What do you think Qasim did best in “Avoiding Misconceptions…” and what is a place in which the author could improve? Your response should be at least three sentences long.
7 thoughts on “Blog Post #17: Strong Point / Point to Improve – “Avoiding Misconceptions…” (Qasim, pp. 254-259)”
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Qasim’s argumentative essay focuses on how immigrants are actually beneficial to U.S. society. He did a good job in proving his argument by providing many statistics that reinforce his statements. For example, Qasim wrote that “immigrant-owned small businesses employ an average of 11 people each…” to show that immigrants actually create more jobs than take away jobs from Americans in the United States. One place that the author could improve upon is his introduction. The hook was very bland and he emphasizes too much emotion in his introduction, blaming immigration problems onto conservatives and U.S. president which can lead to backlash if the reader stands with conservatives (creating more controversies in an already controverted topic).
I think Qasim organized his subarguments really well from the very beginning, creating overall flow to the writing. He also addresses and debunks myths behind immigration, which was a great method to supporting his argument. I would like to see more of a clear counterclaim that wasn’t just the opposing thought to another one of the myths he talked about.
I thought Qasim had an extremely detailed counterargument section. He had six refutations that mostly delved into the different economic positives of immigrants, and had specific statistics as evidence such as the proportion of Social Security funds. However, while his counterarguments were well-written, I felt his side of the argument was lacking somewhat. It was much shorter compared to the refutations and didn’t have as specific evidence for some points.
Overall, I felt that Qasim’s essay was very well written. He introduced the topic very well and got his point across strongly. In this essay, Qasim was arguing about how immigration is actually beneficial to the economy and that a lot of the news claiming immigration is harmful is false. He gets his point across really well with the use of a lot of statistics from credible sources and thoroughly elaborates each and every source he uses. He also acknowledges a lot of counter arguments that people may have and refutes them right away. This enforces his argument by showing the reader that he knows what he’s talking about. However, I wish Qasim wrote which article he was referring to when using a piece of evidence. Instead, Qasim just write something on the lines of, “from this article in the New York Times…”
I felt that the strongest part of his piece was his information. He provided thorough and specific statistics for every point he was trying to debunk. I did think, he could have added some more points to potentially differentiate immigrants instead of just lumping them all into one category.
Qasim put together a great flow of structure in which he explains why immigrants help the U.S society rather than destruct it. He begins with what United States stands for and continues with evidence to prove how immigrant helped the economy and contributed. He also provides a good amount of evidence to prove his statements. However, I felt his counterclaim wasn’t as strong as his argument because it wasn’t very clear enough.
I believe Qasim organized his information well in the introduction and had more of an emotional connection to the audience which draws people in. As well as stating statistical facts on how immigrants help our society and increase jobs and open up their own businesses. One thing I would improve on is to expand on one idea more throughout the paragraphs.