You’ve read Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and seen how effective it can be to direct your argument at a specific audience, appeal to logic, appeal to emotions, keep calm, and show respect and mutual understanding between the two sides of an argument. Instead of raising his voice, Dr. King stayed calm and used pure and simple logic to explain why his opponent’s logic was wrong showed understanding for their mistakes. For this assignment, you’ll write a letter from a fictional jail cell and argue for your own release. You’ll pick the situation and context, audience, and build a solid argument to get yourself out of jail. Be sure to include the following: Context: what law did you break, why did you break it, and why is the law unjust (be as creative as you want about the time period and place your crime takes place Audience: choose any audience you want; write to your mom asking for bail money, write to a governor asking for a pardon, but be sure to clearly state and address your audience throughout the letter. Appeals: remember to appeal to logic, emotions, and credibility to build a well rounded argument. Be sure to address counterarguments that your opponents may have said about you.
