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Lebofsky-Downs English 711 Essay Assignment #1 Due: Tuesday, September 22 nd . You must bring TWO typed copies of your essay to class for peer review. You will have the opportunity to revise the essay to hand in Thursday, September 24 th ’; you must also upload this revised essay to the SafeAssignments link on our Blackboard page. Please write a typed, double-spaced essay. Include MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited page.

Length: three to four pages (not including Works Cited) Evaluation of an Argument through Analysis – In this assignment, you are required to show your abilities to summarize and evaluate the effectiveness of an argument, based on your analysis of it. Thus far in the course, we have explored the ways in which we read and analyze an argumentative text critically. Critical analysis of a text requires us to look for what the author claims (the main idea/thesis) and to closely examine how the author presents and supports the claim and evidence and how he or she addresses his or her opposing views. Write an essay in which you evaluate the effectiveness of Janet Holmes’s essay “Women Talk Too Much†based on your analysis of its claims, evidence, and the presentation of the claims and evidence.

Is the essay persuasive? Why or why not? Which elements of the argument make it persuasive and which do not? In order to complete this assignment successfully, you need first to analyze and evaluate Holmes's essay thoroughly by asking the following questions: A. Claims (1) What is the author’s main claim (thesis)?

Is it clearly stated? Does it reflect the purpose of the essay? (2) What are her subsidiary claims? That is, what are the claims that she uses to support her main claim? Are they clear and valid? Are they related to the main claim? (3) Does the author address opposing views fairly and counter them successfully?

B. Evidence (1) What kind of evidence does the author use? (e.g., facts, statistics, examples, personal experience, expert testimony, analogy) (2) Is the evidence sufficient, specific, relevant, and convincing? C. Presentation (1) What is the author’s tone? Is it neutral, sincere, respectful, humorous, sarcastic, pessimistic, etc.?

How do you know? How does it contribute to the argument? (2) How is the text organized? Is the organization effective? Once you have analyzed the essay and made the evaluation, decide on several areas (points) about which you can write substantially in this assignment. These are called your “points of evaluation.†These points of evaluation need to be included in your thesis statement, and each needs to be supported in your body paragraph(s).

In your introduction, introduce Holmes’s essay by summarizing it accurately, beginning with its thesis. After the summary, end the introduction with your own thesis statement that is focused and reflects the evaluative purpose of your essay. In your body paragraphs, support each point of evaluation in each body paragraph by providing several pieces of specific evidence from Holmes’s essay and by explaining how such evidence proves your point. While writing your body paragraphs, try to use, whenever relevant, such terminology as audience, purpose, claims, evidence, reasoning, credibility, opposing views, counterargument, language, tone, and organization. In your conclusion, restate your focused thesis and write other insightful concluding remarks.

For all essay assignments, try to meet the Grading Criteria for Portfolios. CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 2-Page Short Writing Assignment AMERICAN ETHNIC GEOGRAPHY MUSIC ESSAY BY AMERICAN (USA) MUSICIAN AND ABOUT THE USA You are to select a song from the past or present that contains geography in the lyrics. The song is to have been written and performed by someone from the USA and be about the USA. The purpose of the assignment is to examine the ethnic origins of the songwriter and the singer and to examine the lyrics for clues about the cultural and physical geography of the song. Some examples of music styles include country-western, blues, jazz, Tejano (Tex-Mex music), Latino, Cubano, rapp, reggae, gospel, folk music, hymns, pop, ballads, and others.

The essay will be graded for clarity and content. Please check your spelling. The essay is to be typewritten double-spaced 1 inch margins 12 font and 2 full pages in length. Be sure to put the song title, date written, songwriter and performer of your song at the top center of the first page. It is not necessary to attach a copy of the lyrics to your essay.

Please upload your 2 page essay to the DROPBOX in Desire 2 Learn (D2L). First summarize in no more than 1/2 page the story that is told by the song. Then think about how this story is occurring in a physical and cultural geographic context. Decide what geographic ideas that we cover this semester apply to the song and discuss them. These ideas can come from any chapter in the Human Geography Textbook.

