English B1A CLASS PACK - Bakersfield College

THE ARGUMENT• The argument is a 1-2 page essay in which you agree or disagree with theauthor’s argument (typed, double spaced, in MLA format).• Do not summarize any more than is absolutely necessary in theargument—you already summarized the author’s work in the first part ofthis assignment.• DO refer to the title and author in your thesis statement.• Your thesis statement should explicitly agree or disagree with the author’smain point.• Use quotes and paraphrases from the article to support your argument.CITE all quotes and paraphrases properly.• Be sure your argument is logical, coherent, and well-organized.THE CRITIQUE• The critique is a 1-2 page essay in which you demonstrate the validity andeffectiveness of the author’s argument (typed, double spaced, in MLAformat).• Do not summarize more than is necessary—you already did that in the firstsection.• Do not agree or disagree with the author’s argument more than isnecessary—you already did that in the second section.• DO refer to the author and title in your thesis statement and point out howstrong (or weak) the writer’s argument is. Here are a few sample thesisstatements for the critique:In the excerpt “Secondary Five,” Rodney J. Carroll makes a powerful and persuasiveargument that welfare-to-work is a beneficial concept, he provides sufficient evidence tosupport his claim, and he wins the heart of readers, creating a sense of closeness bysharing personal life experiences.In the excerpt “At the Edge of Poverty,” David Shipler explains the variety of causes ofpoverty in the U.S., but his arguments are weak and invalid because he simply places theblame on anyone and anything besides the poor individual, the one person who couldactually change his or her own situation in life.Rodney J. Carroll, in his excerpt “Secondary Five,” uses compelling personalexperiences and convincing interviews from welfare recipients to give validity to hisargument that welfare workers should attempt to re-enter the workforce and thatemployers should not discriminate against them just because they’re on welfare.• Although you will want to generalize that the argument is mostly good (ormostly bad), you may also “yield” that there are also some weaknesses (orstrengths) in the writing.• As you plan your critique, consider the following questions, but do not feellimited by these questions. You do not have to answer them all, and ifthere are other issues that concern you, you are free to discuss those. The6