You should create an argument regarding any matter of public concern—where public is defined broadly (as is the case with national or international issues) or more narrowly (as in something affecting the LSU community)

Organizing and Drafting Your Paper: I recommend that you start drafting your paper before you’ve read all your secondary sources. Remember, the main focus of any paper is the text itself and your argument regarding the issue. Your analysis needs to have a home in your research (sources) and make clear reference to those sources.

The Introduction: The introduction should be a relatively short, but solid, paragraph which includes your thesis. MAKE SURE your thesis statement is in BOLD print. Your main job here is to let your reader know what it is that you are writing about and the essence of your argument. If you want to start out with interesting facts, or a cool quote, that’s fine, but DO NOT begin with “In the modern world,” “in today’s society,” or other vapid clichés. Include your thesis in your introduction and avoid having your introduction longer than a page. 

The Body: This paper is all about proving the truth of your thesis though a thorough argument of clearly stated evidence. In order to do that, you provide assertions, smaller argumentative statements which support your overall thesis and which you support with textual evidence and explain with commentary. This is known as the Assert Support Comment structure. Research papers operate on a modified form of this structure, which I call Assert Support Comment Support Comment. That is: Here’s my argument. I’m going to support it with things A, B, C, and D.

Assertion: Here’s point A, including not only what I think it means      (assertion about topic) but a brief explanation of what it is. To begin,      you need to make an assertion. This is going to be a simple statement that      introduces the evidence you’re going to use to prove your thesis, such as      “One way, Jones connects the dangers of high fructose corn syrup is . . .”      

Support:       Here’s the primary text support for       point A. This is where you quote your primary source. Don’t quote it all       in one go—no need for large block quotations here. In fact, it’s better       if you break up the quotations into small, manageable chunks.

Comment: Here’s my commentary on point A. In this bit, you explain        how the evidence proves your assertion, and how that plays into your        thesis. This is the trickiest part of the whole operation, because it        involves being very clever and saying things like “Riley’s research        indicates” or “What this study highlights is…” 

Support: Here’s       what the critics say about point A. Once       you’ve made a clear statement of your beliefs on the meaning of your       primary source, it’s time to go to work on the critics. What have they       said that can support your point? Remember to bring in critics who       both directly support your point, and those who critique it; as it       happens, blasting your potential critics in the paper makes for a much       stronger paper.

Comment: Here’s        my evaluation of the critics’ arguments. And of course, that blasting would happen here. Defend,        challenge, or qualify your sources: why do you agree or disagree with        them, and what do they let you prove? Do not be afraid to ‘pick a fight’ and        argue with your sources. You        don’t have to pick sources that you agree with, and I encourage you to        pick a source that you can argue against. This ‘argument’ makes for a more        compelling read, and again, a stronger paper.

Conclude the section:       Tie all this information up and point it back to your thesis. What did       this little exercise help you prove about your thesis? A good thesis       should be not too broad, not too narrow, but just right to express your       thoughts/ideas succinctly.