For this writing project assignment, you will research a current political issue. Being an educated

member of society also brings with it a responsibility for civic community participation, and one

element of this is knowing what the current issues are, knowing where you stand on those issues, and

being willing to participate in the conversation about these issues. So, first of all, you need to choose a

current political issue you want to write about. I define a “political issue” in this context as:

1. a public conversation that you can find on the news or in newspapers that affects a portion of

our population in the US;

2. a policy or set of policies or laws that the president or other political leader is proposing or that

the state or federal government is voting on;

3. laws created by state or federal governments or rulings by a state or by the supreme court that

affect citizens in our society.

There might be other political issues that don’t fit within this framework, so you can discuss those

issues with me individually. In general, I am looking for you to choose an issue that is current and that

currently affects people in your state or nation, where there are many different opinions and ideas

about this issue, and that is big enough for you to research and find more information.

Once you have your political issue, you need to write a researched argument about this issue. This

means that you will need to

1. define the issue from a primary source

2. describe the conversation about this issue: what are people saying? How does the issue affect

different groups in different ways?

3. analyze the language that people are using to talk about the issue so you can understand the

bias that is brought to discussions about this issue.

4. Take a stand on this issue

Specifications: 6 pages, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font. Save this assignment as a

Microsoft Word Document titled “[your first and last name].writingproject3” (for example: andreyang.

writingproject3.docx). For every requirement item not met you will be docked 10 points.

At least 4 sources: one should be a primary text about the issue, one should be an academic source, and

two or more can come from newspapers or .gov websites.

You cannot count dictionaries or

encyclopedias as any of the four sources

(you can certainly use these in your paper if you need to,

but they will be in addition to the four sources required above).