Writing an Argument Essay

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Writing an Argument Essay

• Suggestions for Essay Exams
• RHET 3108

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• This idea and practice of seeking political
  transformation through bodily representations or
  performances, which lies at the center of hooks
  argument, is as troubling as it is alluring. My
  response to the essay question In this essay, I
  will argue that the wish to overcome or transcend
  the supposed limitations of the body through
  artistic representation or performance can imply
  a unproblematic conceptualization of the system
  of representation itself, a system involving a
  intricate relationship between 1 the viewing
  subject, 2 the represented image, and 3 the
  real to which the representation is said to
  refer. Thesis statement with hint at outline of
  paper My contention is that, rather than merely
  seeking to represent or even perform acts of
  bodily transcendence, art that seeks political
  transformation must work to destabilize or at
  least call into question the triadic nature of
  representation itself. The purpose, the point,
  the so what statement

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Setting Up Your Argument

• Response to the exam question your take on the
  question
• Thesis statements your argument that you will
  prove in your paper.
• Purpose or So What Statements why you are
  arguing what you argue, alternatives (if any),
  suggestions, your contribution.
• Outline Statements a sentence or phrase that
  alludes to the outline of your essay.

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• In other words, both history and gender can enact
  authorized (conventionalized) performatives
  sanctioned by a preexisting citational reference,
  of history and gender. After all both history
  and gender are written by human subjects, who
  have productive, though not unlimited,
  alternatives. Response to the essay question In
  this essay, I will argue that art history,
  generally speaking, can be understood as enacting
  a performative of heroism, by constructing the
  artist (usually male) as a hero of/with masculine
  proportions. Thesis statement, what I must
  prove Yet because of the performative nature of
  history, the actualities represented need not
  always be constructed (textually and
  ideologically) to mirror this masculine sameness.
  Hints at an alternative In other words, this
  mask of heroism that is depicted can also be
  displayed (worn) by artists and in art histories
  that highlight both difference and sameness as
  categories open to critique. Explicitly states
  the alternative I will address and prove
• But I have to outline statements

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Working in the Summaries

• Why to show comprehension, to give the readers
  a heads up.
• How in a sentence that states what the source
  is about (thesis, purpose, method/how)
• When when you first make reference to the
  source.