As you begin drafting your assignment think of your audience and the range of purposes that you have as you move through the writing process. I'll be reading these papers, but consider your audience to be comprised of the kind of people who are interested in this topic. You'll want to appeal to both sides of the crowd, but also focus on swaying those who take a different perspective than the one you are arguing. What kinds of beliefs do they hold, and how can you tap into those in order to come up with an argument that will appeal to them?
Next, consider the logical make-up of your argument. You'll need to convince people and the best way to do this is to provide sound reasoning for your claims and to back up your reasons with examples and evidence. Use your research to develop support for your positions and integrate citations into your argument as a way of bolstering your claims and adding authority to your argument.
Finally, be sure to consider and respond to oppostional claims. You can do this as you go, raising then addressing differing perspectives. You can use the oppostion as a sounding board that allows you to put forth your own claims. Or you can devote a section or two of your paper to summarizing and addressing opposing points of view. The approach you take is up to you, but remember that anticipating opposing points of view will only make your paper stronger and failing to do so will ignore one of the requirements for the paper.
As with all of our work, remember that this project will be developed through a process of different composition activities. Don't expect to cover every angle or to come up with the definitive argument about your topic. Work to draft the best possible argument, and then we'll revise that in order to make it even stronger.
If you have questions, let me know.
