English Essay

Essay #2: Source Integration Paper

Rhetorical Situation:

You are a member of an academic community and you want to publish an article in a prestigious

newspaper to discuss a specific and compelling issue your academic group faces. You have

spoken to the chief editor of the newspaper, and he has asked you to further educate him and his

team on what exactly is the issue, and what is the current state of research and discussion on the

issue?

Assignment Overview

Your task is to write a well-developed essay to uncover the issue that exists in your chosen

academic community. Use minimum five sources to support your claim. At least three of these

sources should be academic, peer-reviewed sources from the University databases. The other

two can be credible web sources.

Don’t just create an imaginary issue. Do your research and try to understand the actual problem

being faced by an academic group of your interest. Once you understand the issue, your task is to

explain that issue to your audience. Try to avoid an argumentative tone. Be more informative.

Use your sources to educate your audience about what research shows to be the current state of

the issue.

Put the five sources into conversation. In putting the sources into conversation with each other,

the paper might explore five types of relationships:

1. Agreement/Similarity (do most of your sources agree on what is being said about the issue? If so, what is the factor that most sources agree upon?

2. Disagreement/Contrast (Is there any discrepancy of thoughts? If so, what is it that the sources disagree about?)

3. Corroboration (a source provides evidence that supports the argument of another source)

4. Contradiction (a source provides evidence that undermines the argument of another source)

5. Cause/Effect (a source explores the causes or effects of something that is observed or identified in another source)

Understanding and locating these relationships in your sources will help you develop your paper.

In simple words recognizing and showing these relationships in your paper is what the

assignment is asking for.

Assignment Outcomes

 Identify and effectively describe a specific and compelling issue for a particular academic community.

 Identify academic and non-academic sources and reference them appropriately. You are required to use three peer-reviewed, academic sources and two credible and reputable web

sources.

 Effectively summarize, paraphrase, and quote material from academic and non-academic source material using APA guidelines

 Accurately identify and analyze relationships between sources

 Organize an effective review of the literature on a specific issue

 Compile a proper references page using APA guidelines. Your paper should have title page; but, the essay summary page is not required.

What is an academic community?

Academic means, related to education. An academic community is a group of people with

similar academic and career interests.

On a large scale, a University or college can be considered an academic community. On a

smaller scale it could be an educational club, like: the Robotics club, Science Olympiad, an

environmental group, an educational academy, mathematics club, Bilingual or ESL club, or any

kind of study group.

Some general ideas you can explore are:

 Role of peer pressure in a particular academic community.

 Effects of lack of funding in a particular academic community.

 The role of gender and race based discrimination in an academic community

 The flaws and strengths of a particular academic community.

 Financial and general stress in academic communities.

 The advantages and disadvantages of online learning communities.

 The mental and monetary condition of the members in a learning community

These are just a few options. You have the freedom to explore and come up with your own topic

for this assignment.

Requirements

Length: 1,000-1,200 words

Topic: Identify and describe a specific and compelling issue for a particular academic

community

Sources: At least three of these sources should be academic, peer-reviewed sources from the

University databases. The other two can be credible web sources.

Format: Use APA guidelines

Submission: DUE: through Turnitin on Oct. 31st– Monday morning, before 6:00 am

Write your paper in third person. Avoid using first and second person speech.

Accessing Library Databases:

Go to the PVAMU University homepage

Click on Library – or use the following link: http://www.pvamu.edu/library/

Then choose: A-Z Database List | By Subjects (located in the middle of the page). Here you can

choose a database you would like to explore.

Always check the full text box.

List of commonly used Databases:

JSTOR

LEXIS NEXIS: Full-text database (covering current events).

ProQuest

Britannica Online

CQ Researcher

EBSCOhost: Includes citations and abstracts from journals in most disciplines

ERIC

GailNet

Academic search complete

Once in the database, just like any other search engine, you will be able to search for articles and

information of your interest.

Another non University database option is Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/