Why Am I So Angry? (School Edition)
Overall I’m a happy person, but there are a lot of things about life that I wish were different. Schools for students of any age are places of discontent, particularly for students themselves, often because they feel that they have no power to change things. For many years I required students to turn in hard copies of drafts and finished essays, something that made grading
easier for me, but something that I am sure the students didn’t appreciate at all. I imagine one of the worst parts for them was feeling that they couldn’t do anything about my decision.
But! What if you could persuade those making decisions to change the things you hate? What if you could convince people who schedule 8AM courses to stop? Or convince everyone who requires paper copies of essays to accept digital assignments instead— not because you hate those things, but because they do not help fulfill the mission of an academic institution? Tackling a problem in your school life is your next writing-related problem.
PROBLEM: Something related to your school life, past or present, is not as it should be and you wish it were different.
AUDIENCE: Someone who has the power to make the change you want to see. PURPOSE: To persuade. This isn’t just complaining; you need to convince the person
(or people) in power that making this change is in everyone’s best interests.
PROCESS:
Steps 1-3 are the Rant Exercise we did in class. If you did that in class, you can skip to step 4. Include your work from step 4 onward in the document you turn in for Assignment 6.
1. Feel the hate. Let loose all the things you really dislike about anything school-related. Visualize your day. What are the problems? What could be better? Write down anything you can think of, no matter how trivial it might seem, but try to focus on policies and procedures rather than individuals. You’re supposed to be in school to learn things and prepare for the future you desire. What stands in the way between you and learning?
2. Find your focus. Pick an item from your list that seems important to you that also might be affecting others. It should be something that, if you can solve it, would have a positive impact on your school (or beyond).
3. Rant. For 10 to 15 minutes, let loose on this topic. What are the problems with this situation? Why do you hate it so much? What is so stupid about it? Note that this step usually results in people either feeling better for letting it all out, or feeling even angrier than they did before.
4. Now that you have that out of your system, consider your audience choices. Who are all the different groups that are affected by this problem? List them. There will likely be many. In the business
world, all the affected groups are called “stakeholders.” Which one seems both persuadable and able to make change? This is your audience.
5. Analyze your audience. Which decision maker(s) are you going to write to? Why have you chosen them? Consider their needs, attitudes, and knowledge of your subject.
6. Make your case that a problem exists. Write an argument that describes and illustrates the problem to the best of your ability without relying on any additional sources. This is based only on your experience, but remember what you know about your audience. What can you say that will persuade them to agree with you that this is a problem worthy of their attention? You are not complaining. While you are working, feel free to feel your feelings and vent to anyone who will listen, but remember that in the end venting is a pressure release, not an effective method of persuading an audience to take action to help solve the problem. You are persuading
7. Improve your case. What additional information and research will help improve your argument that this is a problem? What do you need to prove to your audience? What kind of proof do you need to find? Are your sources convincing and authoritative? Or, maybe you’ve got a good case, but for a different audience. Should you switch audiences? Maybe you should seek out some test audiences to see how you’re doing. You should use at least three reputable sources for your final argument, including two recent, peer-reviewed sources from the Towson Library. Use the CRAP test to determine how useful your other source is.
8. Create a solution. As you research your problem you will likely also find information on possible solutions. You probably have a few ideas of your own as well. What would be a good solution to this issue? How will you convince your audience that it’s a good solution?
9. Draft, revise, and edit. Now that you’ve done all this thinking, planning, and research, write a persuasive argument essay targeted toward your specific audience.