For your second major essay in the course, you will write a paper in which you take a position on an issue and defend it. For the sake of clarity and simplicity, students are required to respond to one of the issues raised by the readings in Unit IV, Week 6 — the use of media in education and the future of artificial intelligence in education. Students who wish to write on another topic should seek approval from the course instructor.
This composition is not a research paper. However, students should use at least one (and no more than three) of the articles or essays we read this semester to support or develop their arguments. This source could be one of the articles from Week 6, which deals directly with the issues under discussion, or an article from a previous week that helps support a point or sub-point in your essay. Write a 1500-1700-word Argument Essay that takes a position and defends it on one of the
issues raised by your readings from Unit IV. The paper should be double-spaced, in 12-point Times
New Roman font, and should follow the conventions of MLA formatting.
This is not a research paper. However, students are required to use at least one (and no more than
three) of the articles or essays we read this semester (through summary, paraphrase, or quotation) to
support or develop their arguments. Students might need to do outside research in order to
understand their topics better, but argument essays should not depend on or use outside
research.
Argument Invention:
Once you select your topic or issue, how do you develop an argument? This semester, we have
studied several different kinds of argument: arguments of fact, definition, cause and effect, value
(evaluation), and proposal (problem/solution). These types of arguments emerge from four basic
“stasis questions” that you can ask about your topic or issue in order to determine your position or
your argument (Everything’s an Argument, pp. 22-26):
1. Did something happen? (fact)
2. What is its nature? (definition)
3. What is its cause or value/quality? (cause/effect or evaluation)
4. What actions should be taken? (problem/solution)
Audience:
Your audience for this essay will need persuading that your opinion on the issue is correct.
Therefore, you will need to create an issue or topic-specific audience profile of your own to guide
your writing.
For example, if you are writing about the use of AI in education, and your position is that the use of
AI chatbots, in their current iteration, violates the foundational principles of a liberal arts education,
you will want to imagine your audience as someone who cares about the liberal arts but who does
not see AI as a threat. How can you persuade that person to see your point of view?
Elements and Structure:
Once you determine your topic, your argument, and your audience, you’ll need to decide upon a
structure for your argument. Review our readings and discussion from ch. 7 of Everything’s an
Argument, and decide which argument structure will work best for your position:
1. Classical oration (pp. 132-35)
2. Rogerian or invitational argument (pp. 136-43)
3. Toulmin argument (pp. 143-57)
