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For our first paper this semester, you’ll need to write an “argument essay” that “takes a stand” on a “problem” in your life and “makes a case” for a rule / situation to be changed so that your life might be better than it is at this moment.
In this essay, you will need to write about a “rule” or a “policy” or a situation” that DIRECTLY affects you in some way and then call for a change to this “rule,” “policy,” or “situation” that will make your life better. Please note that we aren’t yet dealing with “big social issues” like “the death penalty” (etc.)–we will get to those later in the semester! For now, you need to write about YOUR OWN LIFE.
So, consider your daily life.
Think about some policy or procedure that affects you and think about ways that this policy or procedure should be changed to better suit your needs / situation, etc.
Write an essay that discusses both the “problem” and the proposed “solution.”
Your essay needs to contain two halves / two sections: the first part should be a “narrative” where you explain how your life is affected negatively by the “situation” you are facing. The second part must make a case for why something outside yourself needs to change to make your life better. The change you call for MUST be one that takes place OUTSIDE yourself.
You may (must) use “first person” language in this paper. Words like “I” and “my” are sometimes frowned on by teachers, but you’ll be bringing yourself into many of the papers you write in this class. In fact, if you don’t use “I” and “my” in this paper, you are doing it wrong!
As with all argument essays, you must “take up a position” and “defend” your position.
An argument might be difficult for you to write the first time because it might feel odd to you to “take a stand” on an idea. Much of your earlier training in writing has probably taught you to be wary of doing that, but that’s unfortunate because all the writing we will do in this class (and most of what you will do in college) is “argumentative writing,” that requires you to take a stand that someone might disagree with. A short definition of an argument is that it has to defend a position that someone else might disagree with. If nobody could possibly disagree with you, then you don’t have an “argument.” But again, it might feel odd for you the first time you do it, so this paper won’t be graded for how well you argue–but if you don’t have an argument, it’ll be bounced back to you for a redo, so be sure to “take a stand” in some way.
And the “change you call for” must be “outside yourself!” If your paper is calling for you to change, it won’t be acceptable. One of the goals of this class is to help you learn to make arguments that call for change in the larger world outside yourself, so we will begin that process now.
To help you under

stand what is and isn’t acceptable here are two quick summaries of topics other students have done in the past, one of which works and one of which doesn’t.
Example 1) A student wrote about her job. She worked at a fast food joint in El Dorado. Her employer made her and all the other employees park in a lot half a mile away from the restaurant in a parking lot with no lights. Her shift ended at midnight every night and she didn’t feel safe going alone to her car every night. SO her “call for change” was to say that if her employer was going to make employees park in that lot so the spaces next to the building would be available to customers, then the employer must put up some lights!
Example 2) A student wrote about having trouble getting his work done on time. He was new to college and was overwhelmed by all the work he had to do. SO his “call for change” was to say that he needed to stop procrastinating and start on his classwork sooner each week!
Example # 1 is an acceptable topic for this assignment. Example # 2 is not. The difference is that in Example # 1 calls for “change outside herself” and Example #2 is calling for “change within himself.”
To make sure you are on the right track with this assignment, I’d like you to “propose” your paper before you start work on it so I can say either “yes–that’ll work” or “that’s not what I’m looking for.” You’ll find a proposal assignment in our MODULES (and we’ll do a proposal for all the essays we write this semester which will be due a week before the due date for the paper itself–but you can / should turn it in as early as possible so you can get started on your paper ASAP).
For this essay to be successful, you’ll need to fully explain your current situation so that a reader who is not familiar with your life can understand how the policy you address affects you. This paper can (and should be) very narrative in nature. You may (and you should) use “I” as you talk about what your life is like. Your task here is to help the reader understand your situation and to show that the “rule” (or any other “situation”) is “oppressive”—at least to you.
You will also need to “make a case” for the change you would like to see. You should explain your reasons, your “evidence” to the reader. Your task here is to persuade your reader that this is an important change that needs to be made. You may or may not want to map out the steps needed to bring this change about. You must, however, make the reader understand both that this rule ( or procedure or whatever) is a problem and that you have a better idea that needs to be implemented instead.
I’d like you to keep this discussion as “realistic” as possible, but I’m very open to your thinking creatively about your life situation and thinking about what might be done to better enable you to achieve your goals.