Now that you have started researching your issue, it is also time to start planning your paper. Your argument plan will include: a position statement, rhetorical situation, audience analysis, your claim, and reasons. This assignment will represent an outline of your paper. It may be necessary to revise this plan as you progress with further research, writing and thinking about the issue.
Instructions: Please answer the following questions to create your research argument plan. Write between 1 to 2 pages, single-space and be sure to number and label each answer. Make sure you have read Chapter 11 - The Research Paper: Planning, Research, and Invention, especially pages 328-334.
1. Position Statement: (your answer to your issue question.) You should identify the issue question you formulated in the Issue Proposal assignment, and then you should write your answer to the question. This is your thoughts about the answer to your issue question. This answer should be based on the thinking you have done about this topic, and where you expect to be going with your researched position paper. You may want to identify for whom this issue is important and what the various sides of the issue are.
2. Rhetorical situation (TRACE): (Text. Reader. Author. Constraints. Exigence) If you don't remember what this is, go back and review your textbook reading in Chapter 2, pp. 40-57.
3. Audience analysis: (determine who the target audience for your argument is.) Your target audience is your choice, so you should spend some time thinking about who they are and how you can reach them. Describe your anticipated audience for this essay. What are their needs and interests?
4. Claim: (similar to a thesis statement, this is the claim you will make with this paper.) Once you have determined your audience, you need to develop a claim based on your position, which is targeted toward your chosen audience.
5. Reasons: (these are the points you will make to support your claim and convince your audience.) Specific reasons why your claim is true.
Be sure to include any of the other "optional" elements below which might be important to your argument:
6. Challenges: Discuss key challenges you face (or think you might face).
7. Objection/Rebuttal: an argument against your claim, and the rebuttal (or reason why that objection is wrong) against that objection.
8. Solution: if there is a solution you want to recommend based on your position, you should identify it in your plan.