Use at least three sources and turn in copies of sources.
For your final assignment, analyze solutions to a problem or causes of a trend. Papers that analyze solutions to a problem or the causes of a trend call for all the academic writing skills we have practiced during the semester: summary, synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of the divergent points-of-view expressed in multiple sources. This assignment, however, is more challenging and difficult than the previous ones because you have to pick a significant topic and to find at least three credible sources. Feel free to choose any topic involving a problem or a trend as long as it is complex enough to lend itself to analysis of several possible solutions or causes. This paper is the culmination of all you have learned in the course; you should have high hopes-- and high standards for it. To write this paper, think about these suggestions:

1. In the first part of the body of your paper, demonstrate that the problem or the trend exists: (you could) draw on statistics, specific cases, and references to experts, and present details about the problem or the trend (answering such questions as: When did it start? Is it completed or continuing? Is the increase or decrease accelerating or decelerating?).

2. In the second part of the body of your paper, synthesize the possible solutions to the problem or causes of the trend, organizing sections of your paper by solution or cause.

3. In addition to synthesizing the solutions or causes suggested by the authors of your sources, compare and contrast them in terms of evidence and reasoning, using your analysis to reflectively reach and persuasively justify your own argumentative stances toward each solution or cause, stances that should be supported with your own reasons, evidence and examples that prove which solutions are more viable or which causes are more likely than others.

4. Be sure to use parenthetical citations to indicate where one author's viewpoint ends and another author's view-point begins.

5. After drafting the paragraphs in the body of your paper, write an introduction that reviews the controversy over your topic. To review the controversy, briefly define the problem or the trend, summarize the solutions or the causes suggested by the authors of your sources, state the thesis of your essay (the solutions) or cause(s) you find most significant) and sketch an essay map (the main points you
will focus on in your paper).

6. Write a conclusion that explains the significance of your attention to the problem or the trend, ending (perhaps)with a provocative quotation, analogy, or question. Do not introduce new information here.