Topic:Any topic
Subject:English
volume: 5 pages
Format: MLA
Type: Essay
Description
ESSAY THREE
Purpose of assignment: To develop your ability to introduce, integrate, evaluate, and discuss information from academic texts in order to make a successful academic argument; to practice the type of research and writing that is often a part of upper-division courses; to be able to distinguish peer-reviewed academic research from non-peer-reviewed and educated-audience sources.
Your final essay will be an argumentative analysis: at least 1350 words, double-spaced, standard fonts, bibliography/works cited page, at least four academic sources and up to three non-academic sources. Non-academic sources are not required, but you must have a total of five sources. Please note that the majority of your sources must be peer-reviewed, academic sources.
This is an argumentative essay with sources, and you will almost exclusively use peer-reviewed, academic sources to support your position. Your sources help you develop reasons that support your thesis and evidence that supports your reasons. Essay three must employ five sources that are credible for an academic audience. The majority of these five sources will come from peer-reviewed, academic journals or books. Consult sources like the Purdue OWL, and UHD’s own librarians.
Before you get to those peer-reviewed sources, begin your research by exploring among on-line sites that are credible but still aimed at a popular audience, not an audience of experts. You’ll identify at least four such sites, which tend to be run by universities, non-profit think tanks, or journals that target educated audiences like The Economist or The New Yorker.
Choosing a subject: Stevenson’s text offers a tremendously wide range of subjects for independent study. You will each choose a subject and research it. Your initial research will result in homework writing that will then evolve into more rigorous research supporting an argument. Your early reading and drafting will tend toward the descriptive, and as you explore your subject, and as you gain expertise you’ll begin to fashion a proper, academic argument. The following questions are suggestions:
• How should “minor” and “adult” be defined?
• How much power should states/counties have when it comes to applying the death penalty?
• How does media coverage influence criminal proceedings?
• Are public defenders still necessary?
• How should courts assign public defenders?
• What reforms are most needed in the prison system?
You may use one of these questions or come up with your own. Either way, it is not uncommon for a researcher to begin with one question and end with a different one, so give yourself time to be curious and flexible. For example, you might begin with trying to understand the cause of the cruel and unusual punishment but end up focusing on governmental corruption. Such shifts are the nature of asking questions and looking for answers. However, the subject for this last essay must come, in some way, from Just Mercy because that is what will happen in upper-division courses—students study an issue together and then branch off and do their own research in an area related to that issue.
Organization: Employ a standard argumentative structure that includes all the basics: an introduction/background section of one or two paragraphs; body paragraphs that delineate reasons and evidence that support the thesis; at least one counter-argument; a conclusion that usefully wraps up the argument in a persuasive manner.
Becoming a successful writer means teaching yourself how to use the resources that are available. This is what successful professionals do, whether they are mathematicians, teachers, accountants, entrepreneurs, or Sumo wrestlers. They take control of their learning process and make it their own. In your future classes, instructors may want more (or less) emphasis on an original thesis. Some instructors insist on two sources; others may want ten. Whether the essay is 600 words or 2000 words, the basic moves you practice in E3 will be almost the same for your upper-division classes.
Grading criteria:
Effective and helpful introduction with an appropriately argumentative thesis and a conclusion that leaves the reader with something to think about
Well-developed body paragraphs that, for the most part, engage one or more sources
Reasons and evidence that are presented and analyzed in a manner that supports the thesis and makes explicit connections to it
Well-introduced, documented, and discussed sources that use MLA style
At least one counter-argument that engages either why a reader would disagree with your position or how you disagree with one or more of your sources.
Accurate citation of at least five sources; four of which must be substantive articles or book chapters from peer-reviewed, academic sources.
Accurate understanding of sources
Clear and effective sentences
Accurate bibliography page
