water pollution

English 101 Final Project Essay Assignment

For the final project in this course, each student will produce an essay advocating for the creation and support of a school organization/club to combat a current issue that is affecting teens/young adults today. The organization/club is your creation, although you may take cues from already existing organizations working on the same issue. Your essay should inform the audience on background/history, causes, effects, and ways to deal with or solve this problem in society. In this assignment handout, you will find information on Topic Choice, and Essay Guidelines and Requirements:

A GENERAL OVERVIEW – ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

Your final assignment will consist of a research paper 5-6 pages in length, typed and double-spaced. The essay will be an informative essay that discusses the current issue in society affecting young adults and highlights what your organization can do to combat it, so there is an element of persuasion. Standard MLA documentation must be utilized with all source use. You will begin the assignment by first conducting exploratory research looking for articles, and also investigating an organization working on the issue. After learning about their efforts, each author will perform further research using the library databases to help learn about and support what their ‘original’ organization can/needs to do to improve this issue. Over the course of your research, you will find information about the social issue, its causes and effects, as well as discover possible solutions your organization could offer.

RESEARCH GUIDELINES

This assignment requires the use of at least 3 research sources (This may include the article from textbook, and organizational website). Two of these sources should come from the Cascadia/UWB Library. Use the periodicals and bookstacks (physical sources) or the Library Database to locate sources. If you find a source outside of Cascadia’s library, you must approach me before going forward with the source. All Internet sources must be approved by instructor before inclusion into your essay! In-text documentation must follow MLA guidelines and an appropriate works cited page is also required. Handouts on these methods will be distributed available through the writing center. ALL COMPONENTS MUST BE TYPED ACCORDING TO STANDARD MLA RESEARCH GUIDELINES.

AUDIENCE

Your audience is undecided on your issue, and needs to be informed on the topic, so that they can understand its importance. This should guide your tone and presentation of the issue. It’s important to stay formal, and not to take for granted the needs of your audience. Your audience is at your education level and therefore, has an introductory knowledge of your topic but needs some explanation of the complexities of the issue (causes/effects), so that they feel the need to take action and support your organization’s work on it. It may be helpful to imagine that your audience is looking at multiple issues and considering which one they want to “invest” in trying to deal with. Your job (purpose) as author is to convince them that your issue is most critical, and your organization is well-suited to respond to the problem.

ORGANIZATION STRATEGIES FOR YOUR ESSAY

Introduction: Tell all pertinent information necessary for the audience to understand the issue you chose, including any historic background or terminology definition necessary for comprehension. The challenge of this section is to find the appropriate scope in terms of how much history is necessary for the topic. In most cases, it will be important to focus on recent history or key events that set up just enough about the issue for the purpose of this assignment. This set-up may take more than 1 paragraph, but should conclude with a focused thesis statement. A common mistake is going too far with the history or story of this issue, so be careful. The intro section should be 1 or 2 paragraphs.

BODY: This section will generally have three main functions (although the balance may be different depending on the topic): reporting to your audience on the causes of this issue, exploring the effects this issue has on general and specific populations (from society to individual people), and providing how your organization would work to improve the situation. The issue or topic of your paper will guide what the support should focus on, but reflect back on the various support approaches used in Essay I and II for help, and let your research guide your major points. Support section 5-8 paragraphs.

Conclusion: This is your last chance to push the importance that this issue is taken seriously. Use this as a lawyer uses a closing argument to demonstrate how your body evidence of support proves your stance to be logical and coherent. Discussion of “what’s at stake” if nothing is done to deal with the issue may also play a role in the conclusion. Conclusion should be 1 paragraph in length.

Requirements:

· 12pt – Times New Roman

· Double spaced with title and header on first page

· A minimum of 5 pages, max of 6

· Must use at least 3 different text(s) and no more than 5.

· Proper MLA In-text documentation and Works Cited page

Assignments and Due Dates

· Thesis proposal and Annotated Bib of min. of 2 database/library sources and 1 organization website due February 21st (20pts)

· Detailed outline due December 1st (20pts) and rough draft on Dec. 8th (20pts)

· Final Draft due on Tuesday, December 13th (200pts)