Students will develop 2 written responses to a recent news article on drug use (might be from a magazine, journal, online news or newspaper). In the first (750 words) they present their opinion, substantiate this by using the evidence presented in the course material and from their own supplementary research. Evidence is important – even if you don’t agree with it.
The Conversation is a really good place to go to read the type of response we are looking for in this assessment task – they are generally 750 words and have evidence to support the view
You can write this in first person and it is different from most of the academic articles you will be writing for Uni assessments.
Secondly, students will then summarise their commentary as a 150-250 word letter for publication in a mainstream newspaper.
You will be required to submit both pieces and only the full 750 word version will require proper academic referencing. They can be submitted as one file. please include the original news item you are commenting on.
Please refer to the examples of newspapers and topics below which will help you complete this assessment. You are not limited to these examples but it is a good place to start. Other examples have been posted in the discussion forum at the end of weeks 1, 2 and 3.
