2. Explore Your Topic

After thoroughly examining your assignment, now it's time to pick your topic and start doing some initial background research. Remember, your topic choices are:

1) Argue for/against prison labor policies in the United States

2) Argue for/against the dangers of social media/smartphone usage by teenagers and/or adults

*Tip: Decide what your opinion on the issue is; you cannot argue both sides.

When you're ready, try a search in the following database to learn more about your topic.

Some initial searches might be:

"prison labor" and policy
"prison labor" and corporations
"smartphone usage" and teenagers
"smartphone usage" and health

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
- This link opens in a new window
Viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites.

Analyze Your Topic

Who

Who are the people or organizations that determine the United States' policies on prison labor?

Who are the people in American society who hold various opinions about social media/smartphones?

What

What are the prevailing attitudes in America toward prison labor policies OR social media/smartphones. What has influenced these attitudes?

When

Have attitudes toward either issue in the United States changed over time? If so, when, and why?

Where

For either topic, you should focus on the United States and how these issues are reflected in American society. Especially for the topic of prison labor policies, you need to focus on the U.S. context.

Why

Why is the debate on prison labor policies or the implications of social media/smartphone usage important to people?