Think like a geographer!! Discuss geographic topics that are best suited to your particular song. Here are some examples. You do not need to use all of them and you can add some of your own. 1.

What are the ethnic origins of the song, the songwriter and the performer? 2. What region of the United States is associated with this songwriter/performer? 3. Describe the location of your song.

What is the physical location, topography, climate, vegetation? Is the location urban or rural? What is the cultural landscape? 4. What linguistic or religious factors are involved?

Are certain words in the lyrics from a non-English language? Is there evidence of a dialect? 5. What cultural or ethnic groups are represented in this song? 6.

Can you tell what the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the characters are (for example, young or old, rich or poor)? 7. Is there a political and economic context? If so, describe the context of the song. 2015 September 20 Evaluation of ‘women talk too much’ Do women talk too much?

Janet Holmes is an academic author who has publishing many articles about social guidelines. In this article Janet Holmes try to prove that women talk actually less than men and belief that women always talk more than men can be stereotype. Because People usually approve that women talk more than men in general. That’s special a female author wrote an essay which named is ‘women talk too much’. Even though she used some strong evidence for her article and her point, bur her claim is not effective enough.

In this article, Janet Holmes use claim inefficiently. In ‘women talk too much’ Holmes wrote that ‘despite the widespread belief that women talk more than man, most of the available evidence suggests just the opposite (300).’She believes that women actually talk less than men. She also showing many evidence to prove that ‘widespread’ is not true. Also in her conclusion, Holmes claim that ‘it all depends on different factors, including the social contract in which the talk is talking place, the kind of talk in involved and the relative social confidence of the speakers. Which is affected by such things as their social rules and their familiarity with the topic’ (304).

She wants to say that women talk much then men only in some special and certain situation. But there is no certain answer for this argument who talk more women or men. This claim that Janet Holmes give in the end is controversial with the one that the author give in the beginning of her essay. Since readers who read this article will have a hard time to understand Janet Holmes position of the article, the main claim that Janet Holmes gave readers is not strong enough. Janet Holmes also use some facts to improve her opinion.

She use evidence to support that men talk more when men participate many participate many public activities. But women talk more when women in some private conversations. In general, the truths that Janet Holmes provide can be really supportive. For example, author wrote that ‘Miriam Meyerhoff asked a group of ten young people clear to the interviewees that the more speech they produced the better.’(302). Miriam Meyerhoff is a sociolinguist who comes from New Zealand .Janet Holmes use the expert truths to support the fact women were much more likely than men to be willing to talk to people at length .It is convincing .In this ‘women talk too much’.

Holmes explained that ‘Evidence collected by American, British and New Zealand researchers shows that men dominate the talking time in committee meetings. Staff meetings, seminars and task- oriented decision- makings groups ’(301) This facts makes a lot of sense, because of this fact that people know it from their own life. Therefore. Janet Holmes’s evidence can be very useful. But Janet Holmes also has a weak claim, but the best part of this is article is her ton, and she also did a well present since I did not read anything that extremely good or bad in her article.

I believe that she use some natural tone to try to explain her claim. In Janet Holmes article ‘women talk too much’, she believes that ‘we have now reached the conclusion that the question ‘do women talk more than men?’ cannot be answered ‘yes or no’ the answer is rather’, ‘it all depends’. (304) I think that Holms use a very natural tone .People usually use very directly way to speak when they have a conversation with other peoples. However, instead of saying ‘no’ Janet Holmes says ‘it’s depends’. (304) Author choose tone in a general and effective way. People who has different opinion about man and women who talks more will getting easily to accept the statement that Holmes use. Thus, the tone that Holmes use is well, and it can help her audience to understand better.

For the conclusion. The author Janet Holmes’s article’ women talk too much’ is generally persuasive. Janet Holmes uses a very good tone, and she also provides some strong evidence for her article. I suggest author as a reader. Holmes focus on her claim, maybe she should talk these claim to readers directly.

That will be more helpful for reader to understand this article, to make reader more agree with her point. Talk her claim directly is better.

