Prompt:
Your Research Essay will be argumentative in nature and will incorporate research that you have done for the assignment. We will read four historic essays towards the end of this course and you will be choosing one of them to use as the cornerstone of your research essay. This will require you to complete your reading early, so start looking ahead now. The four essays you will be able to choose from are: Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence,” Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address,” Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” and Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.”
For this assignment, you will be focusing on one particular argument made in the essay. Choose the one that is most compelling to you or one that is the most significant to you personally. The topics that are discussed in these essays are timeless. We are still faced with similar issues or still see the outcomes of the fights and struggles mentioned in our current society. Choose one of these topics that interests you and begin to research it. Look at the arguments seen in these essays and analyze how they have impacted our views of these topics today. How have they directly impacted our contemporary view about the topic? You may choose the topic that you wish to write about, but it must be approved by me. If there are too many students writing on the same topic, I will ask you to choose a new topic, so begin thinking about your essay early on.
Layout:
Start with an introduction to your topic. What is the issue and what are the contemporary views that are held? Discuss the relationship between the current issue and the past writing about that same issue in one of the four essays you read for this assignment. Formulate an argument regarding your topic. What do you believe about the issue? What is your stance? You need to argue a particular point of view; you cannot simply inform me about both sides of the argument, but rather you will be arguing for one side you believe in.
Each of your body paragraph will offer support for your position as stated in your thesis. You will be using quotes from the historical essay you have chosen to write about, and quotes from your research to offer evidence for your point of view. You will be using these outside sources to support your argument that you have crafted on your own. Continually tie the two eras together in each of your paragraphs. Look at how the issue was addressed in the past and use that as support for how the issue should be treated today. We will spend time addressing your ideas in class discussions to help you craft your argument before you begin the actual writing.
When you write your conclusion, you are going to once again wrap up your argument by answering the “so what?” However, something that you must include in your conclusion is a call to action. By the end of your essay, you will have worked towards a solution for rectifying the issue you discussed, and you will call the reader to some sort of action to achieve the solution you see fit. As the reader, what should I go out and do after reading your paper? This is not something you necessarily say outright, but rather craft as an encouragement so that I, as an individual, feel compelled to play a part in the solution.
The research for this paper is to be done using OCC’s digital library; do not just Google your topic and cite unreliable or heavily biased sources. We will discuss how to find sources using the digital library and how to hunt for credible research. We will also continue to talk about your Research Essay during the following weeks of class to help you develop your topic and conduct relevant research. Please come and see me if you have any questions regarding your topic or the writing of your paper.
Guidelines:
- Write a well-developed essay consisting of at least 1,600 words in MLA format Download MLA format. Please refer to page 149 in The Little Seagull for an example of the correct MLA formatting Download MLA formattingfor your paper. I expect to see a clear thesis with supporting topic sentences. Your paper should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
- Use 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double-space, DO NOT include an extra space at the end of each paragraph, and be sure to include your header.
- For this essay, you are NOT permitted to use first or second person when writing.
- You will be graded on formatting, grammar, length, spelling, clarity, research, and, most importantly, content.
- You must include a Works Cited Page at the end of your essay that follows the 9th Edition of MLA formattingLinks to an external site.. You are required to find and read at least ten (10) sources for your paper, but you are only required to cite three (3) of them in your paper, not including your primary source from your textbook.