article essay

Second Writing Assignment: Argument Synthesis 

This second writing assignment asks students to select a pair of articles from the "Debating the Issues" unit and to write an essay synthesizing the points of the argument. Students should demonstrate their understanding of the complex issues of an argument, so the essay will have two responses to the issue: one that defends the argument and one that challenges the argument. The essay may be formatted in two parts; in fact, students might choose to use subheadings to indicate the beginning of each response. Students' essays should make clear that both sides of an argument are presented. Therefore, essays should present each side of the argument equally so that readers will not be able to identify which side of the argument you believe.

Select  ONE  of the following pairs of articles:

· Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., "This Is the Chronic Disease Epidemic" pp. 473-478 and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Maeve Kennedy McKean, "RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He's Tragically Wrong about Vaccines" pp. 478-480

· Gracy Olmstead, "There Are Good Reasons to Consider Removing Confederate Memorials from Our Public Squares" pp. 481-484 and John Daniel Davidson, "Why We Should Keep the Confederate Monuments Right Where They Are" pp. 484-487

· Kenneth M. Phillips, "Arguments for and against Breed-Specific Laws" pp. 488-495 and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), "Position Statement on Breed-Specific Legislation" pp.495-501

· Calah Alexander, "The Dangers of the Princess Culture" pp. 502-505 and Crystal Liechty, "In Defense of Princess Culture" pp. 505-507

· Paul Marx, "Athlete's New Day" pp. 508-510 and Warren Hartenstine, "College Athletes Should not Be Paid" pp. 510-511

In order to defend and challenge an argument, you will use information from both articles and your personal experience with the issue. After you have read the pair of articles, you should select one of the essays to both defend and challenge.

Students are not writing an evaluation essay for this assignment. Students will be demonstrating their ability to both defend and challenge an author's argument: a synthesis of an argument's points.

Second Writing Assignment: Requirements 

 

The following components are required for this writing assignment:

· Length--750-1000 words (not including the works cited page)

· MLA essay format

· MLA documentation (in-text citations and a works cited page documenting both articles). Essays without documentation will automatically receive a failing grade. The articles should be documented as they are printed in Elements of Argument.

· Formal tone--do not use contractions and second person pronouns. Do not attack the author or his or her style. Instead, your essay should address the ideas in the article.

· Summary--essays should provide at least one summary of the information from the source material.

· Quotations--essays should provide at least three different quotations from the source material.

· Title--essays should have a title that reflects the synthesis of the argument.