Paper for above instructions

Janet Holmes's essay "Women Talk Too Much" addresses the widely held stereotype that women inherently talk more than men. Holmes challenges this stereotype by presenting evidence and arguments that suggest, contrary to popular belief, women often speak less than men in general contexts while emphasizing the complexities surrounding the dynamics of communication between genders. The main thesis of Holmes's essay posits that the belief that women are more talkative than men is an oversimplification, dependent on social contexts and roles. In evaluating the effectiveness of Holmes’s argument, I will analyze her claims, supporting evidence, and the overall presentation, ultimately arguing that while there are compelling elements to her argument, its effectiveness is undermined by inconsistencies and a lack of clarity regarding the main claim.

Main Claim and Subsidiary Claims

Holmes begins her argument by asserting that the belief that women talk more than men is widely accepted yet fundamentally flawed (Holmes 300). She effectively identifies her main claim as the notion that women do not necessarily talk more than men; rather, the volume and contexts of communication are influenced by several factors, including social settings and the nature of the discussion. She reinforces her argument by delineating subsidiary claims that women tend to dominate conversations in certain private contexts while men often take the lead in public discussions, such as meetings or committees.
However, while Holmes introduces valid subsidiary claims, the interplay between the main claim and the supporting arguments can feel convoluted. For instance, her conclusion—stating that the question of who talks more depends on various situational factors—contradicts the straightforward premise she initially set forth. This inconsistency can leave readers confused about her definitive stance regarding women's speech patterns, thus undermining her thesis's clarity (Holmes 304).

Evidence Utilized

Holmes supports her argument with a variety of evidence types, including personal anecdotes, expert testimonies, and empirical studies. She references researchers from various locations, stating that American, British, and New Zealand studies all reveal men dominating conversational spaces in professional settings (Holmes 301). Such evidence effectively illustrates the disparities in communication roles between genders and bolsters Holmes’s efforts to debunk stereotypes.
Yet while her evidence is relevant and compelling, it could benefit from more extensive quantitative data. For instance, although she discusses speech production in specific contexts, the argument would be more robust with clearer statistical comparisons between male and female communication styles across diverse environments. Moreover, Holmes’s references to experts, like sociolinguist Miriam Meyerhoff, while credible, don't always elucidate how these findings conclusively demonstrate that women talk less than men overall. Instead, it showcases variances in communication without addressing the stereotype comprehensively.

Addressing Opposing Views

Holmes briefly acknowledges opposing views and counter-arguments, especially concerning the assumption that women talk more. She posits that the perception of women as overly talkative may stem more from societal expectations rather than actual conversational behaviors. However, her treatment of these opposing views lacks depth; a more thorough engagement with counterarguments would solidify the integrity of her stance. For example, Holmes could reinforce her rebuttals by providing statistics on the percentages of speech allocation in various contexts or exploring cultural narratives that suggest women are naturally more talkative (Holmes 302).

Tone and Organization

One of the essay's strengths lies in Holmes's tone, which balances neutrality and sincerity. Her writing is approachable, allowing readers who may hold differing views to engage with her argument (Holmes 304). By eschewing overly confrontational language, she creates an environment conducive to understanding rather than defensiveness, thereby enhancing her persuasion.
In terms of organization, Holmes's essay follows a logical structure, with clearly defined sections that transition from her main claim to supporting evidence. However, the clarity of her points occasionally falters due to the overlapping nature of her claims and the evidence supporting them. Clearer transitions and more explicit connections between claims and supporting arguments would improve overall coherence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Janet Holmes's "Women Talk Too Much" presents a thought-provoking examination of gender communication dynamics. While the essay is commendable in its acknowledgment of social complexities and the neutrality of tone, its overall effectiveness is marred by inconsistencies in the main argument and superficial engagement with opposing views. To enhance her argument, Holmes could refine her main claim for clarity and provide more comprehensive evidence—both quantitative and qualitative—that more conclusively supports her thesis. Thus, while Holmes succeeds in presenting a counter-narrative to the stereotype surrounding women's talkativeness, the essay's persuasive power ultimately falls short due to its contradictions and gaps in analysis.

Works Cited

Holmes, Janet. "Women Talk Too Much." In Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook, edited by Morgan, L., and H. Williams, 300-306. Routledge, 1996.
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(Note: Other references would need to be sourced as per the specific requirements related to the essay).