You will first need to choose a problem or area of improvement that you are goin

Posted: September 20th, 2023

You will first need to choose a problem or area of improvement that you are going to cover. Look over the Finding Common Ground, Identifying a Problem, and Proposing a Solution prompts, as well as the list of possible and off-limits topics, and start brainstorming specific, focused problems you would like to discuss. Please run your chosen problem by me so that I can ensure it is narrow enough in scope. After that, you can start researching the problem. You’ll need two sources for Finding Common Ground, one source representative of each side of the debate; these do not have to be scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, though it is encouraged. You will also need two scholarly, peer-reviewed sources from the library database that will help you with your causal analysis (finding the root of the problem) for Identifying a Problem. Lastly, you will need two scholarly, peer-reviewed articles that will help you craft your solution or meaningful change in Proposing a Solution.
Each source needs a Works Cited entry. Each Works Cited entry should have an annotation that answers the following questions:
What is the writer’s project?
Name the author and include a rhetorically accurate verb (asserts, argues, challenges, etc.)
Then give the author’s central assertion or the “thesis statement” of the work.
How is that project developed?
Do they use statistical data, anecdotes, emotional appeals, a combination, etc.?
Why did the author write this? Why did they think this project needed to happen?
What is significant about this work?
What exactly does it contribute to the larger conversation of this topic?
How specifically will you use this work in your next three projects?
Which paper will it appear in?
What stance does it help you represent? What context does it help you establish for the problem you have identified? Does it illustrate why exactly a current proposed solution does or does not work? Does it lay out how a current bureaucratic process works or what a specific law entails?