State your thesis and audience. List two challenges you faced when writing your
first draft. Share one paragraph from your essay draft. Consider sharing the
paragraph that you would like the most help with.
My thesis statement is as follows: “To address reducing stress and increasing efficiency,
businesses must reduce the work week to 4-days instead of 5 because it can reduce
the stressors felt by employees, gives employees more personal time resulting in less
call-offs, and can increase profitability and efficiency for businesses.” The audience for
my essay, besides the teacher, would be employees who feel the downfalls of working
5-days a week and notice the benefits of a 4-day work week. Another one would be
employers who have tested out implementing a 4-day work week and the pros and cons
they encountered.
One challenge I faced when writing my first draft was definitely finding good
counterarguments. A lot of the resources I found were based on the benefits of a 4-day
work week. Another challenge I faced was finding credible resources to use to back up
the argument I am making and for evidence for backing up my key points.
Paragraph from my essay draft: “ It is essential that employees have good mental and
physical health so that they can be productive and a 4-day work week shows less
burn-out and stress. One of the many studies done on employees to see their mental
health benefits from a 4-day work week, seven out of 10 employees reported a
decrease in burnout and nearly half of the participants reported a decrease in fatigue
(Amell, 2024). According to Maryville University, statistics from research studies showed
that employees tended to have an increase in energy and felt revitalized which in turn
increased their mental health (2022). Employees being mentally healthy will really have
so many benefits for the company such as less people leaving and higher productivity.” I
feel as though this paragraph does a good job providing evidence from credible sources
but it would be better with a counterargument to end the paragraph.
