Clay Spinuzzi's Courses

In Project 1, you learned how to perform a structured rhetorical analysis. Now that you have learned the basics, it's time to write an evaluative argument.

The Culture of Fear is a book-length evaluative argument about how we understand and react to cautions in the US. It also contains many smaller-scale evaluative arguments. In this exercise, you'll write a small-scale (2-3 page) argument in which you evaluate public information provided on the purported link between thimerosal and autism. Based on your reading of that information, is the link strong enough to warrant public action?

To answer this question, you'll need to do the following.

• Establish criteria. Establish 2-4 criteria by which you can judge how strong the link is. How much proof do you need before action must be taken? Notice that the threshold for action depends on the set of criteria you choose. So as you establish criteria, be mindful of the stakeholders who might be interested in the evaluation.
• Investigate. You might come up with some of your criteria by investigating the case and determining what concerns stakeholders have. You'll certainly need to investigate in order to gather and interpret data based on the criteria. Remember, every claim must be supported by solid data.

Audience

The audience should be an individual or group involved in assessing or doing something about the danger. Depending on the area and scale of the situation, you might write to the city council, your congressperson, or even the organization that produced the information in the first place.

Specifics

The paper should be 2-3pp. double spaced.

Due date: 07/29/2005