For Students: Writing a Current Events Essay

Kelly Chester reports:

"Current event essays are assigned to inform students about important occurrences around the world. Students will learn to reflect and form opinions about social justice while also learning how to look for publication bias. As an academic skill, current events essays enhance reading comprehension skills and allow students to strengthen their argument writing skills...Choose an article from a reliable source, such as a major newspaper or periodical either in print or online, that best fits the current events assignment your teacher assigned you...After choosing an article, read through the article several times and highlight important points within the piece. Use a dictionary to define difficult words and read the article aloud to aid in reading comprehension. After reading, use your highlighted notes to jot down who, what, where, when and why. This will enable you to determine the angle of the article. Once you have an angle, develop a thesis statement that you can support using your article...In the first paragraph, introduce your article by sharing the title of the article, the author and publication. Then briefly summarize the article and state your thesis. Refer back to your highlighted article and use the body paragraphs to explain how the article proves your thesis statement...After you have completed the body of your current events essay, move to complete the conclusion. Be sure to reaffirm your thesis once more and make any other final thoughts or observations in your conclusion. The conclusion is a suitable place to discuss the possibility of bias in your article...Use the final moments of your essay to reflect on how bias informs you of the way in which your article was created."