effect of internet use on individuals

Essay 4: Taking a Stand—Arguing About Your Social Issue

Tone and Audience: Use a Persuasive Tone Addressed to a Specific Audience of Your Choice

In this final essay of 4-6 pages, your goal will be to take what you have learned about your social issue and write a persuasive essay about some specific aspect of the problem. Synthesize all of the information you have learned about the problem to now focus on probable solutions, and decide upon an ARGUABLE stand that you can take on the issue. For example, if your topic is poverty, you cannot argue that poverty is bad because that is too obvious a position to take. However, you can argue that current measures to combat poverty are inadequate, and you can suggest new ways to help the poor. Your argumentation essay should end with a “call to action” in the conclusion.

You must have AT LEAST NINE sources at your disposal, from a variety of areas, both academic and non-academic, but at least SIX must be academic. Optional types of non-academic sources you may choose to use are:

Interviews with professionals who work in the field or interviews with people who are affected by your social issue. An interview may not be academic, but it can lend a very helpful personal touch and it can have emotional appeal.
An article or two from a newspaper or magazine article is permissible for this essay. News or magazine articles can be useful in argumentation essays because they lend currency to your topic.

Be sure to establish “common ground” with your audience in an argumentation essay. Also, this essay must address COUNTERARGUMENTS to your point of view, and you must refute to/concede to the counterarguments. The following databases will be very helpful to you when researching the arguments and counterarguments to any issue: Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center and Issues and Controversies.

This essay will likely build upon essay 3 in some way or another, so you may use some of the information you already have to construct your persuasive essay. DO NOT merely cut and paste sentences or paragraphs from essay 3 to write essay 4, but DO use the information you learned to help you recast your topic in a new light. Also, remember that the overall tone of this essay will be persuasive.