Hello! This is Becca – I’m a grad student at Michigan Tech, studying Rhetoric and Technical Communications and teaching a course that’s currently called Revisions. It’s the required university-wide second-year communication course, and as a graduate teaching instructor I get to design my own projects. I’m teaching Track A this summer, and I just got the rough drafts on a new project – they turned out so well, I wanted to share.
The intro: Knowing about the other side of a situation can help you strengthen your own opinion and can lend credence to your own argument. In this project you will research an opposing viewpoint and write an essay from that point of view before constructing an essay from your own point of view and presenting this to the class.
Topics of debate could include, but are not limited to: the death penalty; book burning; censorship; saying the Pledge of Allegiance at school; prayer in schools; privileging sports over music and art in high schools; racism; abortion; gay marriage; needing a passport to enter Canada; “going green”; and so on. You will use research in this project, so make sure to choose a subject that has ample information.
The Educated Teacher 