3 page essay

Assignment Objectives

Students’ essays should 1) express a question or problem about a specific topic; 2) present relevant information from a source they identify; and 3) analyze the contributions of their identified source toward an answer or solution (though this need not be conclusive).

Rationale

Exploratory essays pose questions or problems. Identifying articles, essays, books, film or television, or visual artwork that contribute information that may ultimately provide answers or solutions is a key part of the preparatory process for researched writing. Although the findings from a single source will rarely be conclusive, you will have engaged in this assignment in inquiry about a topic and have pulled together relevant information that can be shared with an appropriate audience.

Assignment

Write an essay that presents your chosen question or problem along with an artifact (article, essay, book, etc.) that speaks to this topic. In doing so, consider the significance of your chosen artifact, how it achieves its effects, what message(s) its author may be communicating, and any comparisons you can draw from this source. [You will select one of the articles discussing the American Dream that we have read and annotated thus far in the course.]

Suggestion for Process

1. Read and annotate the article.

2. Identify a problem or question that arises from the author’s ideas on the American Dream.

3. Form an explanation of what the author has said about this problem or question.

4. Form a discussion of how the author made their point.

5. Note important comparisons between this author’s views and your own or others.

6. Write a two level outline for a 3 page paper exploring this problem or question.

7. Write a first draft of a 3 page paper exploring the problem or question. Document any use of sources in MLA format. Submit this to D2L a day before peer review. Print the copy with feedback and bring it to peer review.

8. Come to class with printed copy and exchange papers for peer review by following the rubric given in class.

9. Use the feedback obtained from D2L and the peer review to write a Polished draft. Submit the Polished draft to D2L before attending the scoring conference.

10. Attend the scoring conference. Bring a printed copy to take notes.

11. Improve the paper and resubmit it in printed form un a two-pocket folder by 3-2. This folder should contain all processes in the project.

Rhetorical Situation

The audience for this paper is someone who has lived in the United States and has some familiarity with the concept of the American Dream. Your purpose is to explore and interact with the issues and ideas of one author on the subject of the American Dream. This is an academic exercise and Standard American English should be used as well as MLA format. Academic writing should not use second person pronouns and only use first person when the rhetorical situation is personal. This paper is not personal in nature; therefore, first person pronouns should also not be used.

Do I need a works cited page?

Because you will be quoting, paraphrase, and summarizing from a source, you will need to parenthetically cite it when you use it in your essay and include an MLA works cited page with an entry for source. Please ask if you have questions regarding citation, and remember that all essays will go through the Turnitin Originality Check in the D2L Dropbox.

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