English 112
Dr. Julianne Newmark

Essay One: Definitional Argument
Draft Due for Peer Review: Monday, September 11 (bring three copies to class)
Final Version Due: Wednesday, September 13

Required length: four to five pages
Must include a Works Cited page (as an additional page)

Please choose one of the following readings:
Abe Whaley, “Once Unique, Soon a Place Like Any Other”
Michael Skube, “Generation of Non-Readers Starts to Emerge”

You will need to create your own definitional argument (by this I mean, do not recreate the argument in the essay you’ve chosen; that author’s argument might not be a definitional argument) that addresses the issue considered in the essay you’ve chosen.  So, you will be crafting an argument about either a) the effects of aggressive land development on mountain farmland (or other previously rural and “untouched” landscapes), or b) student histories of reading and the ramifications of those histories on student preparedness for college-level writing.

As you can see, I have given you two very different subject-matter options here.  Regardless of what topic you choose, you will need to:

1.  Create a claim that will follow the formula of a definitional argument: “Something is (or is not) a ______ because it has (or does not have) features a, b, or c” (GR 125).  We will generate examples in class.  SEE GUIDELINES: GR 125-6

2.  Think about “what’s at stake” (this is a pre-writing exercise).

3.  List the criteria and analyze potential readers (these are pre-writing exercises).

4.  Craft an essay that begins by revealing what issue you are discussing and proceeds, at the end of the first paragraph, to a declaration of your definitional claim.

5.  Your essay, in the body paragraphs, will include evidence pulled from the essay you’ve chosen above.  By “evidence,” I mean quotes.  This evidence can either support or refute your definition.

6.  Your essay will need to include “evidence” from (at least) one other source (but not more than three other sources).  We will discuss the criteria for this in class.

Please refresh your memory of the criteria for a successful paper, listed on your Response Paper assignment.  These hold for this essay as well.