URBS 230—Community Leadership and Service Learning

Editorial

This is an exercise in persuasive writing. Del Mar College has a very good short description of the persuasive essay.

For this assignment, you must write an editorial suitable for a local newspaper (this is a useful skill for a community leader to have). You must address the question, “How do you build a community’s capacity to solve its own problems?”

This means—

1) What does it mean to “build a community’s capacity”?

2) How can anyone “build” a community’s capacity? Is such a thing even possible?

3) How can you build a community’s capacity?

You will be tempted to write an academic analysis of whatever position you espouse (after all, that is what we have taught you to write), but that would be a mistake. This is “exposition,” not persuasion. Usually, when you are trying to persuade someone it is in some context. In other words, you need to address some situation in which democratic leadership is called into question, and use that situation to position your argument. For example, you might address the impasse in the State as the Democratic Legislature and the Republican Governor pursue their separate agendas and as a result the State suffers as neither gets either. Or…. There are a scadzillion good examples.

Also, remember that no good argument has only one side—if it did, there wouldn’t be any need to persuade people; we would all bow to the inevitability of the solution (Have you ever noticed how no one debates the merits of gravity? Or the wisdom of staying in a burning building?). If you wish to convince me, you must consider my strongest objections to your position and provide a good response to them.

Most newspaper editorials are about 500-750 words long.

MSU