Argument Essay

Executive Orders

(Argument Essay)

PURPOSE & AUDIENCE

The purpose of this first essay is to demonstrate your skills in analysis and argumentation. You will be doing the

critical thinking work of our rhetorical analysis assignments, but this time using your findings to build your own

comparative argument. Your explicit audience for this essay will be the members of this class, but your argument

should be one of value to all Americans hoping to interpret the meaning, efficacy, and value of political events.

PROMPT

The issue and conclusion for this argument is quite simple. You will be choosing one of the executive orders

signed by President Trump and then identifying two arguments concerning that order: one in favor of, and one in

opposition.

Your issue will therefore be: Which interpretation of the executive order is more logically sound?

To develop your argument, you first need to select an executive order, then identify two opposing arguments in

response; you will begin by conducting some of your own background research on the executive order, then

completing a thorough rhetorical analysis of the two articles you’ve chosen. You will be assessing each

argument’s assumptions, ambiguous language, fallacies, and use of evidence, as well as enumerating each’s

reasons and clarifying their conclusions.

Your essay should explain the executive order and provide any relevant background information your audience

might need to understand it fully. Your thesis will assert which of the two argument is more logically sound and

why, and your essay’s body will support, in detail, that assessment using a compare & contrast structure that

closely examines the two arguments (pro & con). Your conclusion should provide recommendations for the

reader moving forward.

Remember, in order to accurately analyze things like assumptions, fallacies, and use of evidence, you need to

have a full understanding of the order, so your background research will be crucial in helping your to assess the

two arguments at the heart of your essay.

ESSAY EXPECTATIONS

Be careful to avoid any fallacies in your reasoning as you construct your argument. Your introduction should

introduce the order in a way that is engaging and clearly demonstrates why it is important to your reader. Your

essay should have an engaging introduction, narrowly focused and developed body paragraphs, a concise and

compelling conclusion, strong transitions, and a variety of sentence structures and word choice.