Argumentative Research
Unit 2: Argumentative Research (200 points total)
Important Dates: Final Draft on Turnitin: Sunday, 2/21 by 11:59PM
**Want feedback on your rough draft/essay plan? Send me your rough draft and the specific questions you have about it via email by Thursday, 2/18**
Length and Format: 1000-1200 words; Standard MLA format, PLUS a works cited page. Your thesis and each paragraph’s topic sentence should be highlighted in your final draft.
● Don’t meet length requirements? 20 points off your final draft. ● Don’t meet formatting requirements? 20 points off your final draft. ● Don’t include a works cited page? 100 points off your final draft.
Source Requirement: You must use at least three sources in your essay. All sources must be academically credible and documented in the text when used [including paraphrase, summary, and direct quotation]; bibliographical citations for the sources should be listed on a Works Cited page at the end of your essay. You will lose 20 points for each missing source; including a source on works cited means it must be used and documented inside your essay. Constraints: Third Person POV; Inclusion of a minimum of 3 sources; Use of MLA 8 Examples to read for inspiration:
● How Much Will Social Media Really Affect the U.S. Election? ● Paint or Paint App? Value of Creating Digital Vs. Traditional Art ● Example Student Essay
Grading: English Research Rubric Guidelines: Compose an argument on some contemporary social issue. The topic here is free-range within the field of "contemporary social issue." Of course, one of the first things to consider is, what are social issues? Social issues include topics like campus crime, airport screening procedures, discrimination, hacking, domestic violence, identity theft, etc. Basically, social issues are any problems that affect a considerable number of people in a given society. With this broad definition, you really have room to discuss any issue that speaks to you, with a few exceptions (see below). Next, you need to narrow your focus. "Contemporary Social Issue" is such a broad topic that it is impossible to deal adequately with it in an essay of any length. Therefore, you should choose an argumentative focus on some smaller aspect related to your chosen issue. For example, instead of writing about “social media,” I could write about “the influence of social media on anxiety issues in teenagers”.
These topics are OFF LIMITS. DO NOT USE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS (if you do, you’ll get a zero):
● Abortion ● Cyberbullying ● Gay Marriage ● Gun Control/Gun Legislation ● Immigration ● Legalizing Marijuana ● Lowering the Drinking Age ● Social Media’s Effect on Communication ● Violent Media or Violence in Media’s Affect on Children
You will formulate a thesis that states your opinion on whatever social issue you’ve selected to work with. The body of your essay will provide specific evidence from your source material to back up your thesis. Your intended readers are intellectual (college-educated) people with an interest in social issues. (If you'd like, you may refine your audience further; for example, you may say to yourself "I'm writing for Facebook users"). Follow these steps to proceed with this assignment: Select your topic. Spend some time thinking about what social issues interest you and/or how these issues impact/affect your life or worldview. Come up with a question that you can research and answer. Pre-writing/Planning. Do a five minute pre-write on your topic. For your pre-write, you may do brainstorming, free-writing, clustering, or the alternate strategy of your choice. Be sure to consider the question you plan on answering in the essay and think about organization and the way you will shape your essay. Conduct Preliminary Research. Using the tools learned in class, find source material that can help you answer your research question. Outline, Write, and Revise Your Essay. Based on your prewriting preliminary research, type up a quick outline (formal or informal) that provides an overall organizational plan for your essay. Your outline should also contain your essay’s thesis. Once you have an organizational plan, write your first draft of the complete paper, making sure to include documentation for your sources. Once your essay is written, be sure to get some feedback on it from your peers, the writing center, or me, then revise and polish. Submit Your Final Draft. Your final draft should be properly formatted and fully documented.
Checklist
Before you turn in your essay, make sure you can answer “yes” to the following questions. ▢ Does your essay have a specific title (other than Essay 2)? ▢ Does your introduction capture the reader’s attention? ▢ Do you include a well-constructed thesis statement at the end of the introduction?
▢ Does each body paragraph contain a topic sentence? ▢ Does each body paragraph contain specific evidence from your research to support your opinion? ▢ Does each body paragraph contain a reason (i.e. commentary) for your opinion? ▢ Does your conclusion reiterate your overall claim about the topic? ▢ Does your concluding paragraph bring your essay to a satisfying close? ▢ Does each paragraph transition from one to the next? ▢ Is the essay written in third person? ▢ Is your essay formatted correctly? (See MLA information on eCampus) ▢ Is your essay appropriately documented in MLA 8? ▢ Is your essay free of grammatical errors? ▢ Is essay at least 1,000 words? ▢ Does your final draft contain only the essay and works cited page?