Due date: 4-page minimum final draft due on
Points: 20
The essays by Renner and Savage have a number of overlapping interests: Both authors explore the role that social media plays in the lives of individuals, and both seem to agree that social media is a powerful tool that affects the way individuals understand themselves and others. Continue to address this question: How does Savage’s essay expand on Renner’s claims about social media’s effect on youth? Use the assigned essays and your own experiences to support your answer.
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Paper Assignment 3
Midterm Exam Revision Guidelines
In order to turn your midterm exam draft into a completed essay, you’ll need to pay attention to the following attributes of your paper. Even good essays will benefit from more targeted forms of revision, and the categories below represent areas that you will need to work on as you produce your final drafts. Significant revisions are required for this essay. That’s the whole point of the assignment! Essays that do not show evidence of significant revisions will receive a lower grade.
Category I:
Argument Development:
Your goal is to move towards an argument that is specific, complex, and original. They Say/I Say, pgs. 64-66, provides us with examples and templates about how to create more substantial and nuanced thesis statements. You may start with a provisional thesis that is vague and broad, but throughout the revision process and as the very last step before handing in your essay, you should revise your thesis so that it represents the argument that you have made.
Category II:
Body Paragraphs and Support
Organization and Coherence:
You must include topic sentences, introductions to quotations, and transitions between sentences and paragraphs. In addition to your class notes and sample papers, both Purdue OWL and They Say/ I Say, pages 108-110, contain examples of how to set-up effective body paragraphs.
Quotations:
When developing your analysis of quotations, be sure to expand on the specific language contained in the quotations that you use. If a particular quotation does not have the potential to be analyzed, then it needs to be replaced with one that does.
Synthesis:
Your task remains to write an essay that takes into consideration the multiple perspectives about social media technology expressed by Renner and Savage. Specifically, you need to answer the question, How does Savage’s essay expand on Renner’s claims about social media’s effect on youth? Use the texts and your own experiences to support your answer. Good synthesis will use relevant quotations from both essays and will analyze and explain how Savage’s essay builds on the ideas offered by Renner about youth and social media.
Category III:
Counter-Argument:
As we saw in the writings by Konnikova and Renner, effective essays incorporate arguments and ideas that are contrary to the author’s point. What might others say that goes against your argument, and how would you respond to those critics? They Say/I Say refers to ways to “plant the naysayer” in your paper. You should devote 1-2 paragraphs on raising and responding to counterarguments. See pages 78-91.
Category IV:
Conclusion:
In your conclusion, you should point your reader forward. Based on what you’ve argued in your essay, how can we ensure that once things do “get better” that they stay that way through social media? Or alternatively, what if things don’t get better and social media plays a role in that outcome? There are no easy answers to these questions, but in your concluding paragraph you should show that you’ve given thought to the problem that individuals confront when if/when social media doesn’t create positive outcomes for its users. See They Say/I Say pages 92-101 and Purdue OWL for examples of conclusions.
Template for Counterarguments
Template for Counterarguments
Counter Argument Worksheet
ENG 101
Paper 3
Directions: Cut and paste this worksheet into a Word doc and anwer the questions below. Your goal is to first outline your counterargument paragraph, then convert your answers into a counter argument paragraph as demonstrated in the powerpoint from class. Submit your responses with your final draft of paper 3.
1. What is the argument you are making in paper 3? Write your thesis here:
2. Your counterargument is the argument that opposes your own thesis. What is the opposite point of view from the sentence that you wrote in question 1? This is the objection that you have to anticipate. Write that here:
3. Imagine someone reading your essay. Who is likely to be most skeptical of your paper argument and why? This is how you identify your skeptics. Write out a sentence identifying who you think would object to your position.
4. What do you imagine that your skeptics would say to oppose your point of view. What are their reasons? This is where you must represent objections fairly. Write out the reasons why they would object.
5. Your goal in your paper is still to support your own argument, so don’t let the skeptics have the last word in your paragraph. Answer their objections. Why is your original argument valid, even though skeptics have made good points about its weakness? Write out two or three sentences defending your thesis.
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