Argumentative Essay Assignment

Over the course of this course you are going to write four argumentative papers of no longer than four pages. Each paper is due by the end of the listed unit—dates will be announced. The topics for these papers are as follows:

·  Unit 1 – Constitutional Democracy: The federal government should not use grants in aid in an attempt to influence state educational policies.

·  Unit 4 – Congress: The Congressional committee system gives too much power to the majority party in setting the political agenda. As a result, the views of the minority party are ignored.

·  Unit 5 – The Presidency: The President has become so influential that there is no longer an effective balance of power.

·  Unit 7 – The Judiciary, Civil Rights and Liberties: Efforts to improve national security following the 9/11 attacks have unduly infringed on privacy rights.

Your paper should:

  1. be written using reliable sources. Use the CRAAP test to look for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose.
  2. Use the evaluation from CSU, Chico for assistance.

https://www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/eval_websites.pdf

  1. have an argumentative thesis that takes a clear stand on the prompt. Your thesis should be analytical, meaning that your thesis should have a why component. The thesis should be part of an introductory paragraph that creates context for the issue. The introduction should be no longer than half a page.
  2. support your thesis statement with evidence. This should be no longer than two pages, not including introductory paragraph and conclusion.
  3. summarize the argument on the opposing side of the prompt. This should be no longer than one page.
  4. conclude with a strong summary of your thesis statement. This should be no longer than half a page.
  5. have a properly formatted works cited page.
  6. use proper MLA format and proper grammar and mechanics.
  7. Use the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) for assistance with MLA formatting and creating a works cited page.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/

*Each argumentative essay is worth 40 points and will be assessed using the Text-based Argument Rubric.