(Note: don’t turn in a bulleted list. Arrange your ideas in paragraph form in a way that makes sense to you.)
Define what bias is and what type of bias you’re identifying and working with: Key terms are going to be very important for this essay, so making sure you and your audience have a shared understanding of whatever kind of bias you’re talking about is important.
Identify the creator’s bias: Everybody is biased in some way, and this assignment is asking you to think specifically about the ways in which news media is biased. Find the direction your source is leaning, then find examples in the work that you’re analyzing that give you clues.
Discuss the ways the creator makes their language match their bias: Carefully analyze both of your chosen sources for instances of bias and the ways that bias shapes the way the information in each article is being presented.
Compare the two sides and their use of bias: Every source is going to use bias in different ways to accomplish different things. How do your two sources work similarly? How do they work differently? Are they using different types of biased writing or presentation, and if they are, then to what purpose? If they’re using similar types, what value do those types of biased writings hold?
Think through the value of bias: Your aim in this paper is to demonstrate a point about the importance of subtle or obvious examples of bias and how they influence the truth of a subject being reported on. This can be a personal take on bias and how you feel it effects the reporting of truth with a lower-case “t”, or a more general breakdown of the value or detriment that biased writing holds.
Remove your own bias from the discussion: For this paper, you aren’t giving your opinion about the discussion of your chosen topic. You’re not meant to give an opinion on anything except for the purpose of biased writing, and use your sources in order to think through the ways in which bias effects writers and their creations.
Your essay should include a thesis statement at the end of your introduction that provides a map of your paper. The thesis should summarize your main claim about the purpose of bias in news media, what sources you’re using, and quickly touch on the direction those sources lean.
To support your essay, make use of quotes and paraphrase, citing your work in MLA format. Even more than the last essay, this is going to require the use of quoting, with a limit of two quotes per body paragraph at most.
Specifications
The final draft of this assignment will be due Sunday, April 14th by 11:59 PM. The final paper needs to be at least four full, double-spaced pages long (meaning you should have some writing on a fifth page, or be touching the bottom of the fourth).
The assignment should be written in Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins all around.
