Argumentative (Position) Essay

Assignment:

Drawing on the assigned readings—
“We Bail out Banks, But Not Desperate Students” by Jesse Jackson (http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/8389726-452/we-bail-out-banks-but-not-desperate-students.html),
“Forgive Student Loans?” by Richard Vedder (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/279716/forgive-student-loans-richard-vedder),
and “Higher Education’s Coming Crisis” by Robert Zaller (http://thetriangle.org/op-ed/higher-educations-coming-crisis/)
—write an essay that presents your informed stance or opinion—your position—on the issue of “student loan crisis.”
Do you think the government should do more to relieve the student-loan burden? Or do you object to government involvement in this matter and believe it should be the responsibility of students and their families?
Qualify your position by collecting information from sources, considering opinions of others, and relying on your personal experiences and observations.

Guidelines:

1. Your introduction will present the issue and state the essay’s thesis. See that the thesis includes a claim (an assertion, possibly with a word “should”) and the reasons (of value or cause) that support the claim and are logically connected to it.

2. The body of your argument will:
(a) provide logical support for each reason stated in the thesis by using
• appeals to authority
• facts and figures
• opinion statements
• examples
• personal experience
(b) summarize the position of those who would oppose this argument and respond to the opposition point of view by either refuting it or conceding to it.

3. In your conclusion, place the argument in a larger context, perhaps by summarizing your main points and showing why this issue is an important one or by calling to action.

Requirements:

1. The essay needs to be written in the MLA format. The final draft should be a minimum of 1,000 words in length.

2. You are required to use at least one article out of the assigned three. Overall, you are not allowed to use more than three sources for the essay.

3. It is a requirement to submit the final draft of the essay to Turnitin and obtain a Turnitin Report. The Turnitin report will be downloaded into your online Portfolio as an HTML file.

4. When attaching the essay into your portfolio, include the final draft with a Turnitin Report, the 2nd draft with comments from online tutoring, and the 1st draft with instructor’s comments.