Assignment
Guest Column (the research essay)
Write a 750-850 word “guest column” for our hypothetical Our Class Magazine feature of the NYTimes or WSJ (an audience of college students interested in issues that concern your generation). This time the magazine is looking for arguments that work “deductively,” i.e., that begin with a general premise, an assertion of how life should be, and then make an argument about a particular issue in light of that assertion. Choose one of the following assignments from the magazine:
• Write a response using one of the newspaper editorials we read about the 2024 election (NYTimes and Murdoch-owned NYPost editorials on Trump) as your “they say.”
• Write a response using some other NYTimes or WSJ opinion piece as your “they say” on the election or any other political issue.
• Write a response to any article you find in any section of the NYTimes or WSJ as your “they say” on a subject that interests you.
• Write a response to an opinion piece, about anything, from another newspaper.
Begin with a premise you think your generation should share, a belief in what ought to be, then deduce a conclusion to your question at issue (e.g., “If you believe in democracy, you should say no to the question of whether we should reelect ______”; “If you like movies that show life as it really is, you should ignore ______ and see _______”).
