Choose a reading cluster and make your own original argument on the topic using information from the readings as support. You muse use at least 2 sources from the reading cluster you chose.

English 1301: Rhetoric and Composition I

THE RHETORICAL SITUATION

For your Discourse Community Analysis, you analyzed rhe, torical appeals you made as part of a discourse community, whereas for your Rhetorical Analysis, you analyzed rhetori, cal appeals an author made as part of a textual conversa, tion unfamiliar to you. For this paper, you yourself will make written rhetorical appeals as you jump into the conversation constituted by your reading cluster and contribute your own original argument.

In the early stages of your entrance into an academic dis, course community, most of your energy is devoted to reading about and listening to the words and ideas of others. This is how you acquire knowledge. As you increase your partici, pation in the community, however, you begin totransformyour knowledge as you apply it to new rhetorical goals and in new rhetorical contexts. Such knowledge transformation requires you to synthesize the words and ideas of others with your own.

The purpose of this paper is to give you practice familiarizing yourself with a textual conversation, locating an opening for your own contribution, and making an argument that you sup, port by combining your own ideas and reasoning with outside sources. My hope is that this assignment will familiarize you with a process of thinking and writing that anticipates the sort of knowledge transformation that will be required of you in your major field of study.

Your audience for this paper will be readers of a (fictitious) online magazine for UTA students that offers analysis and com, mentary about politics, news, and culture. The content will consist of an argument related to your reading cluster.

READING, BRAINSTORMING, AND DRAFTING

Your first step is to read all the articles in your cluster. Read strategically. You're looking for an opening in the conversation where you can insert your own claim. For example, you might decide to disagree with a claim made in one of the articles (see pp. 60-63); you might decide to agree with a claim made in one of the articles but for different reasons (see pp. 63-66); you might decide to agree and disagree simultaneously with a claim made in one of the articles (see pp. 66-69). Or, you might locate a thread in the conversation that is not fully explored and make a claim that addresses it. The point is that you want to make an argument thatadvances the conversation and turns it in a new direction, rather than just reiterating or summarizing an argument that's already been made in one of the articles.

• You should also read strategically for material you can use as evidence. Underline or highlight passages that might serve as textual support for your argument.
• Once you've read through the articles and settled on a claim, do some brainstorming to come up with at least three supporting reasons. Then, draw out the invisible warrants you've created by completing the following template for each reason: "If it's true that[insert reason here], then it must follow that[insert claim here]."

You now have a framework for your argument, but before you start drafting, make sure you have enough evidence for all your reasons and warrants. Don't worry about providing evidence for reasons or warrants that represent beliefs UTA students already hold. But for all your other reasons and war, rants, make sure you can provide sufficient support through some combination of textual evidence from the articles, your personal experiences, your firsthand observations, and/or your own powers of reasoning. If you find you just can't sup, port a reason or warrant, modify that part of your argument until it becomes supportable.

Now you're ready to start drafting. For each reason and warrant you need to prove, construct a paragraph or more of support that would persuade UTA students to agree to it.

You should produce at least three pages of content in this section.

Do some more brainstorming to come up with at least one naysayer who objects to some part of your argument. Draft a section in which you name and describe the naysayer (see pp. 86-88), represent their objections fairly (see pp. 90-91), make concessions to their objections if possible (see pp. 92-93), and answer their objections (see pp. 91-94).

You should produce at least half a page or a page of content here.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

As you prepare a draft that you'll share with readers, begin with am introduction (which need ms be limitedso a single paragraph( that accomplishes three goals:

• Acknowledges what "they say" (see Ch. 1(
• Provides an "I say" (see Ch. 4)
• Answers the "so what?" and "who cares?" questions (see Ch. 7)

If you chose to disagree, agree with a difference, or agree and disagree simultaneously with a claim made in one of the articles, your "they say" will be the claim to which you're responding. If you chose a claim that pursues a point the articles fail to fully explore, your "they say" might be a more general summary of the textual conversation to which you're responding.

Your "I say" will be your thesis statement, in which you state your claim and support it with at least three reasons.

The answer to the "who cares?" question is the UTA stu, dent body or at least a sizable portion of it. To answer the "so what?" question, explain to readers why the issue addressed in your readingand more specifically, your take on itmatters.

Once you have an introduction in place, it's up to you decide how to shape and organize your argument.

CHOOSING AN APPROPRIATE STYLE

You're writing for publication and for a broad audience of read, ers you've never met, so your style should be more formal than in your first two papers. At the same time, you're writing for a magazine, not a scholarly journal, so you don't have to write in stuffy, academic prose. Try to imitate the style of the articles in your reading cluster.

Make sure you construct coherent paragraphs that include topic sentences and supporting sentences that stay on topic.

The first time you reference a source, introduce it within the body of your text and, if possible, hyperlink to it. If you reference the source again later, just mention the author's last name. Make sure you enclose any quoted material in quotation marks. Don't use a formal citation system (e.g., MLA) because that is not the convention for this genre.

You'll want to stick mostly to Standard English because this is the norm in publishing. Proofread carefully to ensure that your paper reads the way you want it to and that you've cor, rected unintentional errors. The Purdue OWL website (https:// owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) is a terrific resource for informa, tion on standard writing conventions.