Topic Selection

Selecting an appropriate topic is the first step in creating an effective persuasive argument. This assignment is the basis for your Week 3 Thesis and Research Questions, Week 3 Organizing the Persuasive Essay, Week 4 Persuasive Essay, and Week 5 Persuasive Essay Presentation assignments.

Complete the

Topic Selection worksheet

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Topic Selection Worksheet

ENG/200 Version 1

University of Phoenix Material

Topic Selection Worksheet

Select a topic for your Week 4 Persuasive Essay using the following steps:

· Review the College Specific Resources for Rhetoric and Research Learning Activity in Week 1.

· Click on any College/School that interests you.

· Each college page has a description of the importance of rhetoric and research to degree programs and professional careers within that College/School.

· The topics for you to choose from are below the “Importance of Rhetoric and Research” paragraph. Each topic has a link to an associated resource from the University Library to learn more about the topic. For example, the College of Humanities and Sciences has the topics “Synthetic Life”, “Large Hadron Collider will Destroy Earth”, “Climate Change”, and many other topics to choose from.

· Choose one controversial topic. Your topic must be selected from the list of topics under one of the Colleges/Schools. Please note that the “Accessibility” area on the right is not one of the topics.

Complete the worksheet below using your chosen topic.

What is your topic?

Relate the key points of an effective research topic for the topic you chose for your Week 4 Persuasive Essay. Identify how your topic addresses the key points of an effective research paper topic. Refer to the “Evaluating Possible Topics” section on p. 339 of Ch. 11 in Elements of Argument. Your response to each question should be at least 50 words (for a total of at least 200 words).

1. How is your topic interesting?

2. How is your topic debatable?

3. How is your topic not too broad and not too narrow?

4. How is your topic not too unconventional?

Humanities & Sciences: ENG/200: Rhetoric and Research

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Importance of Rhetoric and Research to Your Degree Program and Professional Career

Rhetoric dates back to ancient Greece and the great philosophers of the day: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Rhetorical messages are designed to persuade, i.e., attempting to influence how one thinks, believes, or behaves. As students, you will learn how to construct rhetorical messages, both written and oral, that effectively reach your target audience. As consumers of the media, you will learn how to critically evaluate these messages and challenge how they influence society. Critical to building an effective rhetorical message is research. Research allows you to identify credible and academic source material that can be used to build and support your arguments. Without research to support your position, you have nothing but opinion that can be easily dismissed by your audience, i.e., an ineffective message.

Rhetoric is used by researchers in the fields of Math and Science to help expand upon current ideas and frame logical arguments for or against certain positions. Scientific research provides an outlet for researchers to share their findings. People need an understanding of basic scientific principles to help one develop their own conclusions, based upon current research technique.

Synthetic Life

Doerr, A., (2010). Synthetic life. Nature Methods, 7(1), 37.

Large Hadron Collider will Destroy Earth

Peterson, M.C., (2014). The Sancho effect: Why the large Hadron collider won’t destroy the world, and how it could improve science in the courts. Jurimetrics, 54(3), 303-317.

Climate Change

Clear thinking needed; Climate change. (2015, November 28). The Economist, 417(8966), 11-12.

Who Owns Space

Space foundation report reveals global space economy at $323 billion in 2015. (2016, June 22). Targeted News Service, n/a.

Citizen Journalism

Shaer, M., (2015, February 22). ‘The media doesn’t care what happens here.’ New York Times Magazine, 154-160, 162, 164.

Social Media and Writing Skills

Risto, A., (2014). The impact of texting and social media on students’ academic writing skills. Dissertation @ Tennessee State University, n/a.

eBooks versus Print for Children

Morgan, H., (2013). Multimodal children’s e-books help young learners in reading. Early Childhood Journal, 41(6), 477-483.

Accessibility

Alternate Media Made Easy

Do you need to convert a document into an accessible format? Use this handy tool.

Library Home

· Guide: ENG/200: Rhetoric and Research: Humanities & Sciences

· Last Updated: Dec 29, 2017 10:41 AM

· URL: https://library.phoenix.edu/ENG200r1

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