
Rogerian Mini-Essay Assignment
After completing the readings over Rogerian argument, find a letter to the editor or short review with which you disagree. (Note that letters to the editor are usually quite short; don’t pick a newspaper column or an opinion/editorial, which will be long.) Look in the opinion section of any publication you usually read for ideas.
- Prewriting: Write a brief summary of the other author’s viewpoint and a brief summary of your own viewpoint. This brief piece will be graded only for completion, meaning you should turn it in but won’t need to worry about formally constructing an elegant summary.
- Compose a 400-600 word response to this argument using the Rogerian method. You may either write this as a small essay or you may write it as a letter in response to the author.
- At the end of the essay, write a one paragraph commentary on why your argument is Rogerian rather than a traditional argument, or on what you learned about argument by trying out the Rogerian approach.