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 federal marijuana legalization 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:

"marijuana legalization" and United States
"marijuana laws" and "United States"
"smartphone usage" and teenagers
"smartphone usage" and health

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
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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 marijuana?

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

What

What are the prevailing attitudes in America toward marijuana legalization 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. For both topics, the context should be the U.S.

Why

Why is the debate on marijuana legalization or the implications of social media/smartphone usage important to people?