Course: ENG201 – The Power of Persuasion
Assignment 1: Laying the Foundations for Making a Case
Due: Week 3
Points: 100
Skill(s) Being Assessed: Problem Solving (Information Literacy)
Criteria for Success: In this assignment, you will:
- Define a topic for a persuasive proposal and explain the importance of the topic to you within the context of the scenario and your own life/career.
- Describe the potential audience for a persuasive proposal and the importance of the topic to the audience within the context of the scenario.
- Identify five credible sources, including one opposing source, relevant to your chosen topic.
- Summarize each source utilizing the who, what, where, when, and why approach.
- Analyze each source to determine evidence that may help you support potential persuasive arguments for your chosen topic.
- Explain how the chosen sources and your planned use of them reflects an ethical approach to information literacy.
- Produce writing that is clear, well-organized, and applies appropriate SWS style. Writing contains accurate grammar, mechanics, and spelling.
What to Submit / Deliverables: A completed Assignment 1 Template (downloaded from the Webtext), and completed as a Word doc.
What is the value of doing this assignment? In your personal, academic, and professional life, you will encounter countless situations where you will need to convince family members, friends, coworkers, committees, and other audiences to adopt new policies, consider different processes and perspectives, or make changes that will impact others. Being able to convince others will allow you to have a voice in your own life and impact the lives of others. In order to do this, you will need to develop strategies for persuasion. You will be more convincing if you are able to provide credible evidence to support your point. Having valid and credible evidence to support our arguments plays a large role in how persuasive you are, how others receive your information, and the credibility you can build for yourself.
In this assignment, you will also have the opportunity to practice your problem solving skill by locating and analyzing sources for validity and credibility. You will analyze how information is used to persuade audiences to adopt or change perspectives and also examine ethical considerations. You will then build upon the information you have gathered and analyzed to plan and write a persuasive proposal in Assignments 2 and 3. Additionally, the information literacy strategies you are practicing can be applied to any source you encounter in the course of your daily life. By understanding how to identify what a source is really saying, you can search for the subtle ways in which it is trying to persuade you. Also, when you understand how to tease out the true meaning of a source, you can better equip yourself to determine if it will be of use to you as you communicate with and attempt to persuade others.
Further, you will continue to develop your innovation skill by brainstorming and considering different solutions for your proposal. You will have the opportunity to select a topic that has some meaning for you and clearly articulate your goal in putting together a persuasive proposal. Having clarity around the topic and goal of your persuasive communications can help you better identify evidence to support your argument. When you are transparent and ethical about your proposal and provide valid evidence, you will have a better chance of making a real impact in the world.
Your goal for this assignment is to: Build your problem solving skill by locating credible and valid sources of evidence and analyzing how those sources can be used to support a persuasive argument in an ethical manner. This assignment will help you define the topic and initial sources of evidence that you will use in Assignments 2 and 3.
Steps to complete: In Week 3, submit your assignment in BlackBoard by following these steps:
STEP 1: Review the scenarios below, which you were introduced to in Week 1. If you have not already, choose the scenario you will use as the basis of your assignment. Then, review Assignment 1 in the Webtext.
If you are wondering which scenario would be best to choose, think about concerns, issues, or projects that you are passionate about in your own life and career. For example, if you keep coming back to how the empty lot on your block would make a great community garden space, you may want to consider choosing Scenario 1. If your workplace is experiencing a delay in receiving supplies, and you want to explore a solution to this problem, you may want to consider choosing Scenario 2.
Scenario 1: You are trying to convince a community group or municipal committee to provide funding for a particular event or initiative to benefit the area (you may also take the stance of asking for a particular policy to be changed). How will you persuade the committee to change their minds?
The problem is a rise in adolescence gun violence/deaths in my city
Why is this problem important to you?
This problem is very imperative to me personally for the reason that I see how adolescences are being buried or in incarcerated more than the older generation in my community, and I want to help avert it from rising /Spreading further thought-out our youth. Police department or the justice system aren’t doing anything to help cease the violence they just set back and do nothing. Most of these youth feel alone due to parent abandonment, lack of direction, drugs so they are turning to the streets for comfort and there is no one to guide them. The neighborhood is concerned so bad they don’t even want to allow their children outside to be social.
Example Topics for Community Proposals
- Converting existing space into a new park, garden, playground, or community center.
- Funding for a celebratory cultural diversity event.
- New recycling/conservation program.
- Fundraising event for a particular program/cause you support.
- Preserving a cultural monument or artifact.
- Instituting/removing a community curfew.
- Transportation options (e.g., bike lanes, bike sharing, other options to reduce traffic).
