Purpose An argumentative essay is a text that supports a single main point (or thesis) with reasons, evidence, and explanation. It is one of the most prevalent forms of academic writing. It emphasizes many skills that are used in other rhetorical situations as well, such as logical reasoning, focused paragraphs, and use of outside sources. This Argumentative Rough Draft supports several course outcomes: compose texts appropriate to various audiences, purposes, and genres (SLO 2) locate and evaluate appropriate sources (SLO 3) integrate original ideas with sources, giving credit as appropriate to the task (SLO 4) Audience For this assignment, target an audience with the power to influence public policy on your topic–a school board, government official, elected representative, etc. Purpose Your purpose should be to argue for a debatable point on the issue of desegregation. Topic Your topic should engage in some way with the issue of desegregation in American public schools. You are free to choose how you want to narrow that down as long as you stick with the purpose of arguing for a debatable point. Context The modality should be written. You may add visual elements, but they do not count as part of your page total. The medium should be an electronic file and the circulation should be submitted to Canvas (.doc, .docx, or .rtf). Genre See Rules for Writers pp. 105-106 (9th edition) or pp. 118-19 (8th edition) for a quick overview of the genre. For a deeper dive, read all of Rules for Writers Ch. 7 (9th edition) or pp. 103-19 (8th edition). There are many different sub-genres for the argumentative essay. For this assignment, choose between the following sub-genres: Problem-solution This type of argumentative essay presents a problem, explaining why the topic is a problem using reasons, evidence, and explanation. Then it moves on to present various solutions, arguing for the solution that the writer thinks is strongest and explaining why. Questions to ask in order to develop a problem-solution argument includeWhat is the best policy for dealing with __________? What should be done about____________? An introductory paragraph that includes a debatable thesis on an aspect of school desegregation 4-6 body paragraphs that support the thesis with reasons, evidence, and explanation Signal phrase citations for all source material used (2-4 sources from the articles assigned to the class + 1-2 that you find on the Clark library resources, but only 3-5 sources total) A concluding paragraph A Works Cited page listing all sources cited in text, (2-4 sources from the articles assigned to the class + 1-2 that you find on the Clark library resources, but only 3-5 sources total) 3-5 pages total, NOT including the Works Cited page http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/05/17/shocking-facts-about-school-segregation https://ezproxy.clark.edu:12159/sf/article-abstract/89/3/829/2235582?redirectedFrom=fulltext https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303649
