Objective: Practice assessing audience and using inferences to identify the form, focus, and rhetorical approach for your writing; to explore and reflect on practices for developing arguments; effectively integrate information from other texts to support your argument; gain experience writing for real-world audiences.
Description:
The use of social media as a means to address political, social, and economic injustice has increased dramatically in the last ten years as more and more people are turning to online platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to get their messages across. However, such use has also led to debates over whether or not the internet actually helps or hinders the pursuit of real, meaningful change.
Instructions:
Write a FIVE paragraph essay that responds to the following question:
Should we rely on the internet and social media to promote social justice?
This essay serves multiple purposes. First, it is an opportunity for you to apply the rhetorical techniques that we have found in other texts to your own argument. This essay also gives you an opportunity to move beyond comprehension and analysis to argue your own position. To do this, you will need to have a more nuanced sense of this debate, analyze various positions on the issue, and then position yourself among that debate, using evidence for your stance.
In order to learn more about this debate, you will need to engage in research. During the course of writing this essay, we will practice sound research practices such as evaluating sources and incorporating citations and paraphrases. For this essay, you will need to cite AT LEAST FIVE outside sources obtained from any of the Monroe College Library Databases (ONE of these sources MUST be peer-reviewed). You may cite from any of the required readings from Unit 10 as well.
Criteria:
Clear statement of your position
Appropriate moves to establish your authority
Detailed and nuanced presentation of issues affecting your position
Series of logical claims or points to justify your position
References to and discussion of information from at least FIVE sources obtained from the Monroe College Library Databases or the Unit 10 readings (at least one of the five sources must be peer-reviewed)
Overt connections between claims and support
Presentation and refutation of relevant counterarguments
Clear, logical organization including effective use of paragraphing
Effective use of paraphrasing and quotation
Sentences relatively free from errors
Correctly formatted Title Page, Abstract, and References Page
Format: APA (see https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style).
Length: approx. 1000 words.
Steps:
Find credible sources about your issue/topic and read them
Identify multiple perspectives about your issue (not just two)
Formulate your own argument about how we should move forward on this issue, based on the evidence that you have read Use the rhetorical principles to guide you as you craft your argument
Revise, revise, revise
Polishedit and proofread your work. Consider reading it out loud.
Questions to Consider:
Why is this issue important? What is at stake?
What is your personal connection to this issue?
What aspect of it do you think is most overlooked?
Why should people care about it, even if they are not directly affected?
Is your evidence convincing?
Can you anticipate how people might argue against your opinion? How could you use that to sharpen your own argument?
Additional Instructions: Use the APA Essay Template
