The goal of this paper is to combine important information from the news with course contents. There are five options for you to choose from, and I ask you to choose one to start working on during the midterm that went live today. The full prompts are below.
- I’m thinking about five pages double-spaced. I think it would be hard to thoroughly cover these topics in fewer than five pages.
- You can use a previous short answer from a quiz as a starting off point, but you want to develop your answer into a full paper with fuller awareness and analysis.
- Make sure to include a works cited page and in-text citations.
- Write well. A few typos are fine, but make sure your essay is organized like an essay, with an introduction/thesis, supporting paragraphs that develop your thesis, and a conclusion. Make sure your paper is organized and flows well.
- The subject matter is pretty wide open, so you should feel free to explore something that legitimately interests you. Use your own interests to guide your research. You’ll produce better writing that way. Ask yourself, “What do I really want to understand better.” [What do I have to say? not What do I have to say?]
- Be sure your paper is analytical. Show me you’re thinking. I don’t want to read paragraphs of facts and details. Facts and details SUPPORT your argument. They shouldn’t be the main entree of your paper.
- Submit on Canvas as a .doc or .docx file. [no PDFs or pages]
- Your papers can cover more than one state if you’d like.
For this topic, look into what a state is doing. For example, the Texas law banning gender-affirming care involved the state legislature, the governor, numerous activists, and now courts. Choose to examine how one state is responding to transgender people. You can focus on schools, physicians, parents, whatever, just make sure you’re really informed. Use quality journalism to tell me everything I need to know about the struggle. Don’t just describe a bunch of facts. Facts are important to support your thesis but shouldn’t be used to replace it. Use your essay to show me a deeper understanding of a course concept: such as the role of governors or the legislative process.
Write a five-page essay, double spaced, that focuses mainly on applying course concepts and current events. Make sure your paper has something to say – a thesis. It’s not just descriptive with a list of facts. Use your paper to show me what you got out of the course by focusing on this particular topic.