PART ONE: In a three (3) to four (4) page paper, discuss an issue that has particular importance for you. As you are writing, consider the following questions: What is your issue? What is the current state of the issue—in other words, is the issue currently being debated, or is it static for the time being? As far as you are concerned, what needs to be done about the issue? Has Cobb and Elder’s model of “triggers as issue shapers” been applicable to your issue, either in the past or currently? If so, how? If not, what has been the determining factor(s) in developments in your issue area over time?
PART TWO: Beginning this week, I would like you to begin a regular journal that collects all the information you read that concerns or touches upon the issue you care most about. By our next meeting, you should have logged at least five separate articles, blog entries or other pieces of information you come across that discusses the issue you’ve chosen.
Please write down the following:
• The name of the author
• Where the article (or whatever it is) was published
• The date it was published or issued
• The type of information (newspaper or magazine article, blog entry, policy brief, position paper, etc.)
• The quality of the information (do you think it is highly reliable, reliable, or Questionable?)
• A few sentences by way of synopsis (what does the article discuss, what does it argue or describe, what does it