Page 1 of 4
TRADE TARIFF ESSAY ASSIGNMENT
Contents
· Essay Prompt
· Instructions for Using This Template
· Points to Remember
· Table 1. Organizing Your Data
· Essay Page. Constructing Your 5-Paragraph Essay
· Compile and Format Your Bibliography
Essay Prompt
Will the Trump Administration’s trade tariffs mostly benefit or mostly harm the US economy?
Instructions for Using This Template
1. Click Save As and include your full name in the file name (this makes it much easier for me to quickly see whose document is whose).
2. Browse current news and reports (e.g., analyses, projections) on the Trump Administration’s enacted and proposed trade tariffs. Based on what you read, do you believe that, ultimately, these tariffs will mostly harm or mostly benefit the US economy?
3. In Table 1, create an outline of your ideas, based on empirical evidence. You do not need to create footnotes to this table, but you should paste the URLs of the sources into the boxes so that you can quickly locate them later, when you are constructing the essay.
4. Use the essay page below the table to develop a 5-paragraph essay, based on the structure and data you organized in your outline.
5. Include footnotes in your essay and a bibliography at the end of the essay, using Chicago Style’s Notes and Bibliography system.
Points to Remember
· Policies are rarely one-sided. They often have delicate and nuanced effects on a nation’s economy, political atmosphere, labor force, public discourse, and daily life. Your essay must still make a claim, but a well-reasoned argument will convince the reader of the position while recognizing the complexity of the situation.
· Use professional sources as identified in our previous work. It is okay if you use all news articles, but remember that reports and raw data are strong sources as well.
· Each of the three body paragraphs should cite 2 or 3 unique sources, for a total of 6 to 9 total sources for the essay.
Table 1. Organizing Your Essay
| · Main Thesis | Mostly benefit or Mostly harm? |
| · Supporting Claim 1 (≤ 5 Words) | In this cell list two or three pieces of data (e.g., percentage increase in a particular financial indicator over a specified or projected time frame) or specific examples (e.g., a policy shift or other change in the economic, political, labor, or social environment) that support Supporting Claim 1. The difference between the green column (left) and the yellow column (right) is that the green cells are a brief but general reference (e.g., “exploding GDP”), whereas the yellow cells are specifics (e.g., “5% increase over the previous two quarters” or “new policy in 2016 incentivizing large retail companies to increase jobs”). You do not have to write full sentences in the yellow boxes. You do not have to include footnotes to this table, but you should paste the URLs of your sources directly above or below the supporting points so that you remember where they came from. |
| · Supporting Claim 2 (≤ 5 Words) | List one or two pieces of data or specific examples that support Supporting Claim 2 |
| · Supporting Claim 3 (≤ 5 Words) | List one or two pieces of data or specific examples that support Supporting Claim 3 |
Constructing Your 5-Paragraph Essay
On this page (and the next, if needed), you will construct your 5-paragraph essay using the information you compiled above. The instructions below provide details on how to organize your essay. Please of course delete the instructions as you write each paragraph. Each paragraph should fall within the required word-count range to avoid an overly sparse or dense essay.
Paragraph 1 (States main thesis and overviews the three supporting claims): Start with a thesis sentence that concisely and clearly states your overall thesis (mostly benefit/mostly harm) and that briefly mentions or summarizes why (this could be a short list of the three reasons, or you could somehow summarize or group those reasons into an overarching idea or ideas). Then, state the three reasons specifically so that the reader knows exactly what your supporting claims are. You do not need to include a transition sentence at the end of Paragraph 1 unless you would like to. No footnotes are needed in this paragraph because you are just providing the skeleton for your argument. For the same reasons, you also do not need to include data or specific examples in this paragraph (save those for the body paragraphs). Paragraph 1 should range between 60 and 100 words.
Paragraph 2 (All about Supporting Claim 1): Use the first of your three supporting claims (not your main thesis) as the topic sentence for this paragraph. Try to use new wording rather than simply copying and pasting your first claim from above, but make sure that you do not inadvertently change the meaning while doing so. Then, using 2 to 3 professional sources, provide data, details, and/or specific examples that show why this claim is logical and valid. Think to yourself—why am I confident in this supporting claim? What evidence will give the reader confidence in this claim? Remember to cite a source (using a full source footnote) for any point that you make that is not your own idea and is not common knowledge. If you need to cite the same source in a subsequent sentence in this paragraph or another paragraph, you can use the shortened version. Paragraph 2 should range between 75 and 125 words.
Paragraph 3 (All about Supporting Claim 2): Use the second of your three supporting claims as the topic sentence for this paragraph. Using 2 to 3 professional sources, provide data, details, and/or specific examples to support the claim. Try to include a transition at the end or beginning of each paragraph to show the reader how the ideas are fitting together. Transitions are not always necessary but are often helpful. Cite your sources. Paragraph 3 should range between 75 and 125 words.
Paragraph 4 (All about Supporting Claim 3): Same format as previous two paragraphs but focused on Claim 3. Cite your sources. Paragraph 4 should range between 75 and 125 words.
Paragraph 5 (Conclusion): Remind the reader of your overall thesis, ideally without simply copying and pasting from above (your reader will get bored and annoyed if you are copying and pasting your own ideas throughout the essay). Remember that your conclusion should only be based on the evidence you have provided. Do not overextend and begin to make arguments that your essay cannot support. This paragraph can be short (probably just two to three sentences) to leave the reader with your essay’s take-home message. Paragraph 5 should range between 30 and 60 words.
Bibliography
Please follow CMOS style to create a list of all of your sources. This is in addition to the footnotes because it gives the reader the opportunity to scan your sources quickly in alphabetical order. Remember to invert the first author’s last name for each source so that you can alphabetize your bibliography (this is not done for footnotes, only the bibliography).
