1. Position Papers A Guide

2. Presenting the Issue Consider what your reader knows. Offer them a history of the issue. Consider filling them in on the larger social significance of the issue. Maybe, too, you need to let them know what the immediate personal significance of the issue is for them. Grab your reader’s attention with an interesting anecdote, an arresting quotation, a troubling fact, a doomsday scenario, a rhetorical question, or something else that’s likely to engage them

3. Asserting a Clear, Unequivocal Position Take a side!!!!!! Your job is to convince your reader to agree with you! State your position clearly in a thesis statement early in the essay. Repeat your position throughout the essay. Be sure to reassert it again at the end of the essay. Just because you’re being assertive, doesn’t mean you can’t qualify your position, define your terms, show you’re a thoughtful individual.

4. Argue Directly for your Position Present, in positive terms, why you hold your position. Support your assertion with a well-reasoned argument. You might report on or speculate about results of effects, cite statistics, quote authorities, give examples, set up comparisons or contrasts, create analogies.

5. Counter Argue Answer your readers’ questions, objections. Discuss why their opposing positions are challengeable. – Demonstrate that you understand their opposing positions and recognize their questions. – Concede or refute those positions, objections or questions without exasperating, insulting, or harassing readers. Concede – admit their views are useful or wise Refute – argue that their views are limited or flawed

6. Establish Credibility Do – Advocate forcefully for your position – Support your argument responsibly with the help of authoritative sources and a well-reasoned, well-supported argument – Influence your readers’ positively by convincing them that you share some of their values and beliefs – Convince your readers that you have concerns about the issue Don’t – moralize, condescend, or belittle your reader – be shrill or badgering – misrepresent other points of view – attack opponents personally – manipulate readers’ emotions.

7. 5 prompts for free-writing -- #1 Just write for 5 minutes defining the issue. This will help stimulate your memory, letting you discover what you already know and help you to determine what you need to research to discover more about the issue. How would you describe the issue to readers? What are the important elements of the issue? What do you know about the history of the issue?

8. 5 prompts for free-writing -- #2 Consider your own position on the issue and your reasons for it. List at least 3 reasons for feeling/believing/ acting the way you do about the issue.

9. 5 prompts for free-writing -- #3 Ask yourself who your readers are. Describe your reader. Discuss what they already know about the issue. What do you know about them as a group that might influence how they would read your paper. Write about how you can convince them that your position is plausible. Speculate about how they might respond to your argument.

10. 5 prompts for free-writing -- #4 Rehearse your counterargument. What are likely objections to your arguments? How will you concede or refute these objections?

11. 5 prompts for free-writing -- #5 What’s your purpose? – What do you hope to accomplish with your readers? What one idea do I want them to remember? – How much resistance can you expect from your readers? Will they be receptive? Skeptical? Resistant? Antagonistic? – How can I interest my readers in the issue? How can I help them to see its significance to society at large and to them personally.