Background: You have spent the past three weeks developing a deeply informed opinion about the purpose of higher education. You’ve explored your own experiences, interviewed college graduates, read a variety of texts, debated the purpose of higher education in class, and constructed an argument about higher education based on a synthesis of these wide-ranging sources. In short, you know what you’re talking about. You have a certain amount of expertiseon this topic. You are going to use that expertise to respond to the arguments of a published author.

Main Task: First, summarize the argument made in either “The Value of a College Degree” or “The Case Against College.” Then in a clear, arguable thesis statement, state your response to that argument. Explain and support your response with 2-3 proof paragraphs. Finally, conclude the essay with a paragraph exploring the broader significance of your argument.

Important Notes

* You are taking advantage of the hard work you’ve already done in this unit in order to respond to the writer’s argument with cogency and force. Therefore, do not worry if there is some redundancy between the essay you just completed and this in-class essay.

* Notice that this assignment is asking you to write the exact same type of essay as Essay #1—summary and response. Use what you learned writing that essay to make this one excellent. Also, apply my feedback on your first essay to this essay.

* You are bringing in evidence from the other readings, your experience, your interview, etc. in order to prove the writer of “The Value of a College Degree” or “The Case Against College” right or wrong.

Introduction (1 paragraph): Set up the conversation, and thoroughly summarize the main points from the text you will be responding to. (Use the strategies described in Ch. 2 of TSIS.)

Thesis (1-2 sentences): State your response to the arguments summarized in the introduction—agree, disagree, or both. (Use the templates in Ch. 4 of TSIS.)

Proof (2-3 paragraphs): Back up your response with reasoning and evidence.

· Point: State one reason you agree/disagree with one of the writer’s ideas. (“I agree with the point that_____ because ____.”)

· Information, part 1: Briefly review the specific idea from the text you’re responding to.

· Information, part 2: Provide evidence from your experience, your interview, the previous readings from this unit, etc. that proves the writer is wrong or right.

· Explanation: Explain why your evidence proves the writer right or wrong.

Conclusion (1 paragraph): What is significant about what you’ve covered in this essay? How does this argument affect the reader? What bigger issues or problems do your points in this essay shed light on?

Essay Goals: These goals will be incorporated into the grading criteria for the essay.

1. The introduction includes a summary that accurately represents the writer’s ideas and demonstrates your comprehension of the text.

2. The introduction’s summary is relevant to the response that follows. The summary highlights the features of the text that the rest of the essay responds to.

3. The thesis clearly communicates your response to the writer’s ideas.

4. The thesis prepares the reader, previewing the full scope and content of the essay.

5. All of the proof paragraphs have a clear connection to the thesis, creating a unified essay.

6. All of the proof paragraphs have topic sentences that preview the content of the paragraph and evidence that proves the claim made in the topic sentence.

7. The conclusion answers the question, “so what?” It explains the “big picture” implications of your essay.

8. The essay is carefully proofread. It is mostly free of grammatical and mechanical errors.

9. The response, as a whole, “joins the conversation,” engages directly and meaningfully with the writer’s ideas while also bringing something new to the debate.