What are the major claims (grounds) the writer presents and what evidence does the writer provide to support those claims?

For your last paper, I would like you to write an essay in which you evaluate the article provided below:

A few questions to consider while reading the essay:

1) Is the issue the writer is taking a position on clear? Is there enough evidence to convince you that the problem exists? An issue is the problem concerning which people have different points of view.
2) What is the writer’s position/thesis? Are there any ambiguous words in the thesis that need clarification?
3)What are the major claims (grounds) the writer presents and what evidence does the writer provide to support those claims? Does the writer back up his or her claims?
4) Does the writer provide opposing viewpoints, and argue why he or she disagrees with them?
5) Do the claims collectively support the writer’s thesis?

Here’s the OUTLINE that you should use to organize your essay:

1) Introduction: Briefly introduce the issue/problem that the writer is identifying. Show the reader why the issue is an important one. At the end of the introduction, present your thesis that is your position on the writers’ position. For example: X argues that more and more college students are suffering from anxiety because of A, B and C. X’s argument is based on selectively chosen anecdotal evidence and is further weakened by the frequent use of generalizations, faulty causes, and half-truths that collectively prevent him from making a sound argument. Remember, your thesis must tell us what your position is regarding the writers’.

2) Facts regarding the issue: In this section, you should provide evidence to clarify for the reader the scope of the problem. Help the reader understand to what extent the problem/issue is, in fact, a cause for concern.

3) Summary of major claims and evaluation: In this section, you should 1) provide at least FOUR major claims the writer makes to support his or her position, and 2) determine whether the claims are supported by evidence and whether the writer has backed-up the assumptions underpinning the claims/ground.

For example, if the writer argues that colleges are trying to silence speech that the colleges think may harm students emotionally, then the writer must provide evidence to convince us that the attempts to censor are taking place on a majority of campuses. If there are no facts to convince the reader that a problem exists, then we don’t have to believe the writers.

Here’s another example: A lot of people believe that cities with large immigrant populations have higher crime rates than do cities that don’t have large immigrant communities. Just saying something does not make an argument; you must give me evidence that shows the connection between large immigrant communities and rising crime rate. Facts and statistics.

I would suggest you provide one claim per paragraph and then evaluate it by either showing that no evidence is provided to support it or by providing evidence that challenges the claim. If there is more evidence to challenge the writer’s claim, then the claim is weakened.

4) Opposing Viewpoint: Ask yourself whether the writer has engaged with the opposing viewpoint? If s/he has not, then provide the opposing argument.

5) Finally, toward the end of your essay, you should make some recommendations to strengthen the writer’s argument. Argue what would make the argument stronger; or, you could reject the problem itself by showing that what the writer has argued is based on propaganda and anecdotal evidence, and so on.

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