This essay should draw on a wide variety of sources, including opinion and commentary, policy speeches and statements, and public debates, to outline the arguments in favor and/or against a particular position in a policy. Sometimes a brief looks at all of the possible alternatives and presents the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments for and against each. Other times, a brief takes a clear position and advocates in favor of a particular course of action. You may take either approach, or somewhere in between. In any case, “the purpose of the policy brief is to convince the target audience of the urgency of the current problem and the need to adopt the preferred alternative or course of action outlined and therefore, serve as an impetus for action,” by considering the strengths and weaknesses of possible courses of action. Your essay will be graded on the extent to which you capture the arguments in a controversy and on your facility with the conventions of scholarly writing in argumentation.
