Argumentative Essay

Argumentative Essay (Outline) Assignment Instructions

For this assignment, you are not required to write a complete draft of your Argument Essay. Instead, you are to select a topic for your Argument Essay and write a detailed outline of your essay based on the model below.

Argument Essay Prompts

In this assignment choose a specific issue from below in which two credible parties have documented the following:

· Clearly opposing positions, and

· Clear agendas.

Choose the position you agree with and argue that position using:

· Three separate lines of reasoning to support your position

· Research to support each line of reasoning (example, testimony, and fact/data, or any combination) that supports your position

· Research about the opposing position’s views

· Presentation of the opposing views, along with lines of reasoning to refute them

Argumentative Essay Approved Topics

The following is a list of approved broad topics in which you will select only one. You will be responsible for creating your own paper proposal via memo. Any papers that do not directly relate to one of those topics will not be recognized and receive a grade of zero.

Gender roles

Male pregnancy research/experimentation should be embraced.

Stay-at-home mothers/fathers should receive a tax credit.

The notion of traditional gender roles is passé.

Education

Extracurricular activities on the college level should be made obligatory.

Grades cannot measure, in total, students’ intelligence and performance.

Single sex colleges/universities are best for education.

Business

Office dress code can boost employees’ performance.

Delegating responsibilities is the key to effective management.

HR managers should use lie detectors for interviewing applicants and employees.

Politics

Voting apathy will not change.

Music and movie stars should not support any political parties.

Global Perspectives

In first/second world countries, print media is now considered to be “a thing of the past.” The globalized world needs a global language.

Online dating is a poor basis for a relationship.

Medicine

Important medical decisions should only be made by medical professionals. Placebo effect’ should be used for curing all diseases at their initial stages.

Language & Literature

Grammar rules should be updated to reflect today’s conversational tone. Prospective college students should have a required reading list.

Only certain books should be banned from libraries and college classrooms.

Draft Essay Requirements

This assignment requires an “issue statement” (refer to the Student_AnnotatedSample_Salvaging-the-Old-Growth-Forest.pdf file for further explanation about issue statements).

This assignment requires a two-part thesis:

· Statement of position; and

· Forecast (essentially a “preview”) of your lines of reasoning

· Your one sentence thesis statement should contain the following: topic, stance/claim, and direction.

The assignment also requires:

· A minimum and maximum of three credible outside sources formatted on a source page (MLA, Works Cited)

· MLA citation style for the paper

· Minimum of 3 FULL pages not including the Works Cited page (Works Cited begins on page 4)

· Works Cited page listed at the end of the essay (last page of the essay)

Writing Tip #1

This Argument Essay is a Classical Argument Essay aimed at both arguing the author’s thesis and refuting the opponent’s thesis. It is NOT a Persuasive Essay, where the purpose is to persuade without necessarily arguing against an opposing perspective. The difference is that an argument essay tries both to persuade and refute against an opposing view.

With this in mind, you should not choose a generic issue that has no credible opposing view – like “energy conservation” – for a Classical Argument essay. One can try to write a persuasive essay that makes an appeal to a reader to conserve energy. But unless you can find a credible opponent with an active agenda opposing your appeal (“We should NOT conserve energy”), then you cannot write a Classical Argument essay.

Writing Your Argument Essay

To get started writing your essay:

1. Review What is an Essay?

2. Take time to review possible subjects.

3. Use prewriting to help you narrow your topic.

Assignment Instructions

1. Review the grading rubric as listed on the following page.

2. Choose a writing prompt as listed.

3. Create a prewriting in the style of your choice for the prompt. Review the prewriting videos on the My Writing Process: Prewriting and Draft page if needed.

4. Create an outline using the outline below as a guide. Papers submitted that do not meet the requirements will be returned to you ungraded.

