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Hi. I'm Sid Dobrin. In this video I'll be talking about the Essay assignment that asks
students to make an argument in response to one of the nine provided questions.
I designed this assignment to fit the curricular goals of many first-year composition classes.
The assignment asks students to write a traditional academic essay, and in doing so, asks students
to make a specific claim in response to a stated question, to conduct research in order
to gather evidence to support the claim, and to use that claim and evidence to form a formal
argument. Of course, the nine prompts I've provided
are fairly general, offering students a good degree of flexibility in how they choose to
respond. But, if you find the questions or subject matters too limiting, you can easily
substitute your own prompts for those I've provided.
When I teach this assignment, I spend a good deal of time working with students to help
them see the importance of developing a strong thesis in order to construct a sound argument.
I have come to believe that students have little problem identifying topics they want
to write about, but often fail to see the importance of making a strong claim about
the subject. Identifying a claim helps student writers—or any writer, for that matter—better
position their argument within a specific situation.
With this in mind, this is one of the assignments that I usually require students to work with
the Road to a Strong Thesis feature in the chapter to help them think through how they
will get to a strong thesis. I also use this emphasis on developing a strong thesis to
get students to think about making more dynamic claims than conveniently stated "I think X
because..." Because this assignment provides a more traditional
argumentative essay prompt, I tend to be rather detailed in talking with students about how
I will assess their essays. I walk them through the assessment rubric I use talking with them
about how to craft their arguments to exhibit a strong understanding of the situation in
which they write. I also focus a good deal of energy on the rubric's criteria relating
to critical thinking and rhetorical knowledge. And, because I have emphasized the importance
of the strong thesis for this assignment, I also show my students how the rubric will
account for how they develop a strong thesis. So, that's a little bit more about the argumentative
Essay project, an assignment that I regularly assign my students. Thanks for using Writing
Situations and thanks for watching.