Week 5: Position Paper

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TOPIC: THE MILITARY AFFECTING ONE’S MENTAL HEALTH

You agree that the military affects one’s mental health so you will persuade your audience on this issue and support your stance with credible evidence.

For this assignment, you have traditional and creative options. Choose what will challenge your writing and what would be appropriate for your topic and field:

  • Traditional 5 paragraph essay with 1 paragraph introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and 1 paragraph conclusion.
  • Op-ed newspaper article.
  • Blog post.

Guidelines:

In order to persuade the audience to accept the position you are advocating in this paper, you will use different kinds of appeals:

  • ethos (which involves the credibility of the speaker, writer, or authority being cited);
  • logos (which involves facts, statistics, and logic); and
  • pathos (which involves emotions).

A good persuasive argument uses credible sources, objective evidence, and emotional “hooks” to make use of logos, ethos, and pathos respectively.

Be sure your thesis statement is very clear.  It should be a single complete sentence, including both a subject and a predicate, that combine to make claim. Example: “The USA should be more competitive in establishing a presence on Mars.”

Your introduction paragraph should include a “hook” to grab the reader’s attention.  The thesis statement is typically seen in the first paragraph. Your body paragraphs will support the thesis. You should use credible sources and cite them according to the style of your discipline. Your conclusion should reiterate the strongest points from your paper and give the audience something to consider, moving forward.

Requirements:

  • PURPOSE:   To persuade
  • AUDIENCE:   The applicable audience for the type of document you’ve chosen to write.
  • LENGTH:   500 – 750 words (Times New Roman font)
  • SOURCES:   A minimum of 3 from a professional journal or organization
  • FORMAT:   APA

Use only third person (he/she/they) for a more professional tone. Avoid first person (I, my, us, we) and second person (you and your) in your essay.