A four-sentence paper is a student’s very brief response to an assigned reading. It is literally four sentences long.
The four sentences should have the following format:
- “They [the author] say __________ because __________.”
- “I say __________ because __________.”
- “One might object that __________ because __________.
- I reply that __________ because __________.”
Students will write 2 Four-Sentence Papers: one based on the section of text outlined in Analytical Outline 1 and the other based on the section of text outlined in Analytical Outline 2.
Sentence 1 should contain a claim actually made by the author and the author’s supporting argument, identified in the student’s prior analytical outline.
Sentece 2 should contain the student’s response to the author’s claim in sentence 1 along with the reason the student has for supporting his/her response.
Sentence 3 should contain a possible objection to the student’s response from sentence 2 (and/or the reasoning that supports it).
Sentence 4 should contain the student’s response to the objection in Sentence 3, along with an argument supporting that response.
Example:
1. Mama always said life is like a box of chocolates because you never know what you’re gonna get.
2. I say life is more like a bag of M&Ms because even when things look like they are changing they turn out the same in the end
3. One might object that life is not really like a bag of M&Ms because our perspective on our experiences changes even if our experiences themselves do not
4. I reply that this point reinforces the similarity between life and a bag of M&Ms because if we ate M&Ms for long enough our perspective on those M&Ms would change too.
