Faced with shrinking budgets, administrators in many school districts feel they must sacrifice the arts to ensure adequate funding for core educational programs. However, four high school juniors decided to push back after their school announced cuts to its music program. They hoped to persuade the school board that removing music from the curriculum would do more harm than good. With the assistance of their school librarian, the students found a wide range of argumentative documents to help build their case, including those shown here — a professional article, a case history, and a brochure. Notice how each genre makes a valuable contribution to this conversation.

Professional Article

Case History

Brochure

Thinking About Genre