Writing Project 3: Persuasive Essay

Overview: A ​ s a student writing in courses across the curriculum, you will be asked to present arguments of
one kind or another. Even reports that don’t make an overt argument nonetheless represent the writer’s
version of the information and suggest to readers that that version is reasonable or correct. In our class,
Writing Project 1 asked you to analyze a visual text for its explicit and implicit arguments. Writing Project 2
had you research a topic to better understand the many ways that people approach the topic and its related
issues. In Writing Project 3, you will take up a position on one of those issues, preparing you to compose
critical, developed arguments. To that end, you will write a persuasive essay informed by the work completed
in WP1 and WP2.

Purpose: Y​ our purpose is to convince your readers that your position is reasonable— though you may
attempt to persuade them to consider a certain position or to do something.

Audience: Y ​ ou are writing to an informed, intelligent audience, perhaps readers of the ​New York Times ​or
the Atlantic​, so your stance should be thoughtful, balanced, and reasonable..

Research: I​ n order to effectively persuade your audience that your position is worthy of consideration, you
will need to highlight the significant, compelling, and novel information you have discovered and effectively
deploy that information to support your claims. Thus, you will use your research from WP1 and WP2 to (1)
teach your audience about something of which they have limited awareness, and (2) convince them that your
position is valid and worthy of consideration.

Requirements: Your essay should be a minimum of 1600 words i​ n length, incorporate ​aatt least 7
credible sources
sources​,​ attend to the specific requirements of the assignment, and adhere to APA formatting
standards

Project Submission: M ​ uch of your process work for this project will be posted to Google Classroom and/or
completed in class. Your final project will be submitted as an APA formatted document to the WP3
submission dropbox in Blackboard.

Other Useful Chapters in the Field Guide: Writing a successful argument is a complex undertaking, so
you may find that, more than with other assignments, you’ll need to reference other sections of the ​Field
Guide as you generate ideas, conduct follow-up research, and draft. Related ​Field Guide ​chapters include the
following:

● 5–9 rhetorical situations

● 16 evaluations, for arguments about whether something is good or bad
● 11 analyzing texts, for arguments that interpret a literary work
● 20 proposals, for arguments that propose some kind of solution
● 27 generating ideas and text
● 33 beginning and ending
● 36 arguing, for advice on crafting an argument
● 45–53 research, for arguments that call on other sources and need documentation
● 34 guiding your reader
● 28–31 drafting, assessing your own writing, getting response and revising, editing and proofreading