Expository Essay: Is America the greatest country in the world? agree or disagree with this statement and exploring your assertions about America’s strengths and struggles.

Sources: 1 Academic, 2 articles (newspapers), one other of your choice

Is America the greatest country in the world? This essay asks you to agree or disagree with this statement and draft an essay exploring your assertions about America’s strengths and struggles

Using the clip from The Newsroom as your starting point, please choose one of the issues with America Will McAvoy presents as the starting point of your essay.

This paper will focus on our discussions about the power of one voice to facilitate change and its impact on a particular social, political, cultural, or humanitarian issue in America. You will concentrate this proposal or presentation paper on one of the struggles you see in America (i.e. poverty, mass incarceration, defense spending etc.). Your choice is to shine light and celebrate an element of American society and brings its elements to a new focus, or you will break down the struggles within a particular topic and offer actions to improve it.

Proposal/Policy arguments are most often a call for action or used to introduce an audience to see an issue in a new light. When the audience reads a proposal/presentation argument, one is asked to make a decision about the proposal and then act on it or consider the positive aspects of an argument.

For this assignment, you will have the option to choose one of the following:

Choose one:

Practical Proposal and Policy Essay: This will propose an action to solve or improve what you see as a struggle within America. (Your proposal to change an issue you see as a problem).

Argument to Convince: Or propose that what others see as a negative aspect of America, you believe is not a problem and why. Choose a topic that you wish to present in a positive light and celebrate its elements to your audience.

Consider:

Showing that a problem exists, explaining the proposed solution(s), and justification of why it matters or show that a community often looked at in a negative light has very real positive elements to be considered.

The need for presence – Your purpose is to persuade people to act. You will want to appeal to the audience’s hearts, imaginations, and even their intellect. This is where you employ the rhetorical moves we studied in paper one. (Ethos, Logos, Pathos) Perhaps the use of provocative statistics, dialogue, illustrative narratives, and compelling examples that show the reader how important the issue you choose is or perhaps the consequences of not acting.

Overcome preconceived notions: There is often an issue with proving that an issue needs to be fixed or improved. You must initially persuade the audience to consider there is a problem in order for them to be open to your ideas for resolution or improvement.

Possible future consequences: Use the possibility of negative consequences if no action is taken as a way to support your argument.

Sources: 1 Academic, 2 articles (newspapers), one other of your choice

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Robert F. Kennedy