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.

There is enough discrimination against us, and feeling alienated leads to recidivism. I served my sentence. I paid my debt to society. Why am I still doing time?" - Perry Hopkins, convicted felon and current community organizer for Communities United, talking about voting rights in Maryland.

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.

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.

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.

Everyday decisions are made by everyone and every intelligent living being. Small or large every person must decide what to do in their own lives and consider how it will affect others. Their comes a time in all of our lives when we will make a decision that will change the course of our lives and possibly the lives of those around you. New York City Thursday, The fifteenth of January. This day a routine flight to intended for Charlotte, North Carolina would soon turn into one of the most significant and popular flights of the 21st century. Less than 3 minutes after leaving the ground and only being 3200 feet above ground level a flock of geese was sucked into the engine of the Airbus (Air Documentaries 6/27/14). Captain Chesley Sullenberger had to make the split second decision to conduct an emergency landing of flight 1549 in the Hudson River without proper training or prior preparation. People have questioned whether or not Captain Sullenberger mad the right decision. I believe that Captain Chesley Sullenberger did in fact make the correct decision to land the 66-ton Airbus in the Hudson River.

Snap! Tweet! Ding! As humans we are constantly bombarded with texts, “tweets”, and “snaps”, in hopes of bringing closure and feelings of togetherness. By definition, we as humans are social creatures that rely on the comfort and validity of others. However, this lifestyle can become addicting and eventually turn us into media-consuming zombies that spend hours swiping through the pictures of our peers, friends and families. After a while, our lives become so saturated with the media and technology that we desire a retreat from these devices; and to do so some of us may follow the path of switching off our phones for an extended period of time. While cutting down media consumption and tuning out unnecessary information can be beneficial to maintain our sanity, some people take this a step further...sometimes in the most idiotic manner possible. For example, Chris McCandless was known to have it all, he was a Harvard Law School graduate, and he hailed from a rich family. However, this materialistic life wasn't up to par with Chris’s inner desires, and in order to fulfill his desires of minimalism Chris decided to move into the wild. Sure, moving away from human life is normal, but the way at which Chris went about the matter makes him an arrogant idiot who was unimaginative and overconfident.

HELP! We need to get all the people out of the city. It is no longer safe here. Everyone needs to get some kind of protection, it's happening again we need everyone to be safe and if they're in this area they might all be killed tonight. Oh no, It’s happening again said Sarah. I didn't think this was going to happen for another 14 years. Sarah what are you talking about what's going on. Said Will. Tonight will be one of the scariest nights . This night will be one to remember. Will You need to get away from everyone and you just need to hide. Sarah I don't want to leave without you. What will I do if something happens to you. Will I'll be fine, I just need to know that you will be safe. I can't be safe without you. Said Will. Fine but just remember I told you not to trust anyone. Said Sarah. We'll be safe, we just need to find a good cave to hide in. Said Will.

A mammal, completely covered in scales sits in the grasslands at night. At only about 5 pounds, these creatures roam alone and are ready to protect themselves from any danger by spewing a noxious acid into the air. They roll completely into a ball, covering their faces, and use the scales on their tails to attack predators who approach. Completely harmless, the animal eats ants with only their sticky tongues that extend further than their body length. Although one probably couldn’t guess what animal this is, these eight species across Asia and Africa are considered ‘vulnerable to critically endangered.’ This animal can protect itself from its expected predators, but humans have become the unstoppable surprise. Thrown into bags and taken from protected lands, the animal mentioned is the pangolin.

The different viewpoints and beliefs that people have weighs on the purpose of standing or kneeling during the pledge, which has led to a lot of controversy from the press, president, national league players, and people of small communities. I agree with the concept of taking a knee, because the main purpose of players taking a knee is to get the media’s attention to express the effect of police brutality on communities in America. In today’s society communities are focused upon the less important things in life, people are being murdered by police and there’s no action being taken to stop it, but when someone kneels to show respect a huge social media uproar starts.

Read Write Discover (RWD) is a free literacy tutoring program that targets students with the greatest need. In San Jose, these students have language barriers; they speak Vietnamese, Spanish, and Mandarin. As coordinator, I recruited bilingual tutors to fill these needs and assumed that my role in day-to-day tutoring ended there. I was wrong.

Once I stepped foot inside my house after coming home a couple minutes late of my curfew from a night out to eat with my cousins, my mother immediately yells at me for going out too much with them. She yelled in my language and in broken English, “Molly Ann, you never do anything in this house! Why you keep on going out with your cousins when you never do anything to help around in this house!”

In my fifth grade year of basketball, my team made it to the championship and we tried are hardest to win. When that buzzer went off we were down seven points, and we were so disappointed that we lost. In the end, we received a second place trophy and it gave us motivation. So, we practiced really hard for the next championship game and we eventually won the title: Champions. At the trophy ceremony, everyone received a participation award even if they lost. Our team earned our first place trophy while the other children still received trophies; therefore, we felt discouraged. Correspondingly, trophies and awards have been given out since the Ancient Greece era, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that participation trophies were offered to people. In the 1980s, California started giving out participation awards to kids that lived in poverty because they believed it would “boost their self esteem” (Stern). This trophy trend has spread throughout the United States in youth sports and events. People are becoming aware of this topic and they either love it or hate it. In a statistical study, many young people believe that we should have these trophies, but the older people are most likely to disagree (Blake). Throughout America, many people consider participation trophies a wonderful thing for children, but I believe that participation trophies are the downfall of society causing many children to be entitled and selfish.

I've gotten into trouble before, there's no arguing that. I can name many times I've gotten myself into scenarios that got me into trouble. Some on purpose, some accidental. Lots of the time, for fun. My friends and I have gotten ourselves into many things, no one usually gets hurt, well except for the time we skied under the ropes at Crested Butte and my friends and I hit a cliff and I ended up having to get brought down on a stretcher from the ski patrol, definitely got hurt then, but it all ends being a good story after anyway. That's what a lot of mistakes end up being, are stories to tell down the road, I suppose you could say it's quite a story now, but not a story I'm proud of in any way. I got myself into a situation that I wish I never was in, a story that I wish I didn't have the opportunity to tell about now. There's many things that night I wish I could've gone back and changed, but there's no rewind button on life, so I have to live with it and the consequences now. That's life really.