Global engagement

Purpose

This assignment asks you to demonstrate the course competency of Global

Engagement by considering different perspectives on a problem or controversy related to

Modern US History and attempting to reach a resolution about it. The ability to understand

different perspectives is not only a critical skill for historians, it is a skill that is essential to

functioning as a well-informed citizen in society today. This assignment asks you to write an

editorial piece that attempts to persuade your audience on an issue of contemporary

relevance.

Learning Outcomes

The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice the following skills that are essential to

your success in this course / in school / in this field / in professional life beyond school:

• Write a letter to the editor on a very specific issue pertaining to civic engagement in our

contemporary world.

• Demonstrate respectful disagreement or persuasion.

Assignment Tasks

Imagine you are writing a ‘letter to the editor’ or an editorial on a very specific issue

pertaining to civic engagement in our contemporary world.

• Write a letter that consists of a minimum of 300 words.

• Demonstrate in your letter how some incident, writing, or challenge from U.S. History (that

we have studied this semester) may provide some guidance in addressing this contemporary

issue

• Your letter should demonstrate expertise and a high level of research. You may include

endnotes and references if you so choose.

• Advocate in your editorial a specific course of action that may help to address the challenge

you wish to address. The specific course of action you advocate should be informed by the

lessons of the past.

• Your editorial may certainly engage in critique, but it should model civility, respect for

alternative views, and, above all, it should address theory, science, and/or policy, and not

engage in ad hominem attack or obloquy.

Criteria

Your editorial will be evaluated on the quality of your analysis, on the relevance of your

recommendations to U.S. History, on the clarity, complexity, innovative nuance, and

persuasiveness of your argument, on its adherence to basic mechanics of writing (good

grammar, spelling, organization, etc.), and on its tone (civility and respectfulness). You will

NOT be evaluated on whether or not I, personally, or anyone else in the class agrees with

your position. Nor will you be evaluated on the degree to which you, personally, agree with

what your editorial advocates.

Any events in the 1900’s or from 1865 and ahead.