Persuasive/Argumentative Essay

Here we go, folks— Essay Cycle 3, The Persuasive/Argumentative
Essay. This is our biggest essay in terms of grade weight. The rough
draft is the same: 25 assignment-weight points. The final version,
however, is worth 30% essay-weight. Like I said in the beginning of our
time together, it’s the weightiest, but you are now ready for it to be
the weightiest— you have learned a lot over the past four weeks.

This is a formulaic essay— follow the formula;
Your thesis, which will come early in your first paragraph, will need to include your issue and position, plus a brief statement of your three support points.
If you look at the “Forms & Ideas” doc, you will see how this fits
in with the form, and how it effectively becomes the template for the
rest of your essay;
An argument must have at least two sides to it— for our
purposes, you cannot argue a fact, or something that no one actually
disagrees with. I recommend picking a large issues, as I did with the
model where I picked the legalization of marijuana in Georgia;
Just as in our last essay (Compare & Contrast), you cannot use the first person point of view, nor can you use opinion words and phrases.
Arguments are stronger if something is stated as a fact and not as an
opinion, and the ultimate goal of the persuasive/argumentative essay is
to persuade or convince someone to come over to your way of thinking;
You will need to find three-five unique accredited secondary
sources for this one. You will be arguing from three support points, so
basically you will use a source for each of your supports (example: in
the model, on of my supports talked about the additional tax revenue
legalizing marijuana would bring to Georgia– my source to provide
credibility for that argument was a financial expert from a state where
marijuana is legal);
You will not be graded on what you argue, nor the side
from which you argue (provided your argument has meet the
prerequisites). You will be graded based on the five domains of the
rubric (doc also found in the \LessonsEssay Cycle 3: Argumentative EssayDr. Cattie’s Argument Cycle folder.

You can do this, and you can do it well. We are born
arguers, folks– it’s as natural to us as comparing and contrasting, as
giving examples, as walking. Follow the requirements, don’t wait until
the last second to do the work, and you will be fine.

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