Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length, and is due on Sunday. By Tuesday, you should respond to two additional posts from your peers.

Counterarguments

Last week, you brainstormed a research question and several aspects of the topic you’ve chosen to write about for your W6 Rough Draft. For this discussion, you will give an answer to that question in the form of a thesis statement.

Example: Suppose your research question for W6 was something like, “Should pit bull terriers be banned in my community?” After doing some preliminary research, you have concluded that pit bulls, if raised properly, are no more dangerous than other breeds of dogs. Your thesis statement can be something like, “Pitbulls should not be banned in Kansas City, MO, because X, Y, and Z.” (Fill in the letters with reasons that support your claim.)

In addition to sharing a thesis statement, you will list every reason you can think of, or have discovered in your research, why readers might disagree with your thesis statement.

Example: “Some readers might disagree because there have been actual instances of pit bulls attacking people, even children. Not all pit bulls are raised properly. Pit bulls have a natural, aggressive instinct.”

Your goal here is to identify both your position and the position of readers who may need to be convinced by your argument. Readers who hold positions contrary to your own are said to hold counterarguments.

In your responses, weigh in on each other’s thesis statements.

• Does the thesis statement present a clear, arguable position?
• Does it list reasons?
• Do the counterarguments seem valid?
• What other counterarguments can you think of?

Please note: As with last week’s discussion, nothing here is set in stone. Be open to changing everything about your topic, including your position, as you research it and get feedback from your classmates.

View your discussion rubric.

Peer Review

This week, you will be engaging with the work of other students through Peer Review. In Week 6, you were instructed to submit a copy of your rough draft to the discussion forum. If you have not done so, please submit a copy as an attachment in a new thread with your name as the subject.

This week, you will need to read and respond to at least two other students’ essays and provide them feedback. These responses must include the Peer Review rubric. Use the rubric to provide constructive feedback, incorporating specific, positive remarks as well as helpful suggestions so your peers can see you genuinely evaluated their rough draft.

Your peer reviews should be posted as a response in each student author’s thread.

There are two key things to remember when commenting:

First, avoid giving one sentence answers. Provide positive, detailed feedback as well as constructive criticism. Remember that the idea is to support your classmates’ and let them know what they are doing well as well as what could be improved. Also, focus on the larger issues with the essay (content, structure, organization, use of sources, arguments, thesis, etc.) rather than smaller issues, like editing or proofreading.

Second, please make sure to include a copy of the rubric for each student in your response (filled out in its entirety as you might grade the essay as it is now). This should be included in your response.

A few other reminders:

• Submit your paper by Sunday. Respond to two of your classmates’ papers by Tuesday.
• Select at least one essay which has only one or no responses so everyone has a chance to receive feedback.
• You are not required to point out grammar, spelling, and formatting issues, but, if you do, give examples from the paper. Focus on content first.
• If you are comfortable using the Comments feature in Word, please download the paper, make comments, and upload the paper with your corrections.
• For additional guidance on giving feedback during peer review, watch the video “Peer Review: Commenting Strategies”

View your discussion rubric.