You must Choose two (2) editorials or “opinions” on the same HOT POLITICAL topic, BUT on OPPOSITE sides of (they disagree) the issue. The article must not be more than 6 months old, and must be of interest to ALL Americans (not just one state or city).
SOURCES of Articles: You may use physical or online newspapers or a news magazines political Editorials (opinions), or very well known political news blogs like the Drudge Report, Heritage Foundation, Media Matters, or Huffington Post, etc.. Check with me before using less well known blogs. After you choose your publication, then search “editorials” or “opinions” to find a political topic of current interest for people in the whole U.S., not just one state.
Remember that these articles are the Political opinions of the editor of the newspaper or a news magazine, or the opinion of guest writers that the magazine’s or newspaper’s editor has allowed to be printed on the Editorial (or Opinion) section of the publication. They will be biased because they are pushing their side of the argument, but that’s to be expected in these types of articles, so it is not something you can criticize.
CAUTION: NOT qualifying for this assignment: “Letters to the Editor or news stories written by news reporters or news reporting services. You can spot these because they will usually have under the title such things as UPI, AP (associated press), Reuters , Knight Rider, etc., even though some give the name of the reporter, don’t be misled.
IF YOU DON’T SEE THE WORDS “editorial” or “opinion” in the URL at the bottom of the pages you print out, or you did not get it from a well-known bloggers personal opinion article, then it’s NOT an opinion article. News reporters are not supposed to insert their personal opinions into the news stories they report on, so there would be no opinion to discuss in your paper.
Another clue: News reporters’ stories will normally not be placed on the Editorial Pages or Opinion Pages of a newspaper or news magazine. If you are in doubt as to whether your choices qualify as editorials (opinion article), send me a link to your intended articles before doing the assignment and I will tell you “yes” or “no”.
THEN YOU MUST do steps 1-4 below for EACH of the 2 articles you chose.
1. Briefly summarize in your own words each author’s position on the same political issue.
NOTE: this instruction says “briefly summarize”. Write no more than 100 words for the summary part of each article. The remaining 200 _or more words you write about each article must be used answering questions 2,3, & 4. Repeating the Questions I have listed above will not be counted in your total word count.)
2. Tell me how the author did or did not logically prove their point by using, or not using, provable facts, or statistics, or quotes. Just stating that something is a fact doesn’t prove it to be true. Be sure and GIVE me two or more EXAMPLES from the article to show me what the writer used as good, provable facts.
3. How do their statements of facts really add up, or not add up, to their conclusion (meaning:
do their arguments logically prove the premise of the article)? AND tell me Why do they or Why do they not add up?
4. Tell me briefly what additional information they might have included that would have
helped better prove what they were trying to convince you of?