English 120 – Rosichan
Argument Essay Reflection
1. Write a blog post to classmates, a letter to your instructor, or an e-mail message to a
student who will take this course next term, using the writing prompt that seems most
productive for you:
A. Explain how your purpose and audience influenced one of your decisions as a writer, such as
how you presented the issue, the strategies you used in arguing your position, or the ways in
which you attempted to counter possible objections.
B. Discuss what you learned about yourself as a writer in the process of writing this essay. For
example, what part of the process did you find most challenging? Did you try anything new, like
getting a critical reading of your draft or outlining your draft in order to revise it? Choose one of
the readings in this chapter and explain how it influenced your essay. Be sure to cite specific
examples from your essay and the reading.
C. If you got good advice from a critical reader, explain exactly how the person helped you—
perhaps by questioning the way you addressed your audience or the kinds of evidence you
offered in support of your position.
2. Write a few paragraphs explaining your ideas about whether the genre’s requirement
that writers give reasons and support suppresses dissent. Connect your ideas to your own
position argument and to the readings in this chapter. In your discussion, you might
consider one or more of the following questions:
In your own experience of arguing a position on a controversial issue, did having to give reasons
and support discourage you from choosing any particular issue or from expressing strong
feelings? Reflect on the issues you listed as possible subjects for your essay and how you made
your choice. Did you reject any issues because you could not come up with reasons and support
for your position? When you made your choice, did you think about whether you could be
dispassionate and reasonable about it?
Consider the readings in this chapter and the position arguments you read by other students in
the class. Do you think any of these writers felt limited by the need to give reasons and support
for their position? Which of the essays you read, if any, seemed to you to express strong feelings
about the issue? Which, if any, seemed dispassionate?
Consider the kind of arguing you typically witness in the media—radio, television, newspapers,
magazines, the Internet. In the media, have giving reasons and support and anticipating readers’
objections been replaced with a more contentious, in-your-face style of arguing? Think of media
examples of these two different ways of arguing. What do these examples lead you to conclude
about the contention that reasoned argument can stifle dissent?