Response to a reading essay

ASSIGNMENT:

You must write a five-paragraph essay in response to one of the following assignments:

Read “What Is Poverty?” by Jo Goodwin Parker (pages 640-41). You must quote passages from this essay in your paper. Answer the following question: In what way does poverty mentally and emotionally affect those who suffer from it? Pick one way—lowers self-esteem. The thesis to your paper should be a one-sentence answer to that question. Be certain to provide three examples to support your answer. Write a paragraph about each example.

GUIDELINES:

You are not writing to me, the instructor. You are writing to someone who has not read nor has ever even heard of the essay you read. Be CERTAIN that before you quote from the essay, you mention the name of the essay (title in quotation marks) and the author’s name.

Your introduction must have a thesis statement and an essay map. Your thesis and essay map should be the last sentence or the last two sentences of your introduction. The thesis should be a one-sentence answer to one of the assignment questions above. The map should list three reasons why you believe what you said you believe in your thesis. Do not forget that your introduction needs a lead-in before the thesis and map. To create a few sentences before your thesis, use the strategies suggested on pages 83-86 in the Steps textbook. In other words, your introduction should be at least four or five sentences long with the thesis and map making up the last one or two sentences.

Each of the three middle paragraphs should be devoted to one of your three points in your essay map.

Organize your three points. Create a pattern, such as least important to most important, most familiar to least familiar, least interesting to most interesting, first in time to last in time, etc.

You must do more than merely list your reasons; you must explain them and prove that they are good reasons. You must supply evidence from what you read and from real life to support the fact that each reason is a good reason. Find examples that prove what you are saying is true.

Be sure to have a conclusion, one that does not repeat your thesis word-for-word. You should summarize your main points and explain what someone may gain from understanding what you have just told them in your paper. For suggestions about how to write a conclusion, see pages 88-91 in the Steps textbook.

Don’t forget to write a good, attention-getting title. The title of your essay should NOT be the title of the essay you read. The title of your essay needs to convey the main point you are making in your paper.

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:

The essay must be at least 500 or 700 words in length.

You must quote words and statements from one of the two essays you were assigned to read. You must quote from the essay that is included with your assignment question above . THE QUOTATIONS MUST BE IN YOUR SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH PARAGRAPHS. Put quotation marks around copied words. At the end of those copied words, document the quotation by putting the author’s last name and a page number or page numbers in parentheses. If you copy information but rewrite it totally in your own words, then you must still document that information by putting the author’s last name and a page number or page numbers in parentheses at the end of that information.