Additional Writing Assignments

1. Source Assignment. Read several sources about the same topic. Instead of using them as evidence to support your ideas on the topic, analyze how well they function as sources. State your thesis about them, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, using clear criteria. (See, for example, the criteria in section C in the Quick Research Guide.)

2. Source Assignment. Locate several different accounts of a notable event in newspapers, magazines, published letters or journals, books, blogs, social media, or other sources, depending on the time when the event occurred. State and support a thesis that explains the differences among the accounts. Use the accounts as evidence to support your position.

3. Source Assignment. Browse in your library’s new book and periodical areas (on site or online) or in specialty search engines to identify a current topic of interest to you. (Adding the current or previous year’s date to a search is one way to find recent publications or acquisitions.) Gather and evaluate a cluster of resources on your topic. Write an essay using those readings to support your position about the new development.

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   For more on interviewing, see Ch. 6. For more on reviewing and evaluating, see Ch. 11.

4. Source Assignment. Following the directions of your instructor, use several types of sources to support your position in an essay. One option might be to select paired or related readings (from this book), and also to interview someone with the background or experience to act as another valuable source of information. A second option might be to view and evaluate a film, television program, radio show, podcast, blog, Web site, art exhibit, or performance or other event. Then supplement your review by reading several articles that review the same event, evaluate a different or related production, or discuss criteria for similar types of items or events.

5. Source Assignment. Create a concise Web site that addresses a question of interest to you. Select and read a few reliable sources about that question, and then create several screens or short pages to explain what you have learned. For example, you might want to define or explain aspects of the question, justify the conclusion you have reached, or evaluate alternative answers as well as your own. Credit all of your sources, and supply links when appropriate.

6. Visual Assignment. Examine the following images, and analyze one (or more) of them. Use the image to support your position in an essay, perhaps a conclusion about the image or about what it portrays. Point out relevant details to persuade your audience of your view. Cite the images correctly, using the style your instructor specifies.

   

   Konstantin Zavrazhin/Getty Images News/Getty Images.

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   Patrick Strattner/Getty Images.
   

   Barry Lewis/In Pictures/Corbis.