EGL 102 - Donovan Braud - Spring 2023

EGL 102 – Paper #2

Your second paper topic is open as far as specific subject matter, but you must focus on a socially significant local, national, or international problem or social, civic, or political topic. You should consider kairos –a persuasive and timely response to an appropriate audience. The only restrictions are that you must make an argumentative claim of some sort and you should also have a specific intended audience and forum appropriate for the topic. “Americans” or “People on the internet” are too broad. “The Board of Trustees of Oakton College” or “The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee” or “The Executive Committee of Doctors Without Borders” are specific enough for the purposes of this paper. A good method of identifying an audience is to think of who can do something about your issue. If you don’t address the audience by name in your paper, you can tell me who it is in a footnote. You can use any of the argumentative appeals (ethos, logos, and appropriate pathos) and can try out any of the topical approaches (comparison, definition, evaluation, etc.).

You may not write about abortion or gun control policy.

Be sure to use the audience’s ideology or previously held beliefs as premises to support your conclusions, and try to work in an enthymeme using those beliefs whenever possible (we’ll work on this during the audience analysis part of the discussion). 

            Papers should be about 1250 to 1400 words (about 5 pages in Times New Roman 12 point) and have a bibliography in MLA. Also, if you have an idea for an alternative to a “paper” such as a webcast, a Power Point presentation or the like, let me know and we’ll work something out. Look to the citation guides in OWL and try them out in this paper (see the bottom left of the OWL homepage). Due Dates for the peer review draft and the final draft are listed in the syllabus.

            The first stage in the writing process is to find a potential audience and way to reach that audience. The Paper #2 Proposal dropbox will get you started on this process.

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