College Writing

College Writing Study Guide Page 32 of 42 • A euphemism is a nice way of expressing unpleasant information. Our culture has several euphemisms for uncomfortable subjects; for example, instead of “she died,” we often say, “she passed away” or “we lost her.” When attempting to convince your readers of a thesis that they might be apprehensive about, you can responsibly use euphemisms to cushion the effect of your argument. • Hyperbole is an exaggeration. Used to communicate the extremity of a situation, hyperbole is most effect when combined with other pathos arguments to get your audience to understand the urgency of a situation. “People are dying in the streets,” may be a hyperbolic statement about civil unrest, but it effectively communicates how some people feel. • The most common �igurative language used are metaphors , similes , and personi�ications . In each case, writers are comparing two different things, but with similes they are using the words “like” or “as,” and personi�ications give human qualities to non -human things. Once again, these are usually used in conjunction with pathos arguments to describe the feelings of experiencing an event: “It was like razor blades on my eyes.” “The sky wept.” These are exam- ples of a simile and personi�ication that are meant to communicate extreme feeling. In the proposal, you will have to decide how to use ethos, pathos, and logos arguments in order to convince your reader to accept your point of view. 5.3 Parts of the Proposal A successful proposal will have to accomplish �ive things in order to present a convincing argument. First, you must de�ine the problem, showing that there is a lack or de�iciency th at needs to be ad- dressed. Second, you should offer a clear solution to that problem, following the constraints listed by the prompt. Third, you need to prove that your solution will work and fourth, that your solution is better than the other solutions being offered. And last, you should show that your solution is possible. The �irst two parts of the proposal can be accomplished in the introduction. Here, you will give a background of the problem and the constraints offered by the prompt. For example, in the prompt given during the online lectures, you’re presented with a sum of money that needs to be spent on a building that will cure a social ill. This is all contextual information that you can address in your in- troductory paragraph before transitioning to your thesis, which is your solution to the problem: how you propose to spend the money. The body paragraphs can include the support, feasibility, and refutation in separate paragraphs, or you can combine these sections depending on the relationship between the points. For example, per- haps you want to argue that the opposing point of view is not feasible; in this case, you might put your refutation and your discussion of the feasibility of your proposal in the same paragraph. When we discussed conclusions, we mentioned that instead of simply summarizing the paper, good conclusions answer the question, “What does the world look like now?” Assume that your reader is ©2020 Achieve