Primary Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 200–250 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

For this Discussion Board, please complete the following:

A main benefit of using research in your writing is to strengthen your argument. When you are trying to persuade your reader, especially about a topic on which you are not an expert, including research can add weight to your argument and help to convince them that you have "done your homework" and know what you are talking about.

In your post, discuss a time when you made an argument and research helped or would have helped you to convince your audience of your point. Your example could relate to a personal or professional setting.

What type of research did you include (or would you include)?

Did the source for your information help to convince the other person?

Tips for Completing Your Post

Consider in-person situations where you have made an argument and referenced some piece of research, something you looked up, or something that you already knew. Perhaps you were making a point to a friend or family member and stated an interesting fact to make your point, or perhaps you were making a post on social media and referenced a statistic that you looked up. If you cannot think of a situation where you used research, try to think of one where you might need to use research to make your point.

Need an example?

Here’s an example of what your primary post should look like:

When I was expecting my daughter, who is now 11 years old, I had to make a decision about what doctor to see and what hospital I would go to when it was time for her to be born. We had recently moved to a new city, so I didn’t know any of the hospitals or doctors, and recommendations from friends weren’t helpful. I ended up doing a lot of research online about birth options, and that led me to a clinical study in a journal of medicine that concluded planned home births may be statistically safer than hospital births for uncomplicated deliveries, which I had always had. The more research I did, the more I realized that this was the best choice for my baby, my family, and me. The problem was I had to convince my family, including my husband, who was very against home births at that time. It was important to me that we be on the same page with such an important decision. I was able to show him the research I had found, which was from a reputable medical journal and based on a large clinical study with over 2000 participants, and that convinced him to at least be open to the idea. We did more research together, interviewed several nurse midwives, and ultimately decided to plan for a home birth. Our healthy daughter arrived safely – at home – shortly after her due date.

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