Topic Paper Instructions
Requirements:
- 3-5 double-spaced pages (12 pt. Font).
- Must have at least 4 sources (cited in MLA or APA format in a work cited page)
- Must be free of spelling and grammar mistakes.
- No cover page
- Name must be in the upper left hand corner.
Instructions:
- In this essay you will research and present an argument and advocacy in essay format.
- You will choose your own topic and follow the instructions outlined below.
- Select a specific local, domestic, or international issue or problem. The topic must also include a potential solution to resolve crisis.
- Write a paper where you argue, through research, why a specific solution should be implemented in the world to resolve the problem.
Outline:
- Introduce the topic to the reader.
- Give some background about the problem.
- What events caused the problem to originate?
- What is occurring right now regarding the topic?
- Who is involved?
Body:
- Harms: Give in detail 3-4 harms (problems) that directly stems from your topic.
- How are people affected directly by the problem?
- How big is the problem?
- Plans
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- Give one cohesive solution or “plan” that could solve the “harms” (problems) you have identified.
*Note: You plan of action needs to potentially solve for all the problems you have identified.
*Note: You can also research and present other people’s plans.
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- In you plan you must answer the following questions.
- What actions will be conducted to fix the problems?
- Agents of action: Who will initiate and conducted the plan?
- Funding: How much will the plan cost and will the money be raised?
- Enforcement: How will you guarantee you plan will continue over the years?
- Solvency:
- How will you plan potentially solve the problems?
- How will people’s lives be improved through your plan?
- Potential Drawbacks
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- Who might go wrong with your plans?
- Why might they not affect the problems?
- Conclusion
- Review the harms
- Remind the reader the plan you proposed
- Review the benefits of your plan
Potential Problem Example Areas
- Education (problems with standardized testing, racial or socioeconomic gaps in education, student loan crises etc.)
- Environment (Pollution, off shore drilling, Hydraulic Fracking, lack of energy independents, Alternant energy).
- Social Issues (Poverty, Institutional Racism, Unemployment etc.)
- Political Issues (Immigration, Refugees, Gender Wage Gap, Climate Change Laws etc.)
- International Issues (Crises in the Middle East, Wars in Africa, Europe’s financial crises etc).