English 3 Research

 
 

Topic of Concern 
Think of a current topic making news and/or something you care about. Decide whether 
or not you want to focus locally or nationally. Consider a problem at Green Hope to 
address with administration, a state-specific problem to address with NC Legislators, or a 
national issue to address with Congressional or Senatorial Representatives. 
 

Research the Issue 

Learn more about the issue to fully form your opinion and consider a solution that you 
want to argue for or against. Your research should look at both sides of the issue and 
consider the counter-argument. Remember to ​evaluate your sources​ for truth & bias. 
 

Write the Blog 

The benefit of writing a blog instead of a formal research paper is that your language can 
be more informal. Consider that your audience will be other High School Juniors who are 
looking to be more informed about issues before coming to Green Hope ~or~ voting in 
their first election. For academics, your blog post should be 500-550 words; Honors 
between 750-800 words (excluding Works Cited). Write with a warm, engaging voice and 
avoid overly academic language. Use resources like the ​SAS Writing Reviser​, ​Grammarly​, 
and ​PaperRater​ as well as peer edits to help you revise. Your final draft must be typed, 
double-spaced, and follow the MLA submission and citation guidelines. Check out the 
example​ and the ​rubric​ to ensure you’re meeting the standards. 
 

Cite your Sources 

Your final blog post must include a minimum of three cited sources. Although a 
digitally published blog post would include hyperlinks to denote sourced material, this 
assignment will be turned in with a ​properly formatted​ Works Cited page. Additionally, 
under each source, you will summarize and evaluate the source content and bias.