Read "The Way We Weren't" by Stephanie Koontz
The task at hand for this essay will again be to summarize an author's argument accurately, and with reference to key parts of the text, then respond to the author's main thesis or some other significant idea in the text.
You are advised to use some of the pre-writing activities we've discussed previously: listing, outlining, and even drafting. Treat this as a second summary-response essay. Now that you've done much more complex essay writing in the rest of our semester, this essay is meant to evaluate your skill at something simpler than our more recent work.
A successful essay will accurately and concisely summarize the author's main argument, their main supporting points, and conclusion in your own words. Your point of view should be evident in the summary, but should not overtake the task of summarizing. A successful response must go beyond simple agreement or disagreement. It should relate the author's ideas & arguments to other class discussions, your own experience, or other relevant contexts.
In "The Way We Never Were" (posted in Modules) Coontz argues that the idea we have about a single kind of family being the dominant and best family is rooted in an imagined past, not an actual one and that we might do better to embrace different versions of families.
Summarize how she makes that case - what are her major points? What kind of support does she use? What are the most important examples of families she brings up? About 1/2 of your essay should be concerned with summary.
"Family values" are always something that gets brought up in social and political discussions, but there are always odd things about public figures and family. If there are all these different versions of family in current and past society, is Coontz right?
Should we embrace a broader definition of what makes a family? If we're worried about social and economic decline, is the problem with who's getting married or not getting married or are there other actual economic factors we need to change?About 1/2 of your essay should be your response to Coontz.
While there are two separate tasks here, a strong essay will make some of your response's ideas evident in the summary, and the response will refer both to current events and Coontz's article.
Given below the link of the article : https://www.dropbox.com/s/lkofuqu3figxcaj/The%20Way%20We%20Weren_t-Coontz.rar?dl=0
Length: 3 pages.