Required Essay 4 (RE4)

Choose between one of the following prompts on which to write a 2.5-3 page report:

Option A:

You are an intelligence analyst for the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). Your group brings together analysts and specialists from the CIA, the FBI, the DoD, and other federal agencies. With the personnel changes arising from the transition between two presidential administrations, you are in charge of writing and disseminating a brief report explaining the Center’s accepted definition of terrorism, the differences in types of terrorism, and the possible avenues for terrorists to acquire nuclear-explosive materials or nuclear weapons. This report will serve as an introductory document to facilitate a more productive discussion of concerns about nuclear terrorism.

Based on input from the students, this is the rubric for option A.

Option B:

You are a writer for Scientific American, and your editor has assigned you to provide a brief report on some of the key aspects of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal. This report should serve as a high quality summary of the major points of the agreement, both in terms of Iran’s commitments in regards to proliferation as well as the promised responses of the other actors involved.

Based on input from the students, this is the rubric for option B.

RE4v1

In your March 12 writing lab you should have chosen between the two above options. Please contact your TA if you have forgotten which option you chose. 

This page will be updated after the grading rubrics created in the March 26 writing labs have been compiled by the TAs. It will be updated to contain guidelines for both options A and B as well as instructions for the RE4v1 writer's memo and peer response.

This report should be 2.5-3 pages.

RE4v1 is due Thursday, March 29 at 1pm electronically and 2pm in class. The RE4v1 peer response is due Monday, April 9 at 10am. 

In addition to RE4v1, please submit a writer's memo. This writer's memo should point your peer respone partner to two sections of the rubric you expect to be dinged hardest on and ask for feedback specific to improve in those areas. 

Writer's memo format:

• Title the memo: "RE4v1 - Memo".
• The writer's memo will be on a separate page. Write your name in the same format as specified for the essay.
• The memo must not exceed 0.5 pages in length.
• This will allow the TAs, and yourselves, to better understand why certain feedback was incorporated and why other suggestions may not have been. Self-reflection on feedback is a useful tool in professional technical writing to justify your though process to the reviewers. 

RE4 Sequence Schedule