Conducting a Dialogue

Essay Description
By the due date assigned, post your reflections on how you addressed
Objections and Alternative Views in your researched argumentative essay,
following the Assignment Guidelines below.
Assignment Guidelines:
Reflect on the following in a well-developed paragraph:
• As you composed your first draft of the essay, did you imagine your
audience as sympathetic, hostile, or somewhere in between?
• What was the central claim of your essay and what opposing points of view
did you present?
• How did you attempt to accommodate or refute opposing arguments, and
what challenges did you encounter in the process?
Responding to Opposing Views
Acknowledging opposing points of view is an important step in establishing the trust of
your audience. It shows that you have carefully considered all sides of an argument and
that you take objections and alternative views seriously.
Accommodating or refuting opposing arguments will make your own argument stronger.
Accommodation is when you give some credit to the opposing viewpoint enabling you to
demonstrate why your argument is stronger.
When refuting another view, allow your facts to do the work. Using derogatory language
can cause defensiveness in a reader and prevent them from being persuaded. Respect
the intelligence of those who disagree with your point of view, and convince them with
your logic and facts that your point of view on the matter you are arguing is the better
one for specific reasons.
Revising the Rough Draft
Once you have completed the rough draft of your paper, it is a good idea to let it sit for a
few hours or a day before beginning your revisions. When you are ready to begin the
job of critically scrutinizing the piece, follow the guidelines below.
Read the draft through quickly to reacquaint yourself with the paper. Then read it again
with these questions in your mind:
• Does the draft fulfill the specifics of the assignment?
• Does the introduction grab the attention of the readers?
• Is the thesis clear? Does it match with the argument you presented? Does it
match the conclusion?
• Are terms clearly defined? Is the tone formal enough? Is the writing free of
clichés, sexist language, or language that might offend?
• Is evidence clear and effective?
• Is the analysis rooted in well-documented sources?
• Are all assertions you put forward backed by evidence?
• Can you find any evidence of fallacious argument, misuse of statistics, or biased
or distorted argument by authorities?
If you look at each paragraph separately, can you:
• Find a basic point made by the paragraph?
• See that each paragraph relates to the essay’s main idea and to the previous
paragraph?
• Is each sentence clearly related to the sentence before it and to the sentence
that follows?
• Is each paragraph adequately developed with sufficient details?
• Are your in-text citations present and correct?
• Does the conclusion wrap up the paper and restate your thesis? Is the wording
powerful?
• Is the references page complete? Is every sources credited within your in-text
citations listed on the references page?
At this point you are ensuring that your essay is well-shaped and fully developed. Make
any changes and additions to clarify and develop your ideas and to make sure that
nothing is missing from the overall work.
Editing and Proofreading Your Work
The final step before submission of your work is to ensure surface correctness. To do
this, you will need critical distance from your work so that you are able to locate any
errors in the grammar, mechanics, and formatting.
First, print out your essay and read it aloud. As you read, keep a highlighter in your
hand. Highlight any sentence you stumble over. Once you reach the end of the work, go
back and revise highlighted sentences for clarity and fluidity. You want your words to
flow smoothly.
Next, you want to focus only on the sentences within your paragraphs. Start from the
end of your paper, and read each paragraph out loud again, one by one. Address
editing issues, such as sentence fragments, run-ons, lack of subject-verb agreement,
and so forth. Think about the flow of words. Ensure that your punctuation separates
sentences as necessary and combines them appropriately with conjunction and
commas. Locating errors of this type requires careful scrutiny of the document.
Next, look over the whole of your work for correctness. Check the headers for correct
wording and capitalization on the first page and on subsequent pages. Verify the correct
information on the cover page. Check that you have repeated the title at the top of the
second page. Do not boldface the title. Make sure to indent paragraphs and to doublespace the lines throughout the work, from the first page to the last.
Check your references for correctness. Center the word “References” over the list.
Organize the list alphabetically by author last name. Capitalize only the first word in
article titles. Italicize journal titles, volume numbers and book titles. Use hanging
indentation for the entries on your references page.