Incarcerated Women: Expressive Arts and Rehabilitation

Dr. Martin

                                                        Rogerian Argument:  Capital Punishment and Dead Man Walking

A major component of Rogerian argument is to establish common ground between two differing perspectives in an issue.  As explained by Nancy Wood in her textbook about writing arguments,  "Establishing common ground. . . involves discovering what two parties have in common.  but Rogerian argument does more than that.  Instead of using rebuttal to show how the opposition is wrong, as in traditional argument, Rogerian argument requires the arguer to spend at least some time at the beginning of the argument not only explaining how the opposition's position is right but also identifying situations where it might be valid.."

This assignment will be written as a letter addressing the issue of capital punishment.  If you tend toward a pro-capital punishment position, you will address your letter to Sister Helen Prejean.  If you tend toward an anti-capital punishment position, your letter will address one of the set of parents of the two young adults supposedly killed by Pat Sonnier.  Your letter, rogerian argument, will be 4-5 pages typed, MLA formatted, and must include 4-5 sources.  Sister Helen's book may be used as one source.  You must follow MLA guidelines for the Works Cited page.  Your final draft will be turned in with copies of all the sources you borrowed from, except for Sisters' Helen's book.  You must also submit your final paper to turnitin.com.  I have given two choices under your class:  you may type in a draft to see if you are correctly integrating your sources, or you may wait and submit it to the final draft option.  But all papers must be submitted to the final draft option before I can grade it. Here's the information needed to submit to turnitin.com: 

                                Class ID--2030644

                                Enrollment password--jail

Here is the organizational pattern to follow for the Rogerian argument.  Remember your letter format will be addressing a particular person or persons:

1.  Introduce the issue and restate the opposing position to show you understand it.

2.  Show in which contexts and under what conditions the opposing position may be valid.  State it so that is is acceptable to the opposition.

3.  Write a clear transition that moves the reader from the position you have just explained to the position that you favor and will now defend.

4.   State your own position and describe the context in which it is valid.

5.   Show how the opposing position would be strengthened if it added elements of your own position, and try to reconcile the two positions.

Due date:  Thursday, October 18.

PS--You may want to review how to correctly incorporate sources by visiting The Correct Use of Borrowed Handout which can be accessed on my website.