Discovery essay

· Focus/Purpose/Genre: has a clear controlling idea that explores a complex research question and is coherently organized around the exploration of the question; relays author’s interest in the topic by 1) showing how research informs author and 2) discussing issues that emerge from research (not finding an easy answer). The research question is open-ended and explores an issue.

· Support and research: provides support for controlling idea by incorporating five sources, integrating quotes and information, putting them in conversation rather than just inserting or listing them, selecting reliable, relevant, and substantive sources; provides introduction/context for sources.

· Style and Conventions: incorporates five sources correctly using MLA format in the text and in the works cited; the writing has sentence variety and a sense of the writer’s “voice” as appropriate to the writing situation; follows conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

HOW DO I APPROACH THE ASSIGNMENT?

After doing some brainstorming in class and forming a research question, you’ll then, after finding many sources so you can choose among them the sources most useful to you, narrow to at least five sources about your research question that represent various points or approaches to your topic (you don’t want all of your sources to say the same thing). Read—and reread—your sources carefully, taking notes that record both what the authors are saying and what you think about what they are saying.

Then you’ll write an essay in which you explore the issue based on the sources you’ve read—not an argument paper where research feeds your opinion about the issue; rather, you’ll be exploring a topic and explaining how the research impacts your beliefs and opinions—or not—instead of developing an argument in which you try to change the minds of others. Remember that just because you are incorporating sources doesn’t mean you can’t have your own voice in the piece—you are the person putting these ideas together in conversation. You’re guiding readers through the sources and issue with your own voice and in how your sources together. You’ll want to explain your knowledge on the issue before you began research (even if limited) and how the research has changed your thinking (or not—and why not). You might also want to be overt about the research process—you can describe, as part of your essay, how your research built upon itself. As Ballenger says, “the process of coming to know something, for the essayist, is as important as what he or she comes to know” (The Curious Reader 39). Potential research questions range from, “Should a Mars landing be the next mission for NASA?” to “Is the internet changing how I think?”

Final Draft: 1,500-2,000 words (approx. 5-7 pages) with works cited in MLA format