Question: I need to do polemic assignment form a newspaper editorial or an excerpt from a longer editorial, approximately 400 - 700 words, and critique its arguments point by point.
You must disagree with (not personally disagree; that's your business) with the editorial that you have chosen. It is helpful to pretend that you are writing to someone who disagrees with you and who agrees with the article you have chosen to critique. You are explaining why the article fails to prove its case. Your own experience and opinions only become relevant in refuting one of the article's points. Thus the assignment is somewhat akin to cross-examination in a debate.