Synthesizing ideas from several authors in service of a persuasive argument for change based on the field project.

Essay 2 Assignment                                               English 1A

Mode:  Synthesizing ideas from several authors in service of a persuasive argument for change based on the field project.

Imagine Leopold and Thoreau were with us in Los Angeles today and could help us to evaluate our current relationship to nature.  Imagine both of them had accompanied your group on the field trip, observing what you saw.  How would they converse with you about your findings?  How would they argue for a change in ethical thinking or action today?  Use both authors’ principles to create a writing identity that helps you respond directly to the prompt.

LEOPOLD: http://www.eco-action.org/dt/thinking.html

THOREAU:http://www.eco-action.org/dt/thinking.html

Prompt:  How should we change our ethics and practices toward food, agriculture, waste, habitat, or stewardship?

Qualification:  The essay is not a summary of the pieces we have read, nor is it a report about your experience in the field.  You will use the pieces and your field experience as evidence for your ethical argument for changes in a specific area.

       An argument for change must persuade a resistant reader.  To persuade, we use reason, facts, and tone—logos, ethos, and pathos.  We acknowledge and overcome or refute objections to our positions.  We not only argue against the status quo; we argue positively for the change.  Persuasive arguments are concrete and precise, never general or abstract.  They are aimed at a particular audience whose values and assumptions are anticipated.  The goal is to move that audience to adopt your position. 

 

Strategy:  Begin your essay with a focused introduction that prepares the reader for your ethical claim.  Conclude the introduction with your specific response to this prompt—your argumentative thesis statement.  Your thesis answers the question directly. 

The argumentative thesis contains:

1.  Stipulation—what you are in part arguing against

2.  Claim—what you are arguing for

3.  Main rationale—your main or most important reason for taking this position.

Do not give away your entire appeal in the introduction.  Save the details for the body and the strongest statement of the position for the conclusion.

As you pursue your own argument using some of Leopold’s and Thoreau’s ideas in your well-constructed body paragraphs, be sure you continue to name specifically and define clearly both the ethics and the practices that must change.  Link ethics to practice.  Explain the reasoning behind the change.  Persuade a reader who does not see a need for change.  Use topic and conclusion sentences in your body paragraphs to create paragraph unity and continuity with your thesis.

Conclude your argument with a strong call to embrace the change you want and WHY.  Do not revert to generalities.  Bring your reader along through a reasoning process, instructing him or her with facts and principles, to arrive at the final paragraph, the aim of the argument.

Use MLA format for in-text citation and documentation.  Use OWL for guidance.  Never guess about format

Length:  2  pages

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