‘The allegory of the cave’ by Plato.

According to Alexander and Barber, both academic readers and writers share common knowledge about academic wiring, a genre widely used in the academic and scientific communities. The French word genre denotes a mode or a type or a kind of writing, and each writing genre has its own conventions or rules. To tease out the meaning of a genre and its rules, lets ask a simple question: For us to call a dish apple pie, what MUST that dish have as its ingredients? Similarly, for us to call a paper academic, what must that paper have as its elements? To Alexander and Barber, it must be written critically, it must present an argument, it must cite and document outside sources, it must follow the conventions of its sub-genres, and it must have appropriate language and correct mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation, and documentation).

Summary, analysis, response, argumentation, and research are some of the most widely used sub-genres of academic writing in college and beyond, and each sub-genre has its specific conventions or requirements.

Writing Project I (WP1) invites us to practice a specific sub-genre of academic writing, namely, a response paper. To do this assignment, we need to consider practicing the five conventions Alexander and Barber have presented: the paper must 1) demonstrate critical thinking as the audience will be critical thinkers; 2) have an argument expressed in a thesis statement, and it must be well developed and supported, 3) cite outside sources (in this case, cite evidence from the text), and follow the MLA style to do in-text citations and add a Work Cited section; 4) have proper language, punctuations, and spelling/grammar, and 5) follow the sub-genre conventions of response papers listed below.

Some conventions for response papers
–Choose one specific target to respond to. This can be a written texts content or form, or a combination of both. For its content, you may critique its main argument, or one or two of its supporting ideas; for its form, you may critique its rhetorical strategies.
–Assess your target fairly, based on your full understanding of the target. You can use knowledge gained from your studies, personal experiences, and observations. You must understand the original texts main argument, its major supports, its logic of presentation, or its rhetoric. What do YOU want to say about your target? And what reasons do you have to say so?
–Make clear your argument and center your entire paper on it. It must be expressed in one key sentence, that is, a thesis statement. Then, in your paper itself, focus on supporting your thesis statement with your reasons, examples, and textual evidence quoted directly from the target text, logically and systematically. A focused and sustained response to your target is required.
–Do not merely summarize or report or introduce what the author has already said. Do not try to write a new paper on the topic. Your job is to respond to the article.

Suggested (i.e., not prescribed) Steps:
1. Choose ONE of the articles that we have discussed or will be discussing in this class. The assigned articles can be found in the Schedule of the syllabus.

Figure out the articles major argument, supporting ideas or reasons or examples, and its logic of presentation.
Decide your targetto what do you plan to respond. What do you want to say about the target?
Express your argument in a thesis statement, using the skills you have gained from doing Thesis Writing Exercise.
Organize your response paper in the following manner:
a) Give your paper a good title. A title can be: The Four Idols by Bacon: A Response, or Bacons Effective Use of Enumeration in The Four Idols. A good title should indicate your papers topic and your positionb) Write the paper itself: briefly introduce to your readers to whose what text you are responding, usually in one sentence. For example, you may say something like, In his article entitled The Four Idols, Francis Bacon argues that. briefly discuss his reasons. This introduction should be succinct and to the point. Your fair assessment of the target text is crucial. Then, place your thesis statement somewhere in the opening paragraph. Refine your thesis till you can fully support with reasons, textual evidence, and examples. You can use one of the six methods Jacobus has discussed to organize your paper, but focus on responding to the target of your choice.
c) Write several paragraphs to support your argument. Each paragraph should start with a Topic Sentencea sentence that expresses ONE of the reasons you listed in the thesis statement. The topic sentence has two functions: to give the paragraph a focus, and to connect the paragraph to your papers major argument. One paragraph should flow naturally or logically to another paragraph. Dont be controlled by the original texts order of presentation. Instead, follow your thesis statement only.
You must quote key words or phrases from the target text as textual evidence. Because this assignment asks you to do a personal response to a text, do not use any other outside source.

6. Follow the MLA conventions to do in-text citations and to add a Work Cited section near the end of your paper. When you quote directly from your target text, you need to add quotation marks and page numbers in parentheses (). For the Work Cited section, you need to list the target text. Place Work Cited at the center of the line. Do not use Reference or Bibliography. I assume you have learned and practiced the MLA documentation style in Composition 1001. If not, please examine a sample student paper in our textbook, or visit Purdues website to learn more.