Isaiah Jones - Assignment on Causal Argument

The two arguments were both very persuasive. “Marriage shows the way out of poverty” does a great job of persuading its audience because it explains why people should get married before having children with many facts and statistics. For example “Unwed childbearing has risen from 6.3 percent of all births in 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty, to more than 40 percent today.” This statistic is very shocking and explains why there is so much poverty in this country. “When Roommate Were Random” also is a great persuasive argument. The argument states reasons why it’s not a good idea to choose your roommate or look them up on social media before actually meeting them.

The arguments both give sufficient evidence to support their claims. In “Marriage shows the way out of poverty”, the claim is to get married to avoid poverty. The evidence for this claim is people who have kids before marriage tend to be poorer than those who wait till they’re married. In “When Roommates Were Random”, the claim is that college students shouldn't be able to choose their roommates. The evidence for this is the author explained a story of his college experience with his roommate and said that he was strongly influenced by him.

I think “Marriage shows the way out of poverty” is more persuasive because it gives more evidence and isn't opinionated. There’s plenty of facts to back up the claim and help the effectiveness of it. “When Roommates Were Random” isn't a bad argument, I just think the author gave his opinions more than facts to support his claim. And also I don’t agree with his claim that you shouldn't be able to choose your roommate.