smg10e

Choose opposing argument essays to write about.

Printed Page 198

Printed Page 199

Your instructor may ask you to write on one of the debates from the appendix to this chapter or from the e-Pages and companion Web site for this book. If you are permitted to find your own opposing argument essays to write about, you could begin by reviewing the Consider Possible Topics activities following the readings (pp. 189, 195). Alternatively, you might search for op-ed articles in newspapers and blogs, using LexisNexis Academic or other databases accessible through your college library. Your instructor also may invite you to survey such Web sites as procon.org or contro versialissues.org, or to find articles on the Room for Debate page on the New York Times’s Web site (nytimes.com/roomfordebate).

When choosing opposing argument essays, it can help if one writer is responding to the other (as in Samson’s choice of Chua and Rosin and Bernard’s choice of Mitchell and Walker). However, it is not a requirement that the arguments refer explicitly to each other. What is necessary is that they both

address the same controversial issue;
take different positions on the issue and offer thoughtful arguments supporting their position;
articulate clear disagreements but also have the potential for common ground—possibly in shared values, priorities, or concerns; and
be interesting to you and your readers, and worth the time and effort you will need to invest.