Writing Project 2: Arguing a Position
A community is a group of people who either live in the same area or share common interests and/or backgrounds. We all belong to at least one community - whether it is through ethnicity, religion, a sports team, our career field, a hobby-based club, or even through your family. Because we all belong to different groups, it is important to understand how our own communities may be seen by others.Through that understanding we can be open to other cultures and communities when we meet new people.
For this assignment, you will choose one community to which you belong and in an essay, you will argue for a particular position that relates to that community, whether you are arguing to solve a problem, bring awareness to an issue, or change people's beliefs.
Research:As part of this assignment, you will conduct research in order to support your claims, and you will be required to incorporate sources into your essay. As a result, you will need to learn how to properly document these sources using MLA.
Here are a few examples of possible topics for a project like this.You don't have to pick one of these, but these will give you an idea of what a specific and narrow topic looks like:
Perhaps, you are concerned about the lack of opportunities for young children in your local school district to participate in art-related educational experiences. In your essay, you could argue that children in your community should participate in art programs because such programs help students succeed in school.
Perhaps, you are concerned about a local park and the crime that has been occurring there at night. You could write an essay about how the citizens in your community should enact a crime prevention plan to stop this crime. You could argue that the time and money the community invests in this plan would be beneficial to everyone.
When writing a research essay, your goal is not to repeat what has already been said, but to offer a new perspective or new angle. You could do so in a number of ways. One way would be to narrow your focus to a specific population and tie your argument to that population specifically. The more specific, the better.
Let me give you an example:
“Schools should serve healthier meals” is a broad topic because all schools have different students and different meal plans. A better, more narrow topic would be: “Bryant Elementary school should serve healthier meals.” By narrowing the focus to one place and one population, a better argument could be made with this topic. Specific examples that are relevant to that place and population could also be made. You could interview school officials. You could research the healthiest foods that schools could offer.