Choose ONE of the following three topic ideas (selected in Module 3) for this paper. Identify a problem that is occurring in your city, workplace, or neighborhood. What is your connection to the problem? How does it impact your family and you or your coworkers and you? How does it impact the broader community and who does it tend to impact the most? What are some possible solutions to the problem that you might research and write about? Identify a problem that is occurring in your state or profession/industry. Make sure your reader knows where the issue is located. For instance, if you are writing about an industry, identify the industry. What is your connection to the problem? How does it impact your state or profession/industry, and who does it tend to impact the most? Kenneth Burke writes: “Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.” Identify and explain a moment in life or work where you entered into a Burkian conversation that might form the basis for an academic persuasive essay. Who was the conversation with, a family member or coworker, for instance, and what prompted you to get involved in the discussion? Based on the discussion you had, what remains of interest to you about the topic? What do you want to learn more about? As you research, where do you want your oars to take you? What is your interest in the topic, personal, academic, or social, and what are some arguments that you might make about the topic? Once your topic idea is chosen, follow the instructions below. Write a 3-page (750 to 825 words), double-spaced, argumentative research paper supporting your solution or argument. Keep in mind, your goal as a writer is to defend your claim through scholarly research and convince your reader that your solution or argument is a logical and supported one. Pick the solution or argument that you consider to be the best one from the research that you’ve done.
