Week 5 Writing Assignment to Begin Practicing Evaluating Sources (30 points):

 

1. Using Worthen’s U Can’t Talk to UR Professor Like This, take note of any rhetorical strategies you find important, effective (or ineffective), or especially interesting.

 

2. This is an exercise in critical thinking. As you are reading, keep the following in mind in terms of your own response:

a. What are my attitudes about the subject matter?

b. Why do I hold these attitudes/beliefs?

c. Does my thinking show open mindedness?

d. Am I willing to examine my assumptions?

e. Am I willing to entertain new ideas?

 

Also consider the following questions about the author:

a. What assumptions does the author make?

b. What is the writer’s claim?

c. What evidence, if any, does the author offer in support of the claim?

d. Is there anything about the style of the piece—distinctive use of language, tone, etc.—that makes it especially engaging or especially annoying?

 

3. Using the questions above and below as a basis, write a 1-2pg response to the article. For this assignment, you are not stating whether or not you agree with the subject of the essay. You want to focus on what is effective (or not) within the essay itself.

 

You may choose to focus on some of the following (these are suggestions—you do not have to answer all of them):

a. How does the author make their argument?

b. What have they done well?

c. What could the author had done differently to make the argument more effective?

d. What rhetorical strategies are important within the essay?

e. Who is the intended audience?

f. Will this audience be persuaded by the argument? Why or why not?

 

4. Submit your Microsoft Word Doc with proper MLA formatting to the assignment area in the Week 4 area.