Write 1,500 words on one of the following questions or topics. Write a focused, carefully crafted argument, in which you pay close attention to your writing on three scales: “global,” “regional,” and “local.” By these scales, I mean the following:
 GLOBAL = overall structure. Make sure to indicate early in your essay exactly what point you will be arguing, exploring, defending; keep focused on that point throughout your paper; use that point to give your essay structure, direction, purpose. 
REGIONAL = paragraph structure. The first sentence of a paragraph keeps the essay focused by making an argumentative claim (that is, a claim that could be disputed, not a simply factual claim). The body of the paragraph should explain, detail, or elaborate upon the topic sentence claim, and it should include specific textual evidence (in the form of paraphrases and direct quotations) in support of the claim made in the topic sentence. 
LOCAL = sentence structure. Pay close attention to grammar, spelling, the mechanics of sentence structure. Clean presentation inspires confidence in your ideas; sloppiness calls them into question. Here’s a helpful tip: after you’ve written a draft, do one or all of the following: 1) read it out loud; 2) have a friend read it out loud to you; 3) have a friend edit it; 4) read it backwards, beginning with your final word (you will catch spelling mistakes this way). We will talk editing strategies in discussion board and chat sessions 
Topic: 
  According to reputable polling results over the past 30 years, Americans remain dubious about and even hostile to evolutionary theory as an explanation for human origins and development”though this situation is (it seems fitting in light of the subject) seems to be slowly evolving. A large percentage of Americans continue to subscribe to a creationist account of life’s origins. Explore this hostility to evolution, or this amenability to creationism. Here are some questions to get you started.
 Why is this the case? That is, why do you think such a large percentage of Americans resists evolution and embraces an often very narrow religious explanation of human origins, as the poll shows? Why does the idea of evolution meet with such widespread resistance, both in private and in the public sphere? What is the nature of the creation-evolution conflict, and why does it remain so ideologically, socially, and politically divisive? What is at stake in the debate between evolutionists and creationists? Is it really a debate at all? Where do you locate yourself in it? If you select this option, make sure to explain exactly what science is, in the evolutionary context, and what religion is, and what kinds of questions each way of thinking can and does address.