English Essay

W4  Essay

For this essay, follow the Writing and Formatting Your Essay Guidelines that you followed in the previous assignments. As always, please review my notes/comments in previous essays before submitting this assignment. Doing so will help you avoid repeating past mistakes.

W4 essay prompt:

Should Greek organizations (sororities and fraternities) be banned from college campuses?

You will need to take a stand on the issue. A few examples of reasons on either side of the argument are included below. You do NOT need to use these: I simply want to provide you examples of a clear topic sentence.

For the above assignment, here are some articles for and against sororities and fraternities. You are not required to use these, but you may, and you are encouraged to find additional online resources on your own:

(In your paper, the second line of each reference will be indented) For:

Frost, Aja. "The Time Has Come to End Frats." USA Today. 22 Mar. 2015.  college.usatoday.com/2015/03/22/viewpoint-the-time-has-come-to-end-frats/  Accessed 14 Jan. 2016.

Osterndorf, Chris. "Will Ferrell is Right - It's Time to Ban Frats." The Daily Dot. 25 Mar. 2015.   www.dailydot.com/opinion/will-ferrell-ban-fraternities-sae-oklahoma/ .  Accessed 14 Jan. 2016.

Robbins, Alexander. "YES: Fraternities Put Members and Nonmembers at Risk." The Wall Street Journal. 15 Sept. 2015.  www.wsj.com/articles/should-colleges-get-rid-of-fraternities-1442368892 . Accessed 14 Jan. 2016.

Against:

Jacobs, Peter. "I Joined a Fraternity and It Was One of the Best Decisions I Ever Made." Business Insider. 8 Jan. 2014.  www.businessinsider.com/dont-ban-fraternities-2014-1 . Accessed 14 Jan 2016.

Martin, Georgianna L. "NO: Despite the Bad Headlines, Fraternities Are Beneficial to Both Students and Schools." The Wall Street Journal. 15 Sept. 2015. http://www.wsj.com/articles/should-colleges-get-rid-of-fraternities-1442368892. Accessed 14 Jan. 2016. 

New, Jake. "Banning Frats?" Inside Higher Ed. 30 Sept. 2014.  www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/30/should-colleges-ban-fraternities-and-sororities . Access 14 Jan. 2016.

Terronnez, Nizhoni. "Fraternities Go Beyond Stereotypes." The Wichitan. Midwestern State University. 23 Sept. 2014.  thewichitan.com/go-greek-go-home/  Access 14 Jan 2016.

In addition, you may use other sources on the internet to support your argument. (Note: all sources you use to support your argument need to be available to me on the Internet or through the MSU library databases.)

As with all essays written for this class, follow the specific guidelines outlined in the Writing and Formatting Your Essay Guidelines. In addition, review the Essay Grading Guidelines to be sure that you are meeting all criteria.

Remember, take a stand (thesis statement), then use topic sentences to introduce paragraphs that support your stand/thesis. Below are a few example topic sentences. You do NOT need to use these: I simply want to provide you examples of a clear topic sentence.

Yes:

· Greek organizations encourage risky behavior like heavy drinking and sexual promiscuity.

· Greek organizations are exclusionary and elitist.

· Greek organizations haze.

· Greek organizations distract from academics.

No:

· Greek organizations help the community through philanthropic endeavors.

· Greek organizations offer networking opportunities for recent college graduates.

· Greek organizations increase social and leadership skills.

· Greek organizations encourage academic excellence.

References note:

Use a minimum of 2 authoritative, credible online sources to support your argument, at least 1 source in each body paragraph. Each quote should be introduced in the text: let the reader know in advance whom you are quoting and the context of the source. All sources are correctly cited in the text using parenthetical citations where needed, and each source is included in a Works Cited or Reference section at the end of the document, following either MLA or APA style guidelines (see course textbook) consistently. Do not cite sources in the body of the essay with Internet addresses (URLs), nor only use a URL for the reference at the end of the document.