The second essay involves researching an Indigenous issue of your choosing and setting forth a
cause and effect argument in contemporary and historical contexts. This assignment requires
you to research and analyze one event within Indigenous histories within its proper context.
For our purposes, Indigenous will be applicable to people and communities that originate from
a landscape, environment, and locale. Your task is to present the state of the event and argue
your position concerning what has this event caused overtime.
Causal arguments involve answering the question, How did this circumstance or issue become
the way it is now. For our purposes, we will focus on issues that are problematic within
Indigenous communities. However, before discussing the problem of the issue, you need to
prove that an issue is existent and attention is needed to help remedy the problem. All can be
done with a fusion of your logic and evidence.
Nature of Causal Arguments
The concept behind the causal argument is inherently simple. This causes this because of
these reasons is pretty much the goal for this assignment. Consider what caused the problem
or issue; its involvement within the Indigenous community; and what other results that have
arrived due the problem at hand (the causal chain). The most challenging aspect for the causal
argument lies behind proving the relationship between causes and effects actually exists.
Remember that just because you understand the relationship to exist, others most likely do
not. This is where the idea of bringing the invisible into the visible comes into play. However,
it is important to make note that issuing a solution is not the goal of this type of essay.
For our purposes, the term Indigenous has many applications throughout history. For
example, Native Americans are indigenous to North America. More specifically, the White
Mountain Apache are indigenous to northern Arizona and New Mexico. Some issues that can
be evaluated are health, education, opportunities that are either available or not available for
the given community. The choices are endless. Another example of Indigene would be the
colonization of communities indigenous to Mexico or Central America. Here, the history of
colonization is very different than Native Americans in America. One can evaluate these
representations comparatively.
Requirements
context of essay must privilege cause and effect relationships
focus of essay is required to centralize one event that has caused something within
Indigenous history
claims made must be supported with reasons, logic, and evidence
criteria must be established with adequate explanation of its presence
the writer must demonstrate knowledge in the focused issue
thesis must be complete with claims and reasons together
the writer must gain and maintain credibility
logic must be well developed and threaded with adequate evidence
appeals to readers emotions should be applied where needed
attention should be paid to oppositions to the argument: refutation
must be apparent the writer is engaged in the essays composition
intro needs to engaging
paragraph development: all paragraphs should be well managed
title should be engaging
6-8 pages in length
