For your final project, you’ll be focusing on a common genre in academic writing: the persuasive essay (sometimes also referred to as an argumentative essay). Essays that are assigned in college courses are often expected to be persuasive in nature. That is to say, it’s expected that your essay will have a stance or a point that it’s trying to make and that you will use evidence of some sort to support that point.
Additionally, persuasive writing can be found in many genres. A cover letter is attempting to persuade a company to hire you; a business report may be attempting to suggest a change to upper management; a professional email might attempt to convince your team to use a different process at your workplace when the current one isn’t working.
Project #3 Topics: Choose ONE of the following:
Argue for a policy or process change in your current or former high school or in the school your children go to.
Argue for a policy or process change in a procedure in your workplace.
Argue for a policy or process change in your local neighborhood. (This needs to be very local, as in the neighborhood you live in or work in. Do not try to tackle large systemic issues here).
Argue for a policy or process change in a volunteer or religious organization that you belong to. The change should be focused on a local issue, such as the way that volunteers are selected for leadership positions, rather than large-scale issues such as a change in the mission statement or beliefs of the organization.
This needs to stay LOCAL. In other words, do not choose a topic that would need to be handled at the state level or at the uppermost management of an international corporation. Make an argument for a policy change in your school, your office/workplace, your organization, or your (very local) community.
To get started, I recommend that you first brainstorm potential issues and then pick one or two issues and brainstorm potential solutions. The paper will establish the problem/issue but primarily focus on presenting and arguing for a solution to the problem.
The change you argue for must be directed toward a logical audience, which means addressing someone with the ability to make the change. Arguing that your high school should add a swimming pool won’t logically work if you address students, who cannot make this change happen.
Length: 700-900 words
Genre: Choice of email, formal letter, or essay
For this assignment, you’ll be allowed to choose from the following three genres: academic essay, professional email, and professional letter. The email and letter will have some small differences in formatting and possibly their introduction and conclusion paragraphs from the essay, but in general, all three of these genres will follow the same overall organization and content as an academic essay for the purposes of this assignment.
Familiarize yourself with the genre that you have chosen before starting your draft. You may look up genre samples (letters, emails, or essays to better see the structure and conventions of the genre you choose, but do not include any outside secondary sources within your paper)
You will not be allowed to use secondary research for this assignment.
You can use primary research only, such as personal experience, observations, and interviews.
There should be no books, articles, or other research used in the writing of this paper though. (Research writing is covered in ENGL 1190).
I strongly recommend creating an outline before writing this paper as persuasive writing needs to be organized in a specific way based on the conventions of this type of writing. (We will cover this throughout this unit).
To prepare for writing this essay, you will:
Choose a topic from the list below to write about.
Choose one of the following genres to write in: academic essay, professional letter, or professional email.
Choose a specific change to argue for based on the optional topics.
Come up with a plan for how the change could be implemented.
Determine what evidence you need to support your argument and collect your evidence.
For any of these topics, please note the following:
Your essay, letter, or email should...
establish the problem or issue using evidence (this can be things you observed, an interview, your personal experience, etc).
suggest a solution to the problem (this is the policy or procedure change)
include steps needed to implement the solution
include a refutation (counterargument) section
If you are writing about your workplace or a small community/organization, I recommend that you do not identify anyone by their actual name for this class assignment. Make up the name of your company or audience, for instance, to preserve confidentiality. (Basically, if you’d be concerned about someone at your workplace reading this, use pseudonyms/fake names).
Your paper should be formatted as is typical for your chosen genre. If you chose to write an essay, please use MLA formatting. If you choose a letter or email, use the expected conventions including font, spacing, margins, etc. that would be expected for that genre (you do not need to put a typical header on your paper for these genres with your name, class, etc—just format them like the genre would be formatted).
Observe and write feedback based on the following:
Is the paper logically organized? Does it include evidence to support its claims?
Does the author use specific examples and evidence from his/her own argumentative essay to support the points that s/he is making about argumentative writing in the analysis essay?
How persuasive is the evidence? If you were the target audience, would you be persuaded by the evidence? Why or why not?
Does the essay give a fair showing of the arguments on both sides of the issue? Why or why not?
What is one thing the author is doing well?
What is one area that can be improved?
Note: If you miss peer review and go to the Reading and Writing Studio, you do not need a letter like below, but ask them if they can focus on the questions above during your session. You will need to keep a copy of the review session sheet you get from the consultant and turn that in.
After you have read the paper and considered the above, write a reader review letter to the writer (the student whose paper you are looking at) based on the above questions. Remember, BE SPECIFIC!!! The point of reader review is to help your partner become a better writer. Please write/sign your name on the reader review letter.
You must write at least 100 words (about half a page, typed) for each paper you review to get credit. Write the letter at the end of the rough draft you are reviewing. You might consider changing the text color for clarity.
Required length: at least 300 words (about 1 page)
Genre: Letter
For Project 3, consider the following:
What was the process that you used in working on this paper? How did that process work for you?
Did you learn anything about writing to specific audiences and for specific purposes through this process? If so, what?
What were your goals for writing and understanding this paper? Do you feel you met those goals? What did you focus on for revision? How did the revision process go for you? If you had additional time to work on this paper, what else would you do?
Your Paper 3 Submission Packet will need to include the following:
Draft of Persuasive Paper (from peer review)
Peer review notes (these can be on your draft) or the Reading and Writing Studios consultation email copy
Persuasive Paper (eitiher an essay, formal letter, or email)
Reflection Letter
Remember: all requirements for the individual items need to be met and all of the items in the submission packet need to be included in your Paper 3 folder to get full credit (check plus).