Argument/Persuasive Assignment Essay

Objective:

Write an essay that effectively argues your position on the prompt and presents evidence

from the texts as support. Evaluate and utilize outside sources, effective quoting and clear

analysis. Use and apply rhetorical strategies learned in your own argument.

Required Research/Readings:

This essay will require a minimum of

four (4)

outside sources, which you will need to

find. These source need to be reliable, credible and correctly cited in MLA. You need to

introduce these sources as you use them in the essay and correctly cite them in a Works

Cited page.

Length

6-7 pages (not including Works Cited)

Background:

If you have ever had to convince your parents to let you borrow the car or

stay out late, or convince a friend or a partner that you should get pizza tonight and not

sushi, you have (possibly subconsciously) used argumentative/persuasion tactics to

convince the other person to agree with you. One of the greatest tools that we have as

writers is the power to persuade others, a skill that will be useful to you far beyond

English class.

The main purpose of an argument/persuasive essay is to convince your audience to

take your side on an issue by presenting a logical idea and supporting it with specific

and appropriate researched evidence.

Prompt:

For this assignment, you will develop an argumentative essay that establishes a clear

claim, supports it with researched sources and refutes at least one counter argument.

You will have two options:

A. Choose a controversial local (San Diego County) issue and argue in favor of one

side.

Previous topics have included issues such as:

1. What should be done with Children’s Pool in La Jolla?

Should a new Chargers stadium be built? (over now)

2. How should the pollution in San Diego be controlled?

Should there be a casino in Jamul? (over now)



When choosing a topic for this option, a good idea would be to turn on

your local nightly news or open the newspaper to the local news section.

B. Choose a California based educational issue. These issues can deal with budgets,

student populations, classroom practices or anything else that impacts education

in statewide California classrooms.

With either option, you must argue for a specific course of action, meaning you

shouldn’t only say it is a problem. You should argue what we should do about it/what

changes should be made.

Your essay must also include a minimum of four (4) reliable scholarly sources used with

proper MLA citation and a Works Cited page.

Your essay should consider and refute at least one counter argument. You can address the

counter argument anywhere in the essay. Remember to present a possible counter and

respond to it with a logical refutation.

part 2:

Directions:

For this assignment, please conduct some research in support of Essay 4 prompt. You do not have to stick to the sources you find for this; it is meant to just give you a taste of what is out there. You need to do three things:

Step 1: Conduct a Google search on the subject you have chosen to write about for Essay 4 (or at least considering). Find one article that you think you can use. Copy/paste the link for it and write a one paragraph academic summary of the article. In the end, write a 2-3 sentences, explaining why you think the article is a credible and useful source, or how it would help you establish ethos and logos for your argument.

Step 2: Go to Cuyamaca’s Library Website (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and find Academic Search Premier or Academic OneFile. You will need to log in using your school credentials. Conduct the same search. Chose one article and write a one paragraph summary of the article. In the end, write a 2-3 sentences, explaining why you think the article is a credible and useful source, or how it would help you establish ethos and logos for your argument.

Step 3: Answer the following question in a short paragraph: What are some of the differences and similarities between the article you found on Google and the one you found on Academic Search Premier/OneFile. Differences in language? Citations? Credibility?