President Obama
• Advise President Obama on how to persuade congress to go with a particular policy or action.
• Advise the SGA president on how to persuade the administration to make a particular policy change.
• Advise a salesperson on how to persuade customers to purchase a particular product or type of product.
• Advise a doctor on how to persuade family members of an accident victim to donate the victim’s organs.
• Advise a parent on how to persuade his/her teenage child to engage (or refrain from engaging) in a particular behavior.
• Advise a writer on how to make his/her argument more effective at its intended purpose

You may choose to format this as a traditional essay, but you may also present it in a format more similar to a memo or report with a specific recipient addressed and headings for different sections. Whichever you choose, you will still be responsible for writing what would amount to an 8-10 page essay total in wordage. Images and figures are acceptable if they help you accomplish your purpose more effectively, but they must be cited and do not count toward the required length.

Suggested approach (you should include all of these elements in your discussion regardless of whether or not you use this exact structure):

1. Intro
Identify the intended recipient of your report (the “persuader” from the diagram on the front of this sheet), lay out the situation (who will the persuader be persuading, and what will they attempt to persuade them about?), and give a brief overview of your suggested strategy for successful persuasion.

2. Audience discussion
Discuss in detail who the persuader will need to persuade, what they believe, how to navigate those beliefs, how they will respond to different approaches, etc. At this point, you should include information from at least three sources to help the persuader understand the audience and its point of view better. One of the most useful types of source at this point will be texts composed by opponents to your side; use the sources to help the persuader gain insight into how his or her audience feels about the issue. There may be other types of source to help in this, as well. (For example, if the persuader’s audience is teenagers, sources explaining how teens’ brains work from a psychological perspective would be helpful. Be creative!)

3. Rhetorical strategies discussion
Identify some of the best rhetoricalstrategies available to the persuader and evaluate several possible approaches, culminating in a plan of persuasion that fits the audience and the issue you have chosen, thus building on the previous two sections. You should include and cite strategies suggested in our textbook Thank You For Arguingalong with including at least two additional sources on persuasion.

4. Issue discussion
Give an overview of the issue the persuader will argue and then identify the most important information and approaches for presenting it that the persuader will want to utilize. Keep in mind that the persuader to whom your essay is addressed likely agrees with you already. You do not need to convince him or her of the validity of your side’s arguments, but you do want to advise them on what the most important information is for presenting your side (and you will provide that information in your discussion). You should incorporate information from at least three sources in this part of your discussion, and also make recommendations for at least three other sources that the persuader should read in order to be better informed on the issue. You should be able to provide a general overview of what the persuader can gain from each of the additional readings you suggest.

5. Conclusion
Review the major points you wish for the persuader to keep in mind.

6. Works Cited (MLA)/Reference List (APA)
Include a full list of sources utilized in your paper in correct MLA or APA format. You should use internal, parenthetical citation to indicate where you use which source in the body of the paper. (Footnotes are acceptable for commentary/exposition, but not for citing.) Based on the guidelines above, you should use at least twelve sources: three for audience discussion, three for issue discussion plus three more that you include as recommended reading, and three (one of which is your Thank You For Arguing textbook) for the rhetorical strategies discussion.

Note: You may need to adapt your organizational plan to your topic and argument. I found it helpful to alternate between the three categories of discussion as I went, particularly pairing up rhetorical strategies with information about the argument. For your own essay, it may be easier to separate the discussion like I’ve done above, but as long as you cover all three issues in your discussion and you organize it in a way that the reader can follow it, the specifics of the organization are up to you.

This paper is due on Monday, April 7th.

We will not have class during the week preceding the due date (March 31-April 3). Instead, I will be available during class time (in addition to my regular office hours of 2-4 on Monday and 11-1 on Tuesday and Thursday) to meet with you individually to discuss your paper. You are not required to come, but I do recommend it.

This essay counts as 30% of your final course grade. Be sure to start working on it early and ask if you have questions.

Summary of requirements:
• 8-10 pages of prose
• Internal/parenthetical citation with Works Cited or Reference List at the end, all in correct MLA or APA format (use the same format for both the internal citations and the citation list at the end
• At least 12 sources, including our class textbook

Schedule through Term Paper Due Date:
Fri FEB 21 Article Critique Paper due; Term Paper Assigned
Mon FEB 24 TYFA Chapter 14 (Spot Fallacies)
Wed FEB 26 TYFA Chapter 15 (Call a Foul)
Fri FEB 28 TYFA Chapter 16 (Know Whom to Trust)
Mon MAR 3 Textbook Reflection Paper 2 (Chapters 9-15) due; TYFA Chapter 17 (Find the Sweet Spot)
Wed MAR 5 TYFA Chapter 18 (Get Instant Cleverness)
Fri MAR 7 TYFA Chapter 19 (Speak Your Audience’s Language)
Mon MAR 10 Spring Break—No Class
Wed MAR 12 Spring Break—No Class
Fri MAR 14 Spring Break—No Class
Mon MAR 17 TYFA Chapter 20 (Make Them Identify With Your Choice)
Wed MAR 19 No Class (Dr. Miller at CCCC Conference)
Fri MAR 21 No Class (Dr. Miller at CCCC Conference)
Mon MAR 24 TYFA Chapter 21 (Lead Your Tribe)
Wed MAR 26 TYFA Chapter 22 (Avoid Apologizing)
Fri MAR 28 Textbook Reflection Paper 3 (Chapters 16-22) due
Mon MAR 31 Term Paper Conferences
Wed APR 1 Term Paper Conferences
Fri APR 3 Term Paper Conferences
Mon APR 7 Term Paper due; Final Portfolio assigned