Should drug testing be mandatory for high school extracurricular activities?
Your assignment is to write an argumentative essay in which you take a position on one of the topics provided above (you cannot be neutral). Your essay must utilize the Classical Argument structure and effectively use each of the rhetorical appeals. In order to convince your audience, you must provide sufficient reasons and evidence for your position. You must give more than your opinionyou must offer logical arguments to support your points.
Your points must be supported by researched evidence from at least four credible sources. You must consider audiences who may support your point of view and those who may oppose your position. It is your responsibility to convince those audiences to side with your claim.
When conducting research, it is important that you do not provide so much research that it drowns your paper. A good rule of thumb to use is the 80/20 rule–80 percent of your paper should be your ideas and your support, and 20 percent comes from the sources.
Use the following information and the Classical Argument structure note provided in Module 13 to organize your ideas:
1. The paper will have a strong title.
2. Introductory paragraph: The first paragraph of your essay should outline the topic, provide background information necessary to understand your argument, and state your thesis. Your thesis statement is a concise, one-sentence summary of your main point and claim.
3. Body paragraphs: An argument paper’s body comprises three or more paragraphs that explain the reasons why you support your thesis. Each body paragraph should cover a different reason. You must include a topic sentence for every paragraph that clearly and concisely explains why the reader should agree with your position. Body paragraphs are where you back up your claims with examples, research, statistics, studies, and text citations. You must provide commentary explaining how your evidence supports your reason and your claim.
4. Counterarguments: Address opposing points of view and disprove them or explain why you disagree with them. These should be two separate paragraphs.
5. Conclusion: The concluding paragraph reminds your audience of your claim and summarizes all of the arguments made in your body paragraphs. Do not introduce new facts or more arguments. A good conclusion will appeal to an audience’s emotions.
When complete, your paper will have an introduction, at least three body paragraphs, two counterclaim paragraphs, and a conclusion, for a total of at least seven paragraphs.
Other Details:
The paper will be formatted in APA, including
One-inch margins
Double-spacing (with no extra spaces between paragraphs; set Before and After to zero).
12-point Times New Roman font
A title page with the title of your paper, your name, the course, and the instructors name (this is separate from the four-page writing requirement)
A header inch from the top of the page with your title and the page number
A centered title on the first page
A reference page including all the (4) sources used in the essay
Paper 4 will be a minimum of four full pages in length (not three pages and some writing on page 4).
