Write a 1,200 word “strong” response to an essay from Canvas page 0.3 for an audience who has not read the essay.
Your strong response must be in five-paragraph argumentative essay format, or a modified five-paragraph argumentative essay format. Whatever you choose, make sure you have clear topic sentences to help guide your reader. In your introductory paragraph, you must provide any context a reader might need to understand, a brief summary of the argument you are responding to, and a one-sentence thesis statement. We have went over all of this in great detail in class and on Canvas. In addition, each of your body paragraphs must explain one (and only one) sub-claim from your thesis statement. Finally, you should provide a conclusion that offers a brief restatement of the essay’s argument and tells your reader why the essay’s argument is important.
Your strong response must use at least two direct quotes or paraphrases per body paragraph. Each of these should have the proper attributive tags that clearly demonstrate to your reader when you are citing the text directly, word-for-word, versus when you are summarizing in your own words. Remember the T.A.G method? Follow the criteria and expectations as set out during our lectures, on Canvas, and in chapters 5 and 12 of Let’s Talk. Finally, use in-text MLA citation.
Your document must be formatted in MLA style, double-spaced, with twelve-point font.
*Attach your document as either a docx or a pdf. *No Google Docs* Any essay submitted as a Google Doc will be considered late until a docx or PDF of the document is submitted.
Example Strong Responses
My example argumentative strong response to Krauthammer’s “The Moon We Left Behind” can be found here
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Jordan Radziecki’s argumentative strong response to Anne Trubek’s essay “Stop Teaching Handwriting” can be found here
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Julia Latrice Johnson’s reflective strong response to Rainseford Stauffer’s op-ed “I Learned in College That Admissions Has Always Been For Sale” can be found here
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Requirements
- Papers must be approximately 1,200-1,500 words. Papers that are not at least 1,100 words will receive an automatic F. Please do not write more than 1,500 words because we are also practicing concision.
- Papers must use at least 2 relevant and properly attributed and cited direct quotations and/or paraphrases in each body paragraph. This means that if your essay is five paragraphs long (with an intro paragraph, followed by three body paragraphs, then a conclusion), you have three body paragraphs, and therefore need at least six properly attributed and cited quotes and/or paraphrases. Papers that do not have at least two quotes per body paragraph will receive an automatic F.
- Papers must properly introduce/attribute, properly quote, and properly cite using MLA in-text format. But you are not required to have a Works Cited.
- If the essay you are summarizing does not have page numbers for the in-text citation, then you need to provide me with paragraph numbers. Note, this is not MLA format, but it’s my way of working with the temptation of Chat GPT and other LLMs. You must paraphrase or directly quote from the text at least twice per paragraph, and you must provide me with the page numbers or the paragraph numbers in your parenthetical in-text citation so that I can check your citation. Papers that do not do this will receive an automatic F.
- Papers that have quotes that do not exist in the original essay will receive an automatic F, and the students that turn in those papers will be reported for academic dishonesty. Please, let’s not have to deal with this issue this semester. It’s not fun for me, and it’s certainly not fun for you.