Prompt for Paper 2 (Evaluation Essay)
Length: Between 1250-1500 words AND at least 5 sources
Final Draft Due: Sunday (11:59pm), July 18
For your third paper, I would like you to evaluate the essay titled, “The Perception of Race (Robin D’Angelo, From Inquiry to Academic Writing, page 529). You’ve all had some sort of an evaluation done either at work or at school: at work, your boss may sit with you and review your performance according to some agreed-upon set of criteria; academically, your grade is an evaluation of all the submitted assignments according to the criteria provided in a rubric.
When you evaluate someone’s argument, you should ask yourself some essential questions. Most importantly, think of your understanding of the Toulmin Method: ask yourself whether the writer has satisfied all the criteria outlined in the Toulmin Method. The following questions are meant to guide your evaluation of the essay I’ve also provided below the organization of the essay.
A few questions to consider while reading the essay:
1) Is the issue the writer is taking a position on clear? Is there enough evidence to convince you that the problem exists? An issue is a problem concerning which people have different points of view. For example, here’s an issue that you are all familiar with: Whether people should be allowed to carry guns on university campuses? So an issue can be a question for which people provide different answers. Some people might say ‘Yes,” while others might argue ‘No.’ Whenever you evaluate a position, make sure that the issue/question is clear.
2) What is the writer’s position/thesis? Are there any ambiguous words in the thesis that need clarification? Some writers will present their position on some issue explicitly, while others may only imply their position. I would suggest that you read the whole essay carefully before you write down what you think the writer is arguing.
3)What are the major claims the writer presents and what evidence does the writer provide to support those claims? Focus on the argumentative claims the writer makes: For example, if I said that my height is 6 feet, you can easily test that claim by measuring my height. On the other hand, if I said that colleges are stifling free speech, you are likely to ask me a couple of questions: where is the evidence, and what do I mean by stifling. So as you read this essay, try to extract from it the argumentative claims and then ask yourself whether there is evidence that supports the writer’s claims.
For this paper, it would be fine if you tested the writer’s claims against your own college experience while recognizing that your personal experience may not hold for all. You’ll have to look for additional evidence to support or challenge the writer’s claims. If the writer does not provide evidence, then you should not accept the claim.
4) Does the writer provide opposing viewpoints, and argue why he or she disagrees with them? Ask yourself whether the writers engage with the arguments of those who disagree with them. If the writers do not provide an opposing viewpoint, then you should ask yourself whether the opposing viewpoint weakens the writer
5) Do the claims collectively support the writer’s thesis?
Here’s the OUTLINE that you should use to organize your essay:
1) Introduction: Briefly introduce the issue/problem that the writer is identifying. Show the reader why the issue is an important one. At the end of the introduction, present your thesis that is your position on the writers’ position. For example: X argues that more and more college students are suffering from anxiety because of A, B and C. X’s argument is based on selectively chosen anecdotal evidence and is further weakened by the frequent use of generalizations, faulty causes, and half-truths that collectively prevent him from making a sound argument. Remember, your thesis must tell us what your position is regarding the writer’s
2) Summary of major claims and evaluation: In this section, you should 1) provide at least FOUR major claims the writer makes to support her position, and 2) determine whether the writer provides evidence to support her claims. For example, if the writer argues that colleges are trying to silence speech that the colleges think may harm students emotionally, then the writers must provide some evidence to convince us that the attempts to censor are taking place on a majority of campuses. If there are no facts to convince the reader that a problem exists, then we don’t have to believe the writers. Here’s another example: A lot of people believe that cities with large immigrant populations have higher crime rates than do cities that don’t have large immigrant communities. Just saying something does not make an argument; you must give me evidence that shows the connection between large immigrant communities and rising crime rate. Facts and statistics. I would suggest you provide one claim per paragraph and then evaluate it by either showing that no evidence is provided to support it or by providing evidence that challenges the claim. If there is more evidence to challenge the writers’ claim, then their claim is weakened.
3) Finally, toward the end of your essay, you should make some recommendations to strengthen the writer’s argument. Argue what would make the argument stronger; or, you could reject the problem itself by showing that what the writers’ argue is based on propaganda and anecdotal evidence and so on.
After reading your essay, the reader should have a clear understanding of the weaknesses of the writers’ argument. I’ve provided below a possible organization of paragraphs to help guide your analysis:
1) Introduction and thesis
2) Summary of writers’ overall position
3) Claim 1
Evaluation
Claim 2
Evaluation
Claim 3
Evaluation
Claim 4
Evaluation
4) Recommendations for improving the argument
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