Lesson 7 Prompt: Can You Sway the Audience

Can the audience be swayed by your claim and reasons? Why or why not? Tell why each reason is stong enough to sway a person to your way of thinking.

I think that city council could be swayed by my claim and reason. Each of my supporting claims provides a strong, clear reason as to why they should vote in favor of allowing secondary suits. The first argument was that secondary suits would create affordable housing. Calgary has some of the highest housing prices in North America and many regular citizens cannot afford adequate housing. This reason should help sway council because if they vote in favor of it they will be helping the people of Calgary who’s wages have not kept up with the increased prices in the hot Calgary real estate market. The second argument that secondary suits will help create a safer regulated market for them should help convince city council that secondary suits are for the best. Under the current system renters of secondary suits are not protected by the law and often find themselves living in sub-standard, unsafe homes. With the power that Calgarians gave their alderman it is their responsibility to protect those who gave them that power. My last argument was that secondary suits will help slow urban sprawl in Calgary. Urban sprawl costs the city a great deal of money and with the money saved council could help alleviate some of the budget pressures facing them. This would help make councils job a lot easier and should help sway them in favor of secondary suits.