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Argumentative essays example 3-5 pages
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Argumentative essays example 3-5 pages
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The article entitled “Why I am Black and Not African American” written by John H. McWhorter argues that Americans should use the term black instead of African American. The term black is perceived as a symbol of strength and hard work. While the term African American transports blacks back to a time in history filled with bondage and discrimination. Therefore, McWhorter argues that the derogatory term of African American should not be used and that the term black is more appropriate. McWhorter was able to establish a strong argument because he met several of the standard criteria for a quality argument. The established criteria explain a quality argument must include a debatable thesis, supporting evidence, ethos, pathos, and an opposition. …show more content…
These are not all of the factors for having a sturdy argument, but these are the factors that McWhorter followed to create his persuasive and thought-provoking essay. The author's supporting thesis was that Americans should stop employing the term African American and transition into using the term black.
McWhorter stated his thesis directly in the opening paragraph “It’s time we descendants of slaves brought to the United States let go of the term“African American” and go back to calling ourselves Black- with a capital B” (McWhorter 305). The use of a direct thesis made the essay, and the argument has a straightforward tone. This strengthened the overall essay because the reader was not searching for an implied thesis. The use of a direct and debatable thesis made for the reader to be able to clearly draw connections to the supporting evidence. McWhorter used substantial evidence throughout the whole piece. However, what made the essay have such strong evidence was the variety of the sources. McWhorter drew from several distinctive types of sources like court cases, history, personal experience, and public statements. Each piece of evidence was able to prove how different people like lawyers, politicians, historians and the author himself believe in his claim. However, this happens because each piece of evidence was not standing alone. Each piece of evidence was accompanied by a compelling explanation and a clear connection to the debatable claim. Overall, McWhorter's evidence was apparent and strong throughout the whole piece and helped the essay towards being a strong argumentative …show more content…
essay. Be that as it may, solid supporting evidence is not the sole criteria for writing a valid argument.
The author must also include elements of ethos and pathos. Ethos is when the author establishes his or her credibility as an author, or on the debatable topic. The author of “Why I am Black, Not African American” establishes his ethos at the beginning of the essay. The author proves his ethos on both the topic and as a writer by stating his various degrees, the college they attended, and his previous work experience. Additionally, the author establishes himself as black. Thus, the author's opinion is more credible because he has personal experience on the topic and black culture. The variety of experience proves to the reader that the author has extensive knowledge of the topic. This makes the reader believes the author is credible. Since the reader sees the author's credibility they are more likely of believing the stance of the author.However, the author also employed elements of pathos throughout the essay. Pathos is an argumentative strategy author use to appeal to the reader's emotions. Pathos was sprinkled into the essay by the author's word choice. The author chose harsh and negative words when discussing the term African Americans, for example, “To term ourselves as part“African” reinforces a sad implication: that our history is basically slave ships, plantations, lynching, fire hoses in Birmingham, and then South Central” (McWhorter 306). All of the words McWhorter
uses do not have a positive connotation and they tend to compel the reader to feel sad or guilty. The author's word choice has the ability to play with the reader's emotions and urges change, which is exactly what the author is searching for. An argumentative essay is strengthened by inclusion. The inclusion of evidence, ethos, pathos, and a plausible claim, but it can also be strengthened by what is unincluded. In the essay “Why I am Black, Not African American” the author John McWhorter made the decision to omit an opposition statement.This was a risky decision, because not acknowledging the other side of the argument can make the reader perceive the author as closed minded and shallow. Nevertheless, the lack of opposition in this essay was unseen in that light. The lack of an opposition statement provided the essay with a stronger flow. Throughout the piece, the author was building upon his claim. Since he did not stop adding an opposition in the middle of the essay, his claim became bolder and his argument was more effective. Additionally, the lack of opposition provided for a more profound sense of organization. There was no place in the essay that an opposition would clearly fit and still develop a compelling argument. Thus, McWhorter's decision to omit an opposition strengthened his essay because the flow of the essay was never disrupted. Several factors compose a persuasive argument. A strong debatable claim, supporting evidence, ethos, pathos and an opposition are all factors that contribute to a strong argument. These factors can all be seen in the essay “Why I am Black, Not African American” written by John. H McWhorter. McWhorter was able to develop a persuasive argumentative essay because he was able to include the criteria for a persuasive argument within his essay. McWhorter has a debatable claim, evidence to support the claim, appealed to beliefs and emotions. McWhorter also made a courageous decision to omit an opposition to ensure his essay was structurally strong. The use of all these factors helped McWhorter to create a strong argumentative essay.
A dominant rhetorical strategy presented by the author was his use of formal tone which made his article more official. The author explains his point of view in how banning words in music such as hip-hop and rap would be beneficial using strict arguments. Also, the author detached himself from the article and did not use the first or second point of view. In addition, in paragraph 9 the author wrote “it would” as an alternative of “It’d”, in paragraph 10 “that is” as a replacement for “that’s”, and in paragraph 11 “it is” rather than “it’s”, which concludes that he used full words and did not simplify or use contractions in most of his words. He also spelled out the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People when he wrote
...the social injustices many of the Negro community faced as wrong. An argumentative manner is most effective mainly due to its ability to present both sides of argument and never being considered bias to one side since both are being presented clearly. Though one side is usually favored by the writer, it is equally balanced in that the audience isn’t fooled into thinking or believing one side is fully clear of faults and errors. Since both sides are presented, one is left to choose which position to take. Furthermore, an argumentative text tends to inflict more of a response to the reader, so that he/she will tend to side with one position or the other. Either way, the reader is now a part of the issue at hand, making them directly a participant of the topic. This is effective in that it makes the audience or reader accountable for his or her actions and beliefs.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
The type of essay I chose to write for “The Book of Negroes” is a persuasive essay. Choosing this type of essay with allow me to organize my thoughts by using specific quotes and examples from the text to support my thesis statement. Although, an argumentative essay would work, I feel more comfortable writing a persuasive essay as I’m able to add my own emotions in my essay.
Portraying to the emotions is important to his overall argument because it relates the reader with the black community by providing situations of struggle and hardship, triggering the typical
It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.
It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which...
Next is John Henrik Clark, who refers to African America Studies as Africana Studies because he believes that Black tells you how you look, not who you are. He goes on to state that he calls African American Studies “a dilemma at the crossroads of history” (Clark 32). This is because European people knew history well enough to distort it and use it, as well as political weapons such as the gun and bible, to control the world. This is the reason why a look at African culture will show what Africana Studies are about or should be about. Africana Studies should embrace the Africans all around the world, in places like Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean Islands even those in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Clarke states that Africa is
Racism is a huge problem that faces the American society today. Racial segregation is an important case for a lot of people but not all of them on the same side of this. For example, Florence Wagman Roisman, an associate professor at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, who is against racial segregation and expresses her opinion in her article “Is Integration Possible? Of Course …,” in Poverty and Race, January/February 2000. On the other side of this case supporting racial segregation is Samuel Francis ,An iconoclastic anti-capitalist columnist, wrote the article “NAACP Recognizes Integration’s Failure” in the Conservative Chronicle, July 23, 1997, This paper intends to prove that Roisman uses more rhetoric tools and more effectively to make her argument convincing. She uses ethos to prove racial separation is unacceptable, logos to prove segregation is inconsistent with civil democracy and pathos to prove that by segregation people would miss the opportunities of great discoveries.
Black history month is mainly a month that promotes racism among society. In nineteen seventy-six, America names February as black history month, as a commemoration of significant events and individuals of the African-American ancestry. Even though, black history month started as an innocent idea and if the American government would have rejected it, there would have been a colossal backlash across the black community. However, if one would take a step back and look at the big picture, one would notice that black history is American history, shows that not all ethnic groups is treated equally and brings a past time up that pours salt in old wounds. Under those circumstances, there should not be a black history month in the United States
New York University is currently under fire after a student put the university on blast for serving an offensive and insensitive menu for Black History Month.
McWhorter began his argument about the failure of African Americans to achieve academic success by first attributing that one of the causes is Victimology. According to McWhorter in paragraph one, “Victimology determined the
Reflecting upon the first couple of weeks of my final semester as an undergrad student, I have to say I am excited about what this semester holds. I am glad I did not take the easy way out by only taking simple electives my last semester of college. I feel as if I am challenging myself to become a more enlighten and knowledgeable scholar. This African American History II class is one I look forward to coming. Besides the slow start, because of the snow, I feel as a class we are truly on a roll. From the amazing documentary, Slavery by Another Name, to the readings, and the class discussions, I believe as a class we are really on the move. I personally feel as if my understanding of African American history for the first time, in my college experience, is actually being expanded. I have taken different history classes and none of them have taught me as much as I have learned in this class. In this reflection, I will start off with a reflection on the documentary, "Slavery by Another Name", then the readings, and finally the class discussions.
When analyzing a written text there are a couple of things to look at. Does the author validate what they are writing? This question can be asked in order to figure out the different qualities of the essay itself. How does the author relay the massage? This is another question that can be asked from this analysis. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. explains his message very clearly in his text, The World House. Dr. King provides a lot of information to back his ideas and main thesis. He uses examples when he describes what he wants you to know. He is able to relay his message to the proper audience, which happens to be everyone in the world, but specifically to the African American people when he wrote the piece. He is able to set the tone and keep it from the beginning to the end. Dr. King is able to use audience, tone and language to relay his message.