Paper A: Does a rat make a good pet?

1- Argument: Choosing a pet rat will increase your fun because rats are intelligent, friendly, playful pets.

2- Audience: Middle school children (ages 10-12) who like animals, and have permission to get a pet rodent. They have probably never thought of a rat as a possible pet. Instead, they are familiar with rats only as diseased pests.

3- Goal: My goal was to persuade my audience to select a rat as a pet.

4- How the argument was made:
*Ethos: I try to establish my authority on the subject by letting my audience know that I have experience with different types of rodent pets, including rats.
*Logos: My argument rests mainly on logic. I present various facts about rats to make them appear attractive. I talk about how smart they are, how playful and brave, and how affectionate they are.
*Relevancy: Everything contained in the paper is relevant to the topic (rats). Not everything is relevant to the argument. In an effort to show that rats are more fun than other rodents, I occasionally mentioned some way in which this was true. This might be relevant to a slightly different argument, but it is extraneous for this one. I believe the whole paper is relevant to the audience, as well--I think everything I mentioned is something middle schoolers would care about and understand.

5- Effectiveness: I believe this paper is very effective at proving that rats make good pets. That, in fact is a pretty big flaw. The paper has become more informative than persuasive.