Persuasive Essay

Project 4: Entering the Conversation

[S]uccessful academic writers regularly employ…essential rhetorical ‘moves’…that signal to readers that the writers are familiar with the scholarly conversation of which their essays are a part. In one way or another…most academic writers must find a meaningful way to enter the conversation that grounds or motivates their topic. -Lisa Ede, The Academic Writer, p. 130-131

Context

This final research-based project for the course enables you to enter the conversation that you researched in previous projects. At this point, you know much more about your topic than you did before, and you now have something to say. Though you still need to include the arguments from your sources, including naysayers, in meaningful ways, your argument drives this project.

Assignment

For this persuasive research project, you will expand on an issue you introduced in your last project. Rather than simply expand on everything you discussed in Project 3, you will need to make choices: what part of the conversation most interests you? Which part of the conversation is important for other members of society to hear? Why? Think carefully about your purpose before selecting a focal point: why do you want/need to make your argument? What should readers do* differently after reading your project? Answering these questions should make up the majority of this persuasive, research-focused project.

Note that this project requires at least four total sources. You may use the sources from previous Projects, but you will also need to find different sources since your new argument will be much more focused. Be sure to rely on all the skills we have learned in class—including summary, paraphrase, quoting, citing, analysis, synthesis, and source evaluation—for this project.

Requirements

· Length: 5-8 pages (at least 5 pages of original text) in correct MLA format (including heading, spacing, page numbers, in-text citations, and works cited page)

· At least four total sources: at least three of the sources must be academic book chapters or peer-reviewed journal articles; as with Project 3, you may decide to incorporate a visual or other type of media for your fourth source. You may also choose to use a text-based non-academic source for your fourth source, but please show me the source first.

· A Works Cited page as the last page of your document (but not part of the page count)

Option for Revision

As always, you have the option of including more research to support your argument. You also have the option of changing your argument. In other words, be open to the idea that you might no longer hold the same opinion on your topic once you have completed your initial research.