Write an essay of 500-600 words (double spaced) in which you take a position on the following question:
You have just won an elected seat to the city council of your hometown. You must soon vote on a proposal to increase the minimum wage from $10 to $20 per hour. Certain community advocates are in favor the proposal. Certain business groups are against the proposal. How will you vote—and why? Your constituency wants to know where you stand on the issue.
Guidelines for All Take-a-Position Essays:
- Include 5 organized paragraphs (introduction, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion)
- In the introduction, include a 1-sentence thesis statement indicating your position. Bold this statement to clearly identify your position.
- Cite evidence and use quotations from at least two (2) of the sources (readings or videos) provided. You must include at least one unique quotation in each paragraph of the essay. Follow the examples below to cite the evidence and the quotations used in your essay.
- Edit your essay to demonstrate clear, correct, and polished writing.
- Use double-spaced text and Times New Roman font (12 point)
Citing Your Sources
Follow these examples to cite sources in the text of your essay. Explain the credibility of the source and include the article number (from Canvas) at the end of the sentence. For readings, provide a page number and a paragraph number. If the reading does not have page numbers, provide just a paragraph number. For videos, provide a time stamp (hour: minute: second).
Since all sources are provided by the instructor, you do not need to include a reference list.
In-Text Citation Examples Relevant for All Take-a-Position Essays
- According to a graph published in a 2016 report written by the World Bank Group, about 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks classified as “overfished” in the year 2011 (Article 1, p. 2, Figure 0.1).
- Repairing overfished fisheries will take time and discipline. As the World Bank Group argued in a 2016 report: “Severely overexploited fish stocks have to be rebuilt over time if the optimal equilibrium is to be reached and the sunken billions recovered” (Article 1, p. 3, para. 3).
- Ian Urbina, an investigative journalist writing for the Yale School of the Environment, says: “Chinese distant-water ships are so large that they scoop up as many fish in one week as local boats from Senegal or Mexico might catch in a year” (Article 5, para. 6).
- Mark Lundsten, a fishing boat captain, argues that “the incentive of the fishermen to conserve the resource, to avoid by-catch, to maintain habitat, not to overfish, are all built in to the IFQ [catch shares] system” (Video 1, time: 0:05:16).
Sources Provided:
Through the Minimum Wage Looking Glass: Economic Consensus Unrealized
