1) "R E S P E C T—Find out what it means to me," sang one famous singer.

2) Through the years, women have had to fight for respect, and that fight goes back to the days of Homer and Greek gods and epic poems.

3) In The Odyssey, women aren't out there singing that the world needs to give them more respect, but women aren't as powerless as they appear.

4) A careful reader should see that women in Greek tragedy influence the world.

1) Many women in the book wield far more power than the average character.

2) At first, Penelope may seem like a simple housewife, but she is a woman running a kingdom all alone. Her husband is missing, her son is too young for anyone to take him seriously, and her father-in-law has turned to plowing fields and talking to himself. Despite the lack of male leadership, the wineskins keep appearing, servants prepare food, shepherds bring animals to the palace for slaughter, and all of the encroaching suitors are fed. A woman leads this well-run kingdom, and she does it while actively tricking the men who want to marry her.

3) Even more significantly, the goddesses hold far more power over Odyessus' life than the gods. Mythology places Zeus and Poseidon at the top of the food chain as far as gods are concerned; however, Poseidon's anger can't overcome Athena's protection of Odysseus as her favored hero. A woman hides Odysseus' identity when he comes home to his palace, a woman goes to Zeus to argue for freeing Odysseus, a woman fishes him out of the ocean, and a woman escorts him into city of the Phaeacians.

4) Clearly, women do have power.

1) Topic Sentence. What's your argument?


2) Evidence supporting your position. In this case, it's an example, basically a personal observation made by reading the story.








3) More evidence supporting your position. It's okay to use the same persuasive technique (in this case, example/observation) as long as that's the best choice. And look at that wonderful transition!

4) Closure. Repeat your position.

1) Now some people think the punishments that women suffer prove their lack of power.

2) Um, NO!

3) Odysseus and Telemachos do unfairly punish the unfaithful servants. After all, strangling them for having affairs would be like capital punishment for shoplifting from Walmart. Telemachos even hates that they have feelings and desires and hopes of their own.

4) However, Telemachos' anger focuses on the fact that, as slaves, they should have served their mistress above all else. He accuses them of forgetting their place and sinning against his family, who took them in and taught them their skills.

5) In fact their punishment, as harsh as it was, seemed fairly similar to the rude beggar who got his jaw broken by Odysseus for breaking the rules of hospitality. Unlike the suitors who died quickly by the sword, he was crippled and thrown out, and in this time period, that's as good as a death sentence--a slow, agonizing, brutal death sentence.

6) This story doesn't show women disrespected for their gender; it shows slaves disrespected for their lack of choice.

1) Concession. Tell me what the other side believes, but label it with "some people think."

2) Immediately bring the argument back to your side!

3) This almost sounds like the author has changed sides. This paper may be in trouble. No matter what, you NEVER change sides. You may describe what the other side believes, but the paper must argue only one side. This could go.

4) Okay, here we're back on track. This brings the paper back to the right side. The observations here show that the other side is wrong.


5) And here's your second argument against the other side. This time, the author uses a comparison of the servants' deaths to the death of another character, this time a male character.



6) Closure... bring it back to your side again.

1) Staying in school will give you a better future.

2) Even if you want to work a job, like construction, which people normally think of as something you can do without a diploma, you actually need at least a high school and maybe even an Associate's degree. Yep, if you want to spend your life with a back that screams in pain after lifting a million bags of concrete dust, you need to finish high school. A speaker at my school came in and talked about the construction company he managed; he said that almost all of the foremen and supervisors had a degree and most of the workers finished high school.

3) Without a degree, you'll never be able to get a good construction job; therefore, you'll be the one stuck digging slimy, funky mud out the trench with a shovel after the bulldozer hits a sewer line. Even worse, you'll be the first the company lays off when times get tough.

4) So, finishing high school will give you a more secure future.

1) Topic Sentence. What's your argument?

2) Evidence supporting your position. In this case, it is expert testimony (the speaker at the school).









3) More evidence supporting your position. This time it's a prediction of the future. You need to use a couple of persuasive techniques to support your position.

4) Closure. Repeat your position.

1)You may think that an eleven dollar an hour job is good enough.

2) Not even!

3) Any job you'll get will require physical labor and won't offer benefits. After taxes, you'll get about $1,200 a month. Right now, that sounds great because that's like 75 CDs, which sounds like a fortune. However, when you're married, that same $1,200 has to pay a lot more: $600 a month for a cheap apartment that smells like mold, $150 a month for a car that's in the shop more often than you drive it, $150 a month for food, and that's if you eat a lot of Ramen noodles, and $200 a month for electricty and gas and soap and all that stuff you never think about because your parents buy it now. That leaves you $25 a week to buy lunch, go to a movie, and pay for the doctor if you get sick.

4) That $11 an hour job really isn't good enough.

