Persuasive Essay

Students will be working on their persuasive essays. Students have all the information, plus most of it is posted on the blog.

Reading responses

Students are writing reading responses for Flowers for Algernon. The responses are due Tuesday, October 8, 2010.

Film: Assignment #1

Take 10 short films of everyday activities. Each film must be between 30 to 60 seconds.

Cameras are available in my classroom for loan.

Flowers for Algernon test

There is a Flowers for Algernon test on Wednesday. It will be followed by a reading response the following day.

Formal Persuasive Essay Topics

Considering the novel, we will be writing essays about bioethics.

Here are some possible essay topics. Please refine the topic to make it more specific. Or, come up with your own bioethics topic.

• Euthanasia
• Cloning
• Designer babies (Genomics)
• Organ market
• Surrogacy
• Medical screening
• Integration of students with disabilities (Education topic)
• Rorschach test (psychology topic)
• Artificial life

You can find additional topics here on Wikipedia. Plus, you may find it's a good place for general research.

Remember, this is a persuasive essay so you will be arguing that a particular medical practice is ethical or unethical. Alternatively, you could argue that it should be legal or illegal.

Due Wednesday: Chosen topic, general research, and thesis.

Formal Persuasive Essay Procedure

1) Choose essay topics
2) Conduct general research
3) Create thesis statement
4) Conduct specific research
a. Noting sources
b. Writing down quotes
c. Building arguments
5) Create outline
6) Continue research if necessary
7) Write essay
a. Including in-text citation (MLA)
b. Create works cited
8) Edit essay
a. Self-edit
b. Peer-edit
c. Fact-check by peer
9) Final edit
10) Hand in all of the following
a. Title page
b. Outline
c. Polished copy of essay with in-text citation
d. Works Cited
e. Notes and edited copies