Essay 4: Proposing a Solution
Due date: This essay is due in Week 15, but I am introducing it this week so that you can get a head start. You can also see the Calendar for all due dates.
Rough draft due noon, Saturday, 4/20
Format/length:
4-5 pages (this one should be a bit longer than our previous essays since it’s more complex), typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font using MLA format. 1-inch margins on all sides. Note that this essay, since it’s more complex, should be a bit longer than your previous essays have been.
As on Essay 3, if you use any outside sources you must also include a Works Cited page as the last page of your paper and cite the sources in your paper. You may also use websites such as Endnotes.com or Easybib.com, which will help you cite sources. But you are not required to use outside sources; your paper may rely entirely on your own ideas–though this can be challenging for some topics.
The Assignment:
Choose a local problem that effects or has effected you personally or people you know and argue how to solve it.
The purpose of the Proposing a Solution essay is, like the last paper, to argue convincingly. This project is, however, a special kind of argument in which you identify a problem and argue the best way to solve it. You will probably want to discuss several possible ways of solving it, and finally argue that one way is superior to others. You will be able to employ many of the same skills here that you developed in your Arguing a Position paper.
Topics:
Your topic should, above all, be a problem about which you’re concerned, and should also be a local problem that you personally know something about and/or can find out more about by doing some firsthand research (remember our profile essay?). It should effect you personally, but also be sure it is relevant to other people as well.
Using Sources for Support:
As on paper 3, sources are not required for this paper—your proposal may rest on your own ideas, knowledge, and logic. However, you may wish to use outside sources to bolster your points. These can be either secondhand, print sources (books, articles, Internet) or firsthand research (interviews, experiments, surveys). Please do not use Wikipedia sources and use no more than 3 sources in your paper. The library databases provide good scholarly sources.
Audience:
Your readers are the people involved with your chosen problem: write to both those effected by it, and those who have the power to implement the solution(s) you recommend. Carefully consider those readers most opposed to your solutions—and how you might best reach them.
Important Steps in this Paper:
1) A Focused, Well-Defined Problem
2) A Well-Argued Solution
3) An Effective Response to Objections and Alternative Solutions
4) A Clear, Logical Organization
