In your personal and professional life, you have most likely experienced times when you felt strongly about a particular topic, maybe even one you were willing to argue about. For this week’s Creating an Argument assignment, you will construct an argument about a topic related to work.
To help you prepare for this assignment, this discussion question and dialogue with your classmates and faculty member will help you become familiar with what an argument is and which topics work well for developing an argument.
Complete Parts 1, 2, and 3 and submit them by Thursday.
Part 1: Resources
Understanding Arguments
Watch “Narrow Your Topic” in preparation for creating your argument.
Video with Transcript
Read “DC versus Marvel” from the University Library. This article is an example of an argument.
Crafting and Supporting an Argument
Select 1 of the following prompts:
Is Marvel or DC the best superhero franchise?
Is it better to work to live or live to work?
Which is superior: American football or soccer?
Are movies or music more entertaining?
Is it more important to be wealthy or happy?
Provide your own creative, debatable question.
Locate an article, blog, or other resource that discusses your selected prompt.
Part 2: Response
Respond to the following questions using the resource you selected:
Provide the title of the article, blog, or other resource you selected.
Quickly summarize the author’s argument.
What did you find compelling about the argument?
Did you spot any weaknesses in the argument? If so, describe them.
What suggestions do you have for writing a more persuasive argument on this topic?
Part 3: Resource Credit
Practice giving credit (i.e., citation) to the resource you selected in Part 1 and used for your response in Part 2. Giving proper credit to your sources builds your credibility with your audience. Don’t worry about perfection. If you make a mistake, your faculty member can help, so please let your faculty member know if you have any questions.
Include the following in your response using APA format for the resource you selected:
In-text citations:
Credit the source within your response. For example, a parenthetical citation format would appear as: (Adams, 2016, p. 23)
Tip: To create in-text citations, you can use a citation generator, such as the Reference & Citation Generator in the Center for Writing Excellence, to cite the article in your response.
A reference (i.e., the resource’s full information):
Place it at the end of your response in the references section.
Tip: To create references, you can consult the References page on the APA Style website for assistance.
VIdeo Trascript:
Hi, I’m back with another tip, and this week’s tip is going to help you complete the week three absurd argument.
Here’s my tip: narrow your argument.
Now, you might be wondering what an absurd argument is.
And when you see the assignment directions, they might seem a little strange, but absurd arguments are something that we do in our daily lives.
Maybe you play a game like Apples to Apples ®, or you like to debate with friends who’s the best quarterback in the NFL, or is a hot dog a sandwich? Silly arguments like these help us have fun, and that’s what we’re going to do this week.
We’re gonna help you build your persuasive skills by keeping the topics light and fun so you can focus on your writing and not some of the more complicated parts of an academic argument.
So I said my tip this week was to narrow your topic, and the topic I’m most excited about exploring is the DC versus Marvel argument.
And I was thinking about how to approach this writing task, and it hit me that I haven’t read the comic books, so I’m going to need to narrow my argumentdown to the films.
So I looked at the list of the films, and there’s a lot, so I need to narrow that topic even further.
And I think I’m going to apply my feminist lens, and I’m gonna think about how DC and Marvel represent women.
And an easy way to do that in an absurd argument would be to compare maybe the “Wonder Woman” movie to the “Captain Marvel” movie.
And that would take my argument down to a manageable size.
So as you’re considering topics this week for your absurd argument, think about how you can narrow it to make it manageable, and it will be much easier to write about.
Now, remember, the goal is to build your persuasive skills while having a little fun.
And if you need any help narrowing your topic, structuring your paragraphs, or deciding which supporting details to include, be sure to reach out to your instructor.
They will be happy to assist you.
FYI I believe Marvel is the best Franchise.
