Written Argument

The purpose of my written argument is to get the audience to think before throwing things away needlessly. To move the audience to this response, I describe the scene at the landfill, including my knowledge of the nasty work that goes on there, thanks to my father being a "trash man" (I believe the PC term is "solid waste technician"). After establishing what a landfill is like, I go on to describe the potential use still available in the reader's favorite t-shirt and my old cell phone.


With the description of the landfill, I'm going for awe at the size necessary for our collective rubbish. I want to give the reader a sense of "what a shame" at all the waste that is needlessly thrown away, plus an idea of what an unpleasant living it is for people like my father to have to deal with an entire city's trash. Then, with the t-shirt and the phone, I want the reader to feel fondness for his or her possessions. So much fondness, in fact, that the reader would not want his or her favorite t-shirt to end up in a landfill unless there were no other option (or any other favorite possession). While there is some guilt at work here, and I'm not trying to avoid it if that's what the reader feels, guilt is not the primary emotion I'm shooting for. The reader should interpret the landfill as a place unfit for any possession that still has usefulness left, and then think before tossing things in the trash.