Assignment:
Choose one of the three readings below. Read the text, and then write a five-paragraph argumentative essay on the prompt given in Application, which appears below the reading. Make sure to use research when making your arguments and counterarguments. Be reminded that this is an argumentative essay, which means that in addition to your arguments, you also need to present the counterarguments. When presenting the counter-arguments provide examples of logical fallacies commonly used; explain the type of logical fallacy. Do not forget to add the rebuttal after the counterargument. Do not quote; instead, paraphrase. Need Assignment Help?
You need to type the essay in a Word document and follow APA style.
Theme: Ways of Seeing
1. Glamour and the Art of Persuasion
Application:
Postrel mentions military recruitment videos and Barack Obama as a presidential candidate in 2008 as two contemporary examples of glamour. Choose another present-day example of glamour and describe it, providing specific details about this glamorous person, object, place, or event. Do some research about the history of this glamorous person, place, or thing and use that research to offer an explanation for the source of its glamour? (For example, Postrel talks about associations between Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy, and about the fact that Obama had a relatively unknown national political profile, as two explanations for his glamorous appeal in 2008.) Also discuss why the example that you've chosen is glamorous to you. What is it that makes you drawn to this glamorous person, place, or thing? If you happen to be writing about a person, place, or thing that used to be glamorous but no longer is perceived as glamorous, explain why public (or your) perception changed.
2. Theme: Places and Spaces:
Smelling the Coffee:
Application:
Cobb's article appeared in 2018, two years prior to the unrest, protests, and riots of 2020. Part of the strategies Cobb mentions to mitigate these implicit biases against people of color includes formal training undertaken by Starbucks. Other attempts to draw attention to these implicit biases have occurred in 2020, with multiple scholars and activists encouraging us all to read a variety of texts on the issue and become more informed on these implicit biases and systemic racism. Do you think this is the best approach to fight implicit bias and racism? Develop a curriculum, including at least one book source, that could be used to increase awareness of these issues and perhaps help to solve them. Then write an essay defending your curriculum.
3. Theme: Places and Spaces:
Cities for People or Cars?
Application:
Do some Research to learn a little more about New Urbanism. (Some possible sources include Suburbam Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, by Andres Duanny, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, and Walkable City by Jeff Speck.) Make a list of some of the key principles and ideas that form the basis of New Urbanism civic design-what it have to say about "walkable" streets, about proximity of houses and shopping, about sidewalks and public spaces, and so on? Choose a town or neighborhood that you know and where you spend time (perhaps even your college campus), and make a proposal for a specific change to the public space of that town, neighborhood, or campus in keeping with the principles of New Urbanism. Make a case for the change that you are proposing. How would it enhance public life and make a public space work better for local residents, local businesses, and local governments? What are the possible challenges or problems that would have to be overcome in order to implement this change to the public space?