Global Warming:

Write a four to six (4-6) page (1000-1200 word) paper that presents a reasoned, convincing argument for a position on a selected topic.

Topic: "Global Climate changes are manmade, so people should change their lifestyle to protect the environment."

Your paper should cover the following:

1. Follow the five steps of persuasion: establishing credibility, acknowledging the audience's position, constructing a rationale, transplanting root elements, and asking for a response.

2. Clearly define your position and supporting evidence, and describe the results of your survey.

3. Include all the necessary "evidence" for the reader to reach the expected conclusion in each argument in the paper (whether the over-riding argument or one contained in an individual paragraph)

4. Ensure that each argument in the paper (whether the overriding argument or one contained in an individual paragraph) is valid and free from both formal and informal fallacies.

5. Include at least four (4) references (sources). At least one (1) of your sources must be obtained from the collection of databases accessible from the Learning Resources Center Web page.

Self-evaluation:

After you have written the draft of your position paper, review it to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your argument. Respond to the following questions, as specifically as you can:

1. What is your topic?

2. What are the possibly different main claims/positions related to this topic? (There will be at least two (2) possibly different claims/positions, but there could be more; however, one of them will be YOUR claim/position.)

3. What is your position regarding the topic? (Any position is fine with me as I really don't have a preference).

4. What "evidence" have you offered to support your claim/position? Have you included your survey results? (This is a survey of ten questions and ten people are asked these questions. Here you can pick and choose any question you like in order to prove or provide support for your claim whatever it may be. Then just enter the results which can be any way you want IE; percentages, pie chart, bar graph from the questions that are to be asked. Here you don't have to go anywhere for this, you can make your own numbers, its only ten people).

5. Put your claim/position and "evidence" through the "Scientific Method" and "Proving a theory" steps. Are there any steps on which your claim/position and evidence do not measure up to the examination? If so, what can you do to make them more acceptable?

6. Who is your intended audience? (This does not have to be specifically your instructor.)

7. What is your purpose? What do you want the audience to do, to feel, or to think? Remember that a persuasive paper is always asking for some sort of response from the audience.

8. What words or phrases have you included to cause your audience to do, feel, or think the way that you want them to do, feel, or think? Include all of your motivational or empathetic "cues" for your audience.

9. How can your position actually better meet the needs of your audience than other possible positions?

10. What more might your audience need to know before they believe that they need to do, to feel, or to think that what you are suggesting should in fact cause them to be doing, feeling, or thinking something?

11. What position that is different from yours might cause your audience not to accept your position? (Note: There may be more than one.) Now that you have identified it, what do you need to add to your own argument to convince your audience that this alternate position should be rejected in favor of your own position?

12. Can you think of anything else that your audience might need in order to be persuaded by your argument?

Once you have completed these 12 tasks, start editing and revising your paper.