Recycling offers an ideal topic for a persuasive essay with a logical foundation. The benefits of recycling are well documented, as it decreases global pollution, while the steps to recycling are as simple as separating your trash and taking specific elements to recycling bins in your town. Further, recycling programs will pay for certain recycled products such as plastics, glass, aluminum and computer parts. Focus on both the benefits to the environment as well as the individual benefits of money earned from recycling and compare these with the minimal effort required to recycle in your home. Logically, the point of this type of essay is to show that the benefits of recycling, both personal an environmental, outweigh the effort required to recycle.
The standardized testing issue allows you to focus your essay on the step by step logic behind standardized testing. Begin with the problem of poor student preparedness upon entering college programs and then follow the process of standardized testing. Include the creation of a test intended as a universal determinant for high school completion and how this leads to teachers changing their focus to test preparation and how this takes their focus on off of the other significant material they should cover in their classes. Logically, the point of this essay is to show the step by step process of standardized testing and how it fails to meet its intended goals.
Inductive logic requires you to start with a specific fact, that you know is true, and then expand upon it until you reach a general conclusion. Returning to the recycling topic, begin with the Pacific garbage patch as proof that pollution is out of control. Link that effect, and specifically its continued growth, to the increase in plastic use and disposal throughout the world. From there, connect the entire issue to poor recycling techniques. Logically, this substantiates your claim to the need for increased recycling concerns worldwide.
Deductive logic requires you to start with pieces of general information and then distill the information down into a single specific conclusion. Standardized testing is ideal for this analysis. Research general information about poor student preparedness upon entering college and focus on specific areas where students are failing. These may include math skills, reading skills or cognitive reasoning. Trace these facts back to the student's high school education and look for clues there to guide your research towards a conclusion regarding the effects of their poor performances.