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The idea of this assignment is to have you practice your critical thinking and analysis skills by writing a thought paper or a solution essay on a real-life planning issue

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The idea of this assignment is to have you practice your critical thinking and analysis skills by writing a thought paper or a solution essay on a real-life planning issue. A thought paper is a concise, accessible summary based on research and your interpretation through an analysis. Similarly, a problem solution essay is where you identify a problem and offer a solution to it.

You have much flexibility in choosing the topic and in how you develop your argument – but it important to accomplish a few key outcomes in this assignment. You must:

1)     Use the textbook and cite your references

2)      Search for at least one external resource – an academic journal, a TED Talk, an NPR story, etc. … NOTE: not Wikipedia

3)     Present your own ideas in the paper, and these must be supported with logic

First, read/review the What is a Thought Paper and What is a Solution Essay to help you decide which guideline you will follow. Each of the documents leads you through a logical sequence for the paper. You can choose either style of paper.

The first paper will be based on your selection of a chapter topic, selecting from Chapters 1-9; the second paper is also based on a chapter topic of your choosing, from Chapters 10-19. There is no ‘prompt’ from me for this paper – you choose the topic and develop it per the thought paper or problem solution essay guidelines.

My recommendations for currently relevant chapters – topics that you will easily find news stories or other resource information about, as well as local Imperial County issues – are:

1)     Paper # 1 – chapters 6 (politics), 7 (social issues), 8 (comprehensive plan), 9 (tools)

If you have another topic in mind – something not in the chapters – please bring it to me and we can talk about it. I don’t want to limit your choices if you have something good to bring.

Perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT thing is that the problem you are writing about MUST be a problem in Imperial County. You MUST include a real-life example of the problem.

For example, maybe you choose to write about transportation. Is transportation a problem in Imperial County? If so, how is it a problem? What negative impact does it have on residents? What is being done about it? What solution would you offer to solve the problem?

Ask yourself these questions when selecting a topic.

In contrast, if you were to write about an eight-lane highway construction project … is that relevant to Imperial County? Maybe not. So, transportation issues such as this would not be a very good choice for your paper.

Always – if you have questions or concerns or need clarification – reach out to me. I am happy to text, talk, or meet face-to-face so that we can ensure you submit a paper you feel confident about.

Other relevant guidelines/requirements:

1)      12-font, Times New Roman or Arial

2)     APA style

3)      First line indent, double space

4)     1” margins

5)      2 solid pages of writing – does not include a title page (if you choose to do a title page)

6)      Reference page – should include the textbook, at least one other reference