https://www.thenation.com/privacy-policy/

Purpose: This essay will focus on your ability to research what is currently going on in the world. You will use Google News to find sources and to evaluate them.

Instructions: Select a topic within the realm of current events, i.e. something that is of national, international, science or medical or economic concern. Develop an argument (thesis) about the topic that you wish to advance. Find at least four reputable news sources on the topic and use them to support your argument. 

Format: Minimum of 4 full pages. Your paper must follow proper MLA format, with the proper information in the first five lines (Your name, Instructor, Class, Date (Day Month Year), and Title (Centered). The paper must have 1” margins, and be written in 12pt Times New Roman font (what you are reading right now) double spaced. You must include a Works Cited page (which does not count for your page count) which adheres to MLA guidelines (see chapter 15, p. 780-805). 

Due Dates: 11 November 2018

Audience: You are writing for a general academic audience. 

Restricted topics: You may write on these topics, but you will be required to show that you understand that the topic must be elevated for a college-level audience, so you must clear them with me.

· Abortion

· Affirmative Action 

· Conspiracy Theories

· Pseudoscience 

· Gun Control

· Immigration

· Lowering the drinking age

· Drug legalization

· Sports

· Entertainment

· Religion

· Death Penalty

· Other topics at my discretion

Please do not misunderstand: I want people to write about these topics, but I also want to make sure that they are at the level of your audience. One topic is banned because it’s a one-sided fight: drunk driving. If you can find a reputable source in favor of drunk driving to prove that there is another side to this topic, I may relent, but this is a purely middle school topic, for which there has not been anything new written in over two decades.