Intro to 'Poverty and the Effects on Children'

This piece was my third Major Writing Assignment of the quarter. This was to be a persuasive/argumentative essay. I knew that this essay would have to reflect all the writing skills I had learned up to this point. I felt overwhelmed with this challenge, not quite feeling confident that I had these skills mastered. It was clear that this paper was going to take a lot of hard work, and good use of time management skills to complete. Unfortunately time management is not one of the skills taught in English 98. Panic was not an option. My grade depended on my ability to incorporate the writing skills I had learned along with getting all my facts and arguments together in proper order, on TIME!!! My biggest challenge in these MWA’s was coming up with a strong thesis and lead in. I think by the time I got to the third and final MWA, I had it down to a science. Here is an example of my best efforts on my thesis and lead in for this essay, out of three agonizing tries!!

Thesis: “Even with the implementation of reform programs, America has an alarming child-poverty rate for any industrialized country, with 13.5 million American children living in poverty”.