Students benefit from assignments which increase in difficulty as the semester progresses: they can use paper #1 as a kind of intellectual prerequisite to paper #2. For example, they need to be able to summarize an author's argument before they can evaluate it.

1st Assignment: A summary of a reasonably short text.

• Purpose: to give the student practice in selecting the central ideas in a text and reporting the author's point of view rather than the student's reaction to that point of view. 2-3 pp.
• e.g., What is Bertrand Russel's thesis in "Evolution and the Argument By Design"?

2nd Assignment: an essay based on deductive reasoning in which the student supports a thesis the instructor provides. 3-4 pp.

• Purpose: to give the student experience in substantiating an argument
• e.g., Drawing on your own experiences as a child and young adult, support or refute Nancy Chodorow's thesis in The Reproduction of Mothering.

3rd Assignment: an essay based on inductive reasoning in which the student is given a body of information to use in arguing for a thesis he/she develops. 3-4 pp.

• Purpose: to give the student experience in analyzing and synthesizing information
• e.g., Read a number of biographical entries for a particular century in the Encyclopedia of Scientific Biography, paying special attention to such factors as nationality and background. On the basis of this information, what do you think were the sources of financial support and the nature of scientific research in the period?

4th Assignment: an essay involving theoretical or conceptual analysis and speculation. 3-5 pp.

• Purpose: to give the student experience in grappling with theoretical issues and applying them to practical or textual experience.
• e.g., Apply Freud's theory of dreams to a dream you had recently.

Evaluative Guidelines

Evaluating Summaries

• Does the summary provide an overview of the article's main points?
• Does the summary indicate the relationship among the points made in the article?
• Is the structure of the article apparent from the summary?
• Do transition devices indicate relationships between points in the summary?

Evaluating Deductive Essays

• Is the thesis logically related to the evidence presented?
• Is the evidence provided convincing and sufficient?
• Is the evidence presented in an appropriate order?
• Is the evidence provided from appropriate sources?

Evaluating Inductive Essays

• Are plausible generalizations made from the data?
• Does one generalization predominate as the focal point (or thesis) of the essay?
• Is the data organized appropriately?
• Are transitions provided which indicate the relationships between parts of the essay?

Evaluating Theoretical/Analytic Essays

• Does the essay exhibit an understanding of the abstract concepts involved in describing the problem and its analysis?
• Does the essay avoid simplistic dichotomies?
• Is vocabulary appropriately specialized?
• Is the logic convincing?
• Is the organization scheme appropriate?