1) Lauren, a single mother, has always taught her children not to lie, not to cheat, and not to steal. In fact, the teacher caught her son cheating on a vocabulary test, and Lauren encouraged him to apologize to the teacher and accept the zero on the exam. Lauren lost her job, and the family was in dire need. One day, she shoplifted cereal from the local grocery store to feed her family that night.

2) Because Lauren wanted to feed her family, does this questionable decision make her an immoral person? Clearly, most people would say no. Just like Lauren, Gawain makes errors in judgment; however,

3) the reader needs to understand that he's still a morally upstanding man.

1) Gawain has made more moral choices than immoral choices.

2) At the very beginning of the story, he was given a choice between protecting himself or protecting his king. Unlike the vast majority of people, Gawain chose to put another's life ahead of his own. While the other knights were cowering and avoiding eye contact, this young, untested knight stood up and took the challenge. That's not a common decision that most people make. When there's a hold-up at the local 7-Eleven, the common person tries to save himself; when the Green Knight shows up, Gawain tries to save his king and country.

3) Even more importantly, Gawain resists the more insidious temptations provided by the lady of the manor. She tempts him with gifts, money, and sex. However, he never gives in; he stays his moral ground. As far as Gawain knows, he could give in to temptation, and no one would know; the lady certainly promises to keep his secrets.

4) The very fact that he makes this moral choice, even when he thinks he wouldn't get caught, proves Gawain's moral fortitude.

1) Topic Sentence. What's your argument?


2) Evidence supporting your position. This is using comparison. You actually have two arguments in this section: Gawain is better than the other knights and Gawain is better than the common person.







3) More evidence supporting your position. This is more of the standard observation. While it works well, and it is a strong choice, this could use a litttle detail. I love the vocabulary, though. And again, what a wonderful transition!

4) Closure. Repeat your position.

1) While others may claim that Gawain's decision to accept the girdle renders him an immoral person,

2) it doesn't.


3) Gawain makes a bad choice. Big deal. From the moment he took the Green Knight's challenge, Gawain believed that he would die. He could have run away or lied about not being able to find the Green Knight; however, he never gives in to these temptations because they would hurt his reputation and that of his kingdom.

4) At the very end, he only takes the girdle as a wild last shot at surviving—one he thinks has no chance at hurting anyone. This is such a forgivable sin, that even the Green Knight forgives Gawain this one lapse, so how can anyone condemn him?

1) Concession. Instead of "some people think" we have "others may claim." Works just as well.

2) Back to our side. The return is connected to the concession with a subordinating conj. That's fine!

4) First rebuttal argument: comparison. Compared to his good acts, this one moral slip is no big deal

4) And here's your second argument: observation. His actions didn't hurt anyone.


5) Um, Houston... we have a problem. There's no closure here. :( It's not a huge problem because the position is very clear in the paragraph.

Kevin used to walk home every day to eat lunch. Because he lives rights across the street, it never took more than five minutes. He could make a sandwich or heat up the lasagna his mother baked for dinner the night before. Well, that's changed. Now he's stuck in line with everyone else. This new policy isn't working for Kevin, and it isn't working for the majority of students at Greenway. The board should vote to open campus at lunch.

Having an open campus would make life better for Greenway students. I've seen the lines in the lunch room, and I've been the sucker stuck at the back waiting for twenty minutes just to find out that some kid ahead of me got the last slice of pizza. This leaves me few choices: the disgusting, processed, fake chicken sandwich, the disgusting, wilted, brown salad or the disgusting, stinky, looks like someone's dog did you know what burrito. Yeah. I end up eating chips out of the vending machine as I walk to my next class. Unfortunately, I never manage wake up early enough to pack a lunch. However, some students have it even worse. One girl in my class picks at her food and will only eat certain kinds of salads. Some days, she ends up at the back of the line, and the cafeteria runs out of her salad. This may not happen often because not many students really go for the salads, but when it does happen, she just skips eating all together. This isn't healthy. Other students may have special diets. One vegetarian friend complained that her veggie sub had meat on it, and the cafeteria worker took it, pulled the meat off, and then handed it back. She said the girl shouldn't complain because that's how they always made the "veggie" subs because so few students wanted them. If she'd been Jewish, having ham touch those vegetables would have caused a major problem for her (and for the school when her parents found out). Instead, it just grossed her out. Now she doesn't eat lunch. So we need to have open campus to avoid all these problems.

Some people suggest that campus needs to stay closed because students are safer that way. I know that at other schools, students have died in lunch-time accidents. While sad, this hasn't happened here. An even more compelling reason for ignoring this argument is the simple fact that students will have accidents no matter what administration does. Students sometimes speed—before school, after school, going to work, coming home from parties. The school can't keep students safe all the time, and trying to wrap us up in bubble wrap and getting all over-protective won't change that. Our students have shown responsibility by never getting in a lunch-time accident, so administration should open campus.

An open campus allows students more choices and doesn't pose a significant risk. Students, like Kevin and my poor vegetarian friend, have suffered because of the board's decision, and it's time to make like better for students at Greenway. I urge the board to vote to open campus at lunch.