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Sentence Outline for Essays O’Donnell 1 Sentence Outline for Argument Essays Write out each section with complete sentences using a subject and a verb. I. Introduction (Review the WRP sections on writing the introduction, body, and conclusion). You do not need to supply all of the information in the introduction. A. Background (what information do you need to provide to your reader in order for the reader to understand your argument? Your introduction will likely be more than one paragraph and may even be more than one page). The Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution grants the individual states of the union rights that the federal is not to intrude upon. Any right specifically not designated to the federal government within the Constitution belongs to the states through the Tenth Amendment. However, for many years now the federal government has encroached upon these states’ rights. Because of this intrusion, interest groups with specific agendas have been able to have their policies enacted across the country for the “better good.” Environmental issues have begun to play a major role in the political scene. The environment is one thing that affects the human population as a whole. It is because of this fact that the interest groups and the government have enacted and enforced policies that are meant to protect the environment. These environmental policies and the government intrusion upon states’ rights was part of the main reason for the beginning of the Sagebrush Rebellion. The Rebellion was an embodiment of the Western citizens’ anger at the effects the new policies were having upon their lives. With its beginnings in the state of Nevada and the state’s ranching industry, the rebellion grew to encompass many people. Everyday people, large industries, Western politicians were all involved in the creation and the continuation of the movement that would bring attention to the affects of these policies. B. What is already well known about your topic? The Sagebrush Rebellion is one movement that is not well known outside of the groups that are directly connected and affected by it. People had heard the name and are familiar with the phrase; however, they do not know what the movement actually was. C. What does the literature say about your topic? The literature that I have read about my topic defines the Sagebrush Rebellion as a grassroots movement that opted for less government interference and a return of the federal lands to the states where the land is found. D. Are there important key terms you need to define in the introduction? Grassroots. Grassroots refers to the everyday citizens of the nation. They are not directly connected to any political activity. They just want their voices heard. O’Donnell 2 II. Thesis statement (state this fully in a complete sentence). Your thesis will show your claim and your reasons. Review the use of an enthymeme as a thesis. The Sagebrush Rebellion is an important movement in American history as it brought attention to the interference of the federal government in state affairs and the effects of the early environmental movement on people’s lives; in addition the Sagebrush Rebellion sparked a new group of people to be recognized and heard. A. Write two to four key words from your thesis statement that you will use to develop your major points. 1. Sagebrush Rebellion 2. Environment policies 3. Government Policies III. Thesis Development (Body) The body of your paper should: defend your thesis provide analysis of the issues present well-reasoned statements at the beginning of each paragraph supply evidence of support with proper documentation Organization: State how you will organize your essay: chronologically, in order of importance, comparing and contrasting, developing a causal analysis, defining terms, explaining a process, and/or asking and answering questions. Using a combination of these organizations is acceptable. I plan to organize my paper by: I will organize my research paper by developing a causal analysis of each of my points by asking and answering questions about the point. My paper will also be organized in a chronological pattern, describing and analyzing the policies that led to the Sagebrush Rebellion and how they may lead to later movements. Be sure that you include statistics in your paper and use the information you learned this semester to analyze the statistics. Show how you will do this: Since the main point of my research paper is based in history and informing people about the movement, the statistics that I will be using in my paper are mostly concerned with the percentage of federally owned land in Western states, the number of Western states that passed legislation claiming ownership of the land, etc. 1. The Sagebrush Rebellion The Sagebrush Rebellion is a movement that started in Nevada due to the pressure that environmental and governmental policies were placing upon the state and its citizens. The purpose of the Sagebrush Rebellion was to bring attention and hopefully change to the federal government’s interference within the state affairs, particularly of the Western states. a. Evidence i. It is not really known where and when the movement known as the Sagebrush Rebellion began in Nevada. One name that is often connected to O’Donnell 3 the movement is that of Wayne Hage, a rancher in Nye County. Wayne Hage owned the Pine Creek Ranch in Nye County, Nevada. Hage held a Bureau of Land Management permit that allowed his cattle to graze on public lands around his private property. Hage was charged a large fine for allowing his cattle to “overgraze” the grasses. Hage felt that these charges were unfair and not warranted. He took his case to court. Doug Harbrecht stated in his article in the National Wildlife magazine that Wayne Hage is suing the national government for damages done due to violations of his grazing permit. The article states that Hage purposely ignores warning from the Forest Service about his cattle overgrazing and how the troubles that Hage is faced with are of his own doing. ii. The federal government owns 653 million acres within the states (Bishop). A large majority, around 90 percent, of that land can be found in the Western states. iii. The citizens of the Western states were growing weary of the federal government intruding in their businesses and livelihoods. The representatives of these people began pushing for a return to states’ rights. This was a main issue with the Sagebrush Rebellion. iv. One foundation of the Sagebrush Rebellion was the “equal footing doctrine” of the U.S. Constitution (Switzer 173). v. The state of Nevada passed seven Sagebrush Rebellion bills between the years of 1979 and 1981 (Switzer 178-179). In 1983, the Nevada legislature passed a bill that laid claim to all of the federal land within the state’s borders (Switzer 188). vi. The Sagebrush Rebellion put a face to the environmental opponents in the West. It was one of the first anti-environmental movements after World War II (Turner). vii. The Rebellion ended in the 1982. Many of the supporters of the movement felt that the Reagan administration would see that their interests were considered and did not see the need to continue for control of the federal lands. Three Western states tried to keep the movement going after Reagan took office. These states were Arizona, Utah, and the state where it all began, Nevada (Switzer 187-188). b. The main objective of the Sagebrush Rebellion may not have been achieved, but the concerns of the citizens of the Western states were heard around the country. 2. Environmental and Conservation Movement The environmental and conservation movement of the 1960s and early 1970s led to policies that would lead to the beginning of the Sagebrush Rebellion. a. Evidence i. The environmental and conservation movement was started by people who were concerned about the management of the environment, on all levels. Many of the proponents felt the need for the government to become more involved in the regulation of the environment, so that it could be protected. It began back at the turn of the century. Yellowstone National Park was created in 1872 after explorers requested that Congress preserve the land for others to look upon for generations to come. While President Theodore Roosevelt was in office from the year 1901 to 1909, he added 150 million more acres to the federal government’s national forests and created the Forest service in 1905 (Federal Land Use). O’Donnell 4 ii. Support of environmental policies greatly increased in the sixth and seventh decades of the twentieth century. iii. The environmental movement began to lobby the national government in the 1960s to created policies to protect the environment. “But environmental priorities have often conflicted with those of related to economic growth” (Federal Land Use). b. Part of the reason that Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s was formed was because of the pressures that the environmental and conservation movements and its policies were putting on the private industries of the Western United States. i. As the environmental and conservation movement grew, the influence of its members also began to grow. The interest groups that share ideas with the movement often lobbied on Capitol Hill for more supportive environmental legislation. 3. Government Policies and Intrusion The governmental intrusion in the 1960s and early 1970s led to the citizens of the Western states to start the Sagebrush Rebellion. With the growing a growing number of people joining the environmental movement, the government was lobbied to produce legislation that would favor the regulation and conservation of the environment. a. Evidence that supports this point i. The federal government has always had a presence in the West, especially in the twentieth century.
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