Critical Thinking Post-Test: The Right to Drive

English 103 / Fall 2003 / Bill Stobb

20 points

Directions:  Read the following letter to the editor.  Then write your own 400-600 word letter to the editor in response.  In your letter be sure to address the following points:  1. What is the writer’s main point or conclusion?  2.  What arguments or reasons does the writer offer to support his conclusion?  3.  How strong or convincing are these arguments or reasons?  4. How strong or convincing is the argument as a whole?  5.  Be specific, be thorough, and remember to defend your judgments with reasons. 

Form:  The letter should be single-spaced with your student I.D. as a header.  Also include a cover page with your name and student I.D., your instructor's name, and the course and section number.  Please turn in two copies of this assignment.

November 2002

To the Editor of the La Crosse Tribune: 

Everywhere, the right to drive is under assault.  Right here in the Coulee Region, tree-hugging environmentalists have blocked the North-South corridor, which our area desperately needs to solve its traffic congestion.  How many times have you had to wait through green light after green light on Rte. 16 near the Valley View Mall?  A road through the marsh – which should have been drained years ago since it harbors disease-bearing mosquitoes – would end these traffic jams forever.  

Not only are the tree-huggers trying to limit the construction of necessary roads, they’re trying to keep us from buying the cars we want and need.  If I want to buy an SUV, I should be able to buy an SUV.  The ability to buy whatever we want is a fundamental American right.  The tree-huggers say that SUV’s should be banned because they don’t get the best gas mileage.  Using that reasoning, we should ban whipping cream because it has too many calories.  How will people tow their boat and snow-mobile trailers if they can’t buy SUV’s and other high-powered vehicles?

Since they’ve had no success in America, radical environmentalists have gone international in their effort to deny us the right to drive where and what we want.  Back in December, 1997, the United States, led by Al (I-Invented-the-Internet) Gore, worked hard to sell out U.S. interests in Kyoto, Japan.  He agreed that the US would cut all emission levels to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.  Everyone knows that this would have a devastating effect on the U.S. economy and would force most of the American automobile industry out of business.  We’d all have to drive electric golf carts.  Meanwhile, third-world countries could pollute as much as they wanted, and the U.S. would lose its competitive advantage. 

If you value your God-given freedoms, write your congressman and senator today and express your concern.  Don’t stand idly by while radical environmentalists take away your rights!

Sincerely,

Trager Strasse

Onalaska, WI

Assessment Rubric:

In addition to the criteria below, which have been developed by independent researchers who will analyze your work outside of English 103, Bill Stobb will weigh the effective use of style, mechanics, and punctuation as part of the 20 point grade for the Critical Thinking Post-test.

Explanation of the points in the rubric:

1. The student is able to identify the central issue addressed by the author.  Partial points for the identification of a secondary issue as the central one.  No points if the student never makes a statement about the author’s overall thesis.
2. A student may get 5 points if he or she identifies all or most of the supporting arguments.
3. A student may get 5 points if he or she evaluates all or most of the supporting arguments.  In some cases, students may focus on one or two, deliberately ignoring others, and this may earn 5 points as well.  The student earns 1-2 points for if the basis of his or her evaluation is hasty or ill-founded, 3 points if the evaluation is thoughtful but not well-supported, and 4-5 points if the evaluation is logical, perceptive, and well supported. 
4. The student should offer some kind of overall evaluation of the letter.
5. The student’s own position may emerge clearly through the letter, or it may appear in the first and last paragraphs.
6. Tone can be defined as the attitude a writer takes toward his or her subject matter and audience as reflected in his or her style:  diction, syntax, punctuation, etc.  A tone may be jocular, serious, reflective, ironic, sarcastic, incredulous, etc., but it should be consistent and appropriate for the purpose of the letter.