ENG102 Essay One: The Position Paper The first assignment in ENG102 is the argumentative position paper; this paper should be four to six pages in length, not including a Title and References pages. You will find chapters 15-18 in Baker College Composition useful for this assignment. Also, pages 56-69 of The Writer’s Brief Handbook contain examples and specific suggestions for this type of essay. To successfully complete this assignment, you will: 1. Identify a current issue that is debatable. 2. Take a position/side on that issue. 3. Research the issue and find appropriate resources and support to develop your position. 4. Address the opposing side’s views and refute those with logic and reason. 5. Demonstrate an awareness of your target audience and appropriately use appeals for that audience to persuade them of your position. Prewriting: You will begin this assignment by first doing some exploratory research to find out what people are discussing in relation to your topic. In most cases, you will need to narrow your topic selection to a specific issue. For instance, immigration is a broad topic. In the early stages of my project, I would need to do some research to find out what specific issue within immigration is under debate right now. To do this, I might search for things like “immigration reform” or “immigration amnesty.” Please refer to pages 624 and following in Baker College Composition for a discussion of how to “find controversies.” Research: The first step in research should happen in the pre-writing stage, as mentioned above. Note that you will want to make use of the Baker College Library databases to find current articles on your issue. In this paper at least three different sources must be used with not more than one deriving from the Internet. Reference sources, such as an encyclopedia, (e.g. Wikepedia.org) or a dictionary will not count as legitimate sources. This includes reference sites like WebMD.org and About.com. In addition, personal blogs or essays posted on personal websites or self-published on sites like Associatedcontent.com and Helium.com are not acceptable. The essay should employ the concepts and skills presented in Baker College Composition, Chapters 16, 17, and 18. The essay is worth 150 points total (100 for final draft, 50 for research, drafting, peer review, etc.). Note that by “make use” we mean the essay should incorporate quotations, summaries, and paraphrases using introductory phrasing and document sources in the text according to APA The Easy Way! Basic Organizational Pattern: There are multiple ways to organize argumentative position essays, but most follow a basic pattern like the sample outline below: 1. Introduction: See pages 17 and following of The Writer’s Brief Handbook for some strategies to begin the paper. Setting up some context for the issue is a great way to open a position paper, as it allows you to show the issue is current. End this introduction paragraph wit ...

1. ENG102 Essay One: The Position Paper
The first assignment in ENG102 is the argumentative position
paper; this paper should be four to six pages in length, not
including a Title and References pages. You will find chapters
15-18 in Baker College Composition useful for this assignment.
Also, pages 56-69 of The Writer’s Brief Handbook contain
examples and specific suggestions for this type of essay. To
successfully complete this assignment, you will:
1. Identify a current issue that is debatable.
2. Take a position/side on that issue.
3. Research the issue and find appropriate resources and support
to develop your position.
4. Address the opposing side’s views and refute those with logic
and reason.
5. Demonstrate an awareness of your target audience and
appropriately use appeals for that audience to persuade them of
your position.
Prewriting: You will begin this assignment by first doing some
exploratory research to find out what people are discussing in
relation to your topic. In most cases, you will need to narrow
your topic selection to a specific issue. For instance,
immigration is a broad topic. In the early stages of my project,
I would need to do some research to find out what specific issue
within immigration is under debate right now. To do this, I
might search for things like “immigration reform” or
“immigration amnesty.” Please refer to pages 624 and
following in Baker College Composition for a discussion of how
to “find controversies.”
Research: The first step in research should happen in the pre-
writing stage, as mentioned above. Note that you will want to
make use of the Baker College Library databases to find current
articles on your issue. In this paper at least three different
sources must be used with not more than one deriving from the
Internet. Reference sources, such as an encyclopedia, (e.g.

2. Wikepedia.org) or a dictionary will not count as legitimate
sources. This includes reference sites like WebMD.org and
About.com. In addition, personal blogs or essays posted on
personal websites or self-published on sites like
Associatedcontent.com and Helium.com are not acceptable.
The essay should employ the concepts and skills presented in
Baker College Composition, Chapters 16, 17, and 18. The essay
is worth 150 points total (100 for final draft, 50 for research,
drafting, peer review, etc.). Note that by “make use” we mean
the essay should incorporate quotations, summaries, and
paraphrases using introductory phrasing and document sources
in the text according to APA The Easy Way!
Basic Organizational Pattern: There are multiple ways to
organize argumentative position essays, but most follow a basic
pattern like the sample outline below:
1. Introduction: See pages 17 and following of The Writer’s
Brief Handbook for some strategies to begin the paper. Setting
up some context for the issue is a great way to open a position
paper, as it allows you to show the issue is current. End this
introduction paragraph with your thesis statement.
2. Claim 1: Set up the first reason/claim for the position in a
topic sentence. Develop a paragraph on that one claim, using
supporting evidence to develop that point. See page 57 of The
Writer’s Brief Handbook for a concise discussion of and
examples of claims.
3. Claim 2: See #2
4. Claim 3: See #3
5. Refutation of the Opposition’s claims: This may take a
couple of paragraphs. This section of the paper requires you
directly address the main claims made by the opposition and
refute those, showing why those are not strong or valid claims.
6. Conclusion: Think about how you can lead the reader back
out of the paper.
See page 63 of The Writer’s Brief Handbook for a discussion of
Rogerian audience strategy.