English Homework

Arguing through Texts 

One thing we all come to understand over time is that influential ideas are rarely formed in the 

mind of a single individual; rather, they are formed by thinkers playing off of each other’s 

thoughts, theories, and discoveries. Sometimes scholars create ideas by engaging each other 

directly (through verbal exchanges, email messages, or memos), but they often exchange ideas in 

more indirect ways. A scholar can respond to a published text that has been in circulation in an 

academic community for years, perhaps even decades or centuries. Because written texts can 

span miles and millennia, a philosopher of this decade can, for example, “listen to” (read) and 

“speak to” (write about) Plato in the form of an essay or an article. Of course, Plato will not be 

able to listen to the modern thinker’s reply, but other living scholars can, and they too can begin 

to make contributions to on-going conversations about topics, ideas, and questions that remain 

matters for investigation or debate.

This progression’s essay requirement asks you to enter into conversation with published 

scholars. In your essay you must reproduce and respond to a scholarly conversation in light of 

these questions:

 o What are the larger implications of this conversation?

o What are some of the different positions in this conversation?

o What is your response to these viewpoints?

o What is your contribution to the conversation?

Your instructor may require you to do some outside research for this essay, or s/he may provide 

you with texts that represent some of the key positions within a particular discussion or debate. 

You will want to use these texts to initiate and inform your argument. In other words, your 

purpose should not be to cram as many sources as you can into your essay; you do not want other 

writers’ voices to drown out your own.

By the end of this progression, you should understand the following key terms: conversation, 

claim, and argument. You should also understand the basic concepts of formal academic 

structure. You will be expected to follow MLA documentation, to perform surface editing and 

deep editing, and to write a planning document.

Exercise #1: Argument and Analysis

The purpose of this first exercise is to encourage you to practice an open-minded but cautious 

way of engaging with the claims of other scholars.

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 For this exercise you will turn a curious yet skeptical gaze onto one of the essays that you 

have read for this progression. First, even if you have reservations about the author’s ideas, 

make sense of her/his argument by explaining it in your own words. What is the writer’s 

position? What are the essential claims here? What evidence does the author offer for these 

claims? Next play devil’s advocate: which aspects of the essay sound wrong to you? Does 

the evidence persuade you? Which assumptions or conclusions strike you as problematic or 

unreasonable?

 Manuscript Notes: Your response should be two to three double-spaced pages and calls for 

MLA documentation. Avoid large block quotations and use this exercise as an opportunity 

to refine your ability to weave together short quotations, paraphrases, and your own prose.