(1250 Words)

The purpose of this essay is to identify a socially significant issue that you feel is important and describe why other people should care about it. This assignment has outside application when you consider opinion pieces (op-eds; letters to the editor; public-facing blog posts), but can also be useful practice in contexts such bringing an issue of importance to a club or local group, as well as a professional context where you might wish to have your co-workers or supervisors take action (e.g. things that impact your direct working conditions). As such, when considering your audience, you have the following options:

Option A – Classroom Community/Peers

Here, you can approach issues that would be directly relevant to your peers in this class. Consider commonalities you might share with this audience and the general demographics of College students (college students; likely to be a resident of the Bay Area; likely to have less disposable income; etc.) You can make this issue specific to something happening at college, or something that you think college students in general should care about.

Option B – Lived Community

This option focuses on a community that you live in or regularly interact with. You can make this as narrow as your local neighborhood or HOA; a student run club/organization, go wider and select the county or state you reside in, or go the ‘global citizen’ route and write about an issue you think anyone that resides on this planet should care about (even if they’re banking on being part of Elon’s Mars colony).

Option C – Professional Context

Your audience for this option consists of your co-worker, your direct supervisor, and/or (if applicable) board of directors. Here, you’re highlighting an issue that is specifically affecting the organization you are employed with (e.g. trends in employee behavior; ineffective processes at work), or an issue at play in the community that you feel they should be involved with and take a stance on (e.g. incidents of violence against groups; environmental issues; socioeconomic issues). If choosing this option, be sure that the name of your organization and what part of the organization (direct coworkers or people above you) is clear.

Regardless of the options above you select you will be focusing this assignment around the following content areas:

1) Clearly state and define what the issue in question is. Your audience might know some things about the topic, but not as much as someone who has researched it in depth more recently like you have.

2) Indicate your own personal connection to the topic (in addition to establishing credibility — e.g. ethos — you’re being transparent). (https://pathosethoslogos.com/)

3) Describe who is the issue currently affecting within your audience and how is it impacting them? Who might it affect in the future?

4) Describe why your audience should care about this topic; whether they are directly or indirectly affected.

5) Include evidence that supports your claim. Remember: higher quality sources = higher chance of your argument being taken seriously (even if you’re picking option C, don’t expect your boss or co-workers to just take you at your word all of the time).

In addition to the content, I will be assessing the following technical areas regarding formatting:

Word Count: The essay should be a minimum of 1250 words (references and title page are not included in this count). That said, don’t stress if you go slightly under or over

In-Text Citations: A minimum of 3 which follow APA formatting. That said, anything that is not general knowledge must include a citation, so it is likely you will have more than 3.

Reference Page: Include this as a separate page which also follows APA formatting.

General APA Formatting: This means including a title page, utilizing double spacing throughout, and including page numbers.

In addition, as this is a college essay, you are expected to adhere to proper standards of writing (recall those lessons from 1A): A strong thesis, clear topic sentences and transitions, and a well-organized introduction and conclusion. Please note that if your complete draft exceeds 15 grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors, then you will be required to revise before receiving a grade.