For this paper you will refine your ability to write about data and articulate findings to others in
concise, meaningful ways. Pick a topic – any topic – you want to write a short paper about in an
informative or persuasive style. You must also find some data to support your topic – there are
many examples listed below (and feel free to write about any of the data sources I have
provided). Use your data to help make your points and highlight something you find interesting:
perhaps a plausible relationship between variables or something that you think is simply not
being talked enough about.
Requirements:
2 pages minimum (double-spaced, 12 pt. font, spellchecked, no extra spacing, etc.)
• Essay format: introduction, body, conclusion
o Introduction: introduce your topic and why you think its relevant/important
o Body:
▪ Simply describe some of your data: write concisely, make it easy to digest,
try not to write out long lists of numbers
▪ Choose a variable (or combination of variables) to highlight: why are
these variables interesting or important?
▪ See the highlighted example at the bottom of the next page to get an idea
about how you can write about your topic
o Conclusion: tie it all together: what aren’t we talking about right now that we
should be? What should we or could we be doing differently? Does the data you
found even support what people are talking about in the news? Be mindful of
additional variables that might help explain what you are looking at and mention
them.Include the words “amalgamation” and “homogeneous”.
• Use whatever format you are most comfortable with (APA, MLA, ASA etc.)
• You will not be graded on correctly and formally citing your data, but feel free to
properly format your citations if you would like.
• Your paper needs to be a Word doc or PDF file (please no .pages from Google docs – if
you have a .pages file you can convert them into Word docs for free online, just Google
pages to doc converter)
• Your paper will be evaluated using Turnitin when you submit it.
• Your paper can be written as an informative piece or a persuasive piece, so feel free to
take a stance on an issue and use the data to support your arguments
Use this for your data: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx
