Reference no: EM133223452
Assignment - Why You Should Buy a Bicycle Letter
Description - Writing a Letter - For this assignment, you compose a letter that utilizes the strategies Dershowitz used in his article. The subject and audience of the letter is up to you. Perhaps you will write a letter explaining to your friend why he/she should go on a European vacation with you. Or perhaps you will choose to explain to your child (or parent) why they should agree with you on a particular matter. The content is not important here; it is the construction of the letter that is important. Specifically, you must rely on the rhetorical strategies from Dershowitz's article, as outlined below.
GUIDELINES - Your letter should
Open by constructing an analogy. The important thing here is that the subject you are choosing represents a particular kind of relationship, and that the analogy you create contains a similar relationship. For example, Dershowitz was trying to say that the national ID gives up some anonymity, but gains convenience in a way that makes any loss negligible. He decided that EZ toll passes contain that same kind of relationship (convenience over privacy, without any obvious negatives), so he used that analogy. It also helps that the EZ Pass (or Sun Pass here in FL) is more familiar. If you are convincing your roommate to clean his/her room in your letter, perhaps you'd pick some analogy that you believe your roommate might feel comfortable with already (like how much effort they put into picking their outfit before going out Saturday night. Aren't both cleaning and dressing up ways to improve people's first impression of us?). The most important part of constructing a good analogy is first understanding the specific point you are trying to make, and then ensuring the chosen analogy aligns with that point
Flow like Dershowitz' essay. Rather than arguing FOR what you are proposing, you will instead list a series of potential counterarguments in a paragraph. Keep these concise and list only those for which you wish to offer rebuttals in the ensuing paragraphs
Dismiss counterarguments one at a time. It is recommended to list two (or no more than three) counterarguments in the previous paragraph, and then dismiss each one in its own paragraph afterward
Conclude by emphasizing some potentially overlooked aspect of your stance on the issue, and use this argument to convince your audience one last time. For example, if you were arguing why you should go on vacation for spring break, you might conclude by getting to the heart of the matter. Why is it so important that you go? What does this reveal about you or the situation that the average reader might not immediately infer?
Be written and formatted appropriately. Address your audience directly.