Objective: To apply what you have learned about arguments and audiences, this assignment gets you to strategically present arguments in a particular style so as to acknowledge a resistant, or hostile, audience in a collaborative manner.

Instructions: Write a letter, addressed to a specific resistant audience, that argues for or against one of the issues on the following page. For example, if you are writing a letter that is pro-choice, a specific resistant audience might be the Pope, or  the Pro-Life Action League (not pro-life people). Depending on the audience you choose, you must write a persuasive letter that aims to persuade him/her/them otherwise.

Think of this letter as an exploratory mode of writing (for both you/arguer and your opposing audience).There is a guide regarding the structure of such a letter (from Ramage et al.) in your coursepack (p. 144 of the original text). An important aspect Rogerian argument writing is that although you have a thesis, you need to DELAY letting your audience know what it is, in an effort to build some commonalities and rapport with your opposition before outlining your viewpoint. There is a Rogerian organization templatethat I have provided.

You should do some research on your specific audience; you may need to also research statistics or background information for the topic you choose as well. The research should be for the sake of bolstering your arguments. The task is about writing clearly, concisely, convincingly, and collaboratively – not just sharing statistics. This is not a research assignment, but you must cite your sources if you use any. This entails in-body citations and some form of bibliography (Endnotes, Footnotes, or a Works Cited page are all fine. You choose one and be consistent). Refer to the APA Guide for assistance. There is a link to Purdue’s Online Writing Lab on Moodle, but if this fails to provide the information you need, then you should access the actual APA handbook – this is a book you can find in a library.

Do all three issue below: 

• Given CTE, should the rules of contact sports change? Or: should athletes avoid particular sports given CTE?
• Are men and women equal in the Canadian workplace?
• – Is global warming real?

Letter Checklist (each of the criteria below should be obvious in your organization template):

Have you clearly outlined your SPECIFIC resistant/hostile audience? (e.g. Dear Mayor Tory).

Have you clearly outlined what the issue is?

Have you demonstrated knowledge of competing arguments objectively?

Have you delayed your thesis?

Is your letter cordial, rapport-building? (i.e. not argumentative, combative)

Logistics:

• Use bullet points only in your organization of the letter (think of this as you would an essay outline)
• Your letter should be approximately 730 words (up to 900 words maximum). Remember, this is not a research paper.
• Double space your assignment, using 12 point font, New Times Roman.
• Do not include a title page.
• Like any other discipline (e.g. science, etc.), there are rules that guide academic writing. This is a very short letter-writing assignment, but if in doubt, you should refer to the APA guide for writing style guidelines (e.g if use citations).

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