University of Toronto Do Media Reflect or Affect the World Argument Essay

In preparation for completing your Argument Essay, please answer the following:

1. What is your thesis for your essay?

1a. Is your thesis clear, leading, arguable, interesting, manageable, and specific? Please explain how your thesis fulfills these criteria.

2. Identify 2-3 points, issues, terms, etc., that a reader unfamiliar with your topic would need to understand in order to recognize the significance of your essay. These should be addressed in a development section in your essay, and should consider the perspective of the “unfamiliar reader”. 

3. Identify 3-5 points of support for your thesis (the claims that support your thesis). What are the main ideas that give credibility to your thesis?

4. Identify at least one quotation that you use to add support to your claims. How does this quoted material support the claim you are making? Why is this the best quotation for your purposes? 

5. What is at stake in your overall argument/What is the “so what?” of your argument? Why should your reader care about the issue(s) you raise? 

For your argument essay, you will show your reader the connection(s) between the questions posed by O’Shaughnessy and Stadler and the issues raised in at least two of the additional course readings listed below, while advancing your own argument about the role of media in society. In preparation for the essay, you should consider your response to the question, “Do media reflect or affect the world?” (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler 42), as connected to the issues around critical engagement, media, representation, and power raised in at least two of the following non-textbook readings from (the essays by Paulo Freire, bell hooks, George Orwell, William Lutz, and/or Jack Shaheen). How can your chosen texts work together, what do these texts suggest regarding what media “does” to us, and what is at stake in this connection? In what way(s), are dominant ideologies enforced or subverted through the media we consume, and why is it important to engage these critically?

Specifics:

Your essay should provide the following, at the minimum:

A thesis that is directly related to the main theme(s) of your essay, with claims to support that thesis

Summaries and/or paraphrases that orient an unfamiliar reader to the ideas under investigation, including descriptive elements for a reader who may not have read the essays to which you refer

A clear presentation of your own argument, building on scholarly theories

Specific engagement with at least three non-textbook readings from Weeks 2-6

Quotations that are related to the claims you are making/supporting, and that are unpacked in a way that shows how you are working in conversation with the author being quoted

An indication of what is at stake in the argument you are making – this should be alluded to in your introduction and then expanded upon in your conclusion