Name _______________________________________________
English 200
Opinion-Editorial Investigation
Persuasive Paper
Period________
For this assignment you will choose a school, local, state, or global issue that sparks your
interest and that you can investigate through research. Ideally, the issue is controversial
in that many different opinions can be offered on the topic. Your investigation will
involve finding out what others think about the issue, acknowledging their biases, and
then formulating your own opinion. The culmination of your investigation will be a
written opinion-editorial (persuasive paper) that is 3 pages in length and that uses 4
sources.
We will spend a number of days in the library in order to complete this assignment.
While in the library, we will:
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Reflect on past research experiences
Brainstorm / select a topic
Develop and revise a research question
Identify effective search terms
Identify reliable sources
Create a bibliography on Noodletools
Take notes on Noodletools
Noodletools Notecards -- 10 points each (a total of 40 points)
For each source you will create a Noodletools Notecard. Each notecard must have the
bibliography correctly written and attached to the notecard. The notecards are broken
into three sections:
Direct Quotes: A line or two quoted directly from the article.
Evidence: Facts/opinions paraphrased from the article.
My Ideas: Your thoughts after reading the article.
1) What did the article teach me about my topic?
2) How has my research topic changed or become more focused?
3) What are my next steps?
Opinion- Editorial -- Persuasive Paper (50 points)
Your op-ed should have a clever and original title that reflects the persuasive stance that
you will take. Throughout the article, you should make use of rhetoric to persuade the
reader of your opinion. You must also give concession to the other side of the argument
and then refute it with additional evidence or persuasive techniques. Finally, you will
revise your article so that it is free of errors, 3 pages in length and follows these
guidelines:
Times New Roman, 12-point font
One-inch margins
Double-spaced