ACAD 1601 WI001: Academic Writing: January - April 2017
Home Information Schedule Evaluation Assignments Contact Links

Response essay

This essay will be submitted in two steps. The first submission is due in class on January 25. It will not be submitted through SafeAssign. We will work on revising the first essays in class on February 1. The second, revised version is due in class on February 8. 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 you are using MLA style. Do not include an abstract page if you are using APA style. 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 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.

Your personal opinions about the topic the essay treats should be kept out of your essay until one of the final paragraphs. Your personal opinions about the argument of the essay form the basis for your response.

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.

Penalty: 10 points if there is no bibliography / list of references / works cited.
Penalty: 2 points if the margins are incorrect.
Penalty: 2 points if the font (type and/or size) is incorrect.
Penalty: 2 points if the lineation (spacing between lines) is incorrect.
Penalty: 1 point if one or more paragraphs are not indented properly.
Penalty: 2 points for two or more errors with indicating titles in the text.
Penalty: 3 points for poor adherence to one of the style guides for the presentation of the essay.
Penalty: 3 points for poor adherence to one of the style guides for the presentation of the bibliography / list of references / works cited.

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.



Marc R. Plamondon, Ph.D. Department of English Studies Nipissing University