Write a 6-7 page analytical essay on a current political topic or issue that you identify as one of the...

Write a 6-7 page analytical essay on a current political topic or issue that you identify as one of the five most important today, based on at least five columns written by at least three different columnists.  You should select columnists who have different viewpoints and perspectives, i.e., conservative (right), center (moderate), and liberal (left).  One such topic might be the causes and prevention of gun violence and the role of the Second Amendment. Other topics might be NAFTA, "Obamacare," "Cap & Trade," global climate change, privacy v. national security, the Benghazi fiasco, the economy, the recently-negotiated nuclear agreement with Iran or Islamist terrorism.  Be sure to attach the printed columns to the back of your paper and be sure to indicate when and where they appeared (i.e., give their citation).

This should be a high-quality, well-written paper.  Excessive errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation cannot be tolerated.   Please include a bibliography at the end in which you list all your sources.  Your due date is December 7^th.  IF you turn your paper in on time, you will have the opportunity to resubmit your paper, after it is returned to you, to improve your grade, by making the corrections noted.  

Papers must be typed, double spaced with margins of no more than one inch [top, left, right, and bottom]. All pages must be numbered. Use Times New Roman – 12 pt. font (i.e., no stretching text with extra large or extra wide fonts).

All papers must be properly footnoted using APA format. Seehttp://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html. Also Cook Library has some hard copy handouts of citation forms. This form uses in-text footnotes and then an alphabetical list of references at the end of the paper.

You must use at least 10 citations using 5 different sources. I will only allow three of the sources to come from the internet.  So this means that online newspapers (local or Washington Post / Washington Times are 2 sources) and although you can cite it more than once you must use 3 others (2 of which MUST be books), journal articles, news programs or data off the internet etc.  If a source has both a hard copy and an internet version, you may choose where to put it. But you can only count the source once.