Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2. Can you think of an educated response using evidence & support from your life / what youve learned in life?
Supporting your argument
3. Can you articulate those ideas in writing so that someone you dont know can understand your opinion?
writing / organizational skills
The Prompt
For many Americans, the concept of success is a source of confusion. As a people, we Americans greatly prize success. We are taught to celebrate and admire the one who gets the highest grades, the one voted more attractive or most likely to succeed. But while we often rejoice in the success of people far removed from ourselves- people who work in another profession, live in another community, or are endowed with a talent that we do not especially want for ourselves-we tend to regard the success of people close at hand, within our own group, as a threat.
We are taught to celebrate and admire the one who gets the highest grades, the one voted more attractive or most likely to succeed.
But while we often rejoice in the success of people far removed from ourselves- people who work in another profession, live in another community, or are endowed with a talent that we do not especially want for ourselves-
ourselves-we tend to regard the success of people close at hand, within our own group, as a threat. we are threatened or jealous by the success of people we know
success confusing to Ams, but important -what is success? Agree Ams taught to admire success -parents, teachers, media, etc. Agree were happy when people we dont know are successful
-famous actors, athletes, business people
Agree
Write a Thesis
Mead accurately states that success is confusing, especially when we find ourselves threatened by friends and family who are successful, but she misses the point when she states that we are happy for successful people we dont know because we are often jealous and threatened by them as well. **Ask selfdoes this sentence clearly answer the prompt/question?
Organize Thoughts
success confusing to Ams, but important (Intro. Para) -what is success? Agree
Ams taught to admire success (Intro Para / Con. Par.) -parents, teachers, media, etc. Agree were happy when people we dont know are successful (Body Para.1) -famous actors, athletes, business people Disagree we are threatened or jealous by the success of people we know (Body Para. 2) -classmates, siblings, coworkers Agree
Beginning to Write
The Introduction
~Elements of a strong intro:
*hook *intro. to main ideas of body paragraphs *thesis -is your thesis a clear, one sentence ANSWER to the prompt (question)
Body Paragraphs
~Do you explain what Mead is saying? ~Do you say whether you agree or disagree with Mead & use examples to support your opinion? ~Do you use commentary to explain how each example supports your opinion (whether you agree or disagree)? ~Did you remember to create a smooth transition from paragraph to paragraph?
Conclusion
~A strong conclusion needs to relate the main ideas from your body paragraphs back to the thesis sum up why you agree or disagree with Mead **Also need to explain the significance of your ideasBig Picture / So What Test??
Helpful Hints:
1. Write a title
2. Explicitly refer to passage 3. Identify subtle arguments in addition to obvious ones
-ongoing conversation
4. Write neat enough that a reader can understand it! 5. RELAXa 4 or a 6 BOTH pass!!!!!
Follow-up Exercises:
Summarizing out a Prompt