Due Date: Uploaded to Canvas no later than Tues., Nov. 3, at 10:00 PM

Background: The 2020 presidential election has shaped up to be one of the most bitterly fought in recent memory. The issues in the election (among them, the pandemic, the economy, race relations, crime, gun control, health care, environmental policy, international trade, foreign policy, and even the process of voting itself) deeply divide the American people.

Writing Assignment: On the basis of your reading of the New York Times, the Washington Post, or another national news site, select a policy issue currently debated in the United States. Read and collect news and editorial articles on this issue. Pay careful attention to the ideas expressed in them to get a sense of the conflicting points of view on the issue. After consulting at least three news and/or editorial articles from the past year, write a 5-page essay in which you first explain the issue to be addressed, then make the strongest case possible for two opposing sides of the issue, and finally lay out your own position on the issue, drawing a well-researched conclusion based on your critical assessment of the arguments of each opposing side you presented. Since the hardest part of this assignment is for you to think about arguments you may not be automatically drawn to, a good paper will present two opposing sides of the issue with sensitivity and care. Indeed, an important purpose of this assignment is to foster an enhanced ability to recognize that perspectives besides one’s own are valid and that one might have something to learn from them.

Support your arguments with specific evidence from the articles you have selected.

Be sure to provide parenthetical citations in the body of your essay and a works cited page at the end of your essay to identify the sources you used in completing this writing assignment. Use the MLA (Modern Language Association) citation style.

The following website has specific information about how to cite according to this style:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/m… e/mla_works_cited_periodicals.html

Your essay will be graded based on a holistic assessment of how well you meet the grading criteria spelled out in the accompanying rubric.