• Focus on the conversations surrounding one meaningful issue.
• Identify the stakeholders (people invested in your issue). Also consider yourself a stakeholder and address your personal stake in the issue.
• Explore multiple perspectives of your stakeholders. Describe their points of view and the ways they use rhetoric to make an argument. Write in a voice that invites people from all these different perspectives to read your essay.
• Find information that helps contextualize your issue and provides multiple perspectives. Include well-developed examples, descriptions, and details.
• Write a thesis that answers a research question.
• Introduce your essay by grabbing the reader’s interest and telling the reader what they will be reading about. End the introduction with a strong thesis statement.
• Structure your essay in a clear and effective manner. Sub-headings are acceptable. Information on organizing an argument is in section 3e of EasyWriter.
• Conclude your essay in a way that reiterates your thesis and sums up insights gained as a result of research and analysis.
• Document any sources ethically and accurately through in-text citations and a Works Cited list (using MLA style found in EasyWriter).
• Produce 1,500 to 1,750 words (5-6 double-spaced pages) of polished writing.
