Persuasive Essay

Having escaped rule from a tyrannical British government, the United States was founded on ideals of freedom and equality for all people. These fantasies of universal egalitarianism turned out to be merely that: fantasies. American history is full of stories of the oppressed struggling to get the rights they deserve and of the controversy over these issues that consequently ensues. “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery” by Frederick Douglass and “We Shall Overcome” by Lyndon B. Johnson are two speeches made confronting two of these issues. Douglass’s speech, delivered in 1852, condemns the institution of slavery and maintains that slaves are men and are therefore entitled to freedom. Johnson’s speech, on the other hand, was written in 1965 and discussed the civil rights movement. In it, he implored local governments to allow all American citizens, regardless of race, to vote. Despite the significant gap in time between these two addresses, both speakers use similar persuasive techniques, including ethos, pathos, and parallelism, to convince their audience that change needs to be implemented in America.

In 1983, Raymond Carver introduced his short story “Cathedral” to the public. The first-person narrative takes place within the narrator’s home, where his wife is waiting upon the arrival of her blind friend Robert. The narrator, however, becomes more concerned about how Robert’s visit will affect him rather than enjoy the situation. Once Robert arrives, the narrator tries to understand the blind man, but he is unaware of what tasks Robert is capable of performing due to the narrator’s inability to “see”. In time, Robert shows the narrator the difference between looking and seeing through illustrations of a cathedral, drawn by the narrator with his eyes closed. “Cathedral’s” narrator exposes readers to anti-heroic views

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands- one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” – Audrey Hepburn.

Being an athletes is one of the best-paid jobs on Earth. Being that they are paid so much the cost for the consumer is very high. The prices of tickets and sports memorabilia have been steadily rising over the years. The average ticket prices for the NHL, MLB, NBA and NFL all rose 5% to 10% this year, according to Jon Greenberg, executive editor of Team Marketing Report. (Mihoces).

The cost of college tuition is continually on the rise and has placed many burdens on high school students as well as their families. Some of the burdens that are placed are a result of parents putting pressure on their children to earn scholarships. Some of the burden is a result of students putting pressure on themselves to earn scholarships. Then, there is the burden of high college debt once the student graduates. Is this pressure really helping our students or is it hurting them? The bottom line is college tuition is skyrocketing out of control and something must be done before it destroys our families and our children.

The last time I saw Charlie outside prison walls we were on the run. Charlie was on the run, not I, I just went along for the ride because he was my husband. Charlie was on parole, but he loved to drink his booze. In our state it's a violation to drink while on parole.

With NFL Players kneeling everywhere and soldiers feeling unappreciated, our country is in shock. It all started by a player named Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, in 2016. This event persuaded numerous NFL players to continue this process. One by one, players all over the league began to protest to call attention to the issues of "racial inequalities and police brutality". With mixed reviews of this protest, I believe that kneeling during the National Anthem of the United States of America is disrespectful because it is abrasive, selfish, and hurtful. Also, I am not sure that all of those protesting in this manner know the true meaning of our national anthem or the flag that represents our freedom.

It’s time for change across the nation. Bullying has been a problem for a millennia, however, in recent years, it has now been focused mostly at schools. There are school policies in place to both punish and prevent bullying from happening. Anti-Bullying strategies aren’t enough to be properly used by the nation successfully and need to be changed. Rules need to be altered for better ones.

Why spend money that is really needed for other things? Why live uncomfortably? Why be trapped in this hole called a home that belongs to another person? Why not live free and peacefully? When a person rents he or she usually throws away money that could be used to purchase something that belongs to them. Money is not easy to come by so why pay out hundreds toward something that is not benefit to the person paying it out. There is no good explanation for making a decision like this. The best option in a situation like this is to buy a house. Buying a house is a better option than renting an apartment.

