Before I even started applying to colleges my parents had already talked about how expensive it was going to be and how best to get through four years with as little debt as possible. I knew that I was going to have to take out loans as my grades weren't good enough for a full ride to anywhere. The other choice to save money would have been to attend the local community college for my first two years and then transfer to a four-year college. After reading an article about student debt in English class I learned that as a nation we have a collective $1.3 trillion debt just from student loans. This surprised me because I hear from my parents and family friends how college used to cost a couple thousand dollars and now it costs tens of thousands of dollars. The reason that I decided to add on the political element is because of how prevalent the election is and how much change can come about, whether good or bad is yet to be seen. To make it a research question I decided to analyze a couple of the candidates; namely Hillary Clinton, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump. I analyzed their plans and compared them to each other to determine which solution resonated with me the most and explain my reasoning.

To begin this paper, I would start with a statistical and informative source to give the audience a background before reading the paper using the website for Project Student Debt. Instead of giving statistical information for the whole nation, I decided to focus on the University of South Carolina as the audience will find this more informative than the national averages. This article doesn't have a claim or persuasive angle as it just states information about student debt averages and other related information for each state. The source does give plenty of relevant information about the average debt for students at USC and the breakdown of where the debt collects from. The major values for this article are to inform every American, student or not, about the rising issue that is the student debt crisis. Their interests at stake consist of their work in creating and improving Income-driven repayment plans to keep federal loan payments manageable; strengthening Pell Grants, which reduce the need to borrow; and simplifying the financial aid application process. The Project Student Debt was launched by the Institute for College Access & Success and has been used as a reference source for multitudes of articles for its large array of information. It is also sited in another source that I plan on using that was written by the U.S. News & World History: Education.

The central claim for the article on Forbes.com talks about a large variety of topics associated the accumulation of student debt and increase in student loan interest rates. Topics such as the cost of federal loans, community colleges, the cost of debt and how it effects students, how to deal with the problem. The way that this article described dealing with the problem was by educating students on how to do things such as learning how about consolidating debt, and increasing students' information to both school's default and graduation rates. This means that the article is at stake of losing interest if their article does not inform the readers enough to make a difference. The author, Chris Denhart, has written several other articles pertaining to political topics such as "Opportunities Dawning For U.S. Renewable Energy Companies In Mexico" and "Grape King's Prince: Andrew Tseng Carries Forward Father's Pioneering Business." This gives him an insight on the climate of the political world and on potential solutions that are tangible and realistic and not fantastical.

The third source for my article from U.S. News & World History: Education will focus on the campaign platforms for four of the 2016 presidential candidates relating to their stance on student debt resolution. It gives a breakdown of Hillary Clinton, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump's statements on how they would resolve the student debt crisis. This article main interest was to inform the readers what some of the candidates have said about what they would do if they became president to lower the $1.2 trillion national student debt and the student loan interest rates. But more so the interest wasn't to persuade the reader of a certain candidate but rather to allow the reader to the best upon reading the information. The credibility of this source is very reliable because this article was written by such a well known news outlet such as U.S. News & World History: Education. Knowing that this is from such a well known source allows for the audience to be more likely believe the information and select a candidate.

My research question can be debatable by saying that the rise in student debt and loans only effects students currently in college and when I select a certain candidate's solution to student debt a reader could argue for another candidate's. There hasn't been any disagreement among my sources on how to resolve the debt but there hasn't been an agreement either. As each source argues for their own solution. Seeing the issue from many different perspectives allows me to make a more well rounded and informed research question that will produce the most effective paper. I might need to list which solution by a candidate that I agree with the most but other than that I haven't seen any more need for improvement.

