Being a man by paul theroux thesis statement

English 101

Paper Three (100 points)

Argument and Persuasion

In this assignment you must answer the following question:

What is Paul Theroux’s primary complaint about being a man today in “Being a Man” (1983)? What is Naomi Wolf’s primary complaint about being a woman today in “The Beauty Myth” (1991)? With whom do you agree more? (Or, is there an acceptable middle ground? Or do you agree with neither?)

The paper must occasionally paraphrase the above readings, occasionally quote the above readings, and use MLA citation correctly. If you need a review in paraphrasing, quotation, and MLA citation, consult “Phil Eggers: Quotation, Paraphrasing, and MLA Citation” in the Course Documents of Blackboard. You must use only the reading(s) mentioned above. Papers that use other sources or, worse, plagiarize from them will receive no credit. Papers must be at least two full pages long and no more than three pages long. They must also be double-spaced at 12-pitch. Use transitional terms to introduce body paragraphs and the conclusion. Use proper, three-part paragraph structure in the body paragraphs.

You must complete the prewriting (10 points) and a rough draft (10 points) of this assignment: both are due no later than the day this paper is peer reviewed and will not be accepted late under any circumstances. The final draft of this paper will be worth 100 points. You must submit an electronic version of the file to Turn It In before the hard copy is submitted in class.

Bear in mind that the prewriting is not a rough draft of the paper. Rather, it should appear only as notes to guide you while you write your paper.

PREWRITING INSTRUCTIONS:

On the Prewriting handout, under “Introduction,” and after “Lead-in,” make notes on how you will introduce the general topic of the essay to your reader. After “Tie-in,” make notes on how you will narrow that topic down to prepare the reader for the thesis statement. It is here that you should mention the titles and authors of the articles. (In “A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf says that . . .) In this particular paper, the tie-in should also briefly provide what you take to be the author’s responses to the above question. After “Thesis statement,” write your response to the last question above.

Next you will need to prewrite the body of your paper. While you may only end up with three body paragraphs, space has been left for five. Attach additional paper if your body paragraphs will number more than five. Each body paragraph needs to deal with a different subtopic that supports your thesis. Write out a workable topic sentence for each body paragraph. The number of body paragraphs you end up using will be dependent upon how many reasons you can invent to support your thesis.

Then, under each topic sentence, make notes on how you plan to support it through explanation and examples. Ideally, each body paragraph would directly cite the reading passage it addresses at least once—through paraphrasing, quotation, or both.

Finally, your essay needs to have a conclusion. Under “Conclusion,” and after “Restatement of the thesis in different words,” write down how you will restate the main idea of your essay without repeating word for word what you wrote earlier. After “Final thought related to the topic,” write down how you will bring the essay to a close.