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argumentspring20201.docxEssay 3: Argumentative 2
Essay 3: Argumentative Essay
English 1301
Your third essay is an argumentative / persuasive piece. The purpose of an argumentative or persuasive essay is to convince your reader that your position on a particular issue is credible. Argumentation is not about proving that you are right or wrong, but instead about demonstrating that you can support your position with solid evidence, thus presenting a viable perspective.
Topic
In this paper, you should persuade your readers that your position on a specific issue is credible. Your issue may come from a local, regional, or national issue. It may be political, related to current events, or important to a specific community or sub-group of a community.
Please note that the following topics will not be approved, as in my experience, they do not lead to successful papers. Papers on these topics will earn a grade of 0:
· Abortion
· Gun control
· Capital punishment
· Police brutality
· Any topic that is exclusively faith-based, as it will not be appropriate to an academic audience.
Develop three distinct and specific reasons why your position is logical, and then support those reasons through your use of sources and evidence. These reasons must be clearly stated in your thesis statement.
Dates to Remember:
· Topic approval: Thursday, 2 April by beginning of class. Note this is approved, not just emailed for the first time!
· Thesis PRG: Tuesday, 7 April. Post your thesis to the E3 Thesis DB by the beginning of class. Provide feedback to at least 3 peers, using the PRG questions for E3 Thesis (posted under Peer Review Docs) by the end of class this evening.
· Final Paper Due: Tuesday, 14 April by the beginning of class. Submit through TurnItIn.com.
Secondary Sources Required: 3 (from library resources / databases only )
Number of Web (“Open internet”) Sources Permitted: zero
Length of Paper: 3-4 pages. Please note that this means you must write 3 completely full, MLA-formatted pages prior to starting your works cited page. Papers that do not meet the minimum length requirement will see the final score significantly reduced.
The Assignment
To successfully complete this assignment, you should follow these steps:
1. Choose an issue that you consider to important and about which you feel strongly.
2. Take an unequivocal position on your issue.
3. Develop 3-4 major points you will make in support of your position.
4. Consider effective ways to account for the opposition.
5. Include at least three outside sources in your paper. These sources must be from a library resource (ie: a book, a database, an e-text). Please note that each source that comes from a web site will cause the grade on the essay to be reduced by one letter per improperly located source.
Getting Started
Try answering the questions below to help you get started.
· What is my issue? How can I define it?
· What readers am I trying to reach with my discussion of this issue?
· Have I chosen an arguable issue ? (see page 3 of this document)
· What are some related issues that I may need to address?
· How can I narrow the issue for an essay-length discussion?
· What are my views on the issue? What is my position on the issue? How can I state my position?
· What 2-4 major points will I make in support of my position?
· What evidence supports my position?
· Does my argument include a call for action? What do I want readers to do, if anything?
· Does the issue have a compromise position, or is there no middle ground?
Minimum standards for this paper:
· solid, clearly articulated thesis statement that communicates the three critical points for a thesis (topic, position, major points)
· all paragraphs in the essay are directly related to the thesis of the essay
· essay genre conforms to the assignment (persuasive)
· essay articulates a specific issue, takes a position on it, and provides specific, concrete evidence to support that position.
· essay draws on a minimum of 3 secondary sources from library resources. Sources from the open web (ie: www.cnn.com ) will lead to a letter grade reduction per inappropriately located source.
· essay makes use of solid evidence to support the position stated in the thesis
· essay is a reasonable length (3-4 pages)
· essay conforms to conventions of standard English grammar, mechanics, spelling, and so on
· paper format complies with MLA style
· paper is submitted on time (ie: beginning of class period on due date) through TurnItIn.com.
