Block, 2/5-6 - Your Modest Proposals

• P&P

• Poetry recitations

• Discuss J12

• Begin your Modest Proposals - work in the pairs that you worked in for your Don Satan assignment

The assignment: to present your own Modest Proposal

1. Identify a real problem that affects a specific group of people in the world.
2. Provide an outrageous and appalling solution to the problem (think of the solution as an ironic logical extension inspired by the original problem.)
3. You must include the following:
1. premises - at least four reasons that support the proposal
2. conclusion - this is your proposed solution to the problem
3. counterargument - at least one viewpoint that pushes against any of your premises or conclusion
4. either a concession or a refutation (or both) of the counterargument
4. Be persuasive by using logos, ethos, and pathos
1. fabricate statistics
2. identify multiple ways the proposal will benefit all social groups involved
3. create fictitious "expert" testimony that supports your argument
4. drop a reason or two that establishes your credibility, shows how concerned you are, and distances you from directly benefiting from the proposal
5. State your target audience - Who are you poking in the eye?
1. Remember that Swift was taking aim at England (its politicians and absentee landlords), not the Irish. Rather, he apparently bashed the Irish to help them out. Remember Hamlet's confession to his mother, Gertrude? "I must be cruel, only to be kind." ; )