Assignment Requirements:
- 2500+ words of essay text, not including references and abstract
- APA format guidelines for research essays, including a title page and abstract
- Use of at least ten references, with at least five from research-based journals or databases
Points: 200
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Write an essay on a topic of your interest and choice. Your essay must attempt to answer an open-ended question.
Here are some examples of open-ended questions on the topic of student loan debt:
What should be done about ballooning student debt?
What does it mean that there is so much more student debt now than there used to be?
What does it mean that student loan debt is now considered “good” debt?
Is it true that student loan debt is causing recent graduates to delay major life decisions such as marriage, buying a house, etc.?
Your essay should be focused on answering a single question similar to the ones above, but on a topic of your choosing.
This essay represents a culmination of your thinking, research, and writing this semester. This essay should demonstrate your ability to plan, research, draft, and revise a research essay appropriate for college-level writing
Only new writing will be accepted. You are not allowed to recycle an essay or topic from other courses.
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Assessment Criteria:
The passage below is taken from our course syllabus; additional descriptions for other grades maybe found there as well:
An A paper is exceptional work that more than fulfills the requirements of the assignment. This essay tackles the topic in an innovative way, with a clear sense of audience and purpose, an insightful thesis, and an appropriate and effective organization. The structure is carefully planned; each section of the essay develops the thesis with logical arguments and specific, conclusive evidence which has been interpreted and clearly related to the writer’s point. The style is energetic and precise: the sentence structure is varied and the words are carefully chosen. How the writer says things is as excellent as what the writer says. There is evidence of careful editing since the essay contains few grammatical and/or mechanical errors and, if necessary, is correctly documented using the appropriate format.
In addition, an “A” paper must:
Provide a minimum of 2500 words of text in the body of your essay, not including the abstract and references
Achieve a score of less than 15% in turnitin.com’s originality report
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Learning Outcomes Met:
Researching Phase:
• Identify scholarly articles and journals. Know the difference between primary and secondary sources, and scholarly journals and magazines or other non-academic sources.
• Use library databases and services to obtain sources to complete the project.
• Assess sources for usability and credibility.
• Read, analyze, synthesize, and summarize complex sources, challenging the assumptions, evidence, and fairness of the content.
Drafting and Editing/Revising Phases:
• Answer a research question with a clear thesis, well supported argument, and organization by using models of argument and rhetorical strategies.
• Use sources ethically by incorporating appropriate paraphrasing, quoting, summarizing, and in-text and reference page citing consistent with a current, recognized style format.
• Use appropriate tone, level of formality, person, and tense.
• Collaborate, using peer review, to evaluate work for argument, credibility, organization, and formatting.