The Persuasive Essay

Order Description
Assignment 4: The Persuasive Essay
Introduction
Now it’s time for you to create your own persuasive paper. Having completed the activities in Unit 4, you are ready to pull together everything you have learned about persuasive writing and craft your own written argument in response to the essays you have been reading and critiquing.

This assignment is marked out of 100 marks and is worth 20% of your course grade.

Instructions
Using the material generated in Activity 4 of this unit and the following list of possible topics, draft a response to the arguments presented in the assigned readings in an essay of 1,000 to 1,250 words. Your essay should be well organized, with good paragraph structure and transition; a strong, ethical, persuasive approach; an appropriate introduction and conclusion; and lively, precise, and grammatically correct sentences. Use a variety of rhetorical techniques, as appropriate, and use MLA-style documentation to cite any material that you quote, paraphrase, or summarize. Revise, edit, and proofread as necessary.

Note:
The critiques written in Activity 4, as well as the first draft of the assignment, MUST be submitted with the assignment.

Topics:
Argue one side or the other of one of the following statements, drawing on the material from the readings listed following and from the critiques you completed in Activity 4. Remember that your thesis must be your own. Because your essay will be shorter than the assigned readings, you will need to narrow your topic, zeroing in on what you believe are the most important points.
Addictions are a product of social dislocation and family stress. Readings: Addiction in Free Markets (see linked PDF); “An Insatiable Emptiness” (page 495).
Unrealistic body images presented in the media promote physical and psychological disease among women. Readings: “Pressures to Conform” (page 221); “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty” (page 541).
Criteria for Marking Assignment 4
The following criteria will be used in marking Assignment 4:
80–100%
Clear thesis
Good persuasive organization, with subtle presentation and linking of main arguments and support
Originality and/or sophistication, expressed via specific examples and complex sentence style and diction
Subtle understanding and expression of ideas in assigned essay set
No basic grammar errors
70–79%
Clear thesis
Reasonably good persuasive organization; no large logical errors or absence of support
Good understanding of ideas in assigned essays set, with evidence of some originality and sophistication at the top end of the scale
Infrequent grammar errors