ESSAY
Essay #2 Instructions: Argument Synthesis
Topic: The Purpose of Higher Education Required length: 4 pages minimum (1200 words).
Background: One of our goals in this course is to examine our assumptions, to analyze those institutions and ideologies we
inhabit but rarely think critically about. With that in mind, our attention turns to an institution we all have a stake in—higher
education. Every one of us in English 110 has sacrificed something to be in college. We are all working hard because we
envision our success or fulfillment as somehow connected to the achievement of a college degree. Our society has
collectively decided that a college degree is one of the essential things one must have in order to fully participate in the
economy. But why exactly? Most of us move through high school and early adulthood with the assumption that college is all
but essential. In this unit, we are going to critically examine what its true purpose actually is.
Main Task: Write an essay that makes a claim about the true purpose or function of our higher education
system and persuades the reader this claim is valid. To support your position, employ strong argumentation
strategies and synthesize ideas from at least two assigned texts as well as an interview you will conduct with
someone who has completed his or her college education.
Focus Questions: It is sometimes helpful to think of an argument as a response to an important question.
Consider developing your essay as a response to one of the questions below.
• What motivates individuals to attend college? In other words, what purpose does it serve for those who attend?
• Why does our society place such an emphasis on higher education? In other words, what is the purpose of requiring people to earn a college degree in order to fully participate in the economy?
Evidence: Three quotations are required. Quote and correctly cite resources from this unit at least three times in this essay. Your quoted or paraphrased sources should include, at minimum, the following: 1) An
assigned reading; 2) A second, different assigned reading; 3) The college graduate interview you conduct.
*Other very useful forms of evidence include your own observations and experiences as well as ideas
generated in class discussion and group work.
Essay Two Goals: Below are the writing and thinking skills you should be aiming to demonstrate in
Essay Two. These goals will also be incorporated into the grading criteria for the essay.
1. The introduction engages and prepares the reader, establishing the context or general debate you are entering
into.
2. The thesis clearly communicates your contribution to that debate, providing a clear, compelling argument and
previewing the support for that argument.
3. The essay synthesizes the ideas of published authors, as well as the interview you conduct, in order to
successfully prove the claim made in the thesis.
4. All of the proof paragraphs have a clear connection to the thesis, creating a unified essay.
5. Each of the proof paragraphs has a topic sentence that previews the content of the paragraph and evidence
that proves the claim made in the topic sentence. Each proof paragraph also includes analysis of the evidence and
an explanation of how the evidence proves the point made in the topic sentence. (Effective use of the P.I.E
strategy.)
6. The essay engages and refutes a position that opposes your own.
7. The conclusion answers the question, “so what?” It explains the “big picture” implications of your argument.
8. The essay is carefully proofread and edited. It is mostly free of grammatical and mechanical errors, and
employs the sentence writing and editing strategies covered in Unit One and Unit Two.
9. The essay demonstrates your thorough understanding of at least two published texts.
10. The essay uses MLA-style in-text citations.
11. The essay integrates at least three quotations with rhetorical effectiveness.
12. The essay is original, creative, and thoughtful, demonstrating the critical reading and thinking skills practiced
throughout the unit. It effectively persuades the reader.