FINAL TERM PAPER.
ENGLISH CLASS: jcolagra@mdc.edu First Draft due: tba
Prof. John Colagrande, Jr. Final Draft due: tba
Term Paper Assignment / Final Exam
Write a 5-6 page research / term paper.
Mission: This paper will require you choosing a topic, doing research, formulating a thesis, and writing a formal essay. You will be composing more than one draft, while using documented research, or quotes. This essay ultimately serves as your final exam.
In addition, you are required to complete an annotated bibliography.
See annotated bibliography handout (coming soon).
Your formal essay should have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
The body paragraphs should develop points that you plan to present.
You must use at least 4 of your sources.
The key here is to choose a strong topic and develop a strong thesis. A strong topic should be a topic you’re interested in, and a topic that readily has a lot of information.
A strong thesis should have three distinct original points to develop, as well as a stance.
Example of a strong thesis: Steroids in baseball is wrong because it creates an unfair playing field, harms the health of users, and taints the integrity of the game.
Audience: Academic. This is a formal essay. No first person. No colloquialisms.
Use the 5-editing techniques after you’ve written the first draft
a. eliminate redundancies
b. avoid wordy expressions
c. cut awkward sentence openings
d. vary your sentence structure
e. use strong verbs
All papers must be typed, double spaced, using a 12pt Times New Roman font.