The spectrum of opinions one may hold on any issue is extensive. By now, if you have critically read and made notes on the introduction and several essays in your Opposing Viewpoints text, you may have some idea as to where you stand on a given issue. Perhaps you have what Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff in A Community of Writers describe as a “felt sense” for your point of view:

Felt sense may seem a vague concept, but we get new leverage in our writing if we realize that there is always something there “in mind” before we have words for it. In one sense, of course, we don’t know something until we have it in words. But in another sense we do indeed know quite a lot, and it’s a question of learning to...