Project 4 Essay

Project 4: Op-Ed (750 words at most) 

Final Due in Classroom Stream: Monday, February 26, 2018

Project 4 overview 

Project 4 calls for an “op-ed,” an argumentative genre. You’ll be creating an op-ed in order to convince or persuade your audience of newspaper or magazine readers of your position on an issue that you know a lot about: the topic of your informative article. 

An op-ed is newspaper genre. In a newspaper, op-eds are always found “opposite the editorial page”–that is, in a section of articles reserved for opinions. Newspapers set apart opinion pieces (editorials, opinion columns, op-ed articles) from other articles because the rest of the newspaper is meant to report, and sometimes analyze, current events, not to interpret them or argue a point of view. (Straight reporting, with no opinion, is of course just an ideal: all writing expresses a point of view.)

Converting to a new genre (The 2 Essays are attached below, the main idea is talk about League of Legends(a computer game)

So this Essay should be related to these 2 essay, the theme are all the same.

So far you have written an informative article and a fact sheet. Both of these are “informative genres.” For your op-ed, you’ll need to be able to answer these questions:

Purpose: What are you trying to persuade your readers to believe or to do?  What case are you trying to make? This is the stance you are taking on an issue. Let’s say you’ve written an informative article about carpet-making, in which you’ve described different dyes people use to color the wool, traditional and modern patterns, having children and women making the knots. What position could you take? Possible arguments might include an argument in favor of certifying that rugs haven’t been made using children’s labor, a case for using natural dyes instead of chemical dyes for health or aesthetic reasons, a case for treating rugs as art (vs. craft). 

   In an op-ed, a reader will expect to see your purpose established very early.

Audience: Who are you trying to convince? Are your readers in Santa Cruz? Are they in your home community? This is a big decision, as it will help shape what you argue and the information you can assume they already know. Are you trying to convince consumers (only buy rugs with natural dyes)? Are you trying to convince people to support new laws (no imports of rugs that haven’t been labor-certified)?  

So what? Why is your position important, and timely? Why should should readers care about it, and why does it matter now? 

   You might hint at this in the beginning, and really focus on it in your conclusion.

Form

Your op-ed must not exceed 750 words. Fewer words—600-700—would be better. That’s not much space for something you’ve been thinking about a lot, and it means you’ll have to get straight to the point and be specific: consider a short anecdote, a story, a set of really vivid details. 

Format

In addition to your name and mine, on the first page your op-ed should include, in separate lines, the following:

·a brief title that sums up your main case;

·your ideal audience–who you’re trying to convince; 

·the word count. 

Citation

Please be sure to cite the sources of the information you include (quotations, paraphrases, information drawn from interviews or reading–all should be cited). For this article, informal in-text citation (HWW pp. 558-9), such as what The New Yorkeruses, will be fine–but I’d also like you to include an alphabetical list of your sources at the end of the article (see example on HWW p. 587).

Evaluation

I will evaluate your op-ed with these categories in mind: how clearly have you stated your stance? Is the intended audience clear? Is it clear why the audience should care about this issue? Are there enough appropriate details to support your stance? Have you addressed the obvious objections (counter-arguments or counter-evidence)? Is the language appropriate for the audience, and grammatically sound?