The Statue Of Liberty - A Gift From France

FCAs
1. Clear, original, underlined thesis statement in first paragraph that states the topic of the letter, takes a strong stance, and outlines the main points to be discussed.
2. Clear understanding of the potential reader and use of appropriate vocabulary, arguments, counterarguments and refutations.
3. At least one appeal to ethos, one appeal to logos, and one appeal to pathos.
4. Proper usage of adjective clauses.

TOPICS
Choose your favorite from the following:

1. The year is 1885, and Joseph Pulitzer has not yet begun his successful campaign to fund the pedestal for Bartholdi's statue. Hoping to garner support for the pedestal fund, you write a letter for a newsletter on the arts that will be read by many of New York’s wealthiest patrons. Your friend, Emma Lazarus, has shared with you a sonnet she wrote on the subject and has given you permission to paraphrase or quote freely from her poem. Thus far, however, wealthy New Yorkers have been reluctant to donate to the pedestal fund. Privately, many of these people have shared with you (for you are yourself one of these wealthy patrons) some of their concerns:
-- “Why on Earth is the statue to be facing out over the ocean? Shouldn’t it face toward land, where the people of New York can enjoy it?”
-- “What will this do for the city of New York?"
-- “Wouldn’t the money be better invested in another museum, or a university?”

2. The year is 1876, and not a penny has yet been raised in the U.S. to support the statue. You are a hardworking, middle-class citizen of Kansas City, Missouri, who by chance met up with Bartholdi on his 1871 trip across America. His vision of the statue and of the American nation impressed you, and you want to share it with others in your city. So you decide to write a letter to your local paper, addressing all the citizens of Kansas City. In recent days, however, articles and letters to the paper have expressed the following sentiment:
-- “Why should we support a statue in New York City? What has this got to do with Kansas City?”-- “The money would be better spent to support all the poor people crowded into New York slums.”
-- “Let the rich pay for it. New York has plenty of wealth, and they should pay for the statue.”

3. The year is 1883, and the Chinese Exclusion Act (which prohibits all immigration of Chinese laborers) has just passed. You are a writer living in San Francisco, and you have been concerned about the fate of new immigrants to this country since the 1870s when you witnessed attacks on Chinese workers by citizens who thought that they were “stealing American jobs.” The local newspaper invites you to write a short piece on the national effort to fund the Statue of Liberty. So you travel East and attend a benefit art auction where a poem by Emma Lazarus is read. You find the ideas in the poem very striking, and decide to work them into a short newspaper article that will: 1) describe Bartholdi’s “Liberty Enlightening the World” for readers who may be unfamiliar with the project, and 2) explain Emma Lazarus’ position to an audience who may have unfavorable views of immigration. Since you are commissioned as a “travel writer” and not as an ordinary journalist, you are encouraged to write in a personal style and insert whatever commentary you think might be of interest to your San Francisco audience.