Overview of Major Assignments in CO150

Portfolio 2 Guidelines:  Issue Analysis

 

CO150

Portfolio 2 Guidelines

 

Portfolio 2:  Issue Analysis

 

  Now that you have researched what people are saying about your issue, you need to organize the information you found in an analytical manner. In doing so, you will not only keep the richness of each person's position and the complexity of your issue (and avoid reducing the issue to a simple “pro/con” debate), but you also provide yourself with a more accessible form of organization for your research than if you kept everyone separate. This organization will also help you in Portfolio 3 in that you will have information at your fingertips to use to support your claim and refute your opposition.

  Your goal in the Issue Analysis is to group the sources you found for your Annotated Bibliography into the shared approaches the sources take toward your issue. These approaches will be based on common themes or threads you will find among the sources you researched previously. Each approach will need to be explicated in terms of the theme or thread that holds it together (the sources' values, beliefs, concerns, needs, purposes, etc.). You should create at least three different approaches that cannot be reduced to pro/con sides but nevertheless represent how the sources approach the debate about your issue.

  For example, if you were researching whether or not we should enact a statewide smoking ban in Colorado restaurants and bars, you would most certainly find that business owners, citizens, doctors, politicians, and cigarette companies would be talking about the issue; these would be your sources. You might then see that your sources could be grouped into approaches that include a business approach (perhaps consisting of Colorado business owners and the cigarette companies), a health approach (perhaps consisting of citizens and doctors), and a personal rights approach (perhaps consisting of citizens and politicians). Not everyone in the approach will feel the same exact way about the issue, but they will be similar on at least one level: a shared value, belief, concern, need, purpose, etc. For each approach, then, you would explain what holds the sources together within the approach (e.g. both Colorado business owners and cigarette companies value profit).

 

Requirements: The audience for your Issue Analysis is our class. You will do the organization in the Writing Studio using the Issue Tool located at: https://writing.colostate.edu/activities/issue_analysis/

You will need to have at least three different approaches comprised of the sources you researched. Each approach will need to be given a title or label that reflects that theme or thread that holds the approach together. The explication of each approach should be approximately 500 words.

 

Due Date:

 

Grading: The Issue Analysis should reflect at least three different (and labeled) approaches writers take in terms of your issue (the approaches will be based on the writer's values, beliefs, purposes for writing, etc.) and is worth 50% of your grade for Portfolio 2. It will be graded on a +/- scale. The explications of the approaches need to be focused and detailed and should use quotes and paraphrases as necessary to illustrate that the sources in the approach belong there.