Final Research Paper
Purpose: This paper represents the culmination of the entire course, incorporating all the various required skills from previous papers. In this paper, you will argue your thesis and defend it from various contrary perspectives, much as you did in your first essay. You will draw on the sources you located and described in your annotated bibliography, in addition to any new sources you have encountered during the course of your research. Like you did for the article analysis paper, you will analyze the validity of authors arguments and integrate quotations within your own sentences to bolster your claims.
As such, this paper enfolds all the previous papers together. Even more, this paper extends beyond them in that it requires you to engage your own reason and creativity to win your audience over not merely through logic, but also through rhetorical strategy (Toulmin and Rogers, for instance) and rhetorical appeals (including logos, ethos, and pathos). In fine, the purpose of this paper is to persuade your audience of your view by all means possible, provided those means do not violate your personal and Christian! ethos.
Assignment: In an impeccably-researched, flawlessly-written essay, win your audience over to your side. Support your thesis using logical, emotive, and ethical appeals. Draw from your own imagination and experience as well as the published opinions of others to find examples, reasons, and data to support your thesis. Identify counterclaims or points of contention your opponents might raise against your argument, and defuse, defeat, or mitigate these counterclaims by explaining the flaws or misperceptions such counterarguments entail.
Special considerations to keep in mind: Since this paper calls upon you to demonstrate the skills from previous paper assignments, you will want to ensure that you:
Defuse or appeal to potentially hostile members of your audience using Carl Rogers techniques of establishing sympathy and finding common ground.
Defend your thesis against counterargument. As such, you will need to discuss and critique opposing sources, particularly by analyzing their underlying warrants a la Stephen Toulmin.
Demonstrate your thesis with your own logic as well as with the aid of supporting sources.
Invoke the classical appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos to win your audience members heads, hearts, and trust.
Requirements:
8 pages (not counting Works Cited) 12-point, Times New Roman font.
Quotations from 6-10+ sources, with a footnote for each. Sources should match the Requirements for Research handout.
A Works Cited page, including all works cited (all the works or sources you have parenthetically cited in your essay). Works cited will then be 6-10+ sources long.