5. Submit your detailed outline as a single file upload.

Argument Essay Outline

1. Issue statement

2. Two-part thesis (assertion plus forecast)

3. Opponent’s first claim

· One sentence summary of opponent’s source support

4. Opponent’s second claim

· One sentence summary of opponent’s source support

5. Your first claim with “keyword”

· One sentence summary of your source support #1

· One sentence summary of your source support #2

6. Your second claim with “keyword”

· One sentence summary of your source support #1

· One sentence summary of your source support #2

7. Your third claim with “keyword”

· One sentence summary of your source support #1

· One sentence summary of your source support #2

8. Conclusion: Summation of arguments and why should we care? What’s at stake?

Please Note: a “one sentence summary” is the same thing as the first sentence in a normal summary, i.e., author, title, source, and “main point” of the source.

Requirements:

· Be sure to:

· Choose a specific issue in which two credible parties have documented clearly opposing positions and clear agendas

· Choose the position you agree with and argue that position using the following:

· Three separate lines of reasoning;

· Each line of reasoning will support your position with research (example, testimony, and fact/data, or any combination) that supports your position; and

· Research about the opposing position’s views

· Present the opposing views and refute them.

· Include a two-part thesis with:

· Statement of position; and

· Forecast of your lines of reasoning

· Develop an enticing title that implies your position.

· Use a sympathetic appeal and/or cited research in the introduction to establish the issue.

· Avoid addressing the assignment directly. (Don’t write “I am going to argue about…” Instead, introduce the issue in a more compelling way that makes the reader care.)

· Your voice should be professional and scholarly.

· Block quotes are not allowed (anything that is three lines or more).

· All college essays are formatted in MLA style (headers, page numbers, etc.).

· Introduction, Body Paragraphs, and Conclusion  (at least 5-8 sentences for each)

· Your introduction must begin with an attention grabber and provide some background for your topic.

· All body paragraphs should have well-developed examples that support and prove the topic sentence which supports the thesis.

· You must quote from your source at least once in your essay using correct in-text citation format. 

· You may use direct quotes, but be sure to integrate the quote seamlessly through the use of signal phrases and quotation marks.  

· If paraphrasing, please note that parenthetical citations are required.

· Your conclusion should restate the main idea of your essay in an interesting way.

· Provide closure to the essay.

· Academic papers require the use of formal language. Avoid slang, contractions, informal/inappropriate usages, and biases.

· Use the third person point of view (he, she, one, a person, etc.), not the first person point of view (I), or the second person point of view (you).

Grading Rubric: Argument Essay Outline

Criteria	Ratings	Point Total: 50
Ideas	15 pts: The outline demonstrates outstanding idea development. 12 pts: The outline demonstrates above average idea development. 11 pts: The writer sufficiently defines the topic, even though development is still basic or general. 9 pts: The outline has an idea that needs to be developed. 0 pts: There is no coherent idea.	15 pts
Content	15 pts: The outline demonstrates outstanding evidence of supporting the main point. 12 pts: The outline demonstrates above average evidence of supporting the main point. 11 pts: The outline demonstrates sufficient support of the main point. 9 pts: The outline requires more supporting evidence of the main point. 0 pts: There is little content supporting the main idea.	15 pts
Organization	15 pts: The organization is outstanding and showcases the central theme. The presentation of information is compelling. 13 pts: The organizational structure is above average. 10 pts: The organizational structure is strong enough to move the reader through the text without too much confusion. 8 pts: The writing needs a clearer sense of direction. The internal structure is weak. 0 pts: The organization is poor.	15 pts
Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions	5 pts: The writer demonstrates an outstanding word choice selection, flow and cadence, with well-built sentences and strong grasp of standard writing conventions. 3 pts: The writer demonstrates above average word choice selection, flow and cadence, with well-built sentences and strong grasp of standard writing conventions. 2 pts: The writer demonstrates sufficient selection of words. The text tends to be more mechanical and contains some errors of standard writing conventions. 1 pts: The writer demonstrates a limited vocabulary and lack of fluidity. Errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, usage and grammar repeatedly distract the reader and make the text difficult to read. 0 pts: No marks.	5 pts

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· Authored by: Daryl Smith O' Hare and Susan C. Hines. Provided by: Chadron State College. Project: Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License: CC BY: Attribution

· Authored by: Paul Powell. Provided by: Central Community College. Project: Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License: CC BY: Attribution