Response Essay

Response Argument Assignment Guidelines

You will find the assignment description, Responding to Arguments, at the beginning of .

For the previous assignment, you evaluated the rhetorical strategies employed by a writer in an argument. This writer presented a perspective on a topic that many other writers have also written about. That argument, like all arguments, exists within broader conversations, with writers presenting their claims, reasons, and evidence in response to ideas and concepts from others. For this next assignment, you will participate in the conversation by responding to the content of the argument you evaluated in the first unit; you will present your own argument, responding directly to the ideas presented in the original text.

To effectively respond to the argument, you will need to avoid explaining how the argument works (which you did in the first module) and, instead, engage with what the writer says. Your essay should apply a response strategy that presents your views in relationship to the original articles: you can agree, disagree, or agree and disagree simultaneously with its claim, reasons, and/or support. Additionally, in order to effectively respond, you will be required to incorporate two credible outside sources to support your own argument about the topic.

When entering the conversation, youll need to be mindful of your audience. For the first assignment, you presented information without much concern for your own ethos because you were writing to a supportive audience. For this assignment, however, you will write to a neutral or undecided audience, which will require you to present yourself as fair and knowledgeable on multiple sides of the issue.

Therefore, you will write a multisided argument, which requires your own argumentative claim, an awareness of alternative or opposing views, and fair and respectful responses to those views.

Response Strategies

If you disagree with the original article, you will need to identify exactly what you disagree with and why that disagreement is significant to the larger conversation. As a reminder, you’re not evaluating the ways in which the author constructed their argument; instead, you’re engaging in a kind of dialogue with the writer, expressing your own views on the topic itself in response to the original author’s opinions. Your response needs to present your views in a manner that is appealing to your undecided/neutral audience. Therefore, youll need to be respectful to the original writer and his/her ideas as you articulate why those ideas are problematic and why your perspective should be considered instead. Remember that you will focus on why your own perspective is different than the original authors, supporting your own counter-argument with clear and persuasive evidence.

If you agree with the original article, youre in a position where youll need to move the conversation forward. Your response needs to distinguish itself from the original, providing your neutral audience a reason to read your essay, as opposed to simply reading the original article. You might think of this as a yes, and response; your essay should build on the original argument, expanding or shifting the focus from the claim of the original to your own, new argumentative perspective. You might provide new kinds of evidence that the original author overlooked, provide a different perspective that develops an affirmative stance on the topic, or develop connections that the original writer did not. (It’s worth noting that students find this the most difficult response option.)

Alternatively, you may agree with some parts of the original article yet disagree with others. In this case, your response needs to present both perspectives, articulating the relationship between the ideas with which you agree and disagree. In effect, this perspective automatically creates a multisided argument, allowing your audience to see your fairness and knowledge on different sides of the issue. Again, keep in mind that you are forwarding your own ideas about the topic itself, thereby entering the larger conversation around this issue.

Handling Alternative/Opposing Views

Whichever response strategy you employ, your essay will need to take into account views that oppose your own or are an alternative perspective on the issue. Handling alternative/opposing views demonstrates your fairness and knowledge to your neutral audience. You may provide brief (fair and accurate) summaries of views held by others in the larger conversation, and/or you may quote or paraphrase views directly from the original article. Once you have fairly presented alternative/opposing views, you will need to respond to those views. You can refute central claims, rebut the evidentiary support, or concede to a strong idea. If you do concede, you may want to provide exceptions to your concession or emphasize other aspects of your own argument that outweigh the points that you have conceded.

As you develop your Response Essay into a 1200-2400 word, double-spaced document, keep in mind these standard essay conventions:

• provide a brief background about the conversation and a brief, fair summary of the original author’s ideas.
• address a neutral or undecided audience in a fair and respectful manner.
• present a focused claim with reasons that respond directly to the ideas in the original argument.
• develop your claim and reasons by presenting and responding to ideas from the original argument.
• develop your argument by presenting alternative/opposing views and handling those views in an effective manner.