WRT 205-285 Paper #4, Spring 2004

Rebecca Moore Howard
Office: 237 HB Crouse
Office hours: Tuesdays 1:15-2:15; Thursdays 11:15-2:15; and by appointment
Telephone: 443-1620
E-mail: rehoward@syr.edu
Home page http://wrt-howard.syr.edu

Assignment, Paper #4
Taking a Stand



WRT 205, section 283 "Engaging Presidential Politics"
Spring 2004
Time: TTh 2:30-3:40
Place: 323 HB Crouse
Course website: http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/Syllabi/205S04/Syl205S04.html


Choose one issue that is or should be addressed in this year's Presidential election. Construct an argument in which you establish

  1. Why this should be a campaign issue;
  2. How the candidates might take it up as a campaign issue; and
  3. What resolution to the issue you would like to see.
The purpose of this assignment is
  1. For you to gain expertise on a topic that matters to you;
  2. For you to be knowledgeable about one issue that might help you make well-informed political choices;
  3. For me and your classmates to learn from you about the topic of your expertise;
  4. For you to gain experience in making written arguments; and
  5. For you to gain experience in supporting an argument with both expert (scholarly) and public (media) sources.
The immediate audience for this assignment is me and your classmates, but I'm intending to put your final draft up on the class website, which means that your secondary audience is strangers who may be surfing the Web for information related to campaign issues and who might read and learn from what you write.

Your thesis should make clear to your readers what you want them to understand about the issue or the basis on which you think they should vote in November. It should not, however, be an evaluation of the candidates.

Your evidence should be drawn from scholarly, peer-reviewed sources that you annotated for Paper #3--plus whatever additional materials you need in order to make the argument that you want. You might want to include consideration of some or all of these in the paper:

  • Why do you care argue about this issue?
  • How are the candidates addressing (or avoiding) this issue?
  • What have you learned from experts on the topic? How might others benefit from this knowledge?
  • What do you consider to be the plausible or stances that a well-informed, reasonable person might take on this issue?
  • What position do you take, and why?
  • Who would benefit if everyone agreed with you? How would they benefit? Who would suffer, and how? Length of paper: 2500-3750 words.

    Style specifications: MLA.

    Style specifications: Use in-text citations for quotations, paraphrases, and summaries, and prepare the list of works cited in accordance with the MLA style sheet. Consult The Longman Companion, ch. 51, and follow the guidelines there with precision.

    Due date: 12:15 p.m., Thursday, May 6. This is a "dropdeadline"; I cannot accept any papers after this date and time.

    Submission procedures: Hand in a print copy at 239 HB Crouse Hall (the main office of the Writing Program). Put it in the drop box provided there; a secretary can direct you to it. Sign the clipboard beside the box. Also send me an electronic copy: attach your file to an email.



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