For a FYW150 course using the “controversy” model, a good early paper asks students to construct a “map” of different stakeholder views in a controversy.

Challenges FYW students tend to encounter are

• Creating a main theme: so the paper goes beyond flat summary and list-making; teaching students to add a layer of interpretation as a frame for the summary can be necessary
• Avoiding advocacy: students want to agree/disagree with views as they paraphrase
• Avoiding caricaturized versions of stakeholder views, especially when they disagree with them; and
• Staying “close” to arguments and texts, narrowing down to key points, and capturing complexity well, rather than veering into generalized discussion.

Here is the example paper prompt: Controversy Map