Paper Topics for Techniques of Persuasion Essay - Syllabus Readings

General Guidelines and Requirements

Below is a list of possible paper topics for your Techniques of Pursuasion (I) essay. All papers for thiscourse must be on readings in our syllabus. You do not have to write a paper on the following topics.However, if you wish to write a paper on another topic you must send a proposal by email to Dr.Ranganathan to have it approved by him—by Week 5. Papers that are not from this list of topics and arenot approved by the instructor will receive a failing grade, regardless how good they are.Below is a list of possible paper topics for your Techniques of Persuasion essay. The essay that yousubmit must be on the same topic as what you wrote your annotated bibliography and essay outlineassignment on. Papers that are complete breaks from the previous assignment where this change in topicwas not approved by the instructor will receive a failing grade, regardless how good they are.The essay, like all assignments in this course, must be completely authored and edited by the studentthemselves. By staying enrolled in this course, students agree not to use essay writing services or essayediting services. A failure to abide by these constraints constitute a violation of academic honestyrequirements. Pass fail assignments that appear to be professionally edited may receive a 0, gradedassignments that seem professionally edited may receive a 20% penalty, or the student may be required tosubmit to an oral examination to prove that they are the author and editor of the submission—atthediscretion of the course director or TA. An unsatisfactory oral examination may result in a 0% in theassignment or further formal academic honesty inquiries that might lead to a permanent note on thestudent’s academic record. Instead of professional editing services, students are encouraged to invest inediting software.

Questions about the essay may not be sent to the professor any later than week 6 (of the semester) andsent to the TA any later than Week 7 (of the semester). Students who send last minute questions about theessay to the professor or TA (past these deadlines) may be docked 2 points from their participation mark.Emails about illness or requests for legitimate accommodation are exempt from penalty. Extensions forthe essay can only be sought within the first two weeks of the course. Personal illness or bereavementmay be grounds for accommodation if they are the reason for a student’s inability to hand a paper in ontime. Students with special obligations to dependents may also receive last minute accommodation.Students who require accommodation for some other reason must make the request in the form of aphilosophical argument. If the argument is valid, philosophical and not obviously unsound, theaccommodation will be granted.All papers must be double spaced, four pages in length. Papers are to be written in 12 point font with oneinch margins on 8.5 by 11 inch pages.All scholarly references must be formatted according to thescholarly conventions (see our Moodle site for more information on this). The opinions of authors that arecited must be accompanied by the appropriate page number references. An extra page should be added forthe bibliography. No endnotes please: in-text citations only. Every essay should have a separate title-page

Papers on Readings in the Syllabus

that states the (a) title, (b) course, (c) student particulars along with (c) the instructor’s name, (d) the TA’sname (in cases where the course has a TA), and (e) the essay question reprinted verbatim. I or your TA

do not want to be in a position to have to guess which essay question you are responding to. Title pagesthat exclude this information, or essays submitted without title pages, may be docked 5% from the finalgrade (that is, assuming that from the essay itself we can discern which topic you chose to write on).Essays without bibliographies or proper citation may be docked 10% or the percentage equivalent of

improperly included material. Essays over four pages in length (excluding the title page and the bibliography) may be docked 5% per extra page, or the extra pages may not be read: which measure isadopted is up to the discretion of your grader. Essays that rely extensively on class notes or secondarymaterial and do not provide proper primary text references may be docked 10%. (Proper citation ought toprovide page number locations for cited ideas or texts. Citing the whole article will often not be specificenough, unless it is an internet source with no page numbers, in which case referring to the source withoutthe page numbers will suffice. Internet sources must be properly cited with in-text citations and theappropriate entry in the bibliography that states the URL. All wording used from other sources must be inquotations with references provided.)Essay Composition Rule. When writing your essay, do not copy material from other sources withoutputting the words in quotations and also copying the reference information—even when makingyour notes for a paper. Any material that is copied from another source and makes it into your essaywithout giving proper credit constitutes plagiarism. Proper credit consists in putting quotation marksaround borrowed wording while citing the author, or citing an author if you are using their ideas. Even ifyou change the wording of the quote, you ought to give credit to the original author. Failure to give creditto the original author while changing the wording also constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism is a type of theftand deception: theft and deception do not go along with learning and personal accomplishment. Asidefrom any penalty imposed for plagiarism, papersthat violate the essay composition instruction may bedocked 5%.Papers that violate the essay composition rule may not be pulled for resubmission at the request of thestudent.Please structure your paper with the following headings: (1) Introduction, (2) Explication, (3) MainArgument, (4) Response to Objections, (5) Conclusion. Essays without these headings are harder to read.Your grader has the right to give a paper without headings agrade of C or lower if he or she cannot makeout the paper’s argument structure.

1. Annotated bibliography, essay outline assignment: (a) pick a topic related to pursuasion, criticalreasoning, and meditation. (b) provlide an outline of your paper (one page), keeping in mind theprescribed essay structure; (c) include an annotated bibliography (4 pages max) describing therelevance of the references to your paper. Choose wisely as your second essay will be based onthis. What follows are some suggestion topics.

2. How does meditation help education? Is there a connection?

3. What relevance does personal responsibility play in critical thinking?

4. How does advertisement or propoganda relate to meditation? Can the latter combat the former?

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