Goals

University of Phoenix Material

Evaluate and Revise an Argument

Complete the following two parts of this worksheet to evaluate and revise an argument.

Part 1 - Evaluating

Read the paragraph in Practice 7.1 of Ch. 7 of your textbook. It is copied here for your reference, but you should read the whole chapter in order to understand evaluation and revision techniques that will help you.

Use the revision guide as you evaluate the following passage from Hetal Shah’s rough draft of her essay on plagiarism. Mark, annotate, and evaluate the passage. Focus on strengths, concerns, and suggestions.

Academic dishonesty can come into play when students feel that many pressures are being placed on them. Pressures from parents, for example, can lead students to look for the easy way out. Plagiarism also occurs because it is socially acceptable and students do not consider it cheating. Meeting various expectations can cause students to turn to cheating. Pressures can vary from maintaining a high GPA in high school to get into a good college to keeping up grades while in college to hold on to scholarships. American high school students feel pressure from parents as well as teachers to attend good colleges or universities (Durkin). Students in all grade levels competing for grades are causing a great increase in academic dishonesty (Fanning 8). Many high-achieving students are turning to ways of cheating to get their A’s in their demanding classes (9). Rigorous course loads and high expectations have led many students, often those that are near the top of their classes, to cheat.

Evaluate the paragraph’s strengths and weaknesses, by using the Revision Guide on p. 181 of Ch. 7 of your textbook.

Fill out the following table listing the strengths, weaknesses, and your suggestions for improvement. Give thorough feedback that would be useful to the writer by providing at least two for each category. Be sure to explain WHY each item is a strength, weakness, or needed...