Our first topic, inspired by a close observation of Matthew Pearl’s research practices, took a practical argument that we could apply directly to ourselves (via our own writing).. Our second essay began with another human phenomenon, our observed fascination with creating and reading/viewing narratives of horror and fear. Again, many of you—taking cues from the readings—are arguing for or against a negative (that horror is problematic, representative of problems, has ill-effects, etc.).  There are many exceptions, of course, and there is nothing wrong with choosing to identify and analyze a problem or to make an argument “against” something; it is a common approach to argument.  There have been many insightful ideas presented for each of these essay assignments, but our upcoming and final essay will seek consciously do something a bit different–to deliberately seek a positive outcome.

For our final essay, there will be only two requirements for the topic:

• The argument will be to persuade a specific audience that your position is “good” (positive, beneficial, optimistic, worthwhile).
• The topic be something that is a part of your life and/or will be a part of your future.

This essay prompt gives you the most choice as to what the topic will be, but it also ensures, most of all, that it will be a topic that you can care about.  The emphasis on personal experiences and interest will not change.  What will present both a change and a challenge for most of you will be writing about something from a positive perspective (no, this is not illegal).  It is my view that we need more of this; try it, and see if you agree.

Today’s public life is steeped in negativity.  According to the news, everything bad that can happen is going to happen, maybe tomorrow.  The ice caps will melt and drown us all, terrorists or hostile countries will bomb us, there will be another civil war, Trump will surrender us to Russia, or our technological infrastructure will fail, leaving us in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that makes the districts of The Hunger Games look appealing by comparison (except, given the Russian thing, we won’t have the debonair Donald Sutherland as our leader; it will be Vladimir Putin).  The truth is that we just don’t know.  What we do know is that we have lives, families, aspirations about the future, and we can imagine our lives going great places.  You would not be sitting here otherwise.  As you choose a few topic options this week, choose to argue something that you believe has a stake in your life and future; something that makes taking your college classes worthwhile, if indeed they are.  Convince your audience, and perhaps even yourself, that there is something for you out there worth striving for and that it is worth their time and attention, even if only for the few minutes while they read your essay–that it is something that makes you positive, optimistic, or even—dare we say—inspired.  This, after all, is what persuasion must do in order to be considered great.  Pull out all the stops!  Let’s get started…

Secondary requirements:

Pages: at least four pages of essay text

Sources: balanced (one must be author generated***)

Style: MLA or APA, your choice

Organization: Classical, Rogerian, Syllogistic, or a Hybrid

…and there’s another “sharing” presentation involved

***What is an “author generated” source? An author generated or “active” source is useful information for you essay that you have generated by your own activity.  The most common active sources are interviewing and collecting data through distributing a survey.  As you decide on a topic, consider how an interview or survey might help you generate useful evidence for your argument.  Other active

source options include: contacting a business or organization for specific information, attending a lecture or meeting  (not one of your own classes) to take notes on it, active participation in an event related to your topic, visiting a repository of information (museum, business, important location) to collect relevant data for the essay.  There are certainly other activities that qualify.  If you have an idea for an active source for your paper that is different than any of these, please share it in order to confirm with me that it qualifies.