ASSIGNMENTS:
1. This comes from my old site. Please read this post in preparation for your next paper. Food for thought.
2. Princeton University offers some excellent advice for avoiding plagiarism.
3. Here’s an article from University of North Carolina on “empty writing.”
Formal Essay #5: Persuasive Letter to a Hostile Audience
Read this article by Michael Skube.
Michael Skube provides his e-mail on the bottom of his scathing rebuke of today’s college student.
Here’s his argument broken down for you:
Claim: College students are dumber (and less able to handle the rigor of college) than ever before, and they’re getting dumber all the time.
Reasons:
- They have stopped reading books.
- They don’t know any words.
Evidence: mostly anecdotes from his experience as a teacher/professor & GPA data.
Argument: We’re all doomed if this is our future. We are heading toward an illiterate and destructively ill-prepared adult world.
Write Professor Skube a letter advancing your own argument. Agree with his claim. Or disagree and make your own. Either way, make sure you back up your claim with specific evidence from not only his text, but also at least two other sources. At least one source must be ACADEMIC, PEER REVIEWED from the Stockton database. Have at least three credible sources in the paper overall.
Things to consider: role of schools/teachers, some colleges abolishing SAT scores, most high schools abolishing class rank, technology.
The paper should be approximately four pages.
Evidence backing your claim may also come from your own life or observations. You have been a student, so your opinion is entirely appropriate here.
Works Cited and parenthetical documentation MUST be in APA format.
Due by class time on Monday, April 8th. Don’t forget that class will begin with your family presentations.
Joe Costal 