What is the value, if any, of a college education in a democracy?

English Composition II
Response Essay
Rationale
The purpose of a response is to enter into a conversation with texts or authors about which you have become knowledgeable. This is an opportunity for you to explain to your reader what you think about a proposed issue or argument.
You can approach the response in a number of ways—agreeing, disagreeing, or both—but you should consider that this assignment will build on the summary and rhetorical analysis skills that you developed in previous assignments.
In this paper, you will present a claim about the topic below; you will present reasons and evidence for your claim, and explain your claim’s relationship to the author(s)’s argument(s) with whom you’ve decided to interact.
The Topic
Your essay will pose some answer to this question: What is the value, if any, of a college education in a democracy?
You will present an original argument; your argument, evidence, and rebuttals will be comprised of any of the readings 1-8 in the module “Reading and Understanding Arguments”, the Readings in Democracy from the “Begin Here” module, or the Achenbach and Cohen articles from “Responding to Arguments” module. A minimum of two sources is required.
You are not required to use the articles you used for your academic precis or CCRA, though you may find it more convenient to do so. If you do choose to write a response to the articles you used for your previous assignments, you may use some elements of the summary or analysis you wrote to help introduce the article to your reader, but it should be well adapted to this project, rather than copied and pasted wholesale into your paper.
How do I respond?
While the choice of how you respond to your chosen essay is fully your own, I expect that you will use the conventions of responding to conversations that you read about the “Responding to Arguments” module.
You should also consider what we have learned about strong thesis statements and paragraphs organized by topic sentences.
Remember that you are writing to your own audience, so you should give them context of your argument before/as you articulate your thesis statement. Give them a “So what?”—why is does this topic matter? Why should they invest in reading through your argument?
You are required to incorporate material from the articles to which you are responding. You are welcome to incorporate other secondary research into this essay if you find it will help you make an effective argument, but it is not required for this paper.
Avoid logical fallacies (discussed in Module 8), or use logical fallacies in other arguments as a way “in” to the conversation.
Guidelines
Aim for a length of 1000-1200 words, double-spaced, TNR 12-point font. Any paper that falls below 1000 words will not be eligible for a B or an A grade. (Your Works Cited page is not included in the word count.)
Your essay should have an effective introduction that includes a clear thesis statement, as well as an effective conclusion that leaves the reader with a strong final impression of your argument.
Organize your essay clearly, and around topic sentences directly related to your thesis, so that it flows smoothly from one paragraph to the next.
Make sure your reader understands the difference between your words and ideas and those presented in the texts you choose to write about.
Use the MLA online handbook to help you properly cite, summarize, paraphrase, and quote the texts you choose to write about.
A minimum of two sources are required for this paper and they should come from readings you’ve been assigned in previous modules (see above).
Format
Your essay should adhere to MLA manuscript format. Any texts or other sources that you quote, summarize, or paraphrase should be cited.

Last Completed Projects