Help with Essay.

[Chronuss]

it was a research persuasive essay. I thankfully finished it on wednesday night and turn it in on friday morning. I'll post it when the grade is returned...I don't want any critizism until I get it from my english professor...

 

[rmcrobertson]

Always fun, ain't it? Most of my students hand in their work like it was written on their hand, and they were handing me a scalpel and saying, "Could you edit this?"

Good luck with the essay.

 

[Nightingale]

you should do research for a persuasive essay. You use quotes from other people to back up your opinion. If you write a persuasive essay without any support from good sources, all you have is one fool standing on a soapbox.

:soapbox:

 

[rmcrobertson]

Please look up Robert Scholes and Nancy Comley, "The Practice of Writing." Persuasion and argumentation are different. The primary purpose of persuasion is to move an audience to some sort of action. The primary purpose of argument is to present/explore the truth.

It is common in persuasion to present "facts," that aren't facts, "research," that isn't research. See many commercials.

It is common in argument to do actual research, the purpose of which is not merely to either a) confirm what you already thought, or b) talk your aaudience into doing something, but c) explore reality.

I am sorry, but you're incorrect. "Research/persuasive," is a contradiction in terms to some extent at least.

On the other hand, there's Churchill's crack about needing to protect the truth with "a bodyguard of lies." And there's the way that argument in the college sense usually suggests that action is left up to the reader. Then we turn around, and wonder why decent people find college professors exasperating...

Thanks for the discussion.

 

[Seig]

Originally posted by nightingale8472

you should do research for a persuasive essay. You use quotes from other people to back up your opinion. If you write a persuasive essay without any support from good sources, all you have is one fool standing on a soapbox.

:soapbox:

Nope, all you need is the Jedi mind trick! :jedi1: