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find an use book— > The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing,
you can find it free on Anna’s Archive
The last essay of the semester will give you an opportunity to not only choose a topic to write about, but also to decide how best to present it.
All semester, you’ve worked with assigned strategies: classic argument, evaluation, problem solving. For the final assignment, you will decide which form your essay will take to best suit your purposes.
In addition to the three strategies, we’ve used so far, the textbook, in chapters 7-13, presents seven other strategies for organizing an essay.
Here’s what you will do:
Decide on a complex question to write about.
Choose one of the options from the textbook, explain how you will use it, and justify why it is the best suited for your purposes.
Based on the strategy you choose, outline your essay.
Write your introduction.
Write your essay.
There will be three assignments before you write your paper:
A proposal, in which you present your topic and question and justify why the strategy you choose is the best for your purposes.
An outline, in which you present you a detailed plan for organizing your paper
An introduction, in which you connect with the reader and present your question and claim
These assignments will be graded complete/incomplete, meaning they must be effective, thoughtful, and detailed to receive credit. You can submit each assignment as many times as you need to until its complete. But each assignment must be complete before you proceed to the next one.
Here are brief summaries of the strategies you could use:
Summary/Response (Ch. 6) Summarize and respond to an article or essay.
Autobiographical or literacy narrative (Ch. 7) Explore a problem that involves opposition, contraries, or tension using narrative techniques.
Exploratory Essay (Ch. 8) Pose a question and keep it open by exploring multiple perspectives before coming to your own conclusion.
Informative Essay (Ch. 9) Use the “surprising reversal” strategy to present information about a problem.
Literary Analysis (Ch. 11) Analyze a short story in response to your own interpretive question about the story.
Synthesis/Analysis Essay (Ch. 13) Summarize, analyze, synthesize two opposing views on a problem so that you can put the views together with your own ideas to come up with your response.
Classic Argument (Ch. 14)
Evaluation Essay (Ch. 15)
Problem Solving Essay (Ch. 16)
Assignment #1: Essay question, strategy, justification: 4/5
Assignment #2: Outline: 4/12
Introduction: 4/19
Final Paper: 4/26
Topics: Please don’t write about the following topics: abortion, capital punishment, social media, drinking age, marijuana, video games, or animal testing.
Here are some suggestions for topics:
How should corporations use their influence to address social issues like racism, voting rights, police brutality, etc.
How far can comedians go when it comes to telling offensive jokes?
How should we teach history in a diverse society?
How much worse is the country (world) now than in the past?
What purpose does daylight savings serve?
How can we separate art from the artist?
Should prisoners be allowed to vote?
What is the value of work?
Is _______________ (Fill in the blank with the singer/actor/writer/artist/movie, etc. of your choice) overrated?
As with all the essays this semester this paper must follow guidelines for MLA formatting and documentation. You should use numerous, credible sources, the number of which will vary according to the strategy you use.
The same warnings about plagiarism apply.
Because this is the final paper of your first-year composition classes, the expectation is that you will demonstrate a mastery of the basics of rhetoric, argument, and research. Outstanding papers will not only be well written and use the chosen strategy effectively, it will also be risky and surprising and represent high-quality college level writing.
Assignment-
Submit a one-page (200-word) plan in which you indicate:
Your topic
The question your paper will examine
The strategy you will use to organize your paper
Why this is the best way to address the issue
Be sure that your plan conveys two things: Why this paper involves risk for you and how it involves your growth as a writer.
Be detailed and don’t use vocab that is too advanced. Follow to instrcution as professor is very strict.
