Writing Homework Help

Directions for the Discussion Question Response 

The Researched Argument Essay must present an argument. You will be asked not only to identify a problem, but to argue for a solution or solutions that readers need to be convinced by. You will be writing on ONE problem only. For the Researched Argument Essay, you will have to find a problem to investigate, learn the current situation, and propose some sort of change, solution, adjustment to status quo practices. etc. In the discussion this week, you will be doing some initial planning to help you with this. This discussion response will focus on summarizing the issue and describing the problem. Your work in the next several weeks will help you to decide what the best solutions may be, but for this discussion response, focus on the problem.  

Please review the assignment description for the Researched Argument Essay as you think about possible topics. (See the link for it here: Researched Argument Essay.) Note that listed on the Researched Argument Essay assignment description are some topics that are off limits because they don’t work well for argumentative research papers of the size I’m asking for. Please review these before choosing your potential topics.

In your initial discussion response, explain two potential topics and suggest whom you might direct the paper to (the audience) for each. The ultimate goal for the Researched Argument Essay will be to show that there is a problem, investigate the reasons why the problem has not been solved, and try to persuade the audience to accept your solution(s) to the problem. 

It can be helpful to do some initial research as you are thinking about the topic. Just looking at titles or abstracts of articles in the Macomb Library Online DatabasesLinks to an external site. can provide some ideas. 

Your response to the discussion question should be two paragraphs or more (one paragraph at least for each of the two potential topics). The response should be 250 words or more. It is due by Thursday, 5/27, at 11:59pm.

Directions for the Reply to Someone Else 

This is going to be a very important bit of feedback to the other student. Indicate which of the two topics you feel would be the better one for the Researched Argument Essay, explaining why you think this. If you feel that there might be a different choice of audience, again, explain who that would be and why you make that suggestion. 

one of the student reply was :

The two topics that I was thinking about doing for a researched argumentative essay are (1)”Why education should be free for everyone” and (2)”Standardized tests like the SAT and ACT are no longer effective“. 

(1) The Three main points I could think of as to why college education should be free is that “Students raised in underprivileged families never have a chance”, “Free tuition will allow students to concentrate on their studies, instead of their jobs” and “people who couldn’t afford to go to college would be able to go”. 

(2) When I was researching the second topic I thought of, here is the main four things that I could find to help support my claim 

1. Because students know that test scores may affect their future lives, they do whatever they can to pass them, including cheating and taking performance drugs (e.g. psychostimulants like Ritalin “borrowed” from their friends).

2. Because teachers know that test scores may affect their salaries and job security, they also cheat (see the best-seller Freakonomics (Links to an external site.) for some interesting statistics on this).

3. Standardized tests don’t provide any feedback on how to perform better. The results aren’t even given back to the teachers and students until months later, and there are no instructions provided by test companies on how to improve these test scores.

4. Standardized tests don’t value creativity. A student who writes a more creative answer in the margins of such a test, doesn’t realize that a human being won’t even see this creative response; that machines grade these tests, and a creative response that doesn’t follow the format is a wrong response.