Homework answers / question archive / Essay # 2: How Does Happiness Change Everything? Purpose: As humans, we wonder about many ideas and concepts and realities, and one of the more ethereal and yet basic concepts we wonder about is that of happiness

Essay # 2: How Does Happiness Change Everything? Purpose: As humans, we wonder about many ideas and concepts and realities, and one of the more ethereal and yet basic concepts we wonder about is that of happiness

Writing

Share With

Essay # 2: How Does Happiness Change Everything?

Purpose: As humans, we wonder about many ideas and concepts and realities, and one of the more ethereal and yet basic concepts we wonder about is that of happiness. In this anthology, Pursuing Happiness, you have had an opportunity to consider scholarly articles and trade articles from a variety of perspectives—economics, sociology, psychology, theology, religious viewpoints, and other views. As you read all of these works, some published in major academic journals, you hopefully began to notice that this topic of “happiness” is a real life topic and many people dedicate their careers and lives to the academic pursuit of discovering what happiness means. Your job as a writer is to explore and write an argumentative essay that has a counterargument and an argument in it so that you create a reasonable rhetorical analysis of this topic.

Task: Your task is to write an argumentative essay with a Rogerian thesis statement which explores some debatable angle on this substantive topic of happiness. In order to write this essay, you will create a few things first.

1. An introductory “hook” paragraph, which leads the reader to want to learn more about this topic. A hook could be an anecdote, a study, a quotation from a wise philosopher, a biblical quotation, or it could be something that the average reader will connect to. Whatever you do in the opening paragraph, do NOT be boring. At the end of the first paragraph, you will place your Rogerian thesis, which is a debatable thesis, and it may look something like this: (Do NOT copy these thesis statements as they belong to former students in another class—you have to create your own Rogerian thesis statement).
2. Although Martha Nussbaum makes a philosophical argument for what happiness is and is not, other writers such as Gretchen Ruben and others contend that happiness is dependent on money and how one spends and uses it.
3. Although some scholars argue that the pursuit of sexual pleasure is irrelevant, C.S. Lewis and others argue that the pursuit of sexual pleasure is not privileged unless we are not serious about legal/moral standards which apply equally to everybody.
4. Once you have your thesis statement, you should be using online scholarly articles to help support your thesis and substantiate both your argument and your counterargument.
5. Do not create a Rogerian Thesis statement and forget to defend the opposing position, which you have stated in your thesis.
6. Create 4 to 5 pages of argument using borrowed text, in-text citations, and your commentary on quotations and summaries and paraphrases. Never lose your voice. Just because other folks are famous or published or have Ph.D’s does not mean they have a right to dominate your paper. Instead, you use their published ideas to support your positions.
7. Always create a closing paragraph with a transition phrase such as: In closing, Lastly, Finally, In sum, In conclusion. (There may be more on my list of useful transitions in Canvas).All papers need to be uploaded as a doc, docx, or pdf document. All papers need to be in MLA format, 4 -5 pages of double spaced type. The Font should be Times New Roman, 12 Inch font. Be sure that you have your MLA address on the front page and a unique title for your essay. Whatever you do, do NOT call it Essay #2--how boring that would be!