Reading Response 1: Greene

In “Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument,” Stuart Greene explores the ways in which researched writing mimics a “scholarly conversation.”  Greene writes, “By this, I mean that making an argument entails providing good reasons to support your viewpoint, as well as counterarguments, and recognizing how and why readers might object to your ideas” (149).  Rather than replicating ideas, and listing them off in an article, good writing should plug itself into an ongoing scholarly argument and twine together different resources – whether it is people or texts – in order to arrive at a new idea or advancement.

In addition to this central topic, Greene explores the importance of inquiry, issue, situation, and framing. From his perspective, these key terms are essential to a good research paper. Asking questions (inquiry) is essential to researched writing, and it is employed when the conflict (issue) and situation calls for some sort of answer. Framing is identified as the perspective that the writer takes when responding to these.

Seemingly, Greene has followed his own advice in this article. His writing draws upon various references and includes the ideas of others, thus engaging himself in a pre-formed scholarly conversation.  The structure of this piece seems to have been created with a strong focus on the idea of framing, since Greene names his position, uses key terms to help the reader, clearly identifies his argument, and organizes his writing in a seemingly helpful way. Additionally, Greene arrives at a place of advancement, and he seems to present new ideas in a way that is engaging to readers – inviting them into the scholarly conversation as well.