal statements out of your essay until the end.
Please use the PDF Full Text versions of these essays: the versions that are images of the print editions (with the page numbers).
List of essays