Imagine you have been hired by an independent publication with a decent size reading audience. Their target readers are a diverse population of young adults, 18- to 25-year-olds, some about to enter the job market, others trying to make sense of their world.
The publication publishes articles covering a range of socially and politically charged topics, which are written for a younger audience.
Most of the readership is college educated or in the process of entering college and deeply care about local and global issues affecting the social fabric of our society.
For your first assignment, the editor asks you to write an opinion/feature piece, supported and contextualized by outside sources.
The only catch: Your editor is an academic nerd, and she wants you to qualify your sources and provide a works cited page at the end.
The editor says, Dont come back to work without 1500 to 2000 words of copy. I want it in seven days. Thats more than youll ever get.
In lieu of a final, the above activity is your last task for this class.
You will want to select a current and specific issue (think “impossible” situation) that sincerely interests you and write an insightful examination on that topic. I highly recommend that you choose an issue that is specific, detailed, and multi-faceted meaning complex
Whatever you choose, you will use your own insight as well as relevant research to establish the critical and creative terms of your analysis.
Ideally, your approach will problematize, or challenge established views of the topic you have chosen. This strategy will arrive naturally if your “impossible” situation contains multiple points of view.
Whatever topic you select, know that even a published opinion piece contains a thesis-like element.
In this way, you are going to apply the structural strategies you have practiced in this course. In other words, your objective is to write a thesis-driven essay/opinion piece, which not only contains a reasonable insight (thesis), but moves into development with a solid subtopic element, followed by a sequence of contextual illustrations.
If you want to see this in real world action, read the following New York Times piece by writer/photographer Teju Cole, Death in the Browser Tab. I HIGHLY recommend it.
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Notice how the writer approaches his topic, responding to his subject matter with a deeply personal thought process. Notice at the bottom of paragraph two, a thesis of sorts appears. And notice how the third paragraph moves into development, with the insertion of multiple contextual instances, balanced with reflection and opinion.
No matter what, I want to read your thoughts about your selected issue, and I want you to convince me of your opinions. The topic you choose and the position you take should invite debate and differences of opinion.
It may help for you to write your own prompt in order to keep your essay focused and argumentative. If you do this, please make sure that it is open-ended and invites ideas, not just facts.
The challenge ahead is not an easy task. You will want to commit to the project over the weekend, determine your topic, gather your sources, and begin to write.
When you have completed the task, write a headline, insert your byline and submit it to the assignment portal by next Friday.
What Ill Be Thinking When Evaluating Your opinion essays:
Does your introduction (lead) offer enough context and substance to clarify the value of the topic, the depth of the problem, the issues at stake?
Is your thesis clear, complex, but unified, and strong?
Does your thesis statement offer an insightful, dynamic point of view (one that does not merely echo one of your sources)?
Do you follow your introduction/thesis with a connected subtopic element (several sentences, a paragraph) that launches your development zone?
Is your research relevant? Are you using it accurately to support your argument?
Do your quotations offer context that strengthens your subtopic?
Throughout your development, do you stay on topic? Is the writing organized and not repetitive?
Are there too many grammar/usage/structure errors that distort or confuse meaning?
Do you properly cite and document your sources using MLA in-text citations and a works cited page?
Have you used at least two scholarly sources and 3-4 popular sources?
On the next page, I have provided a range of article titles, and links to publications — not as samples, but as topics you might want to select. I’m offering the suggestions as a resource, if any of you are completely stumped as to what topic to write about. Review the questions, the articles. You may find a topic of interest.
Try to apply two sources from the SMC database– academic articles, with a total five to six sources, contributing to the context of your examination. (Notice how Teju Cole applied his multiple sources)
. You must write a minimum of 1500 words with an additional works cited page.
1500 may seem like a lot.
It is not.
Youre looking at about 5 -7 pages, 12 point font, 1.5 spacing.
The SMC formatting standard is MLA, which includes page formatting as well as in-text citations. If you have not reviewed the rules for academic formatting, please do so. I’ve provided you with multiple links in that direction. Here’s the direct link (again) to the online resource: MLA Formatting Basics.
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The official due date for your article will be next Monday at midnight. Make sure to inform me of any extreme situation, which will prevent you from reaching this goal.
Plagiarism is a serious situation at the college level. Please cite any and ALL sources, even if you’re paraphrasing (writing what some other source says in your own words).
Make sure you have developed an “arguable” thesis/insight,
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not an assertion which reports on an existing condition, but instead, write a thesis which strives to examine a unique point of view, promises to reveal a circumstance with a different set of eyes, perhaps a belief system, or a thesis which demands a fresh perspective of the familiar.
In other words, avoid writing summary.
Write like you CARE about the topic, with reflective depth that communicates something of value, not just parroting someone else’s point of view.
Work your sources carefully. Revisit this useful page on writing effective lead-ins. Don’t miss the opportunity to build authority for any outside source. You’ll only need to complete a lead-in the first mention of your source. If you insert a secondary element from your source, you will just cite the source, properly.
Most important. While, I understand the pressure, have fun with this task.
