Imagine you are writing a ‘letter to the editor’ or an editorial on a very specific issue
pertaining to civic engagement in our contemporary world.
• Write a letter that consists of a minimum of 300 words.
• Demonstrate in your letter how some incident, writing, or challenge from U.S. History (that
we have studied this semester) may provide some guidance in addressing this contemporary
issue
• Your letter should demonstrate expertise and a high level of research. You may include
endnotes and references if you so choose.
• Advocate in your editorial a specific course of action that may help to address the challenge
you wish to address. The specific course of action you advocate should be informed by the
lessons of the past.
• Your editorial may certainly engage in critique, but it should model civility, respect for
alternative views, and, above all, it should address theory, science, and/or policy, and not
engage in ad hominem attack or obloquy
