What I'd like to know about an argument

I would like to know how to make my argument stronger. I feel like even when I have a really strong view on a subject, that I tend to bring up the other side of the argument too much, which might be making my argument weak.
Otherwise there isn't anything that I can think of that I don't know or understand about an argument.

My audience

I am going to write my paper arguing rights for gay marriage. I am for gay marriage, and equal rights for those who are gay. My audience's name is Joe. Joe is a powerfull figure in the government in Minnesota. He is 45 years-old and sees marriage as between one man, and one woman. He is for giving them certain rights, but not all the same rights that those who are married do. Joe grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and has a strong religious background. He is married and has three kids that all go to private catholic schools. Joe also went to a private catholic school growing up. Trying to convince Joe to view gay marriage in the way that I do will be hard, but I feel that I have many good points.

The last argument I was in

The last argument I had was with one of my friends, Nicole, about where we wanted to live next year. We are going to be getting an apartment with one other girl, named Tryston. We were out looking at apartments yesterday and Nicole said that she wants to live somewhere that allows pets. That meant that there were only a few places that we could live. So we stopped at one particular place and asked to about the apartments that allowed pets. The ones that allowed pets were expensive, ugly, and smelt bad. I argued that she didn't need dog, and that I didn't want to pay extra to live somewhere that was in worse condition than a place that was less expensive and in better condition. She argued that she didn't want to live somewhere if she couldn't have a dog.
I think the fallacy that was used here is what appeal to consequences. If we are going to have a dog, then the consequences are that we will have a less attractive and more expensive apartment. If we want a more attractive and less expensive apartment then we can not have a dog.

The fallacy that I use the most

The fallacy that I use the most would be the fallacy of division. I catch myself often times making false assumptions off of bits of information that are true. I think that a lot of people due this as well, unconsciously. A lot of tabloid magazines do this too.
One time when I know that I have done this is when I met my boyfriend. I knew that he liked to skateboard, and a lot of the people at my highschool who were skateboarders were into drugs and other bad things, and so I made the false assumption that he was into drugs too. Because I made that assumption, I wasn't very nice to him and didn't care to get to know him, but after I did get to know him I learned that he wasn't like that and I'm glad that I gave him a chance.

Writing a Personal Essay

What I enjoyed most about writing a personal essay was that it didn't require any research or citing. I also enjoyed being able to express myself and the way I felt about personal events. I liked that everything was from my point of view and I didn't have to worry about something being incorrect. My other favorite part, was that people who read it enjoyed it and could relate to it in many different ways.

What I did not like about writing a personal essay was that I had to tone things down so that it could be appropriate for class. There were things that happened with my life changing expirience that I wasn't comfortable having everyone know. With that I had to try and make sense of what I could share for people to see how it was something that changed my life. I also felt kind of embarassed when we did the pair shares, because other people had gone through really bad times and had completely turned their lives around, where as mine was sort of childish.

My Trip to Mexico

When I was eight-years-old I took my first and only trip out of the U.S. to Ixtapa, Mexico. It was a business trip for my parents, so I was stuck in a hotel childcare for most of the trip. It turned out to be a really exciting vacation for me. We had an instructor who would bring us out on little adventure-like things and teach us about what kids our age do in Mexico. We played different types of games on the beach, and were taught how to paint plates. During this time I had made a new friend. His name was Jorge (Hor-hey). Jorge was from Ixtapa, and his dad worked at the hotel. Jorge stayed in the childcare while his dad worked. On the weekends when our parents weren't working, my parents would take us to the pool at the hotel and we would get to jump off a waterfall that led into the pool. We talked about what school was like for him, and what is was like for me. He went to school all year round, with a break ever three months, or something like that. I learned a lot about what his life was like, and tried to give him a good idea of what life was like in America.

Life Shaping Expirence

Going to summer school in tenth grade is something that changed my life, and helped make me who I am today. In the tenth grade I was going through a lot changes in my life. One of them being a change in friends. I had been fighting a lot with my friends lately, and trying to make new ones while keeping my old ones. Tenth grade was also when I met my first and current boyfriend. I was incredibly distracted in school and out of school. I didn't spend as much time on my homework anymore, and I was always lying to my parents about what I was doing, and where I was going. I had my license and didn't depend on my parents as much as I used to, since I didn't need them to take me places anymore. With all this I failed geometry. I had no option but to go to summer school-- which to my parents, is and was completely unacceptable. They were so mad that I had been lying to them when I would say that I had all my homework done, or that I was going to a friend's house to do homework. I spent my summer break in school, got a full-time job, and was not allowed to see my boyfriend, or any of my friends for the whole summer. After that I didn't have a very strong relationship with any of my friends anymore. It made it hard to go back to school, but I definitely learned my lesson.