What Is Mean to Be a Vegetarian - Essay Example

          Being a vegetarian is not all about eliminating a normal part of the human diet. Rather, it is about improving the diet of a person in order to promote better health. Aside from that, vegetarians also manage to contribute towards the betterment of our environment and the advocating of animal rights through the promotion of humane treatment of animals.

          So maybe it is time that we give more serious thought to the vegetarian way of life. With a growing portion of our society beginning to advocate the vegetarian method of eating, there must be a number of other positive points in support of it.

Part 2. Short Essay Summary

          In the introduction to “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, authors Graff and Birkenstein provide templates designed to help the new essay writers in learning how to analyze and respond to the critical elements of the essay they are reacting to. Specifically, Birkenstein and Graff argue that the types of writing templates they offer are designed to give the writer “a launching pad or sounding board for your own views.”

           Although some people believe that essays are meant mostly to be argumentative and critical, they fail to see that essays are supposed to instead, offer more information on a specified topic that is meant to either support or negate the claims of the other party. Graff and Birkenstein insist that “The best academic writing has one underlying feature: It is deeply engaged in some way wit4h other people's views. ” In sum, then, their view is that essays are meant to provide more information and allow readers to make informed decisions for themselves.

          I disagree. In my view, these types of templates that the writers recommend are like a dummies guide to essay writing.  For instance, every essay that we respond to already contains information that we wish to dispel, so why should we add any more negative information to that by making it part of the arguments we are making?   For instance, the Letter from Birmingham Jail was written with the negative information already on hand for Mr. King to dispel. All he had to do was present his side of the story. That is what critical essay writing is all about.  In addition, the essays that we respond to normally leave the reader informed about one side of the story and they make very believable arguments in support of it. Therefore, our job as a reactionary writers is to dispel their argument the best way we can.    

          Some might object of course on the grounds that essays are supposed to be written forms of arguments.  Yet, I would argue that essays are not meant to be arguments but rather informed discussions on a particular topic. Overall, then, I believe that critical response essay writing is something that cannot be dealt with using a template but rather, with the use of logic and understanding of a particular topic. An Important point to make given that most essays these days do not seem to inform people but only serve to create more argument and strife amongst the readers.