live in a post-racial society.

Unstated Assumptions: People don’t believe race affects civil rights.

(What can be problematic about believing this unstated assumption?… this is where you find the ethical problem).

Argument Analysis Prewriting (You will need to write answers on another sheet of paper)

1. What is the primary claim?

2. What are the unstated assumptions that the author or a reader has in order to agree with the main claim?

3. Analyze the evidence used to support the claim. (You need to highlight or circle the evidence you intend to cite and analyze in your essay.)

What type of evidence is used? Does it support the claim? How does it support the claim? Why do you think the writer chose this evidence?

4. What are the secondary claims?

5. Analyze the evidence used to support the claim. (You need to highlight or circle the evidence you intend to cite and analyze in your essay.)

What type of evidence is used? Does it support the claim? How does it support the claim? Why do you think the writer chose this evidence?

6. What is the ethical problem(s) that comes out of the claims?

7. Describe the ethical problem in detail. Be sure to use evidence from the essay and to explain how the evidence reveals the ethical problem as well as explaining the ethical problem itself.

What other issues arise?

Who are the stakeholders?

8. What will happen both positively and/or negatively if audiences are persuaded by the writer’s argument or if the ethical problem is not resolved?

Be sure to use evidence plus analysis of evidence from the essay when discussing this in your essay.

9. Which passages from the text you selected are especially important to the author’s argument? What sentences or phrases from the essay do you think you can use as examples of the points you want to make in your own essay?

10. Develop a plan that would address the ethical problem raised in the text. Describe your plan step by step:

a. What is the plan and its major goal?

b. Who might oppose your plan and on what grounds? Remember to acknowledge that you’re discussing a complex issue, and that even people who staunchly disagree with you have strong arguments to support their own points of view.

c. What outcomes would you expect to see once your plan was implemented? (Don’t overstate your outcomes; it’s unlikely that you’re going to solve racism, for instance, in a short paper. Focus on the small ways that your plan could address the ethical problem.)