Essay: An Evaluation Argument

Write an evaluation argument (categorical or ethical) in which you try to change your readers’ minds about the value, worth, or ethics of a particular policy. Choose a controversial subject to be evaluated so that your readers are likely at first to disagree with your evaluation or at least to be surprised by it. Somewhere in your essay, you should summarize alternative views and either refute them or concede to them. 

Ideas for Exploration

To develop a categorical evaluation, try brainstorming controversial members of the following categories to evaluate:

• People: athletes, political leaders, musicians.
• Technology: new car features, phone apps.
• Media: a social network, a TV program.
• Government and world affairs: an economic policy, a political decision.
• The arts: a film, a book.
• The working world: a job, a company operation, a dress policy.

Length: At least 1500 words

Sources: Include at least seven secondary sources to support your argument.

Style: MLA format

Essay: A Proposal Argument

Proposal arguments are essential for the workings of a free and open society. A proposal argument motivates its audience to recognize a problem and then proposes a solution to the problem. Write a public policy proposal on a topic of consequence—something of concern to your home community, the nation, or the world—a topic about which reasonable people disagree.

Length: 1600–1800 words

Sources: Include at least seven secondary sources to support your argument.

Style: MLA format

Researching the Research of Others (Annotated Bibliography)

• You will bring to class five credible sources related to the topics you have chosen.
• with a summary paragraph of approximately 125 words for each source.
• The sources should be collected through various scholarly outlets (e.g., print journals, online databases, books, or credible web sites). Limit web-based material to 2 sources. 

Research Component

• You are encouraged to work with one of the library research assistants while researching your topic).