English 1302 - Introduction to Argumentative Writing



ENGL 1302 – Reading, Writing, & Critical Thinking II

|Professor: Barbara Noyes |Office: 212 Carlisle Hall |

|Email: noyes@uta.edu |Office Hours: T and Th 12:30-2pm |

|Phone: English Dept. (message only) |ENGL 1302.021 9.30-10.50 COBA 140 |

|817-272-2692 |ENGL 1302.025 11-12.20 COBA 140 |

|Phone: Home (before 9pm) 817-713-0909 |Course website: noyes1302. |

Required Texts: From Critical Thinking to Argument: A Portable Guide, 2nd Ed. by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau (FCT2A), A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker. Course readings provided by instructor.

Course Description. English 1302: Introduction to Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing II is a course that builds on the skills learned in English 1301 by providing a more extensive introduction to rhetorical and argument theories. Students learn to identify a controversial issue independently, research that issue by navigating library databases, compile a bibliography of relevant sources, map the conversation surrounding the issue, and advocate their own position by developing claims supported by good reasons and evidence. Students continue to practice recursive reading and writing processes and develop a more sophisticated awareness of context and audience.

ENGL 1302 Expected Learning Outcomes. In ENGL 1302, students build on the knowledge and information that they learned in ENGL 1301. By the end of ENGL 1302, students should be able to:

Rhetorical Knowledge

• Identify and analyze the components and complexities of a rhetorical situation

• Use knowledge of audience, exigence, constraints, genre, tone, diction, syntax, and structure to produce situation-appropriate argumentative texts, including texts that move beyond formulaic structures

• Know and use special terminology for analyzing and producing arguments

• Practice and analyze informal logic as used in argumentative texts

Critical Reading, Thinking, and Writing

• Understand the interactions among critical thinking, critical reading, and writing

• Integrate personal experiences, values, and beliefs into larger social conversations and contexts

• Find, evaluate, and analyze primary and secondary sources for appropriateness, timeliness, and validity

• Produce situation-appropriate argumentative texts that synthesize sources with their own ideas and advance the conversation on an important issue

• Provide valid, reliable, and appropriate support for claims, and analyze evidentiary support in others’ texts

Processes

• Practice flexible strategies for generating, revising, and editing complex argumentative texts

• Engage in all stages of advanced, independent library research

• Practice writing as a recursive process that can lead to substantive changes in ideas, structure, and supporting evidence through multiple revisions

• Use the collaborative and social aspects of writing to critique their own and others’ arguments

Conventions

• Apply and develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics, and be aware of the field-specific nature of these conventions

• Summarize, paraphrase, and quote from sources using appropriate documentation style

• Revise for style and edit for features such as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling

• Employ technologies to format texts according to appropriate stylistic conventions

Peer Reviews. Each essay will include mandatory peer review workshops. You will be required to include all peer review materials in the paper’s final folder in order to receive full credit. It is very important that you attend class on peer review days, as you will not be able to make up these points.

Grades. Grades in FYC are A, B, C, F, and Z. Students must pass ENGL 1301 and ENGL 1302 with a grade of C or higher in order to move on to the next course. This policy is in place because of the key role that First-Year English courses play in students’ educational experiences at UTA. The Z grade is reserved for students who attend class regularly, participate actively, and complete all the assigned work on time but simply fail to write well enough to earn a passing grade. This judgment is made by the instructor and not necessarily based upon a number average. The Z grade is intended to reward students for good effort. While students who receive a Z will not get credit for the course, the Z grade will not affect their grade point average. They may repeat the course for credit until they do earn a passing grade. The F grade, which does negatively affect GPA, goes to failing students who do not attend class regularly, do not participate actively, or do not complete assigned work.

Final Course Grade Distribution:

|In-Class Writing 10% |Researched Position Paper 25% |

|Annotated Bibliography 10% |Researched Position Paper Draft 10% |

|Toulmin Analysis 10% |Group Presentation 10% |

|Reader Responses 10% |Peer Reviews 10% |

|Blog Responses 5% | Total |

| |100% |

Final grades will be calculated as follows: A=90-100%, B=80-89%, C=70-79%, F=69%-and below; Z=see the Z grade policy above.

All major essay projects must be completed to pass the course. If you fail to complete an essay project, you will fail the course, regardless of your average. All essay projects must be turned in with a two-pocket folder containing all drafts, peer review sheets, and other materials for that project. Keep all papers until you receive your final grade from the university. You cannot challenge a grade without evidence.

Late Assignments and Extensions. Late assignments will only be accepted if you speak to me about your situation before (not on) the due date. A request for an extension of time must be made in person or over the phone, and you must speak with me, before the paper is due. A text message, voicemail, or email in the middle of the night does not constitute prior notice for the purposes of this policy. Even if you are absent, you are expected to turn in the assigned homework on time, electronically via email with a hardcopy due on the day you return to class. Otherwise, papers handed in late will have a full letter grade deducted for each class period that they are late, with the exception of in-class writing. In-class writing is to be done, by definition, in-class, so it cannot be submitted for credit at a later date. If you miss class, then a zero will be marked in the grade book for in-class writing on the day(s) you are absent.

Revision policy. Revision is an important means for improving both the writing process and the final product. Students have the option of revising two major essays—the Annotated Bibliography and the Research Position Paper—after they have been graded. The original grade and revision grade will be averaged to arrive at the student’s final grade for the essay. The last major paper, after it has been submitted for grading, cannot be revised for a higher grade. Rewrites will be due one week after the original paper is returned and no extensions will be given. I will be available by appointment in case you want to go over the paper with me. Also, you must turn in the original paper along with the rewrite. If the rewrite does not address the comments in the original draft, then the original grade will stand.

Attendance Policy. Improvement in writing is a complex process that requires a great deal of practice and feedback from readers. Regular attendance is thus necessary for success in ENGL 1301. Students are expected to attend class regularly and to arrive on time. Excused absences include official university activities, military service, and/or religious holidays. Students must inform the instructor in writing at least one week in advance of an excused absence. Much of the work done in class is collaborative; it is beneficial for you to communicate with others as ideas come to you, as well as when you are working through your papers. Chronic lateness is unacceptable, as is coming to class unprepared and unread. It is important that you come to class on time and be ready to work – you will have a much more productive and enjoyable experience if you do. In addition to coming to class prepared and ready to work, it is important to be respectful of the other people in class. This means that all opinions will be heard, that there will be no talking while others have the floor, that work will be critiqued but not criticized, and that our classroom will be treated as an environment for learning. Any violation of this policy could result in a loss of response points. Chronic absence will result in a low in-class writing grade, which can drop your final course grade by a full letter.

Classroom behavior. Class sessions are short and require your full attention. All cell phones, pagers, iPods, MP3 players, laptops, and other electronic devices should be turned off and put away when entering the classroom; all earpieces should be removed. Store newspapers, crosswords, magazines, bulky bags, and other distractions so that you can concentrate on the readings and discussions each day. Bring book(s) and e-reserve readings (heavily annotated and carefully read) to every class. Students are expected to participate respectfully in class, to listen to other class members, and to comment appropriately. I also expect consideration and courtesy from students. Professors are to be addressed appropriately and communicated with professionally. According to Student Conduct and Discipline, "students are prohibited from engaging in or attempting to engage in conduct, either alone or in concert with others, that is intended to obstruct, disrupt, or interfere with, or that in fact obstructs, disrupts, or interferes with any instructional, educational, research, administrative, or public performance or other activity authorized to be conducted in or on a University facility. Obstruction or disruption includes, but is not limited to, any act that interrupts, modifies, or damages utility service or equipment, communication service or equipment, or computer equipment, software, or networks” (UTA Handbook or Operating Procedures, Ch. 2, Sec. 2-202). Students who do not respect the guidelines listed above or who disrupt other students’ learning may be asked to leave class and/or referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Academic Integrity. It is the philosophy of The University of Texas at Arlington that academic dishonesty is a completely unacceptable mode of conduct and will not be tolerated in any form. All persons involved in academic dishonesty will be disciplined in accordance with University regulations and procedures. Discipline may include suspension or expulsion from the University. "Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts" (Regents’ Rules and Regulations, Series 50101, Section 2.2) You can get in trouble for plagiarism by failing to correctly indicate places where you are making use of the work of another. It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the conventions of citation by which you indicate which ideas are not your own and how your reader can find those sources. Read your textbook and/or handbook for more information on quoting and citing properly to avoid plagiarism. If you still do not understand, ask your instructor. All students caught plagiarizing or cheating will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Americans with Disabilities Act. The University of Texas at Arlington is on record as being committed to both the spirit and letter of all federal equal opportunity legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). All instructors at UT Arlington are required by law to provide "reasonable accommodations" to students with disabilities, so as not to discriminate on the basis of that disability. Any student requiring an accommodation for this course must provide the instructor with official documentation in the form of a letter certified by the staff in the Office for Students with Disabilities, University Hall 102. Only those students who have officially documented a need for an accommodation will have their request honored. Information regarding diagnostic criteria and policies for obtaining disability-based academic accommodations can be found at uta.edu/disability or by calling the Office for Students with Disabilities at (817) 272-3364.

Drop Policy. Students may drop or swap (adding and dropping a class concurrently) classes through self-service in MyMav from the beginning of the registration period through the late registration period. After the late registration period, students must see their academic advisor to drop a class or withdraw. Undeclared students must see an advisor in the University Advising Center. Drops can continue through a point two-thirds of the way through the term or session. It is the student's responsibility to officially withdraw if they do not plan to attend after registering. Students will not be automatically dropped for non-attendance. Repayment of certain types of financial aid administered through the University may be required as the result of dropping classes or withdrawing. Contact the Financial Aid Office for more information.

Writing Center. The Writing Center, Room 411 in the Central Library, provides tutoring for any UTA student with a writing assignment. Writing Center tutors are carefully chosen and trained, and they can help students at any stage of their writing processes, from understanding an assignment to revising an early draft to polishing a final draft. However, the Writing Center is not an editing service; tutors will not correct students’ errors or rewrite the assignment for them, but tutors will help students become better editors of their own writing. Tutors are familiar with the requirements for most assignments in first-year English classes. Tutoring sessions last no longer than 30 minutes, and students are limited to one tutoring session a day and two sessions a week. Students can schedule Writing Center appointments by logging in to uta. During their first visit to the web site, students must complete a brief registration form. On subsequent visits, they can go directly to the schedule to make their appointments. Students who come to the Writing Center without an appointment are helped on a first-come, first-served basis as tutors become available. During long semesters, Writing Center hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday; and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. For summer hours or for additional information, students should visit the Writing Center web site, uta.edu/owl.

Library Research Help for Students in the First-Year English Program. UT Arlington Library offers many ways for students to receive help with writing assignments:

Paper’s Due Drop Inn. The Paper’s Due Drop Inn is a drop-in service available during the Fall and Spring semesters. On Monday through Thursday, from 4pm – 6pm, in room B20 (located in the basement of Central Library), librarians will be available to assist students with research and/or citation. On most days, there will also be a tutor available from the Writing Center who can help with any problems students may have with organizing or writing papers.

Course-Specific Guides. All First-Year English courses have access to research guides that assist students with required research. To access the guides go to . Search for the course number in the search box located at the top of the page. The research guides direct students to useful databases, as well as provide information about citation, developing a topic/thesis, and receiving help.

Virtual Office Hours. Librarians who specialize in first-year students will be available online two evenings each week to assist students with research and citation. The ENGL 1301 and ENGL 1302 research guides include a chat box that makes it possible to IM a librarian without logging in to your own account. This page will also indicate the exact days/times the service is available. During Virtual Office Hours, students can IM the librarian at utavoh.

Additional Academic Resources. The University of Texas at Arlington provides a variety of resources and programs designed to help students develop academic skills, deal with personal situations, and better understand concepts and information related to their courses. These resources include tutoring, major-based learning centers, developmental education, advising and mentoring, personal counseling, and federally funded programs. For individualized referrals to resources for any reason, students may contact the Maverick Resource Hotline at 817-272-6107 or visit uta.edu/resources for more information.

Electronic Communication Policy. All students must have access to a computer with internet capabilities. Students should check email daily for course information and updates. I will send group emails through MyMav. I am happy to communicate with students through email. However, I ask that you be wise in your use of this tool. Make sure you have consulted the syllabus for answers before you send me an email. Remember, I do not monitor my email 24 hours a day. I check it periodically during the school week and occasionally on the weekend. The University of Texas at Arlington has adopted the University “MavMail” address as the sole official means of communication with students. MavMail is used to remind students of important deadlines, advertise events and activities, and permit the University to conduct official transactions exclusively by electronic means. For example, important information concerning registration, financial aid, payment of bills, and graduation are now sent to students through the MavMail system. All students are assigned a MavMail account. Students are responsible for checking their MavMail regularly. Information about activating and using MavMail is available at . There is no additional charge to students for using this account, and it remains active even after they graduate from UT Arlington.

Conferences and Questions: I have three regularly scheduled office hours each week. These times are reserved for students to drop by or to make an appointment to discuss course assignments, grades, or other class-related concerns. I will be happy to make other appointment times for you if your class schedule conflicts with regular conference times or if I am not available on certain days. If you receive a grade on an assignment or quiz about which you have questions, please wait twenty-four hours before discussing it with me. This gives you time to process the assignment comments and to think about how your course work meets the requirements set forth for each assignment. I do not discuss individual student issues in the classroom before, during or after class.

Syllabus and Schedule Changes. Instructors try to make their syllabuses as complete as possible; however, during the course of the semester they may be required to alter, add, or abandon certain policies/assignments. Instructors reserve the right to make such changes as they become necessary. Students will be informed of any changes in writing.

Course Schedule. Assignments are due on the day they are listed.

|Week of 8/26 |Day One |Class Introduction and Syllabus Review |

|Week of 8/31 |Day One |FCT2A p.1-24 Critical Thinking, reading: “Putting Up the Gates” |

| | |Response Due |

| |Day Two | “The Perils of Obedience” Response Due |

|Week of |Day One | FCT2A p. 25-45 Critical Reading, reading: A Modest Proposal |

|9/7 | |Response Due |

| |Day Two |Joseph Stack Suicide Manifesto Response Due |

|Week of |Day One |FCT2A p. 255-269 Toulmin, Exercise: Condemn or Condone |

|9/14 | |Blog Response 1 Due |

| |Day Two |Library Instruction: Meet in B20 Central Library |

|Week of 9/21 |Day One |Toulmin cont. |

| | |Response Due: Condemn or Condone Letter |

| |Day Two |FCT2A p.45-61 Ethos, Pathos, Logos / Commercials |

|Week of 9/28 |Day One | Library Instruction: Meet in 315A Central Library |

| |Day Two |FCT2A p.61-88 Evidence & Appeals “Nuremberg Law” Response Due |

|Week of |Day One |FCT2A p.270-310 Logic & Fallacies |

|10/5 | |Summary Response Due: Letter to the Editor |

| |Day Two |FCT2A p. 89-115 Visual Rhetoric/ Summary Response of Photo Due |

|Week of |Day One |FCT2A p.115-132 Analyzing Argument |

|10/12 | | |

| |Day Two |Workshop Presentations Blog Response 2 Due |

|Week of 10/19 |Day One |FCT2A p. 133-174 Planning, Drafting, & Revising an Argument |

| |Day Two |Strategic Writing Drills Annotated Bibliography Scrapbook Due |

|Week of 10/26 |Day One |FCT2A p. 175-252 Using Sources |

| |Day Two |Library Instruction: Meet in B20 Central Library |

|Week of 11/2 |Day One |Research Position Paper Draft Due |

| | |Peer Reviews |

| |Day Two |Workshop Presentations |

|Week of |Day One |Position Paper Drafts Returned |

|11/9 | |Essay presentations – Groups 1 & 2 |

| |Day Two |Essay presentations – Groups 3 & 4 |

|Week of 11/16 |Day One |Essay presentations – Groups 5 & 6 |

| |Day Two |FCT2A p. 311-326 RESEARCH POSITION PAPER DUE |

|Week of 11/23 |Day One |Reading Day |

| | |Workshop Position Papers |

| |Day Two |Thanksgiving Holiday – No Class |

|Week of 11/30 |Day One | Research Position Paper Returned |

| | |Begin movie day |

| |Day Two |Finish Movie, Toulmin Workshop |

|Week of |Day One |Toulmin Workshop |

|12/7 | | |

| |Day Two |Toulmin Analysis Due, Course Evaluations |

|Week of 12/14 | |Finals Week – No Class |

Writing Assignments

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TURNED IN AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS ON THE DUE DATE OR THEY ARE CONSIDERED LATE.

Writing Assignment Format

All writing assignments, unless otherwise noted, must be typed 12 point New Times Roman, double spaced with one inch margins, and I know what one inch looks like. Do not put extra spaces between paragraphs. Do not fully justify your text. Also all assignments must have your name on each page and page numbers. Assignments must be submitted in a two-pocket folder with all drafts and process materials. The assignments should also have an informative title – something more than “paper one.” If these format requirements are not followed, points may be deducted from the final score. For example:

Student Name

Professor Noyes

ENGL 1302

Date

Really Snappy Title

Also, do your best to proofread your papers prior to turning them in. Proof reading errors might be fragment sentences, comma splices, tabs that are more than five spaces, wrong words used i.e., then instead of than or their instead of there. As I become familiar with your individual writing styles, I will offer personalized commentary and suggestions for improvement.

Summary/Response Papers

Over the 16 week semester, we will read quite a lot. In order to help you absorb and engage the material, I would like you to create a Reading Journal of Summary/Response papers. You will write a two - three page response to the week’s assigned reading. The response will include the following:

✓ A 3-4 sentence summary of the main idea or central point of the material under discussion.

✓ A smooth transition between that summary and what comes next.

✓ An analysis of the text. This might include comparing or contrasting it to another text we have read or elsewhere, placing the text in a more familiar context, drawing conclusions based on your understanding, making a distinction the author doesn’t, examining the author’s (or your) assumptions, and so on.

✓ Your personal response to the material/ideas based on your prior knowledge and experience and any personal connections you make with the text(s).

✓ Fulfill documentation requirement with correct in-text citation, which includes page numbers after paraphrases and direct quotations plus naming the author appropriately. We will work throughout the semester to improve these skills, and your handbook has everything you need to do it properly.

For this assignment you should summarize the assigned chapters and then respond to these chapters in a thoughtful way. You should make connections between the chapters in the analysis part of your response or you may find that there is a theme or issue that you feel passionately about in these readings and wish to respond to that theme or issue. The personal response is the place to share your thoughts on the readings; therefore, you may address the response in any way you wish. However, whether you agree or disagree with what the article authors have to say, in whole or part, you should explain why you agree or disagree or why you hold the beliefs you do. One theory about why writing is important is that writing helps people think. As a result, this assignment requires you to think in a different way than you may have thought about readings in school previously.

Presentations

For this assignment you will need to sign up to present one text with a group of like-minded students. In addition to teaching the class about the text you’ve chosen, you will need to supplement the information by providing updated information about the topic. However you wish to present this information is up to you, but you will be rewarded for creativity and maintaining the audience’s interest. Each presentation should be approximately 30 min in length, which should include your presentation and time for questions. A detailed assignment sheet will be provided at a later date.

The Annotated Bibliography as Scrapbook

Find 10 sources that deal with your issue and present varying positions. Make sure to vary your sources (printed articles [not available online], articles from the Web, websites, books, magazines, academic journals, etc.) You should be aware that many scholarly journals are available from the library databases. This does not count as an article from the Web and should be cited as if you had the printed journal in front of you. You should rely more heavily on scholarly journals, however, only one source may be from independent websites. Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source and over reliance on CQ Researcher will result in a loss of points in this assignment. Once you have decided on your ten sources, you will have to read and analyze them and take extensive notes. If they are long or book length articles, then do your best to skim them. Always look at the table of contents, the chapter headings, and the index or bibliography in the back. You can learn a lot about a book from doing these things before you read it at length. You will then go back and read carefully the parts that are relevant to your position paper.

Now, make a list. List the sources alphabetically by author’s last name, using MLA citation style, and then write a 3/4 to one page, single spaced annotation of your source. Information that should be included in your annotation might be:

❖ Summarizing the article with a slant that benefits your position, DO NOT evaluate the source, you are basically writing your paper one source at a time.

❖ The major claim that the author is making,

❖ You may want to make connections between one entry and another entry to make their connections explicit.

❖ Quotations that you might use in your paper.

You may put one entry on a page. Here is an example:

Arnove, Robert and Carlos Alberto Torres. “Adult Education and State Policy in Latin

America: The Contrasting Cases of Mexico and Nicaragua.” Comparative

Education 31.3 (1995): 311-325.

Arnove and Torres examine adult education in two different political environments: the incrementalist approach in Mexico and the structuralist approach in Nicaragua. A and T found that illiteracy rates in Latin America were highest among rural women. Additionally, in Mexico, which has a relatively low illiteracy rate, the illiteracy rate among indigenous peoples is staggering at over 40% (312). As a result of the low priority placed on adult education there have been two methods of meeting the demands of adult education. The first is non-formal education which is “any organized and systematic educational activity conducted outside the framework of the formal system and having the objective of imparting selected types of knowledge and skills to particular subgroups of the population” (313). The second, popular education, is in response to government intrusion into the educational process. Popular education, then, “proposes a methodology for learning which is participatory and egalitarian, which builds upon communal knowledge and adds needed skills and knowledge, while attempting to develop among low-income sectors a critical consciousness and understanding of how society functions” (313).

The Mexican government after the revolution is based on four premises: “redistribution of land, strengthening of labor unions, mass education and the principle of non-re-election” (316). In the arena of mass education, the Mexican government has made strides to reduce illiteracy especially in the literacy campaigns in the early 1980s.

The annotated bib will then be presented in a scrapbook. You should have fun with this assignment. You can make a traditional scrapbook with pictures and other words, you can make this assignment a traditional academic assignment and keep it in a notebook, or you can make this an electronic scrapbook in PowerPoint or html. The choice is up to you but creativity will be very much appreciated and greatly rewarded in the final grade.

SUMMARIZING

Summarizing requires that you decide what is essential and what is not. If the material being summarized is biased then a good summary should indicate that bias is part of the work being summarized, but WRITERS SHOULD NOT INTERJECT THEIR OWN OPINIONS INTO A SUMMARY OF SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK. The tone of a summary should be neutral. Do not confuse a summary with criticism. It is important to be concise and to accurately represent the author. There are no clear rules on which information is important to include in a summary. Generally the information in a summary should be important to your purpose for looking at the material in the first place. Some suggestions to determine what might be important information for a summary might be to make note of topic sentences and/or paraphrase each paragraph or section. Sometimes summaries are not that easy as not all paragraphs have explicit topic sentences. Summaries are short and should include the major points of the material being summarized. When you write the actual summary you may use the author’s order or arrange the material more succinctly.

You should have a brief introduction, which includes the citation for the text, the issue addressed by the author, and the overall claim made by the author. In the body of the summary you describe the author’s points on the issue, how he/she defines the problem and the solution if there is one. Remind the reader that these are the author’s points not your own.

Some example language might be:

• “according to Didion”

• “Didion states”

• “Didion asserts”

• “the solution for Didion is clear”

Add whatever detail is necessary for your reader to be able to understand the main points of the article without reading it.

Checklist for summaries:

• Do you know who wrote the text being summarized?

• What issue is being addressed by this author?

• What is the main point made by the author?

• How does the author of the text being summarized see the issue?

• What does the author feel is the real problem?

• What solution does the author recommend?

• Did the author emphasize beliefs or actions that we should accept or reject?

• Are there terms in the summary that you don’t understand?

• Are there points in the summary that make you wonder. “Why did the author say that?”

Briefly, to summarize is to express another’s ideas in your own words and to do so in many fewer words than the original. To paraphrase is to express another’s ideas in your own words and to so in about the same number of words, or even more words, than the original. To quote is to express another’s ideas in that person’s own words and to indicate clearly that you have done so. In each case, you credit the source in your paper.

Researched Position Paper Assignment

The research paper, or position paper, is the main assignment in English 1302. Your research paper must be an argument of at least 2,500 words (7-10 pages) and it must cite at least five (5) sources. Of the sources, at least one must be an academic journal and no more than one (1) can be a web site (which is not to be confused with printed information obtained from online library databases). You may also use interviews, government documents, and general circulation newspapers and magazines as sources.

Your research paper should be an argument in the broadest sense of the term. Thus, anytime you make an assertion, you should supply evidence to support that assertion. You need to control the ideas in your argument, rather than letting a source or sources dictate the ideas in your paper. You should formulate your own position on the topic of your paper and then use your sources as evidence to support that position or as illustrations of differing views that you must acknowledge and rebut. You must use your source material carefully, making sure that you do not misstate the positions of your sources or use their statements out of the context in which they were written. You should use summary and paraphrase more than direct quotation, limiting your use of direct quotes to exceptionally well written or powerful statements that you feel cannot be adequately paraphrased. However, direct quotation and proper parenthetical citations will be expected.

You should use MLA citation style. Be sure to put your name on the paper and page numbers on the top right corner. You should compose an attention-getting title and center it. Double space the entire paper, and do not put any additional space between any elements of the paper. A works cited page begins on a new page. Also, don’t forget to include page numbers for journal articles, newspaper stories, or articles in an anthology. Don’t forget to include the URLs for websites. Flawed documentation will lower your grade on the research paper.

The research paper should be turned in as a portfolio, which will include at least one draft that has been peer reviewed or taken to the writing center (on the 4th floor of Central Library) and the final draft. If you take your paper to the writing center, please ask the tutor to provide you with a receipt of your visit. Also, because the writing center operates primarily on a reservation system, please make sure that you go to the writing center no later than the day before the research paper is due.

Toulmin Assignment

This assignment requires you to use the Toulmin Model to better understand your own arguments. Using the Toulmin model write a two- to four-page paper analyzing a movie that I will select for us to watch in class.

ENGL 1302 Syllabus Contract

I have read and understood the syllabus, and I agree to abide by the course policies.

_____________________________________ ______________

Print Name Date

_____________________________________

Signature

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