English Argumentative Essay ()

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Assignment Overview: Essay #3 Evaluative Essay (Argumentative)

What You’ll be Doing for Our Third Essay Assignment
Abstraction.

How do you understand an idea? A concept? A way of looking at the world? And why? Why is it necessary to do

this?

On one level, the how to is easy: first you have to read up on the subject and then, to truly understand it, write about

it; second, you have to want to understand the idea or concept.

Why is that desire to understand so important? Because without it, you will not devote the necessary mental energy

needed to feed your imagination. And it’s your imagination and intellect – the left and right side of your brain – that

fire off the neurons that will get you to understand abstractions. And that understanding lies at the core of the

college endeavor. It’s this ability to understand connections between seemingly disparate ideas or evidence that

means the difference between a job with a corner office (“I’m presenting at the London conference”) – and a job in a

grease trap (“Where does this used lard go?”)

Purpose of Essay
This next assignment is designed to get you in that corner office. It will show you how to understand, form an

opinion on, and then write about an abstract concept.

Topic of Essay
Your purpose will be to use the readings in one of the chapters (starting on page 401) in the textbook From Inquiry

to Academic Writing and develop an argumentative topic from it.

This will be the main essay for this semester and it’s essential to understand an issue before you develop an opinion

about it. Thus you will be not only focusing on the readings in the textbook but broadening your search to include

readings from multiple sources.

Discourse
Privilege, masculinity, poverty, presentation of self, models of gender, advertising, neuro-enhancement, addiction,

race, climate, sustainability, GMOs, branding. These are all terms that you will encounter in these chapters and give

you an idea of some of the topics for this essay.

The Writing Assignment: Essay #3
Write an essay which develops an argument based on one of the “Conversation of Ideas” chapters from the textbook

(starting on page 401). This is an academic essay, so the tone is formal, but remember that you need to keep the

reader interested. Follow the suggestions for planning, revision, and proofreading in the textbook and on the course

site. As stated in the Assignment sheet for essay #1, for this and all essays, assume your audience is college educated

(or getting there) – but doesn’t know much about your topic. You’ll have to explain it for them before you begin

your argument.

Requirements
Final draft, minimum of 1,500 words: you need to include a minimum of five different sources (which means a

minimum of five works cited entries and at least five in-text citations), and at least one of the sources must be from

the textbook. That said remember the emphasis is on your reasoning: it’s what you actually do with the sources that

makes a good essay. Your essay should meet reader expectations by including an introduction (with thesis and

division statement); body paragraphs; counter-arguments and rebuttals; and conclusion.

Note on sources
One of the sources must be from the textbook. If taken from the internet, this outside research MUST be from
EBSCOhost, SIRS, etc. databases (see “How Do I Find Sources” on the course site and chapter 7 of From Inquiry to
Academic Writing for instructions), accessible through our library’s home page. ANY other internet source MUST

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(that’s MUST) be approved by me before (that’s BEFORE) you include them in your essay. Inclusion of
unapproved open Internet sources will limit your grade to a D or below.

You’ve been using many of the college’s databases throughout the semester. Try SIRS, Opposing Viewpoints, and
New York Times databases (use Library Link on the Course Menu) and then move to EBSCOhost and other
sources.

College textbooks and magazines and newspapers are excellent sources as well.

Learning Objectives
After successfully completing this assignment you will have learned how to

1. articulate the differences and similarities between several different abstract concepts
2. move from abstraction (sociology, psychology, etc.) to the concrete (examples of each)
3. find, select, and evaluate sources
4. turn information into knowledge by using current events, statistics, and/or historical examples to prove an

argument

5. develop engaging introductions and conclusions
6. develop a single idea (division) over the course of two or more paragraphs
7. learn the advantages of revising your work in stages (paragraph by paragraph)
8. use more sophisticated punctuation (dashes, colons, semi-colons)
9. proofread your work so that it does not interfere with reader’s comprehension of your argument
10. manage your time and complete each draft by the assigned due date

Directions
Follow suggestions in chapters 5 through 12 of From Inquiry to Academic Writing; see also “Directions for Rough

Draft of Argumentative Essay” posted on the course site.

Grading Criteria
To receive a passing grade, you must successfully complete the following:

Organization: A thesis statement which clearly states the subject, your position and the divisions of your essay. A

counter-argument and rebuttal.

Content: Clear and balanced arguments, developed with examples, descriptions and stories, and a full and

persuasive development of the reasoning behind each of the examples.

Proofreading: Sentences that are clear and no more than 5 major errors (sentence fragments, run-on sentences,

verb-tense error, subject-verb agreement error, unclear phrasing, documentation and spelling/wrong word error).