Reading Response Journal : Apply “Inventing Your Argument” to Create Ess.ay 2 Outline

Aleksanyan 1

Sofia Aleksanyan

Professor Daniel Staylor

English 1B

20 September 2022

The Evidence Chart for Essay Two about Actually

Essay 2 Characteristics (quotes, pg.

#s)

Important Quotes in

Favor (pg. #s)

Important Quotes

Against (pg. #s)

Amber “I mean, she’s actually kinda straight up confident except that she can’t look me in the eye and she can’t stop talking” (31).

“Or maybe I just wanted it to be true but either way we do end up getting ice cream the next day and he offers to buy mine, which even though I demur because I’m the product of feminists who worked really hard to have the right to buy their own ice cream, the offer means we’re on a real date, right?” (29).

“Not like there’s something wrong with her. She’s just awkward and I’d like to say I find it cute or something, but really I just feel awkward too, until she’s like “god, I’m so awkward, aren’t I’ [...] and she apologizes and laughs in

“What might have maybe constituted something approaching sex without my one hundred perecent consent was that he got a tiny bit rough with me and at first I was into it but then I wasn’t into it anymore and I stood up and was like ‘actually, um’ but he pulled me back and kept going” (7).

“So when they ask: ‘did this boy do this to you without your consent?’ even though I might not have chosen that exact phrasing it seemed like the honest answer was yes, especially because I was probably too drunk to give any meaningful consent anway -” (44).

“This moment when all of

“Yeah. I think mostly I just felt really lucky” (40).

“So everyone agrees that earlier that night you took your shirt off. That you drank to excess. That you very willingly went back to Tom’s room and got into his bed. Which makes me wonder: why do you think these actions that you admit freely took don’t amount to some kind of tacit consent?” (45).

“Why would you have asked him to stop? You were into it at first” (41).

Aleksanyan 2

this way that is kinda cute and says, she’s gonna stop eating her ice cream because she’s SO full, and she puts it down, but a minute or two later she picks it up and finishes it anyway” (30).

a sudden he was inside me, and it’s not like I expected him to ask my permission but I didn’t expect him not to either. And it hurt and it kept hurting and eventually I just jumped out of bed” (45).

“[....] I had this strong physical impulse to get away from you, I did -” (46).

“[....]; he says Amber couldn’t have been conscious when we were… He says he didn’t hear a thing from her” (44).

“You obviously don’t because it happened. I jumped out of bed and you grabbed me, hard, and I was like ‘actually, um’ but you pulled me back into bed and you just…” (45).

“And then Leslie is like ‘but are you sure you clearly expressed your ‘lack of affirmative consent’? [...] for the first time I flash back to the night in question and to the way I felt the next morning, how I wanted to get out of Tom’s room as

Aleksanyan 3

quickly as humanly possible, and dig a hole and just live there forever, and I’m like ‘I’m sure, Leslie, but thank you for reiterating the gravity of my actions” (17).

Tom “I’ve never any clue what to do with someone who’s trying to hide how they feel … probably because I am always trying to hide how I feel” (13).

“- I never stepped foot on that stage. I was in the third floor computer room making out with this girl Julia, who was also in the chorus and when we realized we missed the beginning we didn’t know what to do so we just stayed there and later my mom was like ‘you were just so good in that play. And I never told her it wasn’t true” (18).

“What can I say? I like women. That’s not a crime” (54).

“He puts his hand on my shoulder and is like ‘call me if you need anything’ and I have the sensation I always have when someone tries to be paternal, which is pretty much uncontrollable rage mixed with deep-seated resentment and I brush his hand off my

“And then Tom makes his statement. He’s like a.) we were drunk and b.) I would never rape someone” (20).

“...and then, just to be sure, I say, ‘but she was into it, right?’ And he gives me this look like ‘you’re really gonna ask me that?’ but still he said ‘well, she wasn’t not into it, if that’s what you’re asking.’ [....] And I was relieved” (43).

“And if she wasn’t into it at some point… well then my body, my brain convinced me she was. I wasn’t knowingly … I didn’t do anything knowingly. I know that” (41).

“No, I don’t remember what she said or if she said anything but yeah, she probably didn’t say yes” (41).

“[....] And he says yes, she has lodged a complaint. And I’m like, ‘but that girl is seriously into me’ and he gives me this look like I’m deluded. (A realization). Which I guess I am” (14).

“So maybe I knew. Maybe I knew. That she wasn’t… And that’s the… That’s the thing that I…I mean, I thought…Deep down, I thought I was a nice guy” (48).

Aleksanyan 4

shoulder as though it was a bug and he flinches like I hit him or something” (17).

“[...] my mom is always like ‘Thomas, you could make some young lady so happy, why do you insist on torturing these women?” (35).

Within the first box of this chart, it includes pieces of evidence, which describe both

Amber and Tom’s main characteristics. For example, Amber is usually a bold overthinker and

has an eccentric mindset. Meanwhile, Tom is often described as a flirtatious, careless, and

arrogant individual who feels insecure about himself. In addition, this chart also includes

significant quotes that focus on the sexual assault situation between Amber and Tom, which is a

very important topic in the story, Actually. Amber claims that Tom had sexual intercourse with

her without her consent, while he usually believes that Amber is attracted to him and was fully

consensual instead. Furthermore, there are quotes that are in favor of either Amber or Tom,

which specifically supports their different claims or perspectives about the sexual assault

situation. However, there are also contradicting quotes that disapprove their different arguments

about the sexual assault situation (Ziegler).

During the process of creating the chart, I reviewed Actually, in order to find the most

significant quotes for this evidence chart. I was able to find quotes that either gave strong support

or disapproval to the main characters’ claims about the sexual assault situation. Personally, it felt

Aleksanyan 5

difficult to find quotes, which supported Tom in favor within this situation, since he’s being

accused of sexual assault and there appears to be several context clues, which support Amber’s

claim that she never gave full consent to having sexual intercourse with him. Other than that, I

tried to ease the process of finding relevant quotes for this chart by underlining and labeling the

quotes with phrases like, ‘Important Quote in favor of Amber’ or ‘Tom’s characteristic.’