english essay

National Monument Writing Assignment {NM}

2207

This Writing Assignment will focus on interpreting information.

First, go online and find a complete and up‑to‑date list of all the U. S. National Monuments (both those that are administered by the United States National Park System and those that are not). For academic, scholarly, and professional purposes, it is best NOT to use information from an open source such as Wikipedia. Open source content can be changed easily by anyone who uses it, thus, open source information is considered unreliable for academic, scholarly, or professional purposes.

Second, select one of the National Monuments from the list (but NOT the Statue of Liberty), and write a 1000-word informative research essay about it. Make sure you are writing about a U. S. National Monument and not something else with a similar-sounding– but different– designation (like a National Memorial). Your essay should adhere to the Modern Language Association (MLA) essay format and use the 12 point Times New Roman font throughout. See The Bedford Researcher for information on MLA essay format and requirements. Use the MLA practice template (see MLA Resources in Blackboard) to help you format your sources correctly on the essay’s Works Cited page. MLA’s own website (see Blackboard link) also has guidance on working with the MLA practice template and on adhering to MLA style. So does the OWL at Perdue (again, see the Blackboard link). Incorporate into your essay at least two items borrowed from a secondary source (items like facts, quotes, ideas, statistics, et cetera), and then document that source according to MLA requirements. This means that your paper will have at least two parenthetical in‑text citations as well as a concluding page titled “Works Cited” where the required bibliographic information about your source(s) is presented in the format MLA requires. Examples of appropriate secondary sources to borrow from include magazines, journals, newspapers, content found in a database (the MDC Library offers you free online access to lots of databases), books, films, government publications, and encyclopedias. Again, avoid open sources like Wikipedia.

Third, use the drop box in Blackboard to submit your essay. As always, follow the conventions of standard edited American English. Please be your own editor and proofreader!