This assignment asks you to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of multiple assigned texts and then present an argument in response to these texts.
Prompt for Paper:
Evaluating Multiple Texts and Presenting Your Argument
This assignment asks you to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of multiple assigned texts and then present an argument in response to these texts. Students will select and evaluate two texts that respond to Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and then present their own contribution to the conversation. The paper thus follows the “They Say/I Say” framework described by Graff and Birkenstein.
To evaluate the relative effectiveness of the texts, students will examine strategies the writers use to develop their arguments (for example, their claims and evidence, their use of analogies, their concessions and rebuttals, the tone of their arguments, etc.) as well as strategies they could have used but didn’t (such as acknowledging and conceding opposing ideas, demonstrating respect for opposing viewpoints, citing supporting evidence, etc.)
The assignment asks you to present your own position relative to the texts discussed. The student’s position may be that the authors’ arguments are effective in different ways, that one argument is superior to the others, or that all contain significant shortcomings. However, you should attempt to add something to the conversation, by drawing on evidence from other texts as well as your own experience to do this. You can discuss how your own position extends, complicates, illustrates, challenges or qualifies one (or more) of the arguments other authors have made.
Successful papers will do the following:
1. Introduce the issue, make a case for its significance, and give a clear indication of how the paper will proceed.
2. Present an account of Carr’s claims and strategies and discuss how two other texts respond to “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
3. Evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of the three texts
4. Present your own position (supported by reasons and evidence) as persuasively as possible, anticipating objections and the dreaded “so what?” question.
5. Support your claims with reasons and evidence, establish how your position extends, complicates, challenges or qualifies prior arguments.
In a formal academic essay of approximately 6-8 pages, students should carry out the following tasks:
- Construct a brief account of each author’s project and argument;
- Describe the rhetorical strategies used in each respective text to make controversial elements of the argument more acceptable to the audience;
- Provide interpretation and analysis of how the strategies work, and explain why the authors would choose to use these strategies;
- Enter into the conversation, thus presenting an account of your perspective on relevant issues;
- Explain how the strategies advance the authors’ arguments; and,
- Using your analysis as evidence, explain how creators of texts use rhetorical strategies to engage audiences in thinking about their arguments and to persuade them of their main claims.