Schaaf WR 98
Paper 1: Argument-driven analysis
First draft for Peer Review: By class time on Friday 9/26
First draft for my review: By 10:00 p.m. on Friday 9/26
Final version: By 10:00 a.m. on Saturday 10/11
Purpose: This first paper will give you a chance to practice developing a strong, arguable claim,
writing a clear introduction, engaging with the argument of another writer, and figuring out how
to organize your analysis.
Assignment: Write a paper of between 800 and 1000 words that makes a claim that
acknowledges and responds to the argument from one of the essays below.
Essay Choices
James Angelos, “Passing the Test”
Julie Traves, “The Church of Please and Thank You”
Lera Broditsky, “How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think?”
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, “A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization”
Tanveer Ali, “The Subway Falafel”
Guidelines
*Your essay will present an argument that uses analysis of specific passages to support a claim.
*Following the major possibilities presented in They Say / I Say, your claim must respond to the
essay on which you focus by either agreeing with a difference, disagreeing and explaining why,
or agreeing and disagreeing with specific points or aspects of the text.
*Rather than starting your introduction with general statements, open with a specific link to the
essay on which you are focusing in order to set up how you are engaging with that text. Be sure
to include the title of the essay and the name of the writer in your introduction.
*Give each body paragraph a specific focus or purpose and link all your evidence and analysis in
the paragraph to that focus.
*No paragraph should be longer than a page, double-spaced.
*Figure out an order of paragraphs that makes sense and that makes your argument as
persuasively as possible.
*Make your transitions between paragraphs as strong as possible – try to pick up an idea from
each paragraph and further develop it in the paragraph that follows.
*In your conclusion, restate your claim but also expand your ideas further and/or suggest some
questions for further consideration or research.
*For your paper, you must either use MLA documentation, which is described in Rules for
Writers, or seek my permission to use another established form of documentation.