Research Paper
Vansh_patel09
Essay3ProblemSolution.docxEdelman, Page | 1
Essay 3: Problem/Solution Essay
Audience: Although this is an academic essay, it is important that you understand that your audience is not the same as the person assessing the essay (me). For this essay, your audience consists of professionals in the career of your choice, the people you hope will one day be your peers. You are not trying to convince me of anything but your ability to choose rhetorically effective strategies for communicating based on audience and purpose. The people you are trying to convince of the solution to the issue are people actually affected by (or otherwise connected to) the issue you chose to tackle.
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for you to express, supported by credible research, your knowledge of an important professional issue and to offer a solution to the problem. This assignment builds on the knowledge that you have gained when doing the annotated bibliography. This essay is your opportunity to find your professional voice by integrating these skills into a sustained argument about an important issue in your chosen career path. Because this assignment brings together all the skills and knowledge we have been working on, it serves most of the course objectives. The major ones for this assignment, though, include the following:
· Course Objective #3: marshaling evidence to make a claim
· Course Objective #7: independently choosing rhetorical strategies to suit the purpose and audience
· Course Objective #9: engaging multiple perspectives
As with all writing, you need to display knowledge of linguistic structures (#2) and structuring your writing (#5). The process of peer review for this and all assignments also demonstrates #6, controlling your writing process through peer and teacher feedback and multiple revisions.
Skills & Knowledge:
· Synthesize your knowledge of the topic and the effective writing strategies that we have been discussing and practicing.
· Create your own unique, logically sound, rhetorically effective argument.
Tasks:
· Much of what you need to prepare for this essay will be done in the research proposal and annotated bibliography. Your first task is to come to class and keep up with the assignments.
· Write the draft.
· Participate in all draft workshops.
· Revise and submit.
Helpful Resources:
· Virginia Kearney offers some really helpful advice on how to write and organize a problem/solution essay (and what issues to consider when offering solutions): https://owlcation.com/academia/How-to-Write-a-Propose-a-Solution-Essay
Criteria for Success:
Your essay will be assessed on all major components of effective writing, including the effectiveness (and accuracy) of the following: the rhetorical strategies you chose for your purpose and audience, your integration of research into the argument, your response to arguments and counter-arguments, and your deployment of appropriate documentation practices (organization, citation, formatting, grammar, etc.). In terms of length and formatting requirements, please note the following:
· 1,250-1,500 words (c. 5-6 pp.), not including the headers or Works Cited page, formatted in MLA style (8th edition).
· Clever, relevant title that identifies the topic of the essay.
· 8-10 sources (at least 50% scholarly).
· An introduction that provides a relevant hook that draws the reader in to the essay, a brief description of the controversy, and a thesis statement that provides the writer’s argument.
· Coherent, well-developed body paragraphs that describe the problem and all its major facets, including any necessary definition of terms.
· Coherent, well-developed body paragraphs that describe the various solutions with some sense of the positives and negatives of each of these options.
· Coherent, well-developed body paragraphs that describe the writer’s solution to the problem while also addressing any counter-arguments that might arise.
· Fluid integration of secondary sources throughout the essay with a balance of summary, paraphrase, and integrated quotations.
· No evidence of intentional or unintentional plagiarism.
· A Works Cited page, in-text citations, and proper documentation practices throughout.
