This document provides instructions for writing a 7-page persuasive essay arguing that the legalization of marijuana is inevitable. It discusses organizing the essay around a proposition, qualifying the proposition, refuting opposing views, and providing support through facts, examples, statistics, and opinions of authorities. It also covers identifying the audience, types of evidence to use, and common logical fallacies to avoid.

1. Persuasive/Argumentative Essay
Topic…………..
Why the Legalization of Marijuana is Inevitable
Assignment: Write a paper formatted in MLA style of seven
pages in length (use Times New Roman 12) that addresses the
topic below. You must include a Works Cited page.
Following the directions given in lecture and the examples and
instructions in Chapter Fourteen of
Writing Arguments
, write a persuasive essay. You must take a position on a
subject of your choosing that involves some issue that a person
might dispute.

2. As with the definition essay, you should explain what your
subject is. You must also present your arguments in favor of
your side of the argument, and you must have some discussion
of counter-arguments. Where it is appropriate, you may
anticipate counter-arguments both from audience members who
disagree with your position and with those who agree with your
position but desire a different solution.
Writing to Persuade
Writing Argument
Persuasion
is a broad term. When we persuade, we try to influence people
to think in a certain way or to do something.
Argument
is persuasion on a topic about which reasonable people
disagree. Argument involves controversy. Whereas exercising
appropriately is probably not controversial because reasonable
people do not dispute the idea, an issue such as gun control is.
In this chapter, we will be concerned mainly with the kind of
persuasion that involves argument.
Techniques for Developing Argument

3. Statements of argument are informal or formal. An opinion
column in a newspaper is likely to have little set structure,
whereas an argument in college writing is likely to be tightly
organized. Nervertheless, the opinion column and the college
paper have much in common. Both provide a proposition, which
is the main point of the argument, and both provide pupport,
which is the evidence of the reasons that back up the
proposition.
For a well – structured college paragraph or essay, an
organizing plan is desirable. Consider these elements when you
write an argument, and ask yourself the following question as
you develop your ideas:
Background: What is the historical or social context for this
controversial issue?
Proposition (the thesis of the essay): What do I want my
audience to believe or to do?
Qualification of proposition: Can I limit my proposition so that
those who disagree cannot easily challenge me with exceptions?
If, for example, I am in favor of using animals for scientific
experimentation, am I concerned only with medical experiments
or with any use, including experiments for the cosmetic
industry?
Refutation (taking the opposing view into account, mainly to
point out its fundamental weakness): What is the view on the
other side, and why is it flawed in reasoning or evidence?
Support: In addition to sound reasoning, can I use appropriate
facts, examples, statistics, and opinions of authorities?
Your Audience
Your audience may be uninformed, informed, biased, hostile,
receptive, apathetic, sympathetic, and empathetic – any one,
several, or something else. The point is that you should be

4. acutely concerned about who will read your composition. If
your readers are likely to be uninformed about the social and
historical background of the issue, then you need to set the
issue in context. The discussion of the background should lead
to the problem for which you have a proposition or solution. If
your readers are likely to be biased or even hostile to your view,
take special care to refute the opposing side in a thoughtful,
incisive way that does not further antagonize them. If your
readers are already receptive and perhaps even sympathetic, and
you wish to move them to action, then you might appeal to their
conscience and the need for their commitment.
Kinds of Evidence
In addition to sound reasoning generally, you can use these
kinds of evidence: facts, examples, statistics, and authorities.
First, you can offer facts. Some facts are readily accepted
because they are general knowledge – you and your reader know
them to be true, because they can be or have been verified.
Other “facts” are based on personal observation and are
reported in various publications but may be false or
questionable.
Second, you can cite examples. Keep in mind that you must
present a sufficient number of examples and that the examples
must be relevant.
Avoid presenting a long list of figures; select statistics carefully
and relate them to things familiar to your reader.
Third, you can present statistics. Statistics are numerical facts
and data that are classified and tabulated to present significant
information about a given subject.
Fourth, you can cite evidence from, and opinions of, authorities.
Most readers accept facts from recognized, reliable source –
governmental publication, standard reference works, and books
and periodicals published by established firms. In addition, they

5. will accept evidence and opinions from individuals who,
because of their knowledge and experience, are recognized as
experts.
In using authoritative source as proof, keep these points in
mind:
Select authorities who are generally recognized as experts in
their field.
Use authorities who qualify in the field pertinent to your
argument.
Select authorities whose views are not biased.
Try to use several authorities.
Identify the authority's credentials clearly in your essay.
Logical Fallacies
Certain thought patterns are inherently flawed. Commonly
called logical fallacies, these thought patterns are of primary
concern in argument. You should be able to identify them in the
arguments of those on the other side of an issue, and you should
be sure to avoid them in your own writing.
Eight kinds of logical fallacies are very common.
Post hoc,ergo proter hoc (“after this, therefore because of
this”): When one event precedes another in time, the first is
assumed to cause the other. “If A comes before B, then A must
be causing B.”
False analogy: False analogies ignore differences and stress
similarities, often in an attempt to prove something.
Hasty generalization: This is a conclusion based on two few
reliable instances.
False dilemma: This fallacy presents the readers with only two
alternatives from which to choose. The solution may lie

6. elsewhere.
Argumentum ad hominem: (argument against the person): This
is the practice of abusing and discrediting your opponent rather
than keeping to the main issues of that argument.
Begging the question: The fallacy assumes something is true
without proof. It occurs when a thinker assumes a position is
right before offering proof.
Circular reasoning: This thought pattern asserts proof that is no
more than a repetition of the initial assertion.
Non sequitur: This fallacy draws a conclusion that does not
follow.
The basic pattern of a paragraph or an essay of persuaion or
argument is likely to be in this form:
Proposition (the topic sentence of the paragraph or the thesis of
the essay)
I. Support 1
II. Support 2
III. Support 3