Assignment Overview: Essay #2 [Argument/Persuasion]
Essay #2 – Argumentation/Persuasion
Instructions
Choose one of the writing prompts below, which are based off the source readings assigned on the next set of module pages, and develop a 5-to-6-page essay using Argument/Persuasion as the method of development. Well-developed examples and critical rhetoric provide the support for your thesis.
Though you may want to reference a source reading, researched sources are not required, nor are they necessarily essential to providing support for your thesis. If you wish to use research, review MLA style support documents for these techniques. Using “The Rule of Four” is an option, as it had been with the narrative essay.
Important Details on Development & Formatting
Essay must be at least five [5] FULL pages to avoid a deduction of total points. Does not include name label on first page or works-cited page (if included).
Use third-person voice (i.e. she/he/it/they) throughout your essay. Don’t use first-person, as this tone-of-voice invites readers to perceive personal bias, presumption, and prejudice from the writer. As credibility is a significant aspect of argument, there is a deduction for using first-person.
Work on developing language that reflects the persuasive characteristics of the Rhetorical Triangle—Logos, Pathos, Ethos, Telos, and Kairos, which will be covered in class. Also, be wary of forming logical fallacies in your arguments (these concepts will also be covered in class). Though not required, you may elect to employ counter-argumentation in your essay at some point. Your arguments will be well-formed should you choose to develop your language in these conceptual areas.
MLA format (double-spacing; 1” margins; Times New Roman 12-pt. font; label upper-left corner of 1st page: name, class, my name, assignment, date; upper-right corner of all other pages use a header with last name then page number). Do not use Google Docs, as it will distort your formatting. Use Microsoft Office Word.
Rhetorical Mode Summary
Recall that argument/persuasion is a method of development in which you provide evidence for your thesis by presenting, interpreting, and analyzing facts, examples, or logical analysis in an orderly sequence (evidence may also be research-based, if you wish). Therefore, your essay will be centered on your own cogent rhetoric (use of language, in the case of an essay, of course), which provides a valid discussion about a viewpoint on a subject. Your job is to argue the significance of that viewpoint, not necessarily as absolutely correct or right, but earning, at the bare minimum, noteworthiness, respect, and consideration from others.
Be aware that your essay response with this particular rhetorical mode, much as it was with narration, will be derived from your individual perspective—which may also elucidate for readers your personal assumptions, biases, and prejudices. Mindfulness of our own assumptions, biases, and prejudices, as well as those of others, will be something to which we will be accustomed by the end of this term.
As noted above with tone-of-voice, we’ll be shifting gears with this rhetorical mode essay assignment. Your argument essay will provide all the appropriate elements of composition, as well as third-person ‘voice.’ The subject of your argument, not the writer, should command focus and emphasis for your readers. First-person ‘voice’ (i.e. “I believe that…;” me, my, myself; OR “We think…;” us, our, ourselves) is not the customary technique used in most college-level essays in most fields of study. DO NOT use first-person voice for this essay. Evidence of first-person voice will result in a deduction.
First step (after reading and thinking about the source articles): you’ll need to infer what you believe is a source article author’s most significant point (a thesis of sorts). Your explicit one-or-two sentence response to that inference will be your thesis. These source readings may contain a diversity of significant points to choose a focus for your essay.
A note on the source readings (Part 1: Carr, Thompson, & Lukianoff/Haidt AND Part 2: Grisham/Stone, Aviles, Halbrooks, & Fung et al.) as a basis for your own argument essay: these readings are not necessarily perfect models for your essays, but as vehicles for thinking critically about composition issues and as springboards for your writing. That said, these articles are not necessarily academic essays; they are professionally (and personally) developed pieces of writing with a specific publication environment in mind (i.e. you’ll quickly notice that all of them contain heavy doses of first-person tone-of-voice and narrative style, for instance with Carr). Conversely, the essay you will produce, while generally being an argument, too, will suit the guidelines and characteristics of a typical academic environment (i.e. an explicitly stated thesis, third-person tone, etc.). Please make yourself aware of all the requirements and guidelines for this rhetorical mode, per the assignment sheet, before submitting your final draft. There will be examples of this type of academic essay on Canvas.
Writing Prompts
Technology, Cognition, Learning, Identity, & Society
Prompt #1:
In his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr invokes a timeless dilemma about technological advancement: “Maybe I’m just a worrywart. Just as there’s a tendency to glorify technological progress, there’s a counter-tendency to expect the worst of every new tool or machine. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that, as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads, they would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, ‘cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.’” As Socrates states about writing displacing the effort required by memory to learn information, and therefore this ‘convenience’ of the written word could make us ‘stupid,’ the same could be said, according to Carr, of the Internet and the tools it purports to offer our civilizations. So, according to you, do new technologies only increase our capacity to become lazy-minded and, therefore, distance us further from knowing our world, or, on the other hand, do they actually enhance our ability to understand our world? For your essay, develop a persuasive argument responding with a supported viewpoint to the soundness and validity of Carr’s assertion that new technology is changing our cognitive abilities for the worse.
Prompt #2:
If mainstream social media are any guide, it would appear that many folks today want to be anybody except themselves. Indeed, modern existentialism can be a mind-boggling, perhaps horrifying, and sometimes amusing, phenomenon. There isn’t much doubt that the digital age has generated its own brand of identity transformation, especially with social media.
Yet, some may say that self-mediation does not permit us to alter, in any fundamental way, who we are and how we interact with others. In his essay, “I Feel So Totally, Digitally Close to You,” Clive Thompson states that the original conceit of the Internet has been reversed, that we are unable to reinvent who we are because our identities remain organically formed even within the constantly mutating echo-chamber of cyberspace. His central claim is that the increasing clutter of information we post online reveals more so our authentic values, despite our anxious intent to prove otherwise. Is he right? For your essay, develop a persuasive argument responding with a supported viewpoint to whether our identities are destined to be static, or if we can change who we are, in the digital age.
Prompt #3:
Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the author of Unlearning Liberty, along with Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and author, suggest that “something strange is happening at American colleges and universities.” In the article they co-author, “The Coddling of the American Mind,” they claim that a burgeoning culture in educational institutions may be subverting academic integrity and becoming overly concerned with “claims of a right not to be offended.” Do you believe learning may sometimes be offensive enough to warrant organized protest or legal challenge? Is society’s relationship to institutionalized learning going through a transformation? If so, what, when, how, and why? For your essay, develop a persuasive argument responding with a supported viewpoint to the issues invoked by the authors of this article.
Censorship & Media
Prompt #4:
In his article, “Unnatural Killers,” (see Canvas) John Grisham presents a compelling tale of murder, mayhem, and loss because of a certain motion picture, and the violence it portrays. The director of this film, Oliver Stone, responds to Grisham’s cinematic objections in his “Memo to John Grisham: What’s Next, A Movie Made Me Do It?” This back and forth argument is not new in the world of cinematic art, or artistic expression, in general. Throughout the centuries, politicized debates have been waged over whether art imitates life, or if life mimics art. The stakes of such a debate are enormous in terms of the human desire/need to express freely what’s on our minds. For your essay, develop a persuasive argument for deciding if (and under what circumstances) outright censorship or, at the very least, regulation of artistic expression, is a legitimate, ethical, and/or practical course of action for the government or legal body entrusted with such action.
Prompt #5:
In her article, “Eight of the 10 Most-Banned Books Challenged for LGBTQ Content,” Gwen Aviles briefly introduces readers to an issue of censorship that profligates with perhaps sparse critical discussion. Aviles charts the recent and fairly common practice to attempt censorship of books at various “libraries, schools, and universities.” Censorship on grounds of sexuality and gender identification, including representations deemed by some to be outside societal norms, is not uncommon in education and literature. Though Aviles article offers an abridged version of some viewpoints on the subject, there are certainly many sides to this issue. Similarly to Grisham and Stone’s exchange about art, and one film in particular, outcomes for debates about LGBTQ reading content offered in libraries and schools is significant in many ways. For your essay, develop a persuasive argument that offers a supported viewpoint to this issue invoked by the author of the article.
Prompt #6:
In his article, “How Media Censorship Affects the News You See,” Glenn Halbrooks glosses several areas of censorship in news media that offer much food-for-thought. Halbrooks provides a glimpse into some relevant issues in the era of social media’s populist truth-making: personal privacy, graphic imagery, national security, corporate interests, and mitigating shows of political bias. For your essay, develop a persuasive argument that offers a supported viewpoint about the effects of censorship in the news media, where gathering enough credible and even relevant information today may be difficult, if not impossible.
Prompt #7:
After reading the article “Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting Social Media Companies,” think of your own views regarding the issues raised with free speech. Some relevant questions: what are the limits of the 1st Amendment on social media? Who or what decides who or what has power to govern expression on the Web? Does our growing body of technological gadgetry and applications simplify or complicate how we express ourselves and interact with each other? Is it possible for free speech to be dangerous? Based on events today, what do you foresee as the outcomes for open and free communication in the next decades? For your essay, develop a persuasive argument that offers a supported viewpoint to the issue(s) provided in the article you read.