“Your assignment is to write a persuasive essay and present it to the class in a week. You will be graded based on how convincing it is. Today we will be choosing topics,” announced Mr. Bowerbank, my 7th grade English teacher and ruler of classroom 110. My class simultaneously groaned at the prospect of work. I simply lifted my head with intrigue as it was already May and about time we had our first essay. He then proceeded to give examples of topics we could choose and gave us some time to think before we had to tell him our topic. My classmates were already rushing to tell the teacher their idea lest someone else steal it. That meant the usual abortion, death penalty, or drug use topics were out. I really couldn't think of anything and the teacher was slowly making his way through the remaining students like an executioner beheading criminals in a line. I have always thought that he would make a marvelous supervillain if he had a curly mustache, a tophat, and a cape. Eventually my name was called. I slowly dragged myself over to his desk. Even sitting down, he still seemed to tower over me. “What is your topic Cindy?” As usual in such desperate times, my mind turned to food. “Waffles are better than pancakes.” I figured that a waffle was just a differently shaped pancake with a nicer texture. “Hmm. Excellent topic. I look forward to your essay!” I survived to live yet another day.

Is it really worth going to college, owing hundreds of dollars in order to get a degree in a profession to become successful and experienced in the real world? Today, as tuition costs increase students are questioning whether college is fit for them or not. For one, college can be really expensive, for example at the University of Minnesota for an undergraduate during the academic year of 2011-2012, the cost for one credit was $448.08 and $5,825 for a total of thirteen or more credits (“Undergraduate tuition”). A high school graduate that does not have a job may not necessarily have money so the only way to pay would be to take out loans and apply for financial aid. So is it not

Running is everything I do. I wake up, I run. I go to school, I dream about running, then run after school. The feeling of running is indescribable, but it’s something that feels amazing. Discovering new running routes, discovering new places, traveling. Traveling to new places, exploring, and learning new things. Traveling is something I do everyday, even if it’s the regular route to school and the same running route each and every day. It’s the same old, same old, each and everyday, and I want to go somewhere else. Get out of my boring town, in boring old Michigan, where nothing exciting happens. Except for the occasional football game. This town is run down and full of dull and depressing people. Only one year left in this town, but I still have the summer to run and to travel. The two things I love to do.

Everyone in their childhood dreams of things that they will accomplish in the future. We have the inexhaustible enthusiasm that comes from our heart. The pursuit of that dream is the hope that makes us live. We are happy about what we can become, so how to become worthy of our parents and our family, we will be proud of all of them when we realize our dreams. But we do not know the risk and obstacles that we will face along the way to that dream, or how good or bad it will be to following our personal legend.

The United States presidential election, it’s a huge event in the United States and its been seen by some as an example of our democracy, but should it be? In truth, “American citizens do not cast their ballots directly for their favorite candidates for the presidency. Instead, they vote for electors ostensibly (but not always) committed to a given candidate.” (Levinson, Page 83). But, why not let the citizens vote directly for the president themselves? This old idea of not trusting the American people more with knowing how to vote isn’t fair anymore and while at the time it may have been okay and even made sense because it made voting easier since, “Never in the history of the world had a comparable election been conducted in a territory as large as the United States” (Black, Paragraph 14) it’s now (in my opinion) outdated and no longer necessary. This isn’t to say that I would completely get rid of the system we have though, I do agree with how, “Above all, the Founders feared power, the domination of some men over others.” (Critchlow, Page 19), they knew that in this case something would have to be done to keep the few large states from controlling the elections if presidents were elected with the popular vote. I think that we do need to make some changes to take the more of the people's opinions into consideration, though instead of giving all of a states’ electoral votes to the most popular candidate and ignoring the rest of the states residents votes.

Schools are allowed to confiscate phones and search them without a warrant as long as they have reasonable suspicion, but often times, people do not understand what reasonable suspicion is, which leads to phones being searched at unnecessary times, and students’ privacy being invaded. In order for a person to use reasonable suspicion as their reason to search another person’s belongings, they must be able to state specific facts that are significant enough to lead to a search. Rumors or anonymous tips that do not include any detail are not reason enough to conduct a search on a student because they are often false and spread to hurt the individual. Though reasonable doubt has specific guidelines, many people, like professor Amy Vorenberg, do not only have issues with its misuse, but also the legality of it in general. In 2012, Vorenberg wrote an article which argued that warrantless searches of student phones violated students’ privacy and could possibly go against the fourth amendment of the US Constitution. The fourth amendment is, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Some people believe that warrantless searches of students’ phones violate the fourth amendment to the US