Your draft will contain a minimum of 6 – 7 paragraphs:
— Introduction: please don’t outline your paper. Just explore your own feelings about, and understandings of, genius and madness. Relate this topic to your own life.

— Body of paper: follow the required outline.

A. What is genius?
1. Definition
2. Examples

B. What is madness?
1. Definition
2. Examples

C. How do the two relate and interact?
1. Discussion
2. Examples

D. YOUR THESIS: Does genius require madness?
1. Yes: defend
2. No: defend

E. Present your own choice: yes OR no.
1. Examples to illustrate

— Conclusion: Defend the opposition to your thesis. Watch your tone, here. It’s difficult to defend a point of view that is opposite of your own, but the audience for persuasive papers always and already disagrees with you. You are writing for/to your opposition. Logically: you don’t need to persuade an audience who already agrees with you. AND your goal should not be to persuade your opposition-audience to change their mind, but to consider your point of view. Respect is key here.

— References list at the end of your draft with a minimum of three (3) articles from NewsBank (or other of the listed databases: Academic One File, History Reference Center, JSTOR) quoted or paraphrased in your draft, with in-text citations.