Statement of Goals and Choices

For my Persuasive Essay I wanted to bring to the forefront of people’s minds the

damaging effect that sugar can have on our bodies. I wanted to give ample findings that prove

health issues and diseases that sugar is linked to and I also wanted to help give a way for people

to shift their view from sugar to how they can eat a balanced diet. I wanted people to understand

that there are programs out there if they are struggling to eat healthy, wither it is due to ignorance

or low income and that it is actually cheaper to avoid sugars.

I felt using rhetorical appeals strong in Ethos and Logos would help me in convincing

people to make changes to their diets. I added a historical narrative of sugar so people could see

how far America has come in nutrition and why sugar intake has only recently become a

problem. I also leaned heavily on governmental dietary suggestions to give more credit to my

essay, but the most important to me was in trying to create Pathos; that emotional tie to our

children and wanting the best for them. I think bringing children into the picture of eating a

balanced diet has more pull on us than if we were only caring for ourselves. This is why I talked

about using gardening as a tool to encourage children in eating their vegetables, as it was a way

to bring adults and children together with a mutual benefit.

My underlining desire to lower people’s sugar intake was the base for this whole essay,

though I changed my approach to this a few times as I learned through my research that there are

plenty of governmental programs that are meant to help (my original thesis involved wanting

more government programs) but after realizing there were many out there already I felt it was a

matter of getting the information to a broader audience instead of more programs. Many people

are stuck because they know of no other way. I wanted to start people thinking of what they can

do to change their circumstances.