Donald Trump's relationship with Media, and it's impact on our society

ENG 1302 A+CE Signature Assignment

Essay Two: Researched Argument worth 20% of final grade

Due Date: There are two parts to this assignment. Part 1, due 10/10, is the annotated bibliography. Part 2, due 11/9, is the paper itself. Your paper proposal, which we will do in class on 9/26, will be the beginning of your annotated bibliography.

Purpose of assignment: To develop your ability to introduce, integrate, evaluate, discuss and reflect on information from academic texts in order to make a successful academic argument; to practice the type of research and writing that is often a part of upper-division courses; to be able to distinguish peer-reviewed academic research from non-peer-reviewed and educated-audience sources.

Assignment: Essay Three will be a researched, argumentative essay. Your job will be to choose a modern issue and trace its roots back through history to explain how and why the issue has developed.

Audience: A generally informed public who has an interest in the roots underpinning issues that affect our society today.

Choosing a subject: As we have been discussing all semester, current events do not exist in a vacuum; they are layered on top of historical events. Without understanding how that chain of events occurred, we cannot really comprehend where we are now or predict where we go from here, let alone work to create change. We have talked about the development of quite a few modern issues over the course of the semester, and you are welcome to choose one of those, one of the ones mentioned in Lies My Teacher Told Me, or another modern American issue – just be sure to choose an issue that engages your interest. During your initial paper proposal, you will not be sure of your final thesis; that's normal, because you haven't done enough research at that point to know the historical roots of your issue yet. But based on your proposal, you will do rigorous research for your annotated bibliography, so that by the time you begin to draft your paper you will have a definite thesis and more confident expertise in your subject.

Organization: Employ the standard argumentative structure; we will talk about this in class. The structure for your annotated bibliography is posted separately.

Constraints: Your essay should be about 6-8 pages plus a Works Cited page, double-spaced, Times New Roman font, with one inch margins, and use the header laid out in our syllabus. You will use at least five peer-reviewed, academic sources and up to three non-academic sources. Non-academic sources are not required, but you must have a minimum of five peer-reviewed, academic sources. Consult the Purdue OWL, the databases you can access from our library site, or our UHD reference librarian.

Grading criteria: See the rubric available for this assignment.