Paper 1

Please choose ONE of the following essay questions/topics and write a

4-6 page paper in response. Your paper should use 12-point Times New
Roman font, be double-spaced, and have one-inch margins. Your paper
must also have a solid thesis that is supported by specific textual
examples. In other words, you must make an argument! You may use
outside sources, but if you do, they must be academic, peer-reviewed
publications. No late papers will be accepted.

1. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe has been described as a mythic

celebration of Western individualism and an allegory of
colonialism, empire, and all their constituent elements:
plantation slavery, capitalism, and the disciplining of nature and
the self. Consider how Crusoe is a metaphor for the dynamics of
capitalism. In the novel, Crusoes restlessness and disobedience
are transformed into virtues. His desire to venture into the world
by disobeying his father, his industriousness and rationalism, his
unconscious cruelty toward cultural others, and his economic
motives epitomize the characteristics of the ideal Western,
Christian subject. How does Crusoe represent a modern social
and economic ideal? How does the novel stage this ideal?

Arguments

Arguments vs Opinions

As you know, opinions and arguments are very different things.

Your opinion about something is simply your personal reaction to
it; opinions make no claims about how things actually are in the
world, only how you feel about them. An argument is a process
of convincing other people of a specific interpretation of a text,
idea, or a phenomenon using reason and evidence.

Opinion: whoever wrote the book of J is an idiot.

Argument: the Book of J may not overtly pose a moral
order, but its reliance on divine prediction and decree necessarily
posits a moral universe in which humans are not responsible for
their actions.

Opinions can be good ways to vent your frustrations with a text,

idea, or phenomenon (as above) or to begin thinking about what
aspects of text, idea or phenomenon interest you the most.
Opinions are not very interesting beyond that, however, as they
isolate you from other ideas or evidence. To be taken seriously by
other thinking people, you must engage in arguments.

Arguments and argumentative writing

As it says above, an argument is a process of convincing other

people of your interpretation of a text, idea, or phenomenon.
Since it is a process, an argument takes an entire paper to make.
Every sentence of your paper should be establish or advance
your argument in some way.

That being said, the starting point for a strong argument is a

strong arguable claim. This is similar to a thesis statement, but it
can be as short as a single sentence (as above) or, in books, a
long as several papges. Your arguable claim should come near
the beginning of your paper, or several charactersitics of good
arguments that you need to keep in mind:

An argument should attempt to convince the readers

of something, change their minds about something,
get them to explore some topic further in order to
make an informed decision, or urge readers to some
kind of action. This- especially the last part- doesnt
mean that arguments are necessarily political or
aimed at inducing social action, just that they can be.
Good arguments can be made about a vast array of
topics, including some that seem to have little, if
anything, to do with the outside world.
A good argument should address directly or induce
consideration for a problem for which easily
acceptable solutions do not exist. An argument
never, ever, ever, addresses a problem for which
there is a verifiable answer (i.e. The book of J is
shorter than the Bble)
A good argument proposes a position on which
readers might realistically disagree. People have very
different perspectives on how to interpret the book of
gensis, for instance, but not very different
perspectives on, say, the importance of having some
kind of government.
Arguments need to be substantive. That is,
arguments have to say something that matters, not
simply record some wandering thoughts. in this
 paper, I will examine the role of Hagar in the Book of
J, for instance, doesnt tell the reader anything. You
have to say what your examination is going to find
and why thats important.
Arguments need to be specific. the message of the
bible is love, for instance, is so vague and sweeping
that its impossible to prove. Arguments must be
narrowly tailored to the situation under
consideration, not made into vague or grandiose
statements.

Keep in mind:

Your role when making an argument is very similar to a prosecuting

attorney: youre trying to convince people of a specific interpretation of
an event, action, or object using reason and evidence. Just like a
persecutor cannot simply say, Hey, this guys guilty so you should
execute him, you cannot simply say, the Book of J is not about
morality and not prove this to a reader. You must support your
argument with a chain of evidence and reasoning that unavoidably
proves your argument.

Counterarguments: these are arguments or facts that suggest the

opposite of what youre trying to prove. To write a good argumentative
paper, you need to be able to anticipate counterarguments and
address them in the course of your argument. Think of it like
anticipating a defendants alibi: you have to be able to show that his
alibi isnt as solid as he thinks it is, or show how the evidence supports
your version of events over the defendants.

Evidence: in many cases, evidence will come from the texts on which
youre writing, and generally appears in the form of quotations from the
texts that support your argument. In addition to providing evidence,
you must explain the significance of your evidence to the reader.