For the second argumentative essay, I am asking you to write a Rogerian Argument. In this type of argument, you are acting as a kind of moderator, seeking to find a solution to a problem that is beneficial to all parties involved. These arguments differ vastly from a standard argument where the goal is often to "beat" the opposition or to "win."
The topic for this argument is School safety in the U.S. This time, however, you should be arguing, using Rogerian tactics, for the best, reasonable reaction to this topic. In other words, your argument should seek to answer the question: How much time, energy, effort, attention, money, etc. should we spend on dealing with this issue?
For this argument, you may continue to use the topic you dealt with in the first essay, or you may choose a different topic.
Whichever option you take, this kind of argument is easier if you frame your topic as a problem. For instance, if I wrote about school shootings in my first argument, I could re-use it for this essay, but I would want to slightly change the focus. Instead, I could argue the best way to prevent school shootings, or I might argue how much security is reasonable at a public school.
Keep in mind that this kind of argument requires the use of neutral language so that your opposition is willing to genuinely listen to your solution. Therefore, in this argument you should focus on persuading your reader. The essay should be 1000-1300 words long.
Here are the major guidelines for this essay:
1. As per the requirements of a Rogerian Argument, you must spend a significant chunk of your essay laying out the opposition's perspective.
2. You must use 4-6 sources for this paper. Two of these sources may be web sites (not Wikipedia, YahooAnswers.com, or any site such as those), and the others must be periodicals (either online or hard copy) or books (e-books count). Remember, periodicals are newspapers, magazines, or journals.
3. When you use your sources remember to use in-text citations and include a Works Cited page as the final page of your essay.
4. Make sure to follow the formatting guidelines for an MLA document. An example can be found on page 273 of From Critical Thinking.