Essay #1: Definition



Essay #3: Argument (with Research)

English 50 – K. Douglass

DUE: Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Essay: 17% of final grade; requirements rubric: 5% of final grade

• This essay will be an argument essay like the one that we covered in Chapter 18 and 20.

• This essay must be a minimum of 1200 words and 5 paragraphs and must have at least one outside source that you find on your own and determine to reliable and credible. You will attach a copy of your source(s) with your Note Packet.

• Additional due dates:

• Tuesday, February 2: Proposed topic due in class, typed. Students selecting their own topics according to directions below will get a response by the end of the day.

• Wednesday, February 3: Thesis and topic sentence outline and list of researched likely source(s) in MLA format due; this will be turned in with the final paper.

• Thursday, February 4: Intro and first body paragraph due for workshopping to make sure you are on the right track.

• Monday, February 8: Full-length draft and works cited list due in class for peer review and a formal draft with highlights on quotation, summary and paraphrase due for Prof. Douglass– both drafts will be included in the packet with your final draft.

Remember that these three preliminary steps can happen in any order and can overlap. But the key idea is that you need to do all of them. Also remember that you can and should consult me or an instructor on duty in the WRC at any stage of this process for help shaping, organizing, drafting, or revising your essay. But make sure that you have a SPECIFIC question or area of concern when you approach an instructor in the Writing Center.

1. Choose your topic prompt

2. Consult and use the writing guide on page 272 for more advice about the writing process.

3. Brainstorm

a. Just start thinking about your topic – jot down some notes.

b. Use either the argument or research planning sheets to help you brainstorm.

4. Create a thesis: The thesis for an argument essay should make a clear argument and indicate how you intend to prove the main claim(s) of your argument; see pages 252-253 for discussion of a good argument thesis.

5. Make a sketch outline.

6. Write!

7. Read, Revise and Proofread

The Topics:

1. Using material from at least two of the four sources in chapter 48 and one article that you find on your own, write an essay either for or against social networking for a specific purpose. In order to write a successful essay, you will want to narrow your topics and think about a specific aspect of the topic (for example, you should argue in favor or against social networking when used for a specific use or narrowed category of uses).

2. Brent Staples’s essay “Just Walk On By” (p. 670) was written in 1986. That is now 30 years ago. In the last few years public violence and African Americans has become a more prominent national conversation and concern in the news and in daily life from Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012 to the death of Mike Brown in 2014 and ensuing protests in Ferguson, Missouri. One movement that has risen out of these events is the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Brent Staples is now an editorial writer for the New York Times and has continued to write on race and public issues as well as the #BlackLivesMatter movement specifically. Write a paper that uses Staples’s 1986 essay, the website that explains the movement in the words of its original creators, and one other related article from Brent Staples or covering issues of race in the United States in general or in relationship to specific cases or the Black Lives Matter movement specifically. Your essay should make an argument about the effectiveness or potential effectiveness of either A.) the #BlackLivesMatter movement or B.) editorial journalism like Brent Staples to help change either public understanding of, public involvement in, or real policy change that positively affects these problems.

(Identify your prompt as either 2A or 2B)

3. Using James Hamblin’s “How Much Caffeine Before I End Up in the ER?” (p. 627) and at least one other source that you find yourself, make an argument for or against more specific and strict regulation of energy drinks. Your argument should be specific in its recommendations.

4. Using Katy Hall and Chris Spurlock’s “Paid Parental Leave: U.S. vs. the World” and at least one other source that you find on your own, make an argument for or against increased paid parental leave. Your thesis will need to be somewhat specific about how much paid parental leave and for what kinds of companies and work organizations you are in favor of or against.

5. If you have a topic related to one of the class readings that can be transformed into a researched argument paper, you can submit that proposed topic in writing by February 2; I will let you know by the end of the day if your topic has been approved or if you need to select one of the above four. You must include the Real Skills essay that your topic is linked to and that will be one of the required sources. The other will be a related article that you find on your own.

Essay #3

Formal Draft with Highlights

Due in class (NO GRACE PERIOD): Monday, February 8

Monday, February 8 is a peer editing day. You will bring two copies of your essay draft:

1. A regular typed draft copy to read over with your peer editing partner, make notes on, and take home at the end of that day.

2. A second copy of your typed draft that you will turn in to me so that I can give you feedback (no grade) before the final draft is due. On this draft you will also had highlights to indicate your use of direct quotations, paraphrases, and summary. You should also attach this sheet with the bottom part in bold filled out.

Drafts should be a 1200 words (the final essay requirement) but they MUST be 900 for full credit. In place of the unwritten 300+ words, you will have outline points and/or a summary of what is still to be filled in. Even though I am looking at this draft, I am mostly looking at structure and use of sources so, remember that any other help from me can and should be from us conferencing about your paper in office hours or in the WRC or through smaller questions via email.

Remember your definitions (consult your textbook or the Purdue OWL if you need more definition)

Direct Quotation: When you use a phrase or sentence or more word for word and use quotation marks to indicate where the source’s words begin and end.

Paraphrase: When you preserve most of the detail in the original, but you put it in your own words and sentence structure.

Summary: When you use just the main idea or few key ideas from a source and do so using your own words and sentence structure.

On the front page of your draft, assign a different highlighter color to each of these ways of using a source (you can just handwrite this at the top of the paper).

Go through your draft and highlight each bit of text that is from a source, using the appropriate color to indicate direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary.

I will definitely look at:

• Proper use of sources

• Thesis to topic sentence relationship and organization

• Any other specific single question/grammar issue that you have that you put here: __________________________________________________________________________________

Because I will giving these back within 24 hours, I will not be able to look at much more than the three items above, so do not think that just because I don’t comment on something in the draft that it is perfect.

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