This essay will be 1,000 words including your Works Cited Page. Please note that this Causal Argument Assignment differs slightly from the one associated with your textbook. However, students should read the Causal Arguments chapter in your textbook and use the graphic organizer (Causal Argument Essay) near the very end of your binder. In your essay, refer to at least three credible sources and include a Works Cited page. You should also use your own experience for some (@ ) of your evidence. Many students are misinformed about what constitutes a credible source. Review the document that your instructor has posted, called the Four Step Method, to learn about credible sources. Please consider using Proquest to access magazine and professional journals. If you are in doubt, contact your instructor far ahead of the due date. It is always a good idea to have your proposed thesis reviewed by the instructor. The trick to writing a strong causal argument is making sure that something is at stake in your claim. You would not write, The attacks of September 11, 2001 caused our country to focus much more on terrorism. This would lack exigence because your readers would say, Yes, we know that. Furthermore, nothing really competes with that cause as the probable cause for the effect of focusing more on terrorism. If, however, you write that advertising to children is the primary cause of Americas increasing rates of obesity, that will establish exigence. Some of your readers will say, No, it is the rise of the computer. Others will say, No, it is the reliance on our automobile that is the primary cause. So in this example you will have to convince them that while their proposed reasons should not be ignored, your reason is the primary cause. You might choose a cause that is not obvious. For example, you write this thesis, The United States saw a significant decline in crime in the 1990s and again in the last four years. The primary cause of this drop is immigration. Some readers will react with , Wait! Ive never heard that before. Others might say, What? I though immigration caused crime to spike. So your essay has a good reason to be read. Note that some students mistake a causal argument for a straightforward cause and effect essay. For example, they create this thesis: Rates of obesity in the United States have climbed more than 30 % in the last twenty years. The main causes of obesity in America are reduced rates of exercise, increased marketing of foods to children, and the ubiquity of junk food. ************* That is NOT a causal argument. We all know some of the causes of obesity. There is not debate that diet and exercise and part of the puzzle. So this attempt at an essay would be no more than listing what we already know. To take another example: we know that economic panic and reactions to slavery were contributing causes to the Civil War. No one disputes that. To reiterate, your readers are interested in causes and or effects which are up for debate. In some textbooks, we see the authors use the example of causes and effects of global warming. These serve as good examples for learning about the rhetorical mode called causal argument; however, I am not sure these work as good topics because most of us (you, CSM students, and certainly I) know very little of global warming. Instead, lets write about something of which we have knowledge and experience: social networking sites and human relationships. This way you can use some (not more than of the essay, though) experience as evidence to support your claims. The other evidence will come from your research, of course. The question we are researching for this argument essay is this: what are the effects of young adults using social networking sites on their feelings of friendship or loneliness? To put it another way, are social networking sites antidotes or contributors to loneliness for young adults (18 30)? Please do not write about younger teenagers use of social networking sites. To get started, lets look at what one social scientist, Professor Jean Twenge, argues about modern life. The following is an excerpt from her book Generation Me: As a result of modern dating, later marriage, and the higher divorce rate, a lot of people spend a great deal of time living alone. Twice as many 17-to-24 year olds are in one-person households now compared to 1970 The sadness of being alone is often the flip side of freedom and putting ourselves first. When we pursue our own dreams and make our own choices, that pursuit often takes us away from friends and family. An independence-minded society such as ours would never accept rules that encouraged arranged marriage or multigenerational households. Even marriage before a certain age these days, around 25 is viewed as unwise and overly restricting. There is nothing wrong with individual freedom, of course; this is the advantage of the social change of the last few decades. But there are consequences, and loneliness is often one of them One of the strangest things about modern life is the expectation that we will stand alone, negotiating breakups, moves, divorces, and all manner of heartbreak that previous generations were careful to avoid. This may be key to the low rate of depression among older generations: despite all the deprivation and war they experienced, they could always count on each other. People had strong feelings of community; they knew the same people all their lives; and they married young and stayed married. It may not have been exciting, and it stymied the dreams of many, but it was a stable life that avoided the melancholy that is so common now. CHOOSE YOUR THESIS: 1.Social networking sites are in general an antidote to the loneliness that young adults (18 30 ) are vulnerable to in modern society. 2.Social networking sites are in general a contributor to the loneliness that young adults (18 – 30) are vulnerable to in modern society. Possible Sources: The Digital Divide: Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking Original Edition by Mark Bauerlein The Shallows Nicholas Carr Alone Together Sherry Turkle SENTENCE TEMPLATES As always, you must use sentence templates 3 times in your final draft: SENTENCE TEMPLATES Use at least 3 of the following 8 sentence templates. If possible, highlight these sentence starters in your essay : 1.(Insert authors name here)..asserts that. 2.One expert on this issue is ., who says this: . 3.I agree with/ disagree with (insert authors name) when he says.because. 4.Though I concede, I must insist that . 5.Some readers may challenge my view by asserting that.My response is this: 6.This issue is important because. 7.I agree with. and will make the additional point that. 8.The future of this issue is this:
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