7 page paper

Ewrt 2, Fall 2017, Final Paper Assignment Overview: Your final paper will be seven full pages in length and will offer an argument related to some facet of science v. pseudo-science, or the dangers inherent in some popular, though erroneous belief. What you choose to argue is entirely up to you, but to write a successful paper, it is crucially important that your thesis sentence be a focused, clear statement of the argument you will make in the remaining pages. To help ensure a viable thesis, your introduction and outline for your final paper are due on Wednesday, November 29th. No final paper will be accepted that does not have an approved introduction and outline attached to it.

Supporting Work: To help prepare both your argument and get a start on your final paper, your last summary and analysis will be of different articles you intend to use in your final paper. It might be a good idea to complete your last summary and analysis in time for it to be graded and returned to you before its content is incorporated into your final paper. (A summary would be most helpful in proving a problem exists or explaining a particularly egregious form of pseudo-science; whereas, an analysis would be most helpful in proposing a solution or rebutting a illogical position or idea.)

Specifics: Your essay will be a minimum of seven pages in length and will be properly formatted as explained in the “Essay Checklist” in the Final Paper Module on Canvas.

Only the name block is single-spaced. Your paper must have a title of your own devising.

Source Use: Your essay will correctly introduce, incorporate, and close a minimum of five quotations or paraphrases from five different outside sources, of which only three can be from the master reading list provided in the Canvas shell. What is more, to count as one of your five uses of external material, you must use—in quotation or paraphrase—at least two complete sentences from each source.

Suggestions: You have instructions, which we will have gone over in class. I will assume, unless asked for clarification, that the instructions are clear. Additionally, you have a PowerPoint explaining the process of writing an argumentation paper, a sample paper, as well as additional help pages explaining how to use sources and create a Works Cited page. May I suggest you read—and follow—these instructions.

Returns: Your final paper is due during the scheduled final exam period, 9:15 – 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, 13 December. You may turn in your paper in person or by email. If you submit your paper via email, the deadline is the end of the final exam period 11:15 a.m. Should you submit your final paper by email, be sure you receive a confirmation email from me by the end of the final class period. Papers submitted electronically will not be returned after they’ve been graded.

If you wish your paper returned with my usual scribbles, your paper grade, and your course grade, your paper needs to be submitted in hard copy with an attached self- addressed, stamped envelope large enough to accommodate your final paper—and your final summary and analysis should you wish them returned as well. I will have these papers in the mail by Saturday, December 18th. Alternatively, I will be teaching on campus in the winter quarter in classroom G9, so you could pick up your work from me then if you will be around.

Finally: Below is the short summary of an essay’s structure that I provide my 1A students. As I tell them, there is no difference between a well-written five paragraph argument and your doctoral dissertation when you get to it--except you’ll have more body paragraphs.

Rules of Thumb: The bulleted list below offers a checklist for an effective and correctly written argumentation paper.

Your introduction, thesis, conclusion, and each body paragraph will conform to the rule of three. That is:

A.) Your Introduction will • begin with a sentence introducing the topic to be discussed • provide enough subsequent sentences so that enough background information

has been given to make the importance and timeliness of the topic clear • end with a thesis claim that emerges organically from the preceding sentences.

B.) Your thesis will

• be the last sentence in your introduction

• it will neither be a question nor an announcement • it will be your argument in a nutshell—the body of the paper develops and proves

this statement true. C.) Each body paragraph will

• have a first sentence that serves as both transition and topic sentence • offer a well-developed discussion of a single idea using one specific, concrete

example, which • will be clearly supportive of your thesis.

• D.) Your conclusion will

• remind the audience what has been learned • restate your thesis as proven rather than as promise • offer a closing insight or suggest an idea for further consideration

Finally, your paper will end with a correctly formatted works cited page—you will need to have at least five alphabetically listed entries to meet the assignment requirements.