Persuasive Essay with Multimodal Evidence

Research remains an essential component of your writing. I don't grade based on your opinions, but I do grade based on how well you support those opinions with evidence.

Uncertainty is a fact of life! You are not required to be 100% positive on your position. Instead, give us the best information you have, and then help us understand why you've chosen your position.

Option 1: The Serious Approach

The "typical" approach is to choose a position you believe in and then encourage others to believe it. This is an important skill in life — a well-researched position helps convince others to live better and more productive lives.

Be responsible in your positions. This means you need to consider perspectives that differ from your own. You need to tell us why you believe what you believe, and why you disagree with the other side — but you must respect the right of others to hold a position and disagree with you in turn.

Not all positions are equally valid! Some individuals don't have all the facts, and some individuals will purposefully misinform the public for their own gain. And I do not want students advocating "acceptance" for opinions that advocate violence or hate. Respectful communication is essential, but respect is not the same as agreement or acceptance. Sometimes, we must take strong positions against those who would cause harm.

Option 2: The Funny Approach

Satire, Parody, and Humor Are Welcome! Feel free to take a ridiculous position and then "support" it with evidence that's been purposefully misinterpreted.

If you take this approach, make your aims obvious. To play it safe, I recommend putting a disclaimer at the top indicating "this is a work of parody/satire/humor." Or just make your paper so ridiculous that no one would accidently think you actually believe what you're saying.

Word Count and Research Sources

500 Words
2 Mulitimodal Primary Sources from Different Perspectives
2 Secondary Journalistic Sources
3 Images with Citations
In-Text Citations
Works Cited Page in MLA Format

Essential Competencies

These are the fundamental skills I'll measure in this assignment:

Diversity (D): Recognize your own attitudes on this topic, and then find sources that both agree and disagree with your position.
Communication (C): Clearly convey your personal perspectives on this topic.
Social Responsibility (SR): Engage respectfully with opposing viewpoints that differ from your own.

Learning Outcomes

These are the measures I'll use to grade your papers:

Critique Information from Multiple Perspectives

For this paper, I'm looking for primary sources that will illustrate two perspectives: your personal perspective and one you disagree with:

Avoid Strawman Arguments: Give us the other side's best argument. Give us the strongest information against your position. And then talk about why you still disagree with it. Don't beat up on a suit of clothes stuffed with straw — have a rational argument with the real people you disagree with.
Use 2 Primary Sources from Differing Perspectives: You should agree with one of these sources and disagree with the other. Be sure your sources offer enough information to fully represent their perspective. For example, a single tweet doesn't tell us why someone holds their beliefs, but a full interview will.

Accurately Represent Outside Perspectives

Your secondary sources need to offer the "referee's position" on your topic by giving reliable information that isn't biased by individuals who are part of your topic:

Use 2 Secondary Journalistic Sources to Provide Verifiable Facts: These should provide reliable information on your topic. Although you don't need to agree with every fact in these sources, the facts they provide should be documented with evidence.
Accurately Cite Your Sources: Evidence is crucial. We need to know where your information is coming from, especially any sources you disagree with. Do those sources actually represent that perspective? Or are they exaggerated?

Construct an Argument for Your Position

Use Rhetoric Effectively: Tell us the logic behind your position (logos), describe the emotional importance (pathos), and use expert testimony to support your points (ethos). You do not need to identify the specific rhetorical terms — I'm looking for you to apply them.
Scaffold Your Arguments: Make sure each paragraph builds to the next. If you have a piece of evidence that's very important, provide details beforehand to help us understand what that evidence means.

Example: Electric vs. Gasoline Vehicles

In this example, my argument will be that drivers should carefully consider their personal circumstances before choosing whether to buy an electric or gasoline car, and that it may be better to choose an internal-combustion vehicle powered with gasoline. In this, there are two main perspectives that domination these discussions: the price of ownership and the overall environmental impact.

Researching Ownership Perspective

Research-wise, it's hard saying that internal combustion cars are ever "better" than electric vehicles. In my initial search, the majority of sources I found through Google are pro-EV — electric vehicle owners talk about how much they like their vehicles, and many secondary sources describe the benefits in fuel efficiency, reduced repair needs, and overall reduced cost of ownership. Notice that for my primary source, I didn't even choose a truly pro-gasoline source — instead, I chose a driver who critically compared their EV to their IC car.

So in my example, I can't go out and simply "my position is better!" Honestly, my position is not better — from an ownership perspective, the overall benefit leans toward electric vehicles.

Here are four sources I could use for this perspective:

Primary Source Addressing Question of EV vs. Cheap Gasoline Car: "Gas is cheap, am I saving money?" by u/Pumpedandbleeding on Reddit.
Primary Source Supporting Electric Ownership: "It's Just Plain Better: Why My Electric Car Gives Me Hope" by Mack Hogan for Inside EVs.
Primary Source: Rivian Battery Options. This gives baseline range for various battery configurations.
Secondary Source: "Why US drivers may be thinking about EVs all wrong" by Kate Morgan for BBC.
Secondary Source: "Should I Buy an Electric Car?" by Shannon Bradley for NerdWallet.

Research Environmental Impact Perspective

Are electric vehicles better for the environment? If you drive a lot, they definitely are. But my argument is not that everyone should buy a gasoline car — my argument is that electric vehicles are not always better. But how do we know? When researching this, I stumbled on a Reddit discussion that debates the mining impact of EV batteries compared to the masses of material that must be processed for any product you buy. Their conclusion: they don't know the exact numbers. So that's where my research needs to go.

Primary/Secondary Source: "Electric vehicles scar the environment" by Lloyd Rowland for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. This source is in the "gray zone" between primary and secondary because the Mackinac Center is not a news source — it's a public policy think tank. So they might have vested interest in taking certain positions. Then again, this article does reference a lot of outside sources.
Primary/Secondary Source: "The Key Minerals in an EV Battery" by Govind Bhutada for VC Elements. This one is also in the gray zone because the organization Visual Capitalist is sponsored by a number of mining investment groups. They do appear to provide good information, but they aren't necessarily a journalistic source.
Secondary Source: "Their batteries hurt the environment, but EVs still beat gas cars. Here's why" by Camila Domonoske for NPR.

Images to Include

These are three images I would use for the multimodal component of my article:

ElementsThe Key Minerals in an EV Battery 🔋 https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/the-key-minerals-in-an-ev-battery/

Electric vehicles scar the environment

Their batteries hurt the environment, but EVs still beat gas cars. Here's why

Copyright vs. Fair Use

Some of the best images I found don't allow embedding, and I don't steal copyrighted images for my website. So I can't share all the images here, but any image you find can be used in a homework assignment under Fair Use. Just rememeber that you must always cite the source of your image.

Cool cartoon graphic of a plug-in vehicle with recycling symbol. You could use a graphic like this to develop the tone in your article.
Excellent infographic visual showing the elements in a EV battery. This can make your research material easier to visual for your readers. But I did find that they shared their image on Facebook, and that was able to embed above.

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