The assignment
The essay assignment for Module 4 requires you to write a Rogerian argument essay. (Below you will find information on the Rogerian argument. Read it carefully and let me know what questions you have.)
A Rogerian argument is not what you are likely to think of as an argument. It is more of what you might call a negotiation. The purpose of Rogerian arguments is to develop solutions to problems. When groups with a problem choose to work together to find a solution based on their common ground, then their shared values, experiences, or needs can lead them to agree to work together toward a mutually beneficial goal. Your job is to write an essay that reflects this approach and helps two groups move toward developing a shared solution to a problem based on their common ground.
Shared values often reach beyond the individuals or the groups values. Shared values reach into areas that we all have in common such as family, love of democracy, need for self-care, or any number of other broad values.
The reading selections for the Rogerian argument include the topics of cell phone use and bilingual education in California. Choose one (1) of these two topics. If you choose cell phone use, you must quote from Turkle’s essay. If you choose bilingual education, you must quote from Richard Rodriguez’s essay. You may or may not agree with the author whose work you have chosen to respond to, but that is not your main purpose. Your purpose is to find a problem that your audience has with the topic and develop a solution that both sides of your audience can accept based on the common ground they share.
Use the additional source materials on your topic included in these sources on bilingual education or cell phone use (see Modules 11.5a and 11.5b). There are three additional sources for each topic. Read and question these sources as they will help you make your work on this assignment stronger.
Goal
Your goal is to choose one of the two topics and write a Rogerian argument essay based on that topic, the audience groups you select, and the common ground they share. Choose wisely and convince me that the problem you introduce about the topic you have chosen is an important topic to the audience you choose. Also you must convince me that based on the common ground shared by the two (or more) opposing groups facing this problem that you can offer a solution that can be workable for both groups.
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to challenge you to think critically about an important topic that affects your community; to learn to negotiate between opposing parties such that you can represent a potentially effective solution agreeable to both groups; and to manage information from multiple sources to accomplish the goals of your essay. (This is not a research assignment. It is a multi-source assignment.)
Directions
Read Rodriguez’s essay and watch or read Turkle’s presentation.
Choose either bilingual education or cell phone use.
Then read the additional resources provided for that topic to locate support to explain the problem you select, the audience groups you choose, and the solution you offer.
Outline and write a Rogerian argument essay. (The outline is for your benefit. You will not turn in the outline for a grade.) In your Rogerian argument essay, you should so these things:
Discuss a problem faced by two opposing groups on your topic in that audience, including a vivid example about a problem with your topic that each group can identify with. Discuss each group, making clear why their view of the problem is different. Your discussion should be objective, not taking one side of the argument or the other.
Describe each group’s values, experiences, and needs, and the contexts in which they are true. Each group should be able to accept that you have fairly presented your case for them.
Discuss common ground the groups share that should motivate them to work together to resolve the problem. Explain how that common ground can/should help motivate them to work together.
Propose a solution that is likely to work for each group with explanations as to why it could work toward solving the problem.
Discuss the importance of resolving the problem and accepting a solution and discuss possible consequences if it is not agreed to as well as the benefits if it is agreed to.
Call your audience to action: what do you want them to do next?
Include quotes, paraphrases, and summaries using the MLA style guide.
Incorporate at least two uses of different rhetorical devices that you studied in this module into your essay.
I encourage you to work with a tutor or with me or others in class as readers, because revision is part of the usual process when writing a complex essay like this one.
Be good to yourself and start early and work consistently on it.
Length:1500-1800 words (5-6 pages approximately)
I choose bilingual education, and the resources where sent on the word document, thank you.
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