Construct an argument using the steps listed 

Topic===> “Should for-profit private prisons exist?” The answer is no.

Instructions===>Construct an argument using the steps listed

Make sure you fully understand what COMPLETENESS means OK, let me mention a fundamentally important part of it:
You must look at and CONSIDER the opposing arguments (as every inductive argument must). It means that listing them is not good enough; you have to say which premises you find true or strong (and why) and which ones you find false or weak (and why) — otherwise your argument would be one-sided. Obviously, accepting certain premises against our argument will not make it weaker since every issue is complex.
Strong feelings or even high passion are not elements of critical thinking; only reason is, as well as factual information. Morality, religion, value judgments, desires, wishes, preferences, tastes, likes, and dislikes do not make good subjects for critical arguments! Why? Because others may have other dislikes and likes, tastes, preferences, wishes, desires, value judgments, religion or morality, and the answer to the question regarding those, ‘why do they prefer what they prefer instead of what we prefer’ the answer is ‘just because.’ End of story.

===>Sample paper below. Please stay on topic. 350 words min. Please check for grammatical errors and a min. of 2 references.  APA format

Sample Paper

Should we legalize Marijuana?  (issue)

My opinion is that the USA should at least decriminalize recreational marijuana use. (conclusion)

My reasons:

1. Prohibition does not seem to work. Millions smoke marijuana regularly, creating an impression in the youth that breaking the law is OK if one thinks the law is stupid since ‘everyone’ is doing it. Any teenager in any big city can buy marijuana if he or she wants to within a couple of hours of deciding to do it.
2. The illegal sales of marijuana sustain a network of criminal enterprises, leading to murderous turf wars.
3. The illegal sales of marijuana provide profit for traffickers, but its legalization would provide a (huge?) windfall in taxes and save even more on policing and persecuting its use.
4. Prisons are full of people whose only crime was to possess marijuana. They are treated like any other criminals at an enormous cost to us, themselves, and their families, even though they represent no real danger to society.
5. Marijuana is a mild hallucinogen and hallucinogens are chemically not addictive as opposed to many legal substances like caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, certain foods, and many prescription drugs and only prescription drugs are regulated and restricted, the rest is unregulated.
6. Marijuana is not really dangerous and it is highly hypocritical to keep marijuana illegal while other ‘vices’ are legal and taxed. Smoking, drinking, and obesity altogether kill almost 800, 000 people each year in the US, while the opponents of marijuana failed to prove even a single death related to it since its regulation and restriction started nearly 150 years ago. 150 years should have been enough time to prove its allegedly horrific dangers.

Considering/refuting opposing arguments:

1. One argument is that marijuana use is unhealthy. It is true that no substance abuse can be considered healthy; marijuana is not as harmful as its opponents claim it is. On the government’s anti-drug websites, there is no data (no numbers or statistics) whatsoever, stating that it causes lung damage, brain damage, or severe psychological disorders, only that it contains harmful substances.
2. Anti-marijuana websites are full of innuendo & propaganda but short on facts, and many of them are unreliable. Anyone can set up a website under a scientific-sounding name and rite things without proof.
3. There are claims that marijuana legalization would send the wrong message that it is OK to use it, but it is a weak argument and although there may be some truth in it, most young people do not believe that it is harmful anyway.
4. One of the most frequent claims is that marijuana is a ‘gateway drug.’ Its opponents point out that most users of heavy drugs ‘started’ with marijuana and it is true, but they have never shown that it was marijuana that lead those users to other drugs and not their own tendency of drug-seeking lead them through the most readily available drugs (marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco) on their way to heavy drug use. The vast majority of marijuana users never cross over to heavy drugs.

References: