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Instructions:

I will be completing the feedback on your outlines this Wednesday. Please use that feedback to complete your full draft of Essay #2, and make sure your completed essay demonstrates the following requirements:

1.Thesis:​ A clear, compelling, complex, connected, and contestable thesis (overall argument or unifying point of your essay) that is stated explicitly and completely somewhere in your paper (it doesn’t matter where it appears in the essay, and in professional writing, it often appears near the end if at all, though some sort of partial thesis or road map for your argument should appear near the beginning). Traditionally, academic writing requires that you state the thesis or at least an initial version of it at the end of your introduction. The five-paragraph essay thesis, which should be avoided in college writing, is extremely formulaic, with the three points that set up the three body paragraphs. That said, the idea that a good thesis can serve as an organizing guide for the overall logic of your essay is still valid and helpful. College instructors just expect you have a more logically connected and complex guiding statement than your typical 5 paragraph essay thesis clearly stated somewhere in your essay. ​For this essay to be considered complete, make sure you include a complete thesis statement at some point in your essay, and put it in bold, so it’s clear what you think it is.

2. Logical structure/order and fluidity/cohesiveness/transitions:​ An essay that is logically ordered and cohesive, including an appealing title that reflects your thesis, an appealing introduction that logically sets up your audience to care about your topic and accept your thesis, logically ordered paragraphs with clearly distinct topics that transition logically and build on one another in a way that makes sense to ultimately support your thesis. ​For this essay to be considered complete, your paragraphs should be focused on developing one specific point you need to support/develop your thesis, develop logically toward your conclusion, and transition smoothly.

3. Evidence: ​Each paragraph should be contributing plenty of evidence to support a clear sub-point that logically builds on previous paragraphs and their sub-points to form a complete case for your argument. Evidence should be from credible sources and should include studies, statistics, surveys, and other forms of actual, vetted data, not just expert opinions or individual anecdotes. These last two can add weight to an already well-supported with hard evidence argument, but they can’t be the sole basis for an argument. Check all mass media sources you use for bias, using the media bias chart I give you and your own critical thinking/reading of the patterns in that source’s writing that might show bias. Also remember mass media sources such as newspapers, magazines, documentaries, and talks are not necessarily scholarly sources. To be sure you incorporate more neutral, vetted scholarly sources, search Academic Search Complete or JStor or one of the other academic journal databases on our Library home page, check the box for scholarly/peer reviewed source, and then check the source itself to see if it has an extensive bibliography or reference page or footnotes documenting extensive use of sources. ​To be considered complete, your research should include at least 3 well-researched and documented scholarly sources and at least 5 sources total.

4. Stylistic Concerns:​ Strong and appealing introductions and conclusions, titles, smoothly integrated quotes with clear signal phrases and logical follow up, ability to effectively

mimic/implement one of the academic formats are all matters of style, for the most part, though some parts of working with the quotes fall under coherence above. You want to make sure you’re leading your reader into and out of your quotes in a way that makes sense and flows logically but also clearly identifies why the quote is there, what the point of it is for supporting your point in your paragraph. That said, a lot of these concerns in this category are about caring for your reader and making sure your essay is as readable and clear as possible but also interesting for your reader.

The ability to make people see what their personal stake is in what you are arguing is also a super important skill in life. Getting your audience on board with an idea you have or helping them see the effectiveness of your reasoning are key to success in the workplace, in relationships, and in your other classes. Conclusions are especially important in your writing because they indicate clearly to your reader that you’re done, that you’ve fully made your point and now you can help the reader see, one last time, why this point is important, how it might affect them, what they might do in response to your argument, what’s really at stake for them and for a broader population, and why. ​To be considered complete, your essay should include an appealing and relevant title, introduction, well-integrated quotes that are properly cited, a strong and not formulaic conclusion (see this week's resources), and a properly formatted works cited page.

5. Grammar and Mechanics:​ So this category is in the course goals as a requirement, though most experts agree that we can’t really teach grammar, that progress in grammar and spelling is often slow and takes years. Since we have relatively stronger spell and grammar checkers now, like Grammarly, some say that we should not spend time on this at all and should just give students the tools and apps that can take care of this for you. Still, it’s important for many careers and workplaces to be able to write and share writing that is free of grammatical errors, and it can also be a status-marker in part due to the hold of dominant cultural expectations about what is considered intelligent or professional. My practice in here has been to highlight grammar errors, since the best way to learn grammar is to practice recognizing and diagnosing your own error patterns and then to take the time looking up videos, tutorials, activities that help you practice on an ongoing basis. ​For this essay to be considered complete, there should be few grammar or mechanical errors that significantly interfere with the clarity and credibility of your argumentation.

Evaluating Your Own Work

Please use the criteria (you only need to copy the bolded statements and respond to those with your reflection) above that we all worked on together when we began this project, to evaluate your own essay thoroughly and copy and paste your evaluation in the comment box for your assignment submission. Make sure you include each category in your evaluation and that you use specific examples from your essay to explain why you think you fulfilled each criterion and/or what you think you still need to work on to completely fulfill it.