: Re: Is it acceptable to ask a question in an argumentative paper? Somewhere along the way I picked up a bias against using questions in my writing. Recently I've been reading more about persuasive

@Hamaas631

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This is a rhetorical question and, used well, can enhance the essay. The key to using this device is to first raise a question, issue, or concern that the reader might reasonably have, and then to address it. You are, essentially, putting a question in the "mouth" of your reader so that you can go on to answer it.

Because you control both sides of the dialogue, you can "spin" the question. This is commonly done in persuasive writing. Your example is:

Can we really be satisfied with less than half of our students failing a national standard for such a core subject?

You could write that more neutrally as: "Are our students doing well enough?" But since you want to make the point that no, we shouldn't be satisfied with this state of affairs, you write it more provocatively. Be careful of going too far, though; if you cross into absurdity or something that reads as ad-hominem, you'll probably lose readers.

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