8.4 Argumentative Essay Assignment

You will now review your notes and sources, and plan, draft, revise, and edit your writing. You may use your notes and refer to the sources. Now read your assignment and the information about how your writing will be scored; then begin your work.

Your topic choices were:

1. Contact Sports - Research Question: "Are contact sports worth the risk?"
2. Virtual Learning - Research Question: "Does virtual learning benefit kids more than traditional in-person school, or does it create too many problems?"
3. Travel Sports - Research Question: **** "Do the benefits of travel sports outweigh the drawbacks for young athletes?"
4. Junk Food - Research Question: **** "Should schools and governments take stronger action to limit teenagers' access to junk food, or should teenagers and their families be more responsible for making healthy food choices?"
5. Cell Phones - Research Question: "Should schools allow students to use cell phones in classrooms, or should they be banned to prevent misuse?"****
6. Grading - Research Question: "Should schools stop using letter grades (like A, B, C) and try new ways of grading, like focusing on skills and what students can do?"

Your assignment is to use the previously read sources to write a multi-paragraph argumentative essay to be shared with the school board, in which you recommend your argument for the situation. Ensure you establish an argumentative claim and support your claim with reasons and details from the sources you have read. Organize your essay and elaborate on your ideas. Develop your ideas clearly and use your own words, except when quoting directly from the sources. (This is how you will cite sources in the SBA: Be sure to identify the sources by title or number when using details or facts directly from the sources.) In this essay, you will use MLA format in-text citations as seen in the slideshow. You must include a Works Cited at the bottom of your essay.

Argumentative Essay Scoring: Your argumentative essay will be scored using the following:

1. Organization/purpose: How well did you state and maintain your claim with a logical progression of ideas from beginning to end? How well did your ideas thoughtfully flow from beginning to end using effective transitions? How effective were your introduction and your conclusion?
2. Evidence/elaboration: How well did you integrate relevant and specific information from the sources? How well did you elaborate your ideas? How well did you clearly state ideas in your own words using precise language that is appropriate for your audience and purpose? How well did you reference the sources you used by title or number?
3. Conventions: How well did you follow the rules of grammar usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling?

Now, begin work on your argumentative essay. Manage your time carefully so that you can:

• Plan your multi-paragraph argumentative essay.
• Write your multi-paragraph argumentative essay.
• Revise and edit the final draft of your multi-paragraph argumentative essay.

*Each day in class, we will do a 10-minute lesson on the different elements of your essay.

Write a multi-paragraph argumentative essay to be shared with the school board with your recommendation. Make sure you establish an argumentative claim and support your claim with reasons and details from the sources you have read. Clearly organize your article and elaborate on your ideas. Develop your ideas clearly and use your own words, except when quoting directly from the sources. Use MLA format in-text citations as seen in the slideshow.

You will not be able to copy and paste. You may use Grammarly for spelling and punctuation only.