Essay # 3: Text to Texts
Step 1: Read ALL the DIRECTIONS and DUE DATE!
Step 2: Complete the reading selections for this essay. Make sure to annotate as you read.
Step 3: Create an outline in Word.
Step 4: Compose your essay in Word using MLA format.
In the 4 weeks of our course thus far, our texts describe the issues surrounding how society works and the effects of various obstacles people must overcome to work. Keep these discussions in mind as you begin writing your essay.
Essay Prompt:
Using the three articles listed below, address this prompt: What are the effects of employment opportunities and educational disparities in regard to white-collar or blue-collar jobs?
“Blue Collar Brillance”
“Pedagogy of the Oppressed”
“I was a Warehouse Wage Slave”
Draw on specific points from these readings, and explain how a synthesis of these readings deepens the understanding of blue-collar and white-collar employment. How does this understanding allow people to identify potential contradictions in the society in regard to work and who is able to succeed in a given profession? How can people begin to identify elements of a crisis in preparing children to enter the workforce? Lastly, how might the readings begin to point towards strategies for overcoming these negative attitudes towards blue-collar jobs as well as white-collar jobs? [Hint: one strategy is not “work hard and you will succeed.”
Essay Components:
Please compose an introduction with a thesis and a three-sentence summaries for 2 of the reading selections. I recommend that you only introduce two of the reading selections in the intro paragraph (8 Sentences). You will have a hook (statement about employment), a 3-sentence summary of two articles (Author, title, main point in one sentence & 2 sentences identifying what happened in the first half and the second half of the article), and the answer to the prompt question (thesis statement).
Your intro paragraph should not be longer than 8 sentences.
When you discuss the other article, introduce them briefly in the body paragraph that they appear(For example:John Smith, who strongly argues that practice makes perfect in his article, “MLA Made Easy,” would state that one reason why students struggle with the tenets of writing is simple not being motivated to learn them (254).) In this example, there is a complete introduction of the author, main point of the article, and the title along with the support to the topic sentence and a parenthetical citation.
Provide at least 6 body paragraphs (9 sentences) that address one point you are making about your thesis statement. In addition, follow the paragraph format that you have in your notes: Topic sentence, explanations, quotation/commentary/citation, relate quotation to topic sentence, and a 5 sentence analysis focusing on the point made in the topic sentence.
Also be sure that you clearly make acknowledgements and citation of each reading selection, in text and with a works cited page, of the authors and readings from which you draw ideas.
Conclusion with summary statements and a general statement that suggests a solution that stems from the readings (3 sentences)
Careful proofreading
Format in MLA.
