Criteria: must be based on “the five elements of academic argument” described below.
-must add at least 3 out of 5 of the following elements. The Five Elements of Academic Argument:
-The Main Question or Problem an author is addressing
-The Established or Conventional View(s) of the problem, according to the author (e.g., Marx arguing against Utopian Socialists, Beauvoir contra orthodox Marxism, etc.)
– Flaws in the Established View, according to the author
-Thesis: how does the author propose to correct the flaw they’ve identified?
-Motive/Stakes: what is the author’s motivation for writing, and what are the stakes of their argument? Why should we care about the author’s argument? This element of the author’s argument should
help us answer the following question a reader might have: “so what, why should we care?”
Please use double-spacing, one-inch margins, and twelve-point font.
Limit direct quotations. However, you must still cite an author when summarizing their ideas.
Your citations must be in footnote format using the Chicago Manual of Style as a guide. Title page
and bibliography is not required for these short papers.
