College and controversial topics go hand in hand, making it a great time tosharpen your debate skills and determine your stance on today's most controversial issues. By the time you graduate, you'll likely have been involved in spirited classroom discussions, lively political disagreements, or even full-fledged protests.

At some point, you may also have to write about something controversial, such as capital punishment, abortion, or gun control. Exploring topics like these can challenge your worldview, personal ethics, and emotional instincts and make you a more clear-headed thinker.

The first step to writing any position paper or speech is to take a stance between two main arguments, which requires you to understand both perspectives and to back up your arguments with cold, hard facts.

For this assignment, you willanalyze a news article (or an article from a journal) and one TED Talks video. You can choose a news article about a current controversial issue and a video from one of the TED TALKS https://www.ted.com/talks (not less than 10 minutes long). The video and the article should take different sides of the same issue you are discussing. You also need to present your personal analysis of the topics discussed in the article and the video and your stance on the topicto the class.

Answer the following questions about the article and the video:

A. What are the primary topic, and the supporting details used by the author or the speaker to back up their claims?

B. Are the arguments solid and sound?

C. Are the conclusions made sound well supported by the evidence the author or speaker presented?

D. Do you see any differences or similarities between the views presented by the author or speaker?

E. What is your stance on the topic?

F. What are your arguments in support of or against your stance?

G. What are your counterarguments to refute the points presented by the author or speaker?

H. Recap the article, video, and your own position on the topic along with suggestions, recommendations, and predictions.