Assignment
WRITING PROMPT: Write a short essay (350-600 words) taking a Rogerian approach. Make sure you take a very clear Rogerian approach which includes the five main parts described in the WRITING A ROGERIAN ARGUMENT handout.

Remember to avoid all expletives, make pronouns (they, them, and their) and antecedents agree, and use apostrophes to show possession. Make your writing concise; take a claim/support approach, which involves supporting (unpacking) what you claim; and be directly responsive to the writing task (not rambling or straying into other areas). See our handouts folder for help with these writing issues.

Follow MLA format for this essay.

Writing a Rogerian Argument
You should not always follow a prescribed format when you write a Rogerian argument, as if you are filling in a form. Instead, you should understand the basic concept of what a Rogerian argument is, and based on that you should understand what a Rogerian approach would probably include. Based on your general understanding of Rogers’ ideas, you should make your own rhetorical decisions about how to think through and put forth a Rogerian argument.

Having said that, since a Rogerian argument is about finding common ground, it should include these parts:
1) a statement of the problem or issue at hand, including any necessary background information (key information about the particular rhetorical situation) and perhaps the possible effects of the problem or issue
2) an explanation of one of the positions or claims (we might think of this as the writer’s position)
3) an explanation of another (or the other) position or claim (we might think of this as the opposing position)
4) a discussion of the common ground between the two opposing positions
5) a conclusion or solution to the problem based on finding the important common ground between the two positions

Assignment WRITING PROMPT: Write a short essay (350-600 words) tak...