Detailed Summary

Assignment: Based on the material you have reviewed on the blog, types of arguments, etc, and on the CSU writing center site, develop a detailed outline wherein you plan out your arguments, both what will go where, but also paying attention to how it will function as a piece of persuasive writing. This should map all the parts of your paper, while paying attention to how you want to construct it. It should a)state your purpose b) state your thesis and c) reveal how you plan to organize your argument and evidence.

Step One: Define Your Writing Purpose
What are your goals in this paper. Your goals may be to pass this class, or to learn to write so you can use it in your future place of employment, but those aren’t the goals of THIS paper. The purpose of a persuasive essay is to convince the audience to change their views on an important issue or to take action to change something. Here describe what your purpose is in this writing situation. What are you trying to do. If we were performing a Precis of your paper, what would we put for sentence 3?

Ex. “In this essay, I want to present the problem of health care, or lack there of, in the United States and explore several possible methods of reforming this problem, at which point I will present my reasons for what is called Guaranteed Issue, where everyone must get insurance.”


Step Two: Develop a Statement of Thesis
First, read the “Thesis Statements” handout.
Second, go here: http://writing.colostate.edu/activities/index.cfm?activities_active=argument&category1=5 and click:
a. Narrowing from Topic to Thesis for an Argumentative Essay
b. Unpacking an Argumentative Thesis Statement
c. Writing Argumentative Claims
d. Supporting Argumentative Claims
e. Revising Your Argumentative Claim
Go through each exercise to arrive at a workable statement of thesis, or main idea, that will guide how you write your paper. The purpose and thesis should guide how you write your paper. These are what you are trying to do, what you are trying to convince readers to consider. Please use the “Thesis Statements” handout from ISU to help you do this.

Ex. Health care reform, no matter how skewed it has become in the cable news media, should remain a priority of the Obama administration because it is the top domestic threat to our well being as a nation. Our current healthcare system is unworkable because it injures American industry’s ability to compete overseas, because it allows insurance companies to make medical decisions, and because it leaves many people uninsured. However, plans for this reform must include Guaranteed Issue, or a plan that mandates universal coverage so that the insurance industry remains viable, and the government does not grow too large, thus creating even more problems.

Third, Write your thesis

Step Three: Developing a Plan
First, review the styles of argument we presented in class. Which works best for your argument? I strongly encourage you to try the Rogerian or Toulmin Methods for their more rational/conciliatory styles of argumentation.
What style are you using? List it and explain why?
Go Back to: http://writing.colostate.edu/activities/index.cfm?activities_active=argument&category1=5
Click the following to develop how you will incorporate proof into your essay.
a. Reviewing How You've Incorporated Proof into An Argument
b. Revising Coherence in the Argumentative Essay
c. Working with Claim/Proof/Warrant--Toulmin Method
Now arrange this info. and WRITE A WARRANT for each. A warrant is a sentence or two that state why your evidence supports your claim. It links, through reasoning, the evidence to the claim.
Ie (from RRW):
Claim: Pete Sampras is a better tennis player than Agassi.
Evidence: He was ranked number one for a longer period of time. He won more tournaments. He won more majors. He didn’t take meth.

Warrant: It is appropriate to judge and rank tennis players on these kinds of statistics. That is, the better player is one who has held the number one ranking for longer, and has one more major and minor tournaments.

Now: Outline Your Evidence. Should look like this:

Purpose: This paper will make a conciliatory argument with the purpose of exposing the real complications of censorship versus First Amendment rights in order to help the reader see why even such ludicrous and offensive publications, such as hate speech, are entitled to these rights.

1. INTRO & STATEMENT OF THESIS [Don’t just put “introduction” but describe what you will do to capture the audience attention. A boring introduction sets your grader up to be extra hard on you. Studies show that the more interesting/entertaining the writing, the fewer mistakes we find.]
1. Introduce the controversy
1. Intro will include a real illustration to gain reader interest, preferably culled from an interview or a recent article. [better than just a hypothetical]
2. Net provides easy access. Easy for the intolerant to spew hatred. [develop this]
3. Exposure causes problems for many (expand here about other civil rights). But it's protected in real space. Is cyberspace different? which right should trump the other? discuss the public interest.
2. Statement of Thesis
1. Hate speech published on the Internet, no matter how egregious, should continue to enjoy the same first amendment protections as the print media. Anything less puts censorship in the hands of government instead of adults and/or parents, goes against the principle of tolerance of opinion so highly valued blah blah blah, marketplace of ideas blah blah, and puts us on a very slippery slope. [please don’t use blah, blah, blah in yours]

2. ANALYSIS AND EXPLANATION OF THESIS; SOME BACKGROUND INFO
1. Internet censorship continues to be debated in Congress, in higher courts, and in the global forum. Add specific examples from both sides of the fence.
2. Risk of no government censorship.
3. Briefly discuss basic principles that restrict government censorship, and WHY.
1. No false ideas; restrictions must be precise; advocacy cannot be outlawed, etc.
2. Briefly mention three-part test (when speech can be curtailed) & why it was made so tough.
4. First Amendment text; highlight parts that are important to this paper.
5. United Nations Declaration of Human rights (discusses dignity and rights to express opinions, etc.)
1. How these relate.


Continue to build the skeleton of your paper now. Do you see how this is building your argument for you? Since you have taken a moment to plan this, now you can focus on the writing and rhetoric of the piece.