1. Expanded Outline Format
I. Introduction
A. Attention Getter: Who gets that awful feeling in their stomach when you
are listening to your professor on the first day of class and they say
attendance will be taken? I know I do. It is just annoying and makes you
feel like you don’t have any freedom. It sometimes even puts a burden on
my motivation to go to that class the rest of the semester.
B. Introduce Topic: I believe that professors should NOT take attendance
BUT we SHOULD attend class because….
C. Reason to Listen (or significance, for persuasives): We are paying A
LOT of money to attend college and most college students our age
want to be treated like an adult with respect. These reasons apply to
most of our lives. A 2014 study done by Discover Student Loans says
that 15% of parents expect their child to pay for their own education.
Paying for your own education is a responsibility which is why it should
matter that you are treated with respect and like an adult.
D. Establish Credibility: With the survey I sent out I found out that in this
class, more than ½ of us have classes where more than ½ of our
professors take attendance. Obviously this subject matter is important
because I also asked if you guys care if they take attendance or not
and over ½ of you DO care.
E. Preview of Main Points: Today I am going to tell you why professors
should not take attendance in college AND why we should attend
class. I will tell you how much money we are paying to attend college
and why our generation of college students want to be treated like
adults. I will also share with you what you CAN do to avoid taking
classes that take attendance or how you can get through the classes
that do take attendance.
Transition: Money can be a touchy subject but when it comes to paying for an
education, it should be taken seriously.
II. Body
A. Main Point #1: We all know how expensive college is and we are
paying a lot of money to go to class and learn something.
1. Subpoint #1
a. Supporting Evidence: Each semester at UNI, according to
uni.edu, is between 6 and 8 thousand dollars for in state tuition. If
you look at the average student, taking 15 credits, like most of us
here, and then look at how much money we are spending for that, it
is an average of $70 PER class period. Why would you want to
waste that much money to skip class?
-no one should want to waste that much money, you should
take responsibility and go to class if they professor takes attendance or not.

2. 2. Subpoint #2: Laura Quinonez writes in the Arkansas Tribune,
“Tuition money is used to pay professors to teach. They’re going to
get paid, regardless if anybody shows up to class.”
a. Supporting Evidence: This is a very true statement. I’m
not saying that you should skip class and I personally don’t think
you should BUT professors SHOULD provide their students with a
chance to take their own responsibility.
Internal Summary/Transition: Responsibility is a big word and can mean so many
things. You can be responsible for someone’s child, you have to be responsible
at a job, and you are responsible for yourself every day.
B. Main Point #2: We have all wanted to be responsible in our lives from
when we were little kids to when we grow old. Our responsibility changes in
different stages. When we were little, we were considered responsible when we
helped one of our classmates with something, when we are old we want to
responsible for taking care of our grandkids, but today, we should want to be
responsible for being a student.
1. Subpoint #1: We want to be held responsible and we should hold
ourselves responsible.
a. Supporting Evidence: Professor Kelli Marshall of DePaul
University in Chicago says “There would be no need for mandatory
attendance as a student seeking high grades will quickly learn that
they need to attend the course regularly.”
b. Supporting Evidence: This is an example of how
responsibility plays a part in our lives. We ARE responsible to go to class
and try hard. We don’t need a professor to take attendance because we
want to be treated like adults.
2. Subpoint #2: Generation Y wants to be treated with respect
a. Supporting Evidence: Shelley Phillips claims that College-
aged students right now, or the people of Generation Y, want to be
treated like adults. We can all relate to this because we are the
college-aged students of Generation Y. We don’t want to be treated
like high schoolers anymore. We don’t want to feel the need to go
to class. If we don’t want to go to class then we shouldn’t HAVE to.
We want to be treated with respect and if we are treated with
respect, we need to know we will have to responsible too.
Brakelight :
III. Conclusion
A. Summarize Main Points/Review: Today I have told you why college
professors should not take attendance and why we SHOULD attend class. They
shouldn’t take attendance and we should go to class because we are paying a lot
to go to college and we should not waste money by skipping class. If we skip

3. class we are not being responsible and we feel the need to be responsible. We
want to be treated with respect and like an adult *something about jobs and fired*
B. Reemphasize central idea: It comes down to the fact that professors
should provide their students with the opportunity to be responsible.
C. Motivate Audience to Respond: Obviously there is never going to be a
time that colleges are going to demand their professors to NOT take
attendance so there are a couple things you can do to avoid taking
classes that take attendance.
-When signing up for classes you can check out what the professor is
like. Look on Ratemyprofessor.com and some of the reviews will tell
you if the professor takes attendance or not.
-You could also talk to your professor, if they take attendance, and ask
why they do. Then explain to them why you don’t think they should and
see what happens.
-If a professor does take attendance and will continue to take
attendance, I suggest that you try the best you can in that class. You
have to be there no matter what and you should be thankful that you
are getting a college education.
D. Closure/Clincher: We all want to be treated like adults. We should be
listening to our teachers on the first day of class, and hear them say that
attendance will not be taken BUT still go to class.