ESSAY #3
ARGUMENT/PERSUASIVE WRITING
This will be your final original out-of-class essay, and will concentrate on persuasive writing—using language to convince an undecided audience of your point of view. More specifically, you will be arguing issues related to entertainment; for essay 3, you may choose any topic related to the entertainment industry or social entertainment in general, so long as it is a focused subject that is open to debate. Possible topics might include issues related to movies, television, music, websites, social media, or non-violent video gaming (violence in video games is off-limits, since we already debated video game violence on Monday).
The key to this assignment is to find a topic that is truly debatable: a topic over which reasonable groups of people disagree. There can be no debate over a widely accepted or factual concept, so an essay arguing that Facebook makes it easier to connect with more friends and family would not be a wise choice—too obvious, little to debate. Think of topics that have potentially convincing reasons for both sides of the argument, but, remember, you must argue for one side over the other. This cannot be a simple comparison/contrast discussion of the opposing arguments.
Also, take care to choose a topic that doesn’t rely solely on personal opinion; although your essay does rely on your personal opinion, your opinion needs to have some objective evidence (sensible examples, facts/statistics, expert opinion, sound logic) to back up your feelings. You can’t argue that country music is inferior to hip-hop simply because you dislike country music. Don’t worry, we will spend plenty of time exploring persuasive writing strategies, and I will offer plenty of help in choosing your topic.
Your audience for essay 3 is your classmates and me, but consider all of us as reasonable people who are undecided regarding your chosen issue.
Essay #3 should be typed, double-spaced, 2 ½ - 4 pages long,...