Persuasive Essay

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"Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. Writing may be interesting, absorbing, exhilarating, racking, relieving. But amusing? Never!" -Edna Ferber

The purpose of this essay is to encourage students to inquire into their experience of academic discourse practice using the tools of analysis examine the implications of writing for an academic audience develop a controlling purpose that produces careful and thoughtful analysis and leads to a significant claim or argument use evidence effectively learn how to use MLA guidelines for citing sources The Task Compose a classical argument about an issue in your chosen field (if you've chosen it) or an issue in higher education. In your response, you will need to take a position and defend it using evidence, which may include examples from personal experience, quotations from essays in Writing Lives, and outside sources such as newspaper or magazine articles or interviews. Classical argumentation is detailed in ABGW Ch. 11. You must cite at least 4 sources using MLA guidelines (covered in ABGW Ch. 17). You must cite at least one non-Internet source. This essay is persuasive in nature (i.e. you're trying to get your reader to agree with your thesis) and should be written in closed-form style (covered in ABGW Ch. 15). The final draft should be 4-6 pages long. Sample topics OSU should supply each student with a laptop computer upon enrolment. Humanities colleges should more actively recruit higher-achieving students to its majors to solve the problem of lack of funding. Federal funding for individual students should be solely merit-based. Open enrollment on OSU's main campus should be reinstated. Due Dates Peer Reviewed Draft (post to Discussion board in RTF format) - Wed. 4/17 (go to Peer Response Sheets for this essay) Revision (post to Discussion board in RTF format) - Mon. 4/29