The enthymeme “e-Marketing should be included as a marketing and sales strategy in business because if offers more efficient techniques than traditional marketing” (Kwon, “e-Marketing,” 1) helped determine the organization of my essay by setting forth the deduction I was arguing and focusing my argument on the right subjects. My conclusion was that e-marketing should be included in a business strategy. My major premise, unstated, was that the best marketing was efficient marketing. My minor premise, stated, was that e-marketing is more efficient than traditional marketing. My major premise is not controversial so I spent a great portion of my essay supporting my minor premise, which is more questionable. Thus, after defining e-Marketing, I included many examples within the essay of how e-Marketing provides efficiencies including new opportunities to gain customer attention and loyalty (Kwon, “e-Marketing,” 3), how affordable e-Marketing is for small businesses (Kwon, “e-Marketing,” 4), and the ability of e-Marketing to drive word of mouth campaigns using social media (Kwon, “e-Marketing, 5).
Counterargument was used to strengthen my argument concerning the use of e-Marketing. In that respect I stated, “Some people are more comfortable with face-to-face communication and will never trust web-based communications” (Kwon, “e-Marketing,” 4). Using counterarguments strengthens your main conclusion as you are anticipating a weakness in your thesis (Sexon, 1). In this way, I strengthened my credibility, although I might have used it more effectively by specifically narrowing my conclusion, such as stating that even though some people will never trust web-based communications, the number of people with this attitude is getting smaller and smaller each year. But by including the counterargument I acknowledged a minor weakness in my conclusion and gained credibility with the reader.
In my essay, “Gluten-free products” I utilized sources to greatly enhance the argument of my essay. The sources were important because the conclusions I made required medical and nutritional knowledge that I did not have on my own. In order to make the statements with authority I needed to rely on sources to increase the strength of the argument. For example, I needed to establish that gluten-free foods have helped numerous people (Kwon, “Gluten-free products,” 4). I used an article written by two experts from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Pamela Cureton, a nutritionist at the Center for Celiac Research, and Alessio Fasano, a scientist at the Mucosal Biology Research Center. Using authors with special backgrounds like these helps support the conclusion stated in my essay.
In that same essay I needed to support the idea that gluten-free products often have added sugar or fat included which makes them higher, rather than lower in calories (Kwon, “Gluten-free products,” 4). There I utilized an article by Kelly Nuckolls, who is a nutritionist for the University of Washington, that provided that information and additionally, went on to support the idea that “gluten free diet is not proven as a weight loss solution” (Kwon, “Gluten-free products,” 4). These conclusions would not hold as much weight if they were just stated without a source backing up the statements. Finally, I also provided a general reference at the end of the essay that was a good source of information by Kate Lowenstein. It was published in the Health section of Time magazine, a well-known periodical, which also helps support my arguments. So by using expert authors and respected publications, the use of sources helped my arguments.
Works Cited
Kwon, . “e-Marketing.” n.p., 2013. Print.
“Gluten-free Products.” n.p., 2013. Print.
Sexon, Timothy. “Using Counterarguments Effectively to Strengthen Your Own Argumentative Thesis.” Yahoo Voices. 22 October 2007. Web. 13 June 2013.
