Overview: Your first essay will evaluate the claim made in paragraph twelve of Eduardo Porter’s article, “The Promise and Failure of Community Colleges” wherein it is argued that policymakers who equate higher education with a bachelor’s degree are mostly “ignoring the fact that a very large group of young Americans are not prepared either financially, cognitively or socially for that kind of education.”
– The Prompt for Essay One: Drawing on information gained from Porter’s article and/or other sources assigned or that you have found for yourselves, agree or disagree with each assertion made about community college students in paragraph twelve of Porter’s article. In other words, after your thesis offers the short answer to the prompt—stating whether you agree or disagree with Porter’s three claims, your body paragraphs will offer support for or against each of the author’s three claims, that most community
college students are not in a four-year school because they “are not prepared, either financially, cognitively or socially for that [a four-year program of study] kind of
education.” You need to explain why each of the three claims may or may not be true. Dealing with each claim will likely be its own body paragraph.
A.) Your one paragraph Introduction will
• begin with a sentence introducing the topic to be discussed
• provide enough subsequent sentences that enough background information has been given to make the importance and timeliness of the topic clear
• end with a thesis claim that emerges organically from the preceding sentences.
B.) Your thesis will
• be the last sentence in your introduction
• it will neither be a question nor an announcement
• it will clearly state the short answer to the prompt question—the body of the paper develops and proves this statement true.
C.) Each body paragraph will
• have a first sentence that serves as both transition and topic sentence
• offer a well-developed discussion of a single idea using one specific, concrete example from evidence, which
• will be clearly supportive of your thesis.
D.) Your conclusion will
• remind the audience what has been learned
• restate your thesis as proven rather than as promise
• offer a closing insight or suggest an idea for further consideration
Additionally, your paper will end with a correctly formatted works cited page—you will
need to have at least three entries to meet the assignment requirements.
