In this unit’s assignment, you will develop ideas to support the persuasive thesis statement you worked on in the Units 3 and 4 Discussion Boards. This thesis statement advocates a solution to a problem in your community, and you will consider the various stakeholders, common ground you share with your audience, possible rival hypotheses, and ways you can use the logical appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos to convince your audience that your proposal should be implemented.
You will complete a chart for this assignment. Download the file, save it with a name like LastNameCM220Unit 4 Assignment, and fill in the chart.
In Part I, you will revise the provisional thesis statement that you generated in the previous unit’s discussion and identify the underlying assumption. What is the common ground you believe you share with your audience?
Make sure the thesis is concise (1–2 sentences) and clearly expresses a persuasive argument that offers a solution to a problem in your community. Use the enthymeme format (claim + reason/s).
In Part II, describe your purpose (what is the problem you want to solve and how do you plan to solve it?), audience (key stakeholders), and setting. You will provide details about whom you need to convince to bring about change and explain the community you are writing about.
Finally, in Part III, you will evaluate your argument based on the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos). For Part III, be sure to use complete sentences and offer specific examples. Aim for 5–7 sentences per section.
You will want to discuss rival hypotheses and how you plan to address them, research you will need to conduct to support your claims, and strategies you can use to connect with your audience. Be sure to discuss at least one source you can use to support claims and to identify a specific logical fallacy your argument could be susceptible to and how to avoid that fallacy.
In this week’s readings and learning activities, you focused on choosing a topic, narrowing it down, and crafting a thesis statement. For this week’s discussion, respond to the following questions in at least two well-developed paragraphs:
unit 3 discussion board
Tell the class about a community problem that you have some knowledge of and would like to try and improve. Who are the people in your community most affected by this issue (key stakeholders)? Who in the community is in the best position to bring about a change? What challenges have kept them from solving this problem already?
Share your preliminary thesis statement. Use the brainstorming chart below to help you develop your thesis.
In your thesis, be sure to identify your target audience, a concrete action the audience can take to solve the problem [solution], and a reason for action [problem/benefit].
Example: The San Antonio School District [target audience] should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet [solution] because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates [benefit].
Do not worry about getting your thesis perfect this week. At this stage, your thesis is more of a hypothesis that needs to be tested and refined as you dig further into the problem you will attempt to solve.
Finally, wrap your post up with an open-ended question.
Identify the community problem you wish to address.
Write a research question that could help you to understand the problem.
Who is your target audience?
What is the action that could solve the problem?
What are the reasons that this solution is needed?
Create an enthymeme with a claim (what should be done) + Because + the reason(s) this should be done.
For an extra challenge in your peer feedback this week, try to determine the underlying assumption of your classmate’s thesis by using what you learned from the “Enthymeme section” of the Logical Argument Tutorial and then tell the class if you agree with the assumption or if you have some concerns with it. Those concerns can help your peers fine-tune the thesis statement.
Hint: To determine the assumption (major premise), you can replace the “action” in the solution part of the thesis with “something” and the word “because” with “if.” The minor premise is the problem statement.
Example: The San Antonio School District should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
Major Premise: The San Antonio School District should do something if it encourages more learning outside of the classroom, increases mastery of skills, and increases college acceptance rates.
Minor Premise: Tablets encourage